Fenghuang Dan Cong 2007 LIMITED EDITION

I’m not a huge Dancong fan. When it comes to oolongs, I tend to prefer the more caramelly roasty Wuyi oolong-types. Also, with most dancongs, I tend to prefer the aroma of the tea more than the actual tea.

I know, that’s terrible, right? This one is the same. It’s probably my fault, because although I try to keep the steepings short, sometimes I forget to count, or whatever, and then I end up with bitter swill, and it only takes a few seconds for that to happen.

So, the aroma of this one is sweet & peachy, actually quite lovely. The first cup was also very nice, with a light fruit liquor. The 2nd cup still smelled wonderful, but I accidentally gave it 15 seconds, instead of 10, and there was a sharp bitterness at the end of each sip. For the 3rd steep I tried to back the time up to 10 seconds again, but unfortunately the damage was done and the bitterness remained.

Oh well…

I have LOADS of this tea in my cupboard and still trying to find the perfect brewing for it (I’m getting closer).

I know bamboo charcoal will change the PH of the water and bring out the honey notes in this tea. I bought some bamboo charcoal from Yunnan Sourcing just for that but haven’t tried it yet. I’ve been currently using a Brita filter because Hubby changed the filters for our kitchen tap and the water tasted worse than before! After much tracking down of what was affecting all my teas it turns out he had used a filter that ADDED a taste to water. I asked him why on earth would you want to add a taste to water??? It’s supposed to be tasteless. Well, he promised to change it and I know what that meant: could be weeks or months. So I got out a Brita filter and started filtering my water.

I was thinking today of this tea today and thought I would give it a try with the water from the Brita filter. It’s charcoal so wouldn’t the Dan Cong taste better? Well, it actually did! I brewed it gongfu and the first infusion was a bit honey and floral. After that it just settled for a plain roasted taste that never changed for each infusion. This website says to filter with a Brita filter AND boil the water with bamboo charcoal. I think I will give that try. AT least this tea is not spoiling by sitting in my cabinet so long. It’s just supposed to get better with age.

I pulled this one out today because it will bring me down to 100 teas lol thus meeting my goal for the month. I’ve got no clue how i’ll manage April’s goal but we can pretend that it’ll happen. HA! This is a very “green” tea with oolongy notes. there’s sweetness to it though, that i DO like even if the tea as a whole isn’t my favourite. It’s not a bad little tea, i just wouldn’t want it all the time given MY preferences :) For those who enjoy a good dancong, i’d give this one a try :)

1/24/2015 10g/12oz/212F/15sec This is a lovely tea, generously shared with me by gschuschke. I’m still figuring out the best brewing params for it, because the tea I am getting in the cup just doesn’t feel like the best tea that is in this leaf. It’s a Dan Cong and me thing – I just can’t seem to coax out their best features.

Happily with this gift, I have enough leaf to experiment with a variety of brewing techniques.

This cup is a lovely light gold, with a creamy vegetal/honey aroma and taste. Like fresh picked spring peas pureed with a bit of cream and drop of honey.