REVIEW: China Qingshan Lung Ching (Dragonwell), Tea Gschwendner

TEA GSCHWENDNER
EDMON'S COLLECTION
CHINA QINGSHAN LUNG CHING
This is the famed Dragonwell tea I've heard so much about. Apparently, the story goes, the tea has some relationship with a well, in which lived a dragon, or something. Maybe the dragon liked a good cup of tea?

Sam Ritchey prepared us for this tea, saying to expect an oceanic flavor, with a salty, nautical smell, I guess.

First thing i noticed was the strong, wonderful smell as the tea was brought to my table. I want to mention here, the scent is the first thing I kept noticing about all these teas (except the first one, which was very quiet in its smell). It was such a delight to keep being carried on these scents, which were so different from one another.

This Dragonwell had a very fragrant, dry smell.

THE LEAVES
Interesting: the green leaves (fairly big in size, as all the leaves in this collection were) were flat, instead of rounded or coiled like the others; like they were pressed in a book. When I asked about it, Sam said that the teas were seared in a wok-like pan and pressed by hand against the side of the wok. Because there is a little bit of tea oil on the side of the pan, the leaves are actually fried in oil, in a sense, and the resultant tea has a tiny bit of oil that floats on the surface. There was a lovely scent to the wet leaves: vegetal, ash. I know, "vegetal, ash" doesn't sound lovely, but it was.

[NOTE: Updated to correct the spelling of Sam's last name.]