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A mouth-watering medium bodied oolong with silky and slightly powdery texture. Both the smell and the taste are dominated by roasted notes, a bit too much for my liking personally. The smell is very crisp, with some hints of cookies and figs. As for the taste, I didn’t find it overly complex. It is somewhat sweet and buttery, with a nice balanced & nutty aftertaste.

As of now, I would prefer the lighter roaster classical Dong Ding from Taiwan Sourcing. I am interested to see how this one will develop though, it surely has some potential.

For this session I decided to crush about 10% of the leaves to see what it does. Also, I used a low temperature rinse at 50°C.

The dry leaf aroma is not super strong, it is definitely reminiscent of Tie Guan Yin. After the first rinse, I get a mix of nutty and vegetal smells. The closest comparison I can make is asparagus. After the second rinse though, floral and fruity aromas appear. I notice some peach in particular. Both rinses are in fact very nice to drink, slightly savoury and already quite thick and creamy in the mouthfeel.

After rinsing the leaves I add the crushed leaves and brew very short infusions at 80°C to 90°C. The smell continues evolving towards a very nice mix of vegetal and fruity notes with sweet floral undertones. I can smell some tropical fruits there that I cannot quite identify. The liquor has a dark yellow/green colour and is very viscous. The mouthfeel is silky with a hint of allround astringency. As for the taste, it is very complex and strong, but remains balanced nevertheless. It starts with the floral and savoury notes, with slight bitterness quickly kicking in, only to give way to the fruity and sweeter notes in the finish. The aftertaste thus starts fairly sweet, but over time turns a little bit more vegetal. During the whole time I can tell there is some subtle sourness underneath, but it only becomes more prominent later on in the after taste, which is almost endless. Taking long breaks during the session is definitely recommended. There is too much going on for me to pick up more specific notes, maybe I can try to do that next time round. I have to say that it’s a VERY pleasant and refreshing drink even when not being too focused on its refined characteristics, but given its price, I will save it for when I have time to appreciate it fully.

To conclude, I love the complex and nuanced, yet balanced taste, I love the floral/fruity smell, I love the texture, I love the protracted and evolving aftertaste.

I love this tea!

edit: The late steeps have an incredibly thick and creamy mouthfeel, that coats the mouth very well. Also, both the taste and smell is a bit more grassy than I noticed beforehand. The cha qi is nice too, not rushy at all, rather mellow and calming.

Mindblowing! This tea has qualities of a high grade Darjeeling for about half the price. I will include some more detailed notes from later sessions, this time I was just enjoying the tea too much and not ready to take notes :D

Exhilirating aroma that is very fruity with some longan fruit, apricots, cantaloupe and passionfruit. There are some more robust notes of forest floor in the background though.

When brewed light, the taste is mineral, fruity and a little sour, with some vegetal qualities too, which are mostly absent from the smell or just overpowered by other notes. I can also taste some baked bread and roasted walnuts in the background.
The tea induces a very interesting lingering effervescent, tickling and numbing feeling after drinking.

With harsher brew (higher temp and longer steeping time), I get a full bodied crisp liquor with thick oily mouthfeel and almost no astringency. Tea-like bitterness is very present, even in the aftertaste, but it transforms into something slightly sweet, nutty and very aromatic over time. The aftertaste is probably the most prolonged I have experienced with tea. The taste here is less fruity, the floral notes are much more pronounced instead. Interestingly, in later steeps, I notices some coffee taste as well.

There is a decently strong cha qi too, compared to most oolong teas I’ve had. Overall, my first session with a Dan Cong oolong will be remembered fondly. I am very impressed.

First time trying my sample and despite this being a very complex tea, I can’t say I really found the taste very pleasurable as it is. There is very little bitterness and only a little astringency. The taste has quite a lot of depth and is reminiscent of celery, parsnip, nettle and generally some roast vegetables. In the smell, I noticed robust notes of wet grass and soil along the vegetal ones of asparagus, kale, steamed vegetables and lemon. It’s a fairly sweet smell, which translates to the taste as well.

The mouthfeel is drying and foamy, with medium body. I get a strong warming sensation as well.

I can imagine that as I get more used to the taste, my enjoyment of this tea could raise significantly, but I will have to wait a few more sessions to assess that.

I imagine this could have been a really nice Darjeeling once young, it has a pungent aroma that is sweet and spicy. However, as I bought it 3 years old already (for 30% of the original price though), it has lost some of its complexity. Nevertheless, it is still a pleasant drink with hints of cherries, apricots and spices (nutmeg in particular) and some umami as well. The astringency is very mild, in fact the tea is fairly mouth-watering and with a cooling aftertaste. Given the price I got it for, I would buy it again, although I can’t comment on the price/quality ratio of the fresh product to be honest.

A very nice midpoint between Ye Sheng black teas and Wu Yi oolongs. The dry leaf smells of almond/marzipan, while in the wet leaf I can smell more of sauna, pine and light roast coffee. It is also slightly cooling in the nose. The taste is savoury, fragrant and spicy with a very sweet aftertaste. There is also some mild bitterness. A great aspect of the tea is definitely in the mouthfeel, which is fairly soft, heavy and a little bit effervescent. I feel like overall it is growing on me as I get more accustomed to its characteristics. At first, I couldn’t quite appreciate all of its nuances, because it is ultimately different from any other tea I have had, although the base layer is similar to other Ye Sheng varietal black teas from YS.

By now, I have managed to find good brewing parameters, very short infusions and relatively small amount of leaf is the way to go. What you get is a very vegetal, sweet and fragrant drink, which I grew to like a lot. Even with a lighter brew it is quite pungent though, filling the room with a nice sweet, woody and fruity smell.

A very good Darjeeling for reasonable price, even 1 year after harvest it’s still got a complex aroma. There is a lot of sweet floral notes, reminiscent of honey, dried dates and apricots, but at the same time some heavier whisky and lighter grass ones. The taste is less spectacular, but definitely enjoyable. It is slighly sweet and spicy with vegetal notes too. The astringency is not too strong and the mouthfefel is somewhat bubbly. The colour, as is often the case with FF Darjeeling, is a beautiful golden orange.

The steeping times I did were: 5s wash, 20s, 40s, 60s, 100s. It became a little flat and on the bitter side in the last one, but still retaining its character to a large degree.