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Dong Ding … My first encounter with Dong Ding dates back to some years. I was very surprised when this friend arranged these tiny cups on the trail and poured that almost translucent water with this finest scent. From this experience I could only remember that sensation like drinking a piece of fine bakery, that wonderful feeling in the mouth, so flowery. I also remember how he was making fun of the name, trying to pronounce it with the right accent. Tung Tiing … So that stayed like a fantasy in my mind and I never tasted Dong Ding again.
Until two days ago, now that I am myself getting interested into teas and looking to explore all of them. My expectations had been high, once again, and I got deceived at first sip, once again.
But now, i know, it takes some cups to get acquainted with any tea. And after second steeping, it was all there. That feeling of light bakery in the mouth, the soft but inviting taste of fresh flower… It has become my number one tea in my cupboard, taking over LongJing. I also love how these tiny balls unfold to become these big nice leaves.
So I can just sit back, close my eyes and imagine that “frozen peak”. When I get there, I know I have found the perfect tea … for now …

Tasting this tea ruined a fierce certainty inside of me : that tea had to be green and that I would never go for black …
That gray dark heavy rainy late winter afternoon, i opened that little sampler from Le Palais des Thés and the first string of smell just changed my instant world. In one second I found myself in the heart of a golden autumn forest, let’s call it paradise.
It’s already some days I tasted this tea, that’s sad, i couldn’t describe the entire feeling, but that was wonderful, that sooo rich spicy woody smell. It would do for all the perfumes I’ll never wear anymore, all the alcohols I’ll never drink anymore. I can’t explain. if that fragrance was a world, i would live in that world forever !
Then I pour it in that little yellow outside white inside cup where i like to pour my dry leaves to admire them. Oooohhhh those golden buds (is it like that you call them in English ?) and those long black leaves, so nicely rolled … I never thought I could admire just a simple leaf with such a passion. The most beautiful lady of the world wouldn’t do that effect on me anymore (hmmm … no really … sorry ladies … I can live on tea and cookies forever now)
You remember ? I said it was one of those really drag-down afternoons, one of these days you have worked so late into the night, slept some hours and woke up in that pouring skies gloomy light. Body empty of energy, mind turned all the way to numbness. The next second I was bathed in that golden spirit with an incredible feeling of completeness, happiness and well being.
I have noticed these last weeks that the smell, colour and taste of every kind of tea brings me memories from my far away childhood. Every tea I had the chance to taste brought me that millisecond flash of a forgotten moment of my childhood. But I could never concretely describe that.
The impression tea leaves on me is still beyond the reach of my vocabulary …
I’ll get there i think …
Cheers !

I have tasted a fe teas until now, but this guy is by far my favorite. i know I’ll often come back to it. This little bakery taste (???) … Just Yummy !!!

Twinings Vanilla Tea was probably my first encounter in the largest world of tea, and it had left a deep impression of me, only because of the context (a girl friend had then left a little note on the paper packaging and the smell had long accompanied me.
Today I tasted this flavoured sencha, and I don’t think much about it. It smells great, my memories will tell you, this mix of vanilla and sencha smells great. But i didn’t tasted much in mouth.
Maybe I didn’t brew it correctly, but I found a slight hint of vanilla in the second longer steeping, for the rest it was more like drinking regular sencha, nothing special about it. Still its intense flashy green was nice, I enjoyed taking some pictures in this sunny (almost warm) February afternoon.
Thanks Le Palais des Thés for their generous samples in each order parcel. i won’t buy more of this tea. i’ll taste the next one.

Literally like tipping your tongue in the honey pot. The spicy smell of the dry leaves becomes very flowery once steeped, really inviting. Its bronze colour gives a very warm start to your mornings.

I don’t have the proper words to talk about tea. Just I really like the lightness and the freshness of this Sencha superieur. It feels like a meal of fish and seafood in a freshly cut grass field a sunny spring afternoon, with its discrete grilled aftertaste. Its neon yellow-light green is almost fascinating. From this tea, I know I should not use my large teapots anymore, this sencha only bears the right amount of water, or it becomes a waste … The second steeping is always good, even better. I think this tea doesn’t want too hot water, but I don’t like just warmy tea, so i made it 75° … and slurped it fast ! Cheers

I turned around tea for a long time, without ever knowing what tea really was. Now i do ! I had long expected to taste that famous tea, and at first cup … I almost gagged. So used to drink “teas” that were nothing but tea, it took me some steeping to really appreciate this legendary Dragon Well. Now i can’t spend one day without some steeping of this treasure …