Received as a freebie with my teacup purchase, thanks!
My past tries with dancong brewed with the chaozhou gongfu method produced cups that were upfront way too bitter and astringent for my liking, so I went with a recommendation by eastkyteaguy to use less leaf and lower water temperature. No stuffed gaiwan nor boiling water.
Gone glass gaiwan. 7g, 150mL, 200F. Flash rinse that I drank plus 8 more steeps at 10/12/18/22/28/35/45/60s
The dry leaf smelled tangy with yogurt, grapes and apricot. The wet leaf throughout the session was incredibly fragrant and produced scents of dried apricot, yogurt tang, green grape, hay, nectarine, white peach and fresh apricot. The aroma of the liquor was an intoxicating mix of honeysuckle, white florals and white nectarine that remained strong from the rinse to about the fourth steep. The liquor started off very thick with kind of a penetrating, tingling astringency only on the tongue, later becoming thinner and more astringent. Some bitterness appeared in the back of the mouth midway, turning into a full-mouthed bitterness for the last two steeps. The first several steeps were strong yet ethereal in taste with butter, honeysuckle, white floral, white nectarine, minerals and apricot and had an aftertaste of white peach for at least 30 minutes. As the session progressed, the butter faded yet the other notes remained.
I find it difficult to judge my preference for this tea since I don’t have much experience, let alone good experience, with dancong oolong. I’m not sure I’d purchase more, but it was a very pleasurable session.
I do look forward to using eastkyteaguy’s brewing recommendations again for the other two dancongs I have in my cupboard.
Preparation
People who liked this
Comments
Oh, that’s the tea sampler I got when I ordered my little baby gaiwan!
The leaves of this tea are too large to fit in the baby gaiwan, fyi.
Ya, I think after the expansion I got from the last oolong I brewed in it, I may just make my oolongs in the shiboridashi and just measure out a low amount of water for it (fill it to 50ml though it holds 150ml, since I just don’t want to drink that much tea per infusion). It has tons of space for leaf expansion in there. The black tea I brewed in the baby gaiwan worked with no issues, though!
Oh, that’s the tea sampler I got when I ordered my little baby gaiwan!
The leaves of this tea are too large to fit in the baby gaiwan, fyi.
Ya, I think after the expansion I got from the last oolong I brewed in it, I may just make my oolongs in the shiboridashi and just measure out a low amount of water for it (fill it to 50ml though it holds 150ml, since I just don’t want to drink that much tea per infusion). It has tons of space for leaf expansion in there. The black tea I brewed in the baby gaiwan worked with no issues, though!