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I usually don’t go for roasted oolongs, but bought 50 g of this Dong Ding due to its many good reviews and low price. It was the right decision, as I’ve been enjoying it all winter. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of grain, roast, char, walnuts, and flowers. As promised, the scent of this tea is sweet and cozy. The first steep has notes of walnuts, roasted grains, butter, honey, and char. Nutmeg, orchids, other flowers, and grass emerge in steep two, and I can see how it could remind people of popcorn. The next steep has more spices and roasted nuts, but is also a bit drying. Steeps four and five continue with the florals, grass, honey, grain, and walnuts, but the dryness also persists. The roast becomes more noticeable in the final few steeps, though it isn’t too abrasive; I also get wood and minerals.

This is a solid, unpretentious, well-made Dong Ding that lives up to its “sweet scented” name. It’s one of the few roasted teas that I would consider repurchasing.

Wuyi Origin released this “benefit tea” to provide a lower-cost option during the pandemic, and I applaud them for their thoughtfulness. What’s more, it’s actually a tea people would want to drink! I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

I’ve had this tea several times and still have trouble pinning down the tastes and aromas. The dry leaf smells like squash, sweet potato, cherry, malt, and wood. The first steep has notes of carrot, pumpkin, tart cherry, grass, malt, maple syrup, tannins, and wood, and has a silky texture. The second steep adds gooseberry, cream, sugarcane, and hints of sweet potato. The next couple steeps have more wood and malt, though they still have very vegetal notes of carrot, pumpkin, and sweet potato. The next couple steeps are more tannic and have notes of lettuce along with the orange veggies. The final steeps have notes of malt, tannins, wood, minerals, and roasted veggies.

This tea reminded me in a good way of the most affordable grade of Wuyi Origin’s 2020 Lapsang Souchong. Unlike the Sweet Potato Zhen Shan Xiao Zhong that I had recently, its sweetness was balanced and it had more complex flavours. I’d say it punches well above its price tag of $10 for 50 g.

I bought this tea when we were still fooling ourselves that the pandemic would stay in China. That feels so long ago now. Fortunately, the vacuum sealing has kept this tea in good condition. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 60, 90, and 120 seconds.

The dry aroma is of lilac, orchid, citrus, grass, and egg custard. The first steep is like a Tie Guan Yin with notes of lilac, orchid, spring flowers, egg custard, coriander, citrus, pineapple, butter, pleasant sourness, and grass. There’s a TGY-like apricot in the second steep, along with heaps of lilacs and other flowers and a green undertone. The next couple steeps have even heavier lilac notes, plus spring flowers, egg custard, citrus, sap, herbs, and grass. The tea gets more custardy and floral with each round, though spinach starts appearing in steep six. By the ninth steep or so, the tea is very green, though the lilac florals persist until the end of the session.

Despite being two years old, this is a lovely Baozhong. I particularly enjoyed its resemblance to Tie Guan Yin, which LuckyMe also noticed in a previous review. I wish the fruit had been more pronounced and had lasted longer, but the lilac notes more than made up for it! I’ll be getting more Baozhong this summer.

I bought this Dancong in 2017 or 2018 when DAVIDsTEA still had stores near me. (Those were the days!) I think it was a Frequent Steeper reward, as I got 50 g. Roswell Strange recently mentioned that it was a favourite Mi Lan Xiang, so I had to dig it out of the tea museum. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of lychee, plum, char, and roast. The first steep has notes of lychee, plum, roast, grain, honey, orchid, oats, walnut, and wood. The plum is a lot more prominent than the lychee in the next couple steeps, and the tea is nutty and roasty. The lychee, honey, and florals are mainly in the aftertaste. Steeps five and six emphasize dates, plums, spices, hay, grass, and minerals, with the honey sweetness expected of a Mi Lan Xiang plus a lot of roast. There’s some honeydew melon in the aroma at the bottom of the cup, but it doesn’t make it into the tea. The sweet fruit persists for another couple steeps, after which the tea becomes nutty and roasty with some minerals.

This is a nice, middle-of-the-road Mi Lan with a bit more roast than I like. Maybe the fruit was more noticeable when the tea was fresher.

This is one of a few Zheng Shan Xiao Zhongs that I bought at the end of 2019, and it’s from the spring of that year. I didn’t know that Fujian black teas don’t tend to age as well as those from Yunnan, so they should be consumed more quickly. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, and 120 seconds.

The dry aroma is of baked sweet potato, caramel, chocolate, and malt. The first steep has notes of sweet potato, caramel, chocolate, malt, rye bread, and earth. The aroma is much stronger than the taste, which is fairly light. The next steep takes an unusual turn, adding notes of glazed carrots and vegetal umami while maintaining those savoury sweet potato, chocolate, and bready flavours. The veggies are a bit less prominent in the next couple steeps, though they’re still present, and there’s a long aftertaste of sweet potato and stevia. Carrot, sweet potato, brown sugar, other starchy vegetables, earth, and malt feature in the next few rounds. The final steeps have notes of malt, minerals, earth, tannins, wood, and faint sweet potato.

While I enjoyed the sweet potato and chocolate in this tea, its weird vegetal notes and high amount of sweetness put me off. I’m not sure if these things are due to age or to processing, but for me, they take away from the balance of the tea. Derk, Daylon, and Martin, let me know if you want a sample after reading this glowing review. :)

From the vaults of the tea museum, here’s a Wuyi hongcha from the beginning of the Eco-Cha Tea Club in the spring of 2016. I’ll call it “aged” instead of neglected. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of sweet potatoes, honey, raisins, earth, and medicinal herbs. The first steep has notes of raisins, plums, sweet potato, anise, earth, tannins, malt, sugarcane, wood, and spices, perhaps nutmeg. The plummy stonefruit is more prominent in the next steep, but so are the tannins and the astringency. The next couple steeps add cream and apricot, and I got a floral edge in one of my gongfu sessions. Fortunately, the medicinal character is gone, though there’s still sugarcane and faint anise in the aftertaste. The next few steeps have notes of spiced plum, raisins, squash, honey, cereal, tannins, earth, wood, grass, and minerals, with a nice honey/sugarcane aftertaste.

For such an old tea, this is complex and full of flavour. The honey and spices remind me of other Taiwanese black teas. I wonder if the strong raisins and stonefruit are due to aging, as they’re not noted in the few other reviews of this tea when it was younger. I’m sure Derk and Daylon will be able to add some nuances to this tasting note, as I’ve included it in their swap boxes!

I always buy Baozhong, then let it sit because I’m not sure how to steep it properly. Hopefully these swap boxes will allow me to offload some of this tea and encourage me to experiment with brewing parameters. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of lilac, honeysuckle, cookies, citrus, and pineapple. I must have done something right because the first steep is a pile of flowers, with lilac, honeysuckle, violet, and maybe peony. There’s butter, cookies, and grass as well. The second steep has hints of pineapple and citrus, but is still mainly floral, with stronger lilac and honeysuckle notes. There may be lilies and sweet peas in this flower pile, too. The next couple steeps are sweeter, though they also have more spinach and grass. The tea gradually becomes more vegetal, with lettuce, spinach, green peas, and herbs, though it’s still sweet and a bit floral. The last few steeps are like a floral green tea.

As someone who likes floral teas, I enjoyed this Baozhong greatly, though I wish the fruit had been more prominent and the last few steeps had been a bit less vegetal. This was a lovely spring tea in the middle of winter.

This is my three hundredth tasting note! Let’s hope there will be many more to come. Even without the swaps, Steepster is a great place to explore new teas and hone my tasting skills. I appreciate you guys!

When I ordered from Wang Family Tea last summer, I got every high mountain oolong except for Dayuling, which only came in a 50 g bag. Fortunately, Daylon remedied this situation with a generous sample. I steeped it according to the vendor’s instructions using 6 g in 120 ml of boiling water for 60, 50, 65, 90, 120, 160, and 240 seconds, plus 4, 5, and 10 minute steeps.

The dry aroma is of orchids, veggies, and sugarcane. The first steep has notes of fresh veggies, including lettuce and green beans, plus orchid, peach, cookie, and sugarcane. The sweet orchid aftertaste goes on for minutes. The second steep gives me even headier orchid, veggies (I get cabbage in this steep), white sugar, peach, and other flowers I can’t name. There’s a green, sappy, “plant-like” quality to this tea. The next steep is quite similar, with orchid, peach, plants, cabbage, green beans, and sugarcane sweetness. Daylon detects hyacinths, and that might be the flower I’m also getting. The aftertaste is almost as good as the tea itself. The peach has bowed out by the fourth steep, though the veggies, florals, and sweetness are still prominent. By the seventh steep, this tea is mostly grassy and vegetal, though there’s no hint of the astringency that plagues most green oolongs in their final steeps. This seems to be a characteristic of Wang’s teas.

This tea is elegant, elusive, and ethereal while still having lots of flavour. I don’t claim to taste misty mountain forests, but I understand where that’s coming from. This tea deserves careful attention, and I’m going to hold off on rating it until I do a couple more sessions.

Thanks to Daylon for a sample of this oolong. I love the name! My wallet certainly thinks green oolongs are evil. :P I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of honeydew melon, apricot, toasted coconut, orchids, cookies, violets, and grass. The first steep has notes of cookie, orchid, violet, nuts, and grass. Ah, here comes the fruit in the second steep! I get heavy apricot, as well as hints of orange, lemon, and melon. The aftertaste is floral, grassy, and spinachy. The third steep is much the same, and the fourth has a nice orange creamsicle quality, plus some herbaceous and coriander notes. The fruit continues in the next couple steeps, though the vegetal notes are getting stronger. The final few steeps have cookie, nutty, floral, and grassy/spinachy notes with hints of minerals.

Daylon seems to have a knack for finding orangemeloncot oolongs, and I’m glad he passed this one along to me! The vegetal flavours are a little more prominent than in the high mountain oolongs from Trident, but I can forgive that slight imbalance because this oolong is so fruity. Highly recommended!

I received this as a sample in my large Black Friday order with Derk in 2020. (Will I ever be finished reviewing these teas?) It’s from March 2020, so not that old in the scheme of things. I steeped all 5 g in my 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of charcoal, toasted grains, and nuts. The first steep has notes of grain, Graham cracker, butter, honey, oats, walnuts, hazelnuts, and roast. The next steep has a bit of honeysuckle florality that reminds me this is a Jin Xuan. Charcoal, bread, and Graham crackers are more prominent in the next couple steeps, and the tea develops a slightly sour, vegetal taste. By steep five, the charcoal and roast are fairly strong and the tea is much less sweet. Sadly, I’m starting to lose interest, though there are many steeps to go. The rest of the session is all about the roast, with notes of minerals and wood appearing as it nears its end.

Whether due to my palate or my steeping parameters, I thought this tea was nice but fairly basic. The charcoal roast took over rather quickly, though I enjoyed the s’mores-like flavours and the florals. It’s possible I’m being too hard on this tea since the tap on my bathroom sink just broke and I’ll need to call the super to fix it.