Mi Lan Xiang Phoenix Mountain Dancong

Several tasting notes. A honey pleasentness to this tea.

Dark oolong with a light amber color and a pleasant aroma. This tea has a juicy texture and tastes of sweetened grapefruit. It is a very interesting tea, grapefruit is a new taste profile for me.

Sipdown! (114)

This was a sample from Stephanie, also known as “Lover of Dancongs”. I’ve been trying to get some more experience with these teas, so I requested this one in our recent swap. The leaves are beautiful – they’re very long and straight, and tightly twisted. Very dark in color. I asked Stephanie for her Western-style brewing parameters and I ended up doing 190 degree for 5 minutes.

Brewed aroma is very strongly apricot. And it’s a rather tart-smelling apricot! Yum. There’s also the ubiquitous roastiness and a bit of floral. Whoa, the taste! Very strong due to the long steep, and the stonefruit flavor is very strong and lovely. There’s also a darker dried fruit flavor, maybe prune or raisin. It’s roasty and there’s a bit of autumn leaf, but it’s in the background which is unusual in my experience. My only issue with this tea is that the floral element is fairly strong, and it almost borders on being soapy near the end. And that kind of prevents me from wanting to drink this again. Curse you, floral! Not rating because of the bias, lul. :D

I’ve chosen this tea for my first tasting note on here. This tea is fantastic. I have enjoyed both western and gong fu with great results both times. The first time I drank it my girlfriend and I actually started laughing it tasted so good. This is always a good sign!

From this tea I have gotten throughout the steeping process the much lauded sandelwood notes as well as stone fruit, grapefruit, and floral notes with some slight minerality popping its head up. Delicious tea.

this was a lovely sample shared with me by my dear friend Xylona as we tried t get down to studying (still haven’t accomplished that yet!). there was a remote familiarity in the taste of this one. what was it? it was going to drive me mad!

then i had it. for me this tea has smooth overtones of roasted plantains. not just a little either. once i identified the note it became overwhelmingly clear, also charmingly engaging. this is a lovely oolong.

bit of turbinado, otherwise clear. thank you Xylona for sharing!!

Another new tea from the recent order. The dry leaves were spindly and didn’t smell like much, but as my previous experience with the Yu Lu Yan Cha suggested, the dry aroma of this batch of spring teas gives no indication of what they are like.

The rinse gave off a sudden burst of strong aroma reminding me of tropical fruit, in particular green guava. I hadn’t paid much attention to anything happening in rinses in the past, but this had me intrigued. (I didn’t drink it…)

First steep had a pink champagne color, and a rich, fruity-sweet fragrance. The taste was definitely honey. Nothing subtle about it, this was so sweet it could make your teeth hurt, and syrupy smooth. There was also a hint of grapefruit and a slight breadiness.

Second steep was a darker amber, and completely different in flavor and aroma. This was much less fruity, with almost no hint of honey, the sweetness fading to the background as an afterthought (or rather an anti-bitterness). The notes are predominantly incense (though in my opinion not exactly sandalwood), spice and floral. It becomes a darker and much more complex cup.

It’s getting quite late so I will play with this more some other time…sleep is more important.

This is mighty good.

I’m inaugurating a new bright yellow and blue Gaiwan, I love it!

I don’t drink Dancong as much as I should. I like them only Gongfu style. They are so full of nuances and surprises, I find it all gets lost in a large cup.

This one is super fruity. Roasted bittersweet citrus notes are the stars here, at least during the first 3 steeps.

Have you ever grilled Ruby Red grapefruits on the BBQ? You caramelize them slowly and brush them with honey. They get sweeter, but they remain bitter at the same time. This is what is tastes like.

The taste lingers and lingers…

Then it gets more roasty and woodsy, I get incense and sandalwood notes, that’s even more present in the scent than in the taste itself. It also becomes spicier and richer, but the finish is a nice floral. Told you it was full of surprises!

It also gets sweeter, my lips tastes like honey after each sips…(it’s not my lip gloss, not wearing any!)

I made up my mind, this is the dark oolong I’m choosing to season one of my yixing pots this week end…

It is totally worthy!

First experience with this one. Definite astringency. Complex flavor. Not sure I appreciate this one yet but since the leaf should have staying power I’ll continue to work through lots of resteeps.

If one must spend the afternoon delving into the abyss of federal retiree beauracracy to make health insurance adjustments, one can at least do so in comfort in the backyard glider (ahhh!) with a cup of excellent tea, courtesy again of scribbles, to enjoy.

It always makes me chuckle, the variance of descriptors a single tea can get; proof positive is that nothing you write in a review is wrong—it’s all in your head :) The formal writeup of this one refers to honey, orchids, sandalwood, melon—-these taste buds are picking up sweet, flat, ginger ale with a taste that clings to your tongue after you swallow. The monster-sized leaves smell flowerish, both wet and dry. And as a lover of black teas that graciously take stewing and neglect, I didn’t know what to think of the 2-5 second steep requirement…that’s barely enough to dampen the leaves. However, I tried it (well, it was more like 15 seconds) and got a surprising amount of deep, rich, flavor.

Now, off to send an email into the great Office of Personnel Management Black Hole…

Great balance of flavors with a little smokiness. The description of tobacco is accurate to the wet leaf aroma. I’ve enjoyed this tea more and more over time.