Dayuling Oolong 2020

I should have added this earlier when it was still on the website. The Dayuling was priced at $17 per oz, which is expensive, but not bad for a Dayuling. Hopefully, Brenden or someone can edit this note page appropriately. I also wanted to get it out there that WP did sell Dayuling.

From what I remember, the website described it in very general detail, focusing on the cotton candy texture and teas inherent sweetness. “Being in the know” about this type of tea cuts off the rest of the description.

I gotta confess, I love Dayulings despite being rivaled in flavor by the lower elevation teas in my opinion. All of the Daylings I’ve had are comparably fresher and sweeter than many Alishans and Shan Lin Xis, but it’s an effervescent sweetness that’s not thick or heavy. Not bubbly, but green and light as feather. Effervescent may not be the best word since it literally means to boil up with bubbles, but it works for the green and lively energy I get from Dayulings. I also tend to find that they are not very durable on average, but if they are, the have full stamina and a monster of a commanding price.

Some of the best Dayulings I’ve had were from Floating Leaves and Wang Tea, but even those on the pricier end that tradeoff the opportunity of other teas because of their cost. You could argue the same for this one, but it’s not a bad price for what you get.

I haven’t had the luck I wanted to with this one. I was impulsive and drank it immediately after I broke the air-tight seal. I could smell it, and it did have a green grape of cotton candy sugar cane quality in the dry leaf, but even Western, the flavor was muted. Light, effervescent, and green-absolutely. Flavorful beyond those notes? No, or at least not yet.

I did try again Gong Fu, but steep three was the only pronounced one. Lemongrass was the most prominent note, or for people who can see past tasting note pretension-a light green oolong. I do think the issue lies in the prematurity of breaking the seal, but more importantly, my water quality has not been the greatest for the past few months. I do use a water filter regularly that makes a difference, but I have had to do it through my city tap water which has a little bit too much minerals in it. The chlorine taste really blocks the flavors of my better teas, so I stopped drinking them for a time being because of it.

I ordinarily refill purified water from the local grocery store or Meijer, but since COVID, I can’t refill my bottles like I used to, and the sanitized bottles are regularly out, and restock is delayed due to increased shipping times.

Are there any economical recommendations of getting better water? I’ve managed with my blacks replacing my filter regularly and relying on my more basic profiled teas that aren’t altered too much by water quality, but it’s still problem. I should catch up with my 20+ of backlogged teas anyway.

Back to this one, I can’t judge it properly yet. I can recommend Brenden’s Taiwanese teas if you don’t want to wait for international shipping times in the U.S., and while they are slightly more expensive than I prefer, they are a good medium for high quality teas.