Dong Ding Traditional A

Surprisingly sweet for a roasted oolong, muted fruit notes like plum or tamarind. Not to much in the way of the charcoal-y smokey notes you can sometimes get from roasted teas, which is welcome.

Update: Changed my gong fu brewing to 95 degrees Celsius and 4g instead of 3g per 100mL – brew was great! Would definitely reccomend.

Sipdown 24 – 2024

This was very kindly given to me as a sample in a recent Floating Leaves order. Sadly I don’t care for it. Another poor tea victim of charcoal roasting, it just overwhelms the tea.

Leafhopper sent me this tea, so thank you! Kind of sipdown, but it wasn’t in my Steepster cupboard and also it’s single session tea.

My first impression after putting the leaves to gaiwan was popcorn. Yep, that. Also some roasty notes and flowers in the background.

Did a quite long rinse, and about 5 minutes of rest under the gaiwan lid. After that the aromas changed rapidly. It is indeed roasted oolong by aroma, some pine there, sweet and bready notes too.

First steep, 25 seconds long (I am following Leafhopper steeping method); was smooth and surprisingly floral with nuts, very thick body, long mouthfeel. Second sip was bready for me.

Second steep, was more bready, but florals were still strong enough to play the major part. Again very smooth and thick mouthfeel. Not that long this time, but also very nice, nevertheless. In the aftertaste there is some pine. Not able to recognize the flowers.

Third steep, 25 seconds and floral notes and roasty notes are fifty-fifty in this steep. The dark notes of roast and nuts are here, but very fast they are tackled by the florals making great round mouthfeel which seems very memorable for this tea. Sadly, flavours not that much.

Fourth steep, 30 seconds is about stronger roasted notes, florals translated a bit into more boring — grassy and vegetal notes. Also there are nutty flavors, closely followed with that popcorn impressions from dry leaf.

Another 30 seconds long steep is actually the same as previous one. Maybe a bit rounder.

Another 30 seconds long steep generally brings same flavour profile.

Afterwards I went to long, uncounted steeps. They were all pleasant.

Song pairing: various instrumental music and a few Finnish songs I don’t understand, but I think they are good;
Besides: writing a several postcards for postcrossing;
Mood: Much better now.

I made a big Floating Leaves order over the Black Friday weekend, so the least I can do is finish a few of the teas from my last order in 2021 before my haul arrives. This Dong Ding is from either spring 2021 or winter 2020. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of walnuts, hazelnuts, roast, and flowers. The first steep has notes of nuts, cream, banana bread, honey, minerals, grass, and char. The next steep has more banana and nuts, plus honey and narcissus/orchid florals. The roast is on the lighter side, and the body of the tea is thick. The next couple steeps feature nuts, graham cracker, roast, pine, florals, and grass. Steeps five and six are a little more grassy and vegetal, though they still have a nice, round honey and roasty flavour. Subsequent steeps are a bit more nutty and roasty, with floral and grassy undertones. The final long steeps have notes of graham cracker, roast, nuts, butter, minerals, and wood.

I want to like Dong Dings more than I actually do, as I find most of them too roasty. This one was on the lighter side, however, and I thought it had more character than some others. The florals and banana bread were a nice break from the roast, and it never started tasting like overbrewed coffee, as some other roasted teas can. I’m glad I tried this tea, but don’t regret leaving it out of my 2022 order.