The Short Answer
Choose Jasmine Pearls if you want a sweet, floral cup built from green tea layered with fresh jasmine petals. Choose Dragon Well if you want a roasted, flat-leaf green tea with a savory edge and no added floral scent.
Both are organic green teas from Golden Moon Tea, but they are made in very different ways. The right pick depends on whether you want scenting, how much leaf you go through, and which package size matches your habit.
How the Two Teas Differ
- Jasmine Pearls: Green tea from an organic farm outside Ningde City in Fujian Province, scented with fresh jasmine petals from Heng County in Guangxi Province over 10 nights, then hand-dried in a wok until each leaf curls into a pearl-shaped ball.
- Dragon Well: Organic green tea grown and hand-plucked in Zhejiang Province before the mid-April rainy season, then hand-roasted in giant woks in a special area of Hangzhou, giving the leaves their flat shape and roasted flavor.
- Flavor direction: Jasmine Pearls is described as fresh, deep, and sweet with an elegantly complex jasmine character. Dragon Well is described as vibrant green with a complex flavor and a roasted note from wok firing.
- Leaf style: Jasmine Pearls uses only the two leaves and a bud of each stalk, rolled into small pearls. Dragon Well leaves are pressed flat during hand roasting.
What the Catalog Confirms
- Jasmine Pearls: Jasmine Pearls is layered with fresh jasmine petals in full bloom for 10 nights. The repeated scenting is the reason the floral character is deep rather than a light perfume note.
Jasmine Pearls - Jasmine Pearls: The green tea base comes from an organic farm outside Ningde City in Fujian Province, and the jasmine flowers come from Heng County in Guangxi Province. You can trace both the leaf and the flower to specific growing areas rather than a generic blend.
- Dragon Well: Dragon Well is grown and hand-plucked in Zhejiang Province before the mid-April rainy season. Early spring plucking is tied to the tender leaf style that defines this tea.
Dragon Well - Dragon Well: The leaves are hand-roasted in giant woks, giving them their characteristic flat shape and roasted flavor. The wok firing is what separates Dragon Well from steamed or lightly processed green teas.
Scented vs. Single-Origin: A Real Trade-Off
Jasmine Pearls is a scented tea. The green tea base absorbs the aroma of fresh jasmine petals over multiple nights, so the cup leads with floral sweetness. If you enjoy jasmine tea and want a more layered version, this is the upgrade path. The trade-off is that the jasmine character is the point, so the underlying green tea is softer and less prominent.
Dragon Well is not scented. Its flavor comes from the leaf itself and the wok roasting, which gives it a roasted, slightly savory profile. If you want to taste the green tea first and the floral note second, or not at all, Dragon Well is the clearer choice.
Match the Package to Your Drinking Habit
Both teas come in several sizes, and the bulk options lower the cost per ounce. The right size depends on how often you brew and whether you want to commit to one flavor.
- Try before you commit: Jasmine Pearls starts at a 1oz bulk size, and Dragon Well starts at a 1oz bulk size. These are the lowest-commitment ways to taste either tea before buying a larger tin.
- Regular drinker: Jasmine Pearls comes in a 4.0oz tin, and Dragon Well comes in a 2.0oz tin. Tins suit a countertop setup and protect the leaf between sessions.
- Daily brewer or shared office: Jasmine Pearls is offered in 1/2lb and 1lb bulk sizes with savings, and Dragon Well is offered in 1/2lb and 1lb bulk sizes with savings. Bulk makes sense when you already know you like the tea and brew it often.
What the Catalog Does Not Tell You
The supplied product records do not include water temperature, leaf-to-water ratio, or steeping time for either tea. That means you should not treat this article as a brewing recipe. Start with a gentle infusion and adjust to taste, or follow the brewing guidance on the package when it arrives.
The records also do not list caffeine content. Both are green teas, but no measured caffeine figure is supplied here, so avoid assuming a specific level.
A Practical Way to Decide
- Pick Jasmine Pearls if: you want a floral, sweet green tea, you enjoy scented teas, and you like the idea of hand-rolled pearls that unfurl as they steep.
- Pick Dragon Well if: you want a roasted, savory green tea with no floral scent, and you prefer a flat-leaf tea with a long Chinese history behind its style.
- Buy both if: you are new to loose leaf green tea and want to compare a scented tea against an unscented one. The 1oz bulk sizes let you do that without committing to a large tin.
