Ling tou Baiye 岭头白叶

I bought several Dancongs from Wuyi Origin in 2023 and have been trying them sporadically ever since, hoping the roast would fade and the underlying flavours would emerge. Based on the dry aroma, I’m not sure that waiting has been successful for this Dancong or for most of the others. I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, 180, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of charcoal, roast, hay, wood, orange, peach, and flowers. The first steep has notes of charcoal, roast, hay, wood, cream, orange, and peach. The peach is actually a little more noticeable than it was last time, including in the aftertaste, though the roast predominates. The next steep adds honey, orchid, minerals, and a bit more peach. With steeps three to six, I get more charcoal and roast, although there’s still a peachy aftertaste. By steep seven, I taste more florals and citrus, with mineral, roast, and wood. Subsequent steeps are quite roasty and tannic but with notes of hay, wood, peach, orange, orchid, violet, and grass. The final steeps fade into hay, roast, wood, minerals, tannins, and vague peach.

I may have spoken too soon when I said the roast on this tea wouldn’t fade. I definitely taste more peach and orange than the last time I tried it, though the roast is still prominent. I think this is a solid, high-quality Dancong that’s still too roasted for my liking.

(2019 harvest)

On the surface, this particular dan cong oolong doesn’t seem all that remarkable. It doesn’t have a spectacular tropical or floral aroma, or the fascinating bitter qualities of a nice yashixiang or juduozai. I really, really like it though.

It’s just… nice. Thick, warm, mellow and sweet, a perfect dan cong for winter.
It’s still unmistakably a dan cong though; there’s quite a bit of bitterness and some astringency in there, but it’s much more gentle in those characteristics than most others. It passes the “mom/tea newbie test”, I’ve tested it (everyone likes this tea).
The tropical fruit flavors aren’t as bright and clearly defined as in some other dan cong (“peach! mango! lichi!”), but they’re obviously there. At center stage however is thick honey sweetness, sugarcane, hay and a perfectly balanced touch of charcoal that’s the cherry on the cake. I’m usually not a big fan of charcoal, but it really ties everything together here. In some steeps I also noticed ripe, sweet orange and peach.

At its best gong fu style, but western and grampa steeping works too. I experimented a bit, and this also turned out surprisingly well: 250ml glass teapot, 4g tea, steeped overnight in room temperature water. Served in little cups or glasses it’s perfect with a chocolate dessert.

At ~€0.30/g it’s not exactly what I would consider cheap tea but I honestly think you get quite a bit of value for your money. Good dan cong just isn’t cheap and this is a pretty good dan cong. It’s also currently the most affordable one they sell on Wuyi Origin.

The following might be relevant for people with a sensitive stomach (like me): I love dan congs, my stomach does not. This one seems to be fine though.