Taiwan Dong Ding (Tung Ting) Oolong Tea

This was a really nice early morning pick me up for a day at work that I didn’t feel like doing.

Both the dry leaves and the brew smell sweet and floral, with an undercurrent of vegetables.

The brew is thick and creamy, with spinach and floral flavors. It opens up nice and strong, but it’s got quite a bit of astringency in the later steeps. Lasted a good 20 steeps or so too; I lost count after 10.

This was very enjoyable to sip while watching the not very enjoyable loss of the Orioles to the White Sox.

The first steep of 10 seconds was a bit light and the second (20s) finished just a bit astringent. However, the 3rd (also 20) was great. I did at least three more steeps and the character changed a bit for each one but each was interesting and good. Overall, I quite enjoyed this.

My “Anniversary oolong-order” from Teavivre came today. I somehow ordered only oolongs! Teavivre actually made me an oolong-addict so now circle is complete. Along with this I got some dancong, anxi TGY and anniversary sampler + some samples. So much new tea to taste…

I’ve only tasted Dong Ding-like oolongs like Green Jade and I’ve loved them so this was obvious choice to try. Aroma is delightful, sweet and fruity with hint of pea-like vegetality. Big oolong balls are light to dark green in color and they have a yellowish brown stem.

I used 5g/60ml, a porcelain gaiwan and 90C water for green oolong (maybe a wrong choice, but I like to live dangerously).

1st steep
Tea is mildly yellow and has very little aroma. Taste is sweet, but mild. Maybe it needs hotter water.

2nd steep
Taiwan Dong Ding starts to open up despite wrong temperature choice. Sweet and fruity taste and aroma with little astrigency. Tea color is now greenish yellow.

3rd steep
Going even more green. Same taste as in 2nd steep. Nice creamy-buttery mouthfeel and taste.

4rd steep
This tea is just as I imaginated. It’s beautiful, it has nice sweet, fruity and creamy taste with buttery mouthfeel and wonderful aroma. I just likey-likey this kind of oolongs. This was from 2014 so it’s bit over an year old. I wonder what would fresh one taste like… More tasting notes coming from this one definitely.

Oh dear, I really thought I logged this when I first tried it — I finished off the sample pouch weeks ago so now I’m trying to do this from memory.

I did like it. I thought it was a bit more sweet pea than sweet potato, and there was something slightly biting about it. I think I still prefer milk oolong, but this is definitely worth trying if you are interested in oolongs on the green side.

What a lovely tea!
When I taste, the vegetal element is in the forefront, with the sweetness following. Hints of rock sugar and snap peas are present, along with a mineral quality I really enjoy. While waiting for my next infusion to finish steeping, the aftertaste is light and sweet.
This is a very interesting and quite delicious tea, smooth and perfect for a mid morning tea break. :D
The leaves unfurl further with each infusion, turning my gaiwan into an art piece for this tea session…. So pretty!

I think I bought a sample of this oolong a long time ago and drank half of it and saved the rest, and here we are! Another rediscovery! Anyhoo, I enjoyed a nice session with this tea today, I love how oolongs can be steeped and resteeped a bunch of times and still put out flavor. This tea is a very light oolong, with notes of orchid and butter. Reminds me of spring!

WAY floral, I expected more of a roasted flavor and this goes kind of overboard on the floral, I still like it, don’t get me wrong, but it certainly doesn’t go with what I fixed for dinner.

This is tasty – I am glad to have a bit of a break from teaching, as student teaching is now over, so I have days where I can resteep a bunch of times. I am at my parents’, so my skills as a tea brewer are being tested a bit. I only have my kettle that boils water so I estimate temperature, and there is no water filter so I am aware flavors might not quite be true.

That might be the case with this one, which tastes predominately mineral with floral creamy notes too. It got more floral and less creamy with each steep, and I steeped it three times before being done with it. Overall, I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t super special.

Yummy but doesn’t shine quite as bright as other teavivre oolongs. I think I hold them to a higher standard than most.

I’m actually enjoying this cooler rather than just steeped. I’m not really good at describing it well right now. I had some wasabi ranch snapea crisps with them and that was a really lovely pairing. I think the creaminess of the tea cut the heat of the wasabi.

I’ll definitely do a couple more steepings of the leaves.

Hooray, my free oolong samples (for review) from TeaVivre arrived in record time! Thanks to Angel, as always. Now, I have not been the biggest fan of green oolongs in the past, but as I have little experience with the tie guan yin and dong ding styles, I saw this as a great opportunity to try more of those types. The pellets here are yellow-green with brown tones, and they’re quite irregular in both size and shape. I was very surprised by the scent, it’s definitely very vegetal and reminds me of Japanese green teas. There’s also a hint of mineral.

The steeped liquid smells much more oolong-ish to me than the leaf – it’s creamy with some butter, fruit, and floral notes. Liquor is a very pale yellow with just a touch of green. Wow, I am so glad I chose these teas to try. I love this one! It’s definitely the most vegetal green oolong I’ve had, so much so that it’s almost mimicking a green tea. I would describe the vegetal flavor as raw greens such as spinach, kale, etc. It does have that thick, buttery, rich oolong texture that I’m familiar with. It’s somewhat grassy, but in a rich way as opposed to a rough one. There’s definitely some nutty influence here as well, but it’s a rich nut such as cashew or macadamia. Possibly the tiniest hint of floral in the aftertaste, but it’s light and unobtrusive (happily for me). The whole thing is rather rich, but at the same time there’s a crisp mineral note that makes me think of clear water from a stream.

Thanks so much to Angel for sending me samples of these tasty teas! :D