Superfine Taiwan Moderately-Roasted Dong Ding Oolong Tea

Free sample from Teavivre. Thank you once more.

I love the look of the olive green tea nuggets in this sample. They look great and smell a bit milky when dry, then they unfurl in the pot as I steep them. It makes me happy that I mainly use a glass teapot, not that that stops me wanting a lovely celadon teapot and more Yixing teapots, of course!

The milky aroma turns to cream when I steep the leaves with strong floral overtones. All this promises something good, and the tea does not disappoint. The roasted flavour is there, but delicate and not overdone. It complements the floral undertones that are present, but you need to search for them. This is a very full, thick tea that is less sweet than I thought it might be. This is good. Too much sweetness alongside the other flavours would probably just be too much. I like this tea.

Thank you, once again, TeaVivre and Angel, for this sample!

I’ve sampled more oolong teas this week than I have for the past two years. I have liked them all but have found the flavors to be consistently sub-robust.

I opened the sample package of dark little tea buds and the aroma was very much like peanuts roasted on burning grass. It was not an unpleasant smell at all.

I steeped the buds at 212 degrees for two minutes as recommended. The finished color was a moderately dark-tinted gold. The aroma was nondescript but it had a roasted characteristic.

I was surprised when the flavor of my first sip was quite well-defined. It was smooth and faintly floral with a dominant but not overpowering roasted taste. The thought of roasted cashews entered my mind. Each subsequent sip also produced the very distinct and enjoyable roasted/floral taste. No bitterness arrived. The aftertaste also had a moderate roasted quality.

This is my favorite oolong tea so far. The taste is excellent, fairly powerful, and extremely smooth. This selection was very easy to gulp down. If you like teas with a roasted flavor but find the Lapsang Souchong smoky varieties to be too overpowering, you will LOVE this oolong!

I finally got a tin of this! It took me a very long time to figure out which Teavivre oolong to get a tin of but I finally settled on this one in the Black Friday sale. Next order, I think I will have to order a whole bunch of samples and figure out which oolong it is that I want to permanently stock. Which is everyone’s favourite Teavivre oolong?

This tea smells lovely dry with rolled green leaves. It smells very nutty and roasted. I used 1.5tsp for my glass mug and infuser. When brewed, the leaves (of course) open up and are a little less green. The flavour is still quite vegetal but has a sweet overall roasted flavour. The mouthfeel is slightly creamy.

Drinking an exquisite cup of this before we leave on our road trip to Las Vegas. I won’t be bringing any tea with me on this trip so this will probably be the only good tea I have for awhile. Unless of course I find a good tea house in Las Vegas! Anyone know of one?

This tea is just wonderful. It tastes more roasted today than the last time I tasted it; mood really makes a difference when tasting tea!

Tea provided by Teavivre for review

Tasting from the first steep, much of my expectations are met. The liquor tastes sweet and creamy, vegetal properties stand out, and the roasted flavour is good and continues to linger on after I’ve finished drinking.

From the second to fifth steeps, the roasting and the bold flavour really peaked. The third seemed a bit heavy, but not overwhealming.

Wrapping up with the sixth and seventh steeps, much of the flavours from the previous cups continued. Unfortunately the seventh had a dry effect on my mouth, but was otherwise enjoyable.

I enjoyed this more than the Qing Xiang Dong Ding oolong. But that’s because I usually prefer roasted oolongs. I intend on trying the samples using a gaiwan and later on with a teapot. If I were to short steep this tea again, I’d probably stop at six, because those were the most satisfying.

Steep parameters (Teavivre’s website suggestion):
100ml gaiwan, 7g sample, rinse and 7 steeps (15s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 40s, 60s, 80s)

Back to school and back to studying! The perfect time to sit down with some class reading and sip some tea!

This tea starts out in tight coils and blossoms into full, thick leaves. The taste is warm and toasted, Just what I was looking for on this cold afternoon. The major taste of this tea to me is the roasted oolong flavor which there is a perfect amount of. It allows the natural oolong flavor to blend in with the warmth.

As I said earlier, I decided to drink this while reading for class and the taste of the tea really matches the atmosphere. To me, it resembles sitting down in my warm apartment reading and trying to keep the cold at bay. It is definitely a good quality tea. I steeped this one twice and so far it manages to maintain the taste very well.

Our Superfine Taiwan Moderately Roasted Dong Ding Oolong Tea, however, caters right to the mouth-pleasure of ethu-tea-asts who crave a heartier cup. Dry, the roasted leaves are nutty goodness in the bag. But since they’re only moderately roasted, you still get the underlying vegetal base, so the resulting nut is a bright pistachio. Maybe even a Brazil nut or macadamia as well in there; soft-toned stuff to keep from overshadowing the garden leaves. Strangely, all the nuts disappear from the tea’s scent once steeped.

The first infusion has… Full review here: http://snooteablog.com/2013/10/15/snooty-tea-review-teavivre-round-3/

Roasty-toasty tasting, with a creamlike/smooth mouthfeel. The last sample of a batch of great tea I ordered from this company, most of which I’d be happy to drink again in the future.

The first time I tried this tea, the first steep presented a semi-soapy taste which faded quickly in subsequent steeps. I don’t recall this tea producing that taste consistently each session I tried it, so it may have just been an issue with my water, or a fluke in the leaves. Besides a roasted Taiwan TGY that I tasted last year and disliked, a roasted Mao Xie, and a highly-roasted, aged Dong Ding, I have not tied many roasted ball-style oolongs. I found this one to be enjoyable, though. The roast is not overpowering, but it is close to that line and is very prominent. However, as steeps progress it recedes into something more tolerable. For some reason, I do not have many notes on this tea, which usually means I frequently drank this sample for comfort sipping while doing other tasks. From the notes I have and what I remember, it was a nice daily drink and did especially well in low leaf concentrations and longer steeps.

Thanks, Teavivre.

I think I would have to say this is one of the best oolongs teas I’ve had!
The reason for this is I was able to get amazing flavor steep after steep. It was also my first time trying a roasted oolong.