I had a gift card to Teavana laying around, and did not know what to buy with it. Usually I stay away from Teavana, as I do not tend to like blended or flavored teas, and I do not think they have great quality tea. But nonetheless, I had a gift card and its better to have some decent tea than no tea at all, so I decided to buy their version of a jasmine green tea called "Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls Green Tea." Again, Teavana is giving a pretty common tea some sort of fancy name to try to lure customers into thinking they are buying some sort of exotic product (I hate seeing anything with the word monkey in it too). I purchased 2 oz of the dragon pearls green tea. The sales people were very pushy trying to get me to buy a whole menagerie of other teas including some sickeningly sweet Chai, but this is all I wanted.
Opening up the bag, I was impressed with the amount of jasmine present. It was not a strong jasmine like a cheap soap, but this actually smelled like a legit jasmine tea. To brew the tea, I used about a dozen pearls in a 12 oz glass infuser. When brewing jasmine teas, I like to use glass so that the aroma does not stay for the next tea that I brew. The water I brewed was set to 180 degrees and I let the tea brew for 3 minutes.
The liquor turned out very pale almost clear. The green tea base that is used in this consists of buds. As the tea was brewing the pearls opened up slowly and gradually rose to the top. A nice visual experience while the room is being surrounded by the aroma of the jasmine. Upon drinking the tea, it was very strong on the jasmine. I would almost think I was drinking straight jasmine, the green tea was undetectable. It was very smooth, no bite or tannin whatsoever. There was no creamyness which is what I tend to like in other jasmine teas that I have had, this was a straight jasmine shot.
This tea from Teavana was decent. It is one of the better Teavana teas that I have tried, however for the price I would not purchase it again. There are many better examples of jasmine green pearls that better mix the flavors together. This is a tea that I will keep when on the run when I just want a cup to drink.
