Ta Ku Hou Village High Mountain Dan Cong * Spring 2018

I brewed this gong fu as I do with most teas. For an old arbor high mountain oolong – the tea’s aroma was surprisingly subtle with notes of a mild tasting grape. When washed – the leaves took on a strong root smell akin to chicory with the mildness of maca.
While the aroma was dominated by a rooty smell – it wasn’t overpowering in the flavor of the liquor itself which had nice dark fruit notes (perhaps a ripe yet bland plum?) and cacao flavors. The aftertaste was very camphor heavy – perhaps almost eucalyptus; this only came out after the first steep however.
This tea was very nice and complex, but not worth the 1.26/g I paid for it.

Normally, I go either walking or jogging around this time, but it’s raining here, so I’m posting some more tea reviews instead. I’m exhausted anyway. I’ve had three straight very long, very hectic days at work, and fitting in job interviews, regular errands, and the like has been an utter nightmare. Anyway, this was another of my Dancong oolong sipdowns from late 2020/early 2021. I loved the spring 2017 Ta Ku Village High Mountain Dan Cong, and I ended up loving this spring 2018 version too.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a 10 second rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 fluid ounces of 203 F water for 7 seconds. This initial infusion was followed by 16 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves presented aromas of honey, peach, tangerine, lychee, cherry, sugarcane, and vanilla. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of roasted almond and cream. The first infusion added aromas of orchid and orange blossom. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered up notes of honey, tangerine, peach, orchid, lychee, roasted almond, and orange blossom that were balanced by hints of cherry, sugarcane, cream, grass, and vanilla. The bulk of the subsequent infusions introduced aromas of pear, violet, plum, grass, caraway, and honeydew. Stronger and more immediately detectable notes of grass, sugarcane, cherry, cream, and vanilla appeared in the mouth alongside notes of minerals, caraway, pear, violet, apple, plum, nectarine, orange zest, and honeydew. I also found hints of eucalyptus, wood, nutmeg, wintergreen, and coriander. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, tangerine, cream, violet, apple, pear, and lychee alongside an amplified woodiness. These impressions were backed by lingering hints of orchid, roasted almond, sugarcane, honey, orange zest, grass, coriander, plum, and wintergreen.

This tea displayed a very unique and quirky overall profile. It was definitely among the most interesting of the spring 2018 Dancong oolongs that I tried. It also was very well put together. Nothing was out of place. I don’t know who is producing the Ta Ku Hou Village Dancong that Yunnan Sourcing stocks each spring, but in my opinion, they are doing a consistently excellent job. This was a tea worth checking out.