These handmade dragon balls are made with excellent old tree material from Gedeng. A friend and customer from Germany asked me to source some Gedeng sheng since he was very curious about trying more material from the area, so I had to oblige! I've had great experiences with premium dragon balls: before trying the good stuff, I wrote off dragon balls as a novelty akin to mini tuocha. How wrong I was!
These dragon balls have an average weight of 8g. Some variability is to be expected since these are handrolled.
There isn't much aroma from these dragon balls when dry, but once the water hits them, the pleasant, sweet aromas come wafting out. These dragon balls vastly exceeded my expectations!
After rinsing the dragon ball twice (I suggest two 20-30 second rinses, with 20-30 seconds between rinses), the aroma reminded me of young Yiwu. Tropical fruit and wildflower notes were detectable on the palate as soon as I took my first sip. The tropical fruit reminded of mango, but the flavor wasn't quite mango. The subtle, but balanced wildflower note was sweeter than usual, and again, isn't a note I can identify based on my knowledge of floral scents at this point. The overall flavor is upfront, but balanced. This is really excellent material!
There is some light astringency and bitterness from the material. If brewed long and hard, the bitterness and astringency increase, of course, but both are very tolerable indeed.
The flavor is longlasting on the palate, and I get medjool date and cantaloupe in the finish. Later infusions presented me with a fleeting herbaceous note. This disappeared after two infusions. The wonderful aromatics persisted all the way to the end!
This tea is mildly calming, but where it stands out is the complexity of the aromas on the palate. This is lovely young sheng, and very good value for a region that is starting to get a lot of attention!
