141 Tasting Notes

drank Da Wu Ye Dancong by Verdant Tea
141 tasting notes

This is the 4th of the 6 dancongs from Verdant’s August 2016 box that I’ve tried, and this one straight away stands out as being the most different from the others. I almost don’t know how to describe it, it’s quite floral, almost reminiscent of a shou mei, with a similar sort of light thin earthiness, and pretty prominent orange notes. it’s also quite woody with that I want to call a woody texture, at first. It’s got a wonderful full body, this is something I’ve been really appreciating about these dancongs. They all have had really nice mouthfeels, but also different textures with each one, which I’m loving to explore. I got more notes of sour cherry, lemon, apricot, flower stems, there’s a decent amount of dark chocolate in the aroma, but I can’t find any in the taste.
I struggled to really find any new flavours after the 5th(ish?) steep, but it becomes light, with sharp florals, tangerine, apricot,and a bit of seaweed, with bitterness I can’t seem to avoid.
I did prefer the darker, chocolatier dancongs, but this was also thoroughly enjoyable

I did a 7-8 second rinse (woulda been shorter but I’m not used to the new kettle, it pours slow) and then I used 100C water for the first steep, 99 for the second and 98 from there on out, cause it seemed to work well on the Ya Shi I drank yesterday. I filled the gaiwan about 3/4 of the way this time

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C

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drank Ya Shi Dancong by Verdant Tea
141 tasting notes

I got my kettle today!!!!!! http://bonavitaworld.com/products/10l-digital-variable-temperature-gooseneck-kettle — This one! IM SO EXCITED TO PLAY WITH IT! It’s so beautiful, I love it.

Anyways, this tea!

Very roasty woody aroma, with a jumble of spices and a hint of cocoa or baking chocolate on steep one, with the second steep aroma bringing in deep floral that I want to say is violet? But I dont know my flowers, that’s just what I immediately thought of, so maybe that’s what it is. It brews up a pale mustard yellow, and a taste that makes me reminiscent for a moment of vanilla ice cream. Of course, there’s mostly roasty chocolate notes, with the wood and earth from the aroma, but I also get notes of rice, orange zest, florals, vanilla, cranberry, lime zest, coconut, cream, and grapefruit. This is some pretty complex tea. Also I’m on like steep 5, and I feel extremely tea drunk already. It’s very thick and creamy with a bit of astringency and some bitterness (which may or may not be my inexperience brewing dancong showing its face), further notes of asian pear. It has an amazing bittersweetness thing going on, I’m also getting a hint of sour candy, like sour keys.

I didn’t really notice any other flavours past steep 6 or 7. The creaminess steeps out shortly after, then slowly the roasty chocolate, earth and wood which dominated the taste begin to fade, though never are completely gone, leaving a nice, mostly fruity (apple/pear), lightly astringent, still very nice and drinkable tea. I absolutely love this one.

No rating because this is my third ever dancong.

I did a 7-8 second rinse (woulda been shorter but I’m not used to the new kettle, it pours slow) and then I used 100C water for the first steep, 99 for the second and 98 from there on out. I’d estimate I did about 5g of leaf in my 120ml gaiwan, but I don’t have a scale so I don’t know. It was filled about 2/3 of the way to the top

Flavors: Apple, Candy, Chocolate, Cocoa, Coconut, Cranberry, Cream, Floral, Grapefruit, Lime, Orange Zest, Pear, Rice, Roasted, Toast, Vanilla, Violet, Wood

Show 3 previous comments...
Rasseru 8 years ago

congrats on a lovely looking kettle!

Mackie 8 years ago

Thank you :)))

Evol Ving Ness 8 years ago

How are you enjoying this kettle? Is it fulfilling all your new kettle dreams and then some? What are its pluses and minuses?

Mackie 8 years ago

It’s amazing I had a really cheap kettle before so this is like a huge upgrade, I love the temperature settings, it’s pretty quiet, it’s so beautiful to look at, uh if there’s any downsides, it pours a little bit slow? Not really a problem because it’s an accurate pouring mechanism, but yes it is fulfilling all my kettle dreams so far :)

Mackie 8 years ago

also the countup timer it has seems really pointless – you have to push a button to get it to start counting up (I assumed it’d start counting once you took the kettle off the base) and once you put the kettle back on, it stops, so you have to leave the kettle somewhere else and I don’t usually have anywhere else I can put it.. So I don’t use that

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Okay so I have very little experience with Dancong, and this was the first one I drank from the august 2016 club box, which I tried to do at like 90 degrees, which.. really went pretty bad, but then I did a whole bunch of reading about brewing dancongs and now I’m trying again and this went much better.

At first, I get a lot of apple and pear, mixed with woody earthy cocoa, honey, lychee, there’s a hint of a sort of rainforesty-wet earthy taste .. I think the Chinese have a word for that taste but I don’t know what it is.

It’s interesting because the tea’s aroma is very different from its taste, like it smells like a da hong pao with the toasty dark roasty rock oolong flavour, but the taste is sweet and fruity with honey. I can’t really detect much other than honey and lychee now, with the toasty roasty aroma, maybe a bit of milky chocolate, hints of some other fruit I can’t quite place.. kinda like pear plus orange.. plus uh.. cranberry or raspberry or .. blackberry.. uh well anyways,

It has a really satisfying body, full but not too thick, with a slight bitterness and slight astringency, even a slight acidity. I think I could get really into dancongs. This is great.
It’s not reasonable for me to rate this, cause I have no expectations or baselines. Really tasty though :)

Flavors: Apple, Chocolate, Cocoa, Fruity, Honey, Lychee, Pear, Roasted, Toast, Wet Earth

Show 1 previous comments...
Rasseru 8 years ago

Welcome to the wonderful world of Fenghuang Oolong

Mackie 8 years ago

thank you :) I’m really excited to dive into all these, but I’m getting a really fancy programmable kettle next week and I’m mostly holding off till I can make them even better!

Rasseru 8 years ago

yes, vari temp + accurate gaiwan skills are really important to avoid the bitter overbrewing that can easily happen

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77

I keep changing my mind about this one, I’ve had like 3 sessions of it this week, that never happens (granted I’m mostly trying to drink down some of my teas right now .. While waiting for more to arrive .. and this is one that’s not overly exciting but is still thoroughly enjoyable, I saw that I’d given it a 66, and well that doesn’t seem reasonable. And I remember, before that I had a 93 here so I’m gonna put it somewhere in between and hopefully I won’t need to change it again.. The flavours are all quite nice, very chocolatey and floral, but the body is really disappointingly thin and well pretty boring, but hey It’s better than it has any right to be at ~$3/oz.

I’ll get back to doing more proper reviews soon once I get some stuff to write about!

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95

I just finished off this sample, and over the course of drinking it down I’ve fallen in love with it, it’s just such a delicious black, so many decadent grape notes, well-balanced subtle florals, and lots of rich malty chocolate, If I ever buy from teavivre again (which I can see myself doing, but just not for a while now, I’ve got a big list of things I want..), I’ll definitely pick some more of this up. Rating changed from 88 → 95

Flavors: Chocolate, Floral, Fruity, Grapes, Honey, Honeydew, Malt

Fjellrev 8 years ago

Sounds delicious!

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25

You know, I had such low expectations going into this session, (because of my history with upton’s white teas, or.. really all of upton’s tea) but it’s actually slightly less bad than I expected. Musty florals, mint, grass, hay on the first two steeps. It brews up really dark coloured, a pale orangey-yellow. It develops some malty cocoa in the third steep, along with a hefty amount of bitterness, citrus, raddish, carrots, dry wood, stems, beans, ugh I got to steep 5 and I can’t do anymore. It was perfectly drinkable in steeps 1 & 2, but it’s gone drastically downhill and yeah I’m not drinking anymore of this.

I can’t believe I still have like 3 unopened upton samples. I wish I hadn’t gotten all this :/

Flavors: Beany, Bitter, Carrot, Citrus, Cocoa, Floral, Grass, Mint, Musty, Stems, Wood

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87

I bought this in store, without actually smelling the dry leaf, only the wet leaf (she just had like a whole bunch outside in this like basket thing, not really sure why) so when I got home and opened it, and the incredibly potent vegetal smell washed over me, I was overwhelmed. Soybean/edamame, grass, celery, and hints of lemon so delicious that I sat there stunned, just inhaling it for several minutes. It smelled similar to a laoshan green in a way. Anyways, the brewing:

lettuce, edamame, grass, it’s very creamy in both texture and taste, theres even subtle hints of florals, some roastiness and quite potent astringency, a bit bitter at first. There’s kind of a meaty texture behind the creaminess, even almost like tofu, with added notes of beats, peas, spinach, hints of soap or even.. toothpaste? It’s a bit minty; It has a significantly thicker texture than I’m used to in greens, at times it could almost be mistaken for an oolong, were it not so vegetal. It gets a bit more bitter as the session goes on, though never with any real strength.

I got 5 or 6 really nice steeps out of this, I’m glad I picked some up. It’s one of those teas I really want some of my friends to get to try (the ones who if you ask them what kind of green tea they drink, they say .. like, “the normal kind”)

Flavors: Bitter, Cream, Creamy, Floral, Lettuce, Milk, Mint, Peas, Roasted, Soap, Soybean, Spinach, Thick, Vegetal

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83

Alright, so I’ve got this little single-serve tuo cha, this tea was under Treasure Green’s green tea section, and the pu’erh section, obviously it being xiaguan tea factory, it’s some kind of pu’erh but it’s different, I don’t really get how but .. anyways,

At first, it tastes very green, light, thick, sweet, but also very reminiscent of a young sheng in its lightness and a hint of sweet smoke, even leather-like, or wet cardboard..? With bitterness which is quite pleasant, and astringency, it has a strong kick of bitterness but there’s a sort of smoothness to it too, and lots of mintiness in the aftertaste, sweet grass, grapefruit, blood-orange, bitterness grows stronger with each successive brew. Pine needles, spearmint raspberry, dry earth.

It’s like everything I like about young shengs, the sweet pleasant bitterness, but with so much more depth and character.

I love how fruity it is in later steeps: So much orange, grapefruit, and like.. blue-raspberry, it’s very soothing and hydrating, but there’s quite a sense of power to the tea, and enough complexity to suit anyone. Verry bitter though, so if you dislike bitterness, then probably stay away from this one, also this one’s really durable, it lasts like at least 15 steeps here, and fades out really slowly, so it depends on your tastes really :)

Olivia, the tea master at Treasure green, just gave me this tuocha to “play with” after me and my best friend sat at her tea bar and tried 3 or 4 different teas over like 2 hours, (including this one) she was really generous, and it was a lot of fun. (Don’t worry, we both bought some tea), I probably wouldn’t have written a review for this, because 1) reviewing pu’erh seems incredibly difficult to me, and 2) I feel like pu’erh should be something that I have to myself, where I don’t need to worry about the analytics, but anyways, I really, really like this company and wanted to give them some exposure, however small, so if you’re ever in Vancouver, do yourself a favour and check it out! :)

Flavors: Bitter, Blood Orange, Cardboard, Earth, Fruity, Grapefruit, Green, Leather, Mint, Orange, Pine, Raspberry, Smoke, Spearmint, Sweet, Thick

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C

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90

April 2015 harvest

Right. okay, so this is my fourth session with this tea since I got it a few weeks ago. Basically it reminded me of a laoshan green that was thicker, fuller and lasted longer in the first 2 sessions. Amazing, right, but the third one tasted super like stale, but moreover, the whole bag has since smelled like.. club soda? Pretty much no smell now. I don’t know what happened ):

Anyways, okay, so it’s not very sweet, but i can taste some of that laoshan soybeany roastiness, there’s bits of lime, a bit creamy, some carrots, spinach. The astringency is pretty heavy for such early steeps. Okay, maybe I just messed up in the third session I did, I think my temperature was too low, cause I’ve got all that delicious laoshan greenness up in here (greenness is a wonderful word)
Yes! I heated the water to about 90 C, and now it’s bringing out what I want. It’s actually gotten a bit sweet, lots of roasty soybeans, edamame, cooked asparagus, very vegetal, there is a looot of astringency, but it mostly resides low in the throat, it’s also quite tart, ooh there’s even pear notes.
Okay, I love this, I admit it. It is quite similar to laoshan greens, but it’s still very distinctly its own. Like, it’s darker, less creamy/buttery, fruitier and more astringent, it actually is starting to make me think of key lime pie in these late steeps. I’m sorry but oh my god. the last time a tea made me feel this good was Menghai tea factory’s 2016 Year of the monkey sheng, which I had on an empty stomach.. wait, I have an empty stomach now! oh dear, maybe this is a thing..
Okay, I’m tea drunk and i’m watching the matrix for the first time, so I’m gonna go focus on that.
Buy this.
I’ll be trying to resist starving myself in search of tea highs.

Flavors: Asparagus, Astringent, Carrot, Cream, Creamy, Fruity, Lime, Pear, Roasted, Soybean, Spinach, Tart

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C

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45
drank Chocolate Rocket by DAVIDsTEA
141 tasting notes

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Profile

Bio

Hey :) welcome to my steeps!
I really only ever drink straight teas, every once and a while I might have something flavoured, but odds are I won’t ever write about any of those. All of my reviews are done using my 120ml gaiwan unless otherwise specified.

I’m mostly into Sheng, Red tea and Oolongs right now, but I also can enjoy greens and whites sometimes.

My cupboard is NOT up to date. I tried for a while, but it’s too much effort, and so many of the teas I have just aren’t on here and eh.

ig: @mackie_tealife —>
https://www.instagram.com/mackie_tealife/?hl=en

Rating System:

95-100:
|| One of the best teas I’ve ever
|| had; I’m definitely planning to
|| restock
90-94:
|| Very very good tea, I’ll restock if
|| I’m planning to make a purchase
|| from this company anyways, if
|| not I’m alright living without it
80-89:
|| Very good tea, I’d be more than
|| happy to sip again, though it’s
|| not likely I’ll be repurchasing
70-79:
|| Good tea, I drank it happily,
|| though I might not be reaching
|| for it again in my cupboard
|| for a long while
60-69:
|| Okay tea, it was drinkable and
|| it’s probably going to be
|| gathering dust in my cupboard
|| for a while
50-59:
|| I struggled through the tea,
|| but managed to finish the
|| session, will probably be giving
|| it away to a friend.
25-49:
|| I cut the session short, but
|| I think it’s possible for one to
|| have enjoyed it, it’s just really
|| low quality
0-24:
|| No one should enjoy drinking
|| this, and I would have no
|| problem throwing it out.

*This system is used on my first 100 reviews, I’ve decided not to rate teas anymore because I’m definitely not qualified to be objective about quality yet and it’s just pointlessly subjective numbers and that’s not really helping anyone

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Victoria, Canada

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