Taiwan Dong Ding (Tung Ting) Oolong Tea

I absolutely LOVE oolongs, and I unfortunately don’t have a lot of them. My tea cupboard comprises mostly of blacks and herbals! I decided to treat myself today with this tea. I ordered 2 sample sizes of this tea a couple of months ago from Teavivre when there was a sale.

I opened the small metallic wrapper and immediately saw the bright, fresh green balls of this leaf with a stem on each one. It reminded me of cooked spinach! It smelled so delightful! It was sweet smelling and vegetal.

I recently purchased a beautiful yixing teapot set! I wanted to use it, but I felt like I should make my first cup with my husband. So another day with that! Wow I really went off topic…

Anyhow, this tea, as with most oolongs and other teas, withstood several steeps. I always watching the first steep because it is beautiful to see how the leaves “dance” in my gaiwan.

First steep: 30 seconds, 190 degrees. The brew was a light yellow color. This one smelled very vegetal, not like nori, but almost like a green. The taste was amazing! Light and airy florals dancing in my mouth. It was smooth like butter! There was a slight sweetness to it as well.

Second steep: 50 seconds. The leaves are nearly unfurled at this point. Brew was a jaundice/neon yellow! This brew was more floral and bolder than the first steep. It is sweet and juicy like a berry!

Third steep: 1 min. This steep was lighter and became more fruity! Delicious! The floral tones were fading more. There was a bit more astringency, but it still went down like butter!

Delicious tea!!

While brewing in the cup this smells like hot rocks/minerals, also vegetal (boiled greens), maybe even like roasted butter? Some floral aroma is in the background. The taste I am getting is basically the same, with the vegetal scents coming through in the fore-front. I have had green teas before that had a buttery taste to them that I am fond of, but this is the first time I have tasted similar notes in an oolong. There is also a slight honeyesque sweetness I am getting on finish. Pretty complex. I like it.

Another generous sample from Teavivre!

First, it smells like buttery greens that have been thrown into the oven for a couple of minutes. It tastes very similar with an even more pronounced butter flavor, slightly roasted and slighty vegetal. For a lighter oolong this sure has a lot of heft and body. The second steeping brings out a sweeter fruitier taste. Wonderful oolong and it holds up to many steepings.

Sipdown (89)! I know I got this from someone on Steepster in a swap, but all the samples got mixed up in my move across the country, so I can’t remember who, sorry! Anyway, I finally got around to trying this one out. Even though I used (visually speaking, not a lot of measuring going on) a pretty hefty leaf to water ratio, the flavor of this one was still pretty mild. I may have let my water cool down a touch too much. The main flavor I was getting kind of rode the line between floral and grassy if that makes any sense. I wasn’t getting much nuttiness as I often do from greener oolongs, but it was still pretty tasty. I’ll probably resteep the leaves with some hotter water when I get back from the gym later, so I will update this note with any new findings if I do!

I like this one. Green, sweet, refreshing! It’s very soft and delicate, great in the afternoon as a pick-me-up. I think I prefer the fuller flavoured oolongs, but I definitely wouldn’t turn down a cup of this :)

What a great oolong. I steeped this in my gaiwan using the small packet it came in for about 3 seconds with 1 more second each steep. This tea is thick sometimes and has great character. On third steeping it got very sweet. Like has already been said, it’s light though. it’s like breathing in the breeze that blows through a garden. Very nice oolong and very affordable. I like teavivre more and more every day.

This oolong style is close to a green tea in taste and apperance. There is a slight sweet taste, and a smell similar to dragonwell. Thanks teavivre for the sample, this is one I enjoyed and will probably buy in the future.

Received a sample from Teavivre of this! I enjoyed this tea but have other oolongs that I enjoy more. The first couple steeps are very nice, fruity and floral with nutty undertones. But with each steep the tea progresses into a tangy and slightly astringent taste and gets a very sharp smell. It’s not bad, but I prefer the more mellow front steeps!

I am continue to make my way through a large collection of oolong samples from Teavivre I had recently received. This particlular tea has been reviewed to death on Steepster and this tea being my first encounter with Dong Ding oolongs makes this review totally irrelevant for other people so I am doing it for myself to keep tracks of my likes and dislikes.

Surpisingly, there was not much of fragrance coming out out of pouch when I opened it. Which is rare for oolongs in my admittedly limited experience. Just some spinach/grass and spice. The wet leaf smell was essentially the same plus some butter and a touch of lilac.

The taste was unexpectedly green and vibrant, with spinach, butter, spice, grass, mineral and a touch of berry sweetness. This is certainly not one of those languid , luxuriously sweet oolongs but instead gives an impression of a young full of stored vibrant energy. And a nice dynamic aftertaste.This tea is good to have at work as an additional burst of energy and motivation, it is an I-can-help-to-get-things-done tea. All about business and concentration.

Long ago, I had a bad experience with Dong Ding. It was from David’s Tea, and all I can remember is that I was incredibly unimpressed by it- so much so that I actively avoided buying any Dong Ding Oolong again.

Cue right now, where I’m internally grateful it was a part of my mass oolong sample order from Teavivre. My dead head and my deader stomach take up this fruit punch aroma like a peace offering. The flavour profile is akin to a vegetal lemon cream dessert- which is another reminder to me that it’s been a while since I’ve had some proper Vitamin C food. I would kill for a grapefruit or orange right now. No more junk food. Food illness sucks.

Another food this reminds me of is the Lemon Zest Sunflower Kale Spaghetti I sometimes make when I want vegetables and calories in a pinch. Maybe that should go back on the meal plan.

Steep Count: 5

(2016 harvest, I think)