First impressions of this tea upon opening the package: It smells old, and it smells like lemon. Not a bad old, but just…aged. There was also a bit of honey in the smell.
When I poured the water over the leaves, there was a really strong smell of flowers, but not an overwhelming smell.
Steeped according to the directions on the website: 1 tbs of leaves per cup of water for about two minutes.
After a couple minutes, I started to notice a deeper oolong smell to the steeping tea. Deep and rich, it smelled wonderful.
My first of this tea was delightful. I felt like my mouth was filled with flowers but not in a bad way at all. Delicious and smooth, I enjoyed how light it felt on my tongue. Then I swallowed the tea and encountered a whole different side. The aftertaste was completely oolong, no more flowers. The oolong flavour was rich and deep, and perhaps even a tad rough (something I am sure that will smooth out after a few steepings).
I had to force myself to drink the first steeping slowly. It was so tasty that I wanted to keep on drinking it.
The second steeping tasted much like the first, but sooo much smoother. There was a definite developed sweetness to the tea as well.
This is a great tea for people who want to start drinking oolongs, but are used to the light sweetness of floral green and white teas. I was a little disappointed that this tea did not live up to much of the hype I have heard surrounding Dan Cong oolongs. Regardless of this, I really enjoyed the experience of drinking this tea and give it a 85/100 on my personal enjoyment scale.
195 °F / 90 °C
