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Whenever a vendor offers a black Dancong, it ends up in my cart. This one is from spring 2019. 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 honey, malt, hay, orchids, apricot, plum, and other flowers. Togo noticed olives, which I can also detect now. The leaves were so long and spindly that I had trouble getting some of them into the pot. The first steep is very soft, with milder than expected notes of honey, malt, cereal, orchid, apricot, hay, sugarcane, wood, and zucchini. Raisins, plums, and cherries make an appearance in steep two, and the tea is a little more floral, though still very vegetal and woody for a black Dancong. The florality increases in the next couple steeps, though the tea is still more sweet and vegetal than fruity, with a drying sensation in the mouth and an aftertaste similar to sugarcane. There are hints of apricot and caramel in steeps four to six, along with lots of honey and tannins. Letting the tea cool, as I did accidentally on the sixth steep, brings out the apricot more strongly. Apricot, cream, honey, and malt are even more present in the next couple long steeps. The session ends with honey, malt, tannins, wood, and lingering stonefruit sweetness.

Unlike most teas, which flatten out after the first few steeps, this one became more fruity and pleasant as the session progressed. It is unassuming for a black Dancong and it was hard to pin down some of the flavours, probably due to it being stored for so long in my tea museum. In the three sessions I’ve had with this tea, using more leaf brought out the fruity notes, while using less leaf highlighted the florals. I tend to prefer more fruit-forward black Dancongs, but I’ll have no trouble finishing this tea.

I seem to be craving Fujian black teas lately for their chocolate and fruity flavours. I’d noticed this tea on the White2Tea website and wondered what it was like, and fortunately, Daylon generously sent me a sample. On Daylon’s recommendation, I steeped 4 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 180, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of honey, malt, chocolate, and cherry. The first steep has notes of honey, caramel, malt, baked bread, and darker chocolate. The next steep carries hints of berry, though it’s mostly about the darker, almost fudgy chocolate and malt. (Can you tell I think this is good?) In the next couple steeps, the flavour has more in common with milk chocolate, with some citrus, berries, and drying bitterness. I get hints of florality (rose?) in steep five as the chocolate begins to fade. Weirdly, I also taste dill in the sixth steep, much as I did in What-Cha’s Jin Jun Mei. The tea loses its chocolate soon afterwards and ends with honey, tannins, and malt.

This tea doesn’t have much in the way of longevity, but the first five or six steeps are wonderful. I didn’t get much fruit, but the chocolate notes rival those I can get from a pricier tea like Laoshan Black. At around $30 for 250 g, this is a solid Jin Jun Mei, and it’s on my wish list for the next time White2Tea has free shipping.

Thanks to Daylon for sharing another lovely green oolong from Trident! I have a soft spot for Shan Lin Xi oolongs, of which this should be a fine example. 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 pineapple, melon, apricot, lilac, and orchid. The first steep has notes of lilac, orchid, cookies, butter, pineapple, green apple, and grass. (I’ve never smelled plumeria, so can’t tell if that’s a component of the ethereal floral bouquet.) The next steep is much fruitier, highlighting pineapple, apricot, melon, and green apple against the florals. The tangy pineapple in steep three is incredible. Lilac, orchid, honeysuckle, apricot, cookie, and spinach are present as well, but wow, the pineapple is the star. By steep five, the honeydew and green apple are more prominent, along with spinach, bok choy, flowers, and cookies. The flowers take over near the end of the session, with green apple, bok choy, and spinach getting stronger as the steeps lengthen.

This oolong invites gushing descriptions and lots of adjectives (gorgeous, fantastic, ethereal, etc.). All the fruity flavours make it a good choice for beginning oolong drinkers, as well as for those who have tried lots of Gaoshan. The price is also pretty good for a Long Feng Xia. Thanks, Daylon, for parting with enough of this oolong for two gongfu sessions.

Daylon generously sent me a package full of green oolongs and Fujian black teas, and this is one I’ve been looking forward to trying. 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, peach, honeysuckle, and lilac. The first steep is very floral, with notes of lilac, honeysuckle, and sweet pea. I also get butter, spinach, and some honeydew melon. The second steep has lovely peach notes, though I agree with Daylon that they lean toward citrus. I also get melon, pear, grass, that herbaceous note I find in some high mountain oolongs, and stronger vegetal and spinach flavours. The next few steeps have a nice balance between fruit and florals, with tangy peach, pear, melon, lilac, honeysuckle, and a spinach backbone. By the seventh steep, the veggies, including spinach and peas, become more prominent, but that wonderful fruitiness doesn’t quit. The last few steeps are floral and vegetal.

I always fall for sweet, fruity oolongs like this one. The honeydew and pear are more pronounced than the peach for me, and the florals provide a nice balance. I deducted a couple points for the noticeable vegetal flavours, though I think they’re pretty much inevitable in green oolongs. In all, this is a great oolong with good longevity, and I’m grateful to Daylon for the sample.

This is the final tea in an order I made from Mountain Stream several years ago. Given my well-known penchant for bug-bitten teas, it was inevitable that I’d pick this up, especially given Derk’s glowing review. It isn’t currently on their website, so I’m following Derk’s parameters of 30, 45, 60, 70, 80, 90, 120, and 240 seconds using 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water.

The heady dry aroma is of honey, grain, and citrus. The first steep is very light and immediately indicates by its strong cereal aroma that this is a roasted tea. I get lots of honey, citrus, rose, and wood. The next steep is stronger and has citrus, cherry, grain, mild spices, rose, and lots of honey, but also a touch of astringency. The aftertaste is woody, drying, and a bit sour, though the honey aroma at the bottom of the cup is mouthwatering. The next couple steeps feature the same flavours, but the fruit starts to disappear by steep five, leaving honey, grain, and roast. The end of the session is much like a black tea, with notes of malt, honey, and tannins.

While I enjoyed the fruity flavours and beautiful aromas in this tea, the roast was quite noticeable and I didn’t think it was well integrated. I’ve had many bug-bitten teas and am a bit spoiled regarding this type, and my rating probably reflects that. The tea also lacks longevity. I won’t have trouble finishing my 25 g pouch, but am glad I didn’t buy more.

I bought 50 g of this tea in my Black Friday 2020 blowout with Derk, and have finished a little more than half of it. I steeped around 7 g in my 150 ml clay oolong pot using 195F water for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds. However, this pot pours much more slowly than my porcelain pot, so steep times are actually a bit longer.

The dry aroma is of citrus, stonefruit, orchids, other florals, cookies, and sugarcane. The first steep is very floral, with notes of orchid, honeysuckle, orange blossom, sweet pea, and other flowers, plus cookies, butter, citrus, peach, spinach, and grass. The second steep brings out cooked pineapple, citrus, cream, pine, herbs, minerals, and peach, plus sugarcane and even more florals. I see where Derk is getting green apple, though sadly, the cherry eludes me. It has a long peachy/herbaceous/vegetal aftertaste. The tea becomes a little more vegetal in the next steep, though with lots of fruit and florals to balance it out. By steep four, some nuttiness is apparent and the cooked pineapple is a bit stronger. The next few steeps continue in this vein, becoming more savoury and vegetal as the session goes on. However, the citrus, peach, orchid, and honeysuckle continue until almost the last steep, along with the grass, veggies, and minerals.

This oolong didn’t deserve to sit in my cupboard for over a year. It’s a lovely, uplifting Li Shan at a good price, and I will be buying more when I next order from What-Cha.

I’m drinking this old bush Yashixiang from 2020 in my first gongfu session of 2022! I’m not sure if it’s a newer harvest of the 2019 tea reviewed by Togo or a different tea altogether, particularly because our tasting notes diverge quite a bit. (Then again, I don’t have a lot of experience with Dancongs so I could be missing some things.) I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 200F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of roasted almonds, cantaloupe, orchids, and char. The first steep has a fruitiness I can’t describe, kind of like kiwi, cantaloupe, and hints of cooked pineapple. The roast is noticeable but not overwhelming, and I get roasted almonds, orchids, and a metallic aftertaste. The second steep has mandarin oranges in the aroma and taste, along with char, wood, florals, minerals, brown sugar, and that melon/pineapple fruitiness. The third steep is more milky and floral, with cannabis, honeysuckle, orchid, and some vegetal undertones along with the fruit. The bottom of the cup smells deliciously like cantaloupe and pineapple. The next few steeps have notes of butter, caramel, roast, florals, and pineapple, and the roast is getting more pronounced. The end of the session is more savoury, with veggies, minerals, roasted almonds, butter, florals, wood, astringency, and honey.

While Ya Shi Xiang is still not my favourite Dancong varietal, I like this one much more than the others I’ve tried, mainly because the roast doesn’t overpower the fruity and floral components. It has a huge number of flavours, probably more than I can pin down in a couple sessions. I’ll probably pack some of this tea into swap boxes for those who enjoy more roasted Dancongs.

‘Tis the season to raid the tea museum for rare, expensive, or just very good teas I wouldn’t normally let myself drink. This competition grade Bai Hao has been in storage since the end of 2019. I steeped around 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 190F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 35, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

Dry, the aroma is of autumn leaf pile, muscatel, lemon, and berries. The first steep is deceptively light and delicate, with notes of honey, autumn leaves, and muscatel. Further scrutiny reveals raspberry, other berries, sap, and floral notes. The second steep is even sweeter, with lots of blackberry, raspberry, muscatel, lemon, sugarcane, honey, and floral flavours. Hints of orange and peach appear in the third steep. I let the fourth steep cool when I went to get my booster shot, and came back to a cup with extra lemon, berry, muscatel, and rose notes. There’s that autumn-leaf-like flavour one gets in Bai Hao, but no bitterness or astringency. The fruit starts to fade in steep six, letting the florals and honey have centre stage. I also get hints of spice. The last few steeps have some tannins and malt, but enough honey and muscatel to make them tasty.

This is a lovely example of a tea type I like, and as such, it gets a high rating from me. It’s too sweet, decadent, and pricy to be in regular rotation, but it’s a wonderful occasional treat. I bought a 10 g sample, but would consider getting a larger quantity since I think the price (US$36 for 50 g) reflects the quality.

Being able to taste teas like this one is the reason I invest so much money, time, and care in this hobby. It’s both accessible and complex, and makes me want to hone my ability to detect and describe flavours so I can deepen my appreciation of top-quality leaves.

I’ve been meaning to write a note for this tea for a while. Daylon generously sent a sample to me last winter, and after smelling the leaves, I immediately ordered 50 g in the middle of what was supposed to be a self-imposed buying ban. (No regrets.) I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain teapot using 195F water for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

Dry, this smells a lot like a Tie Guan Yin with some high mountain floral flourishes: orchids, other flowers, apricot, pleasant sourness, and herbs. The first steep has notes of apricot, orchid, lilac, pleasant sourness, herbs, and grass, with a lingering apricot aftertaste. The next steep is more herbaceous, and adds butter and some spinach. The stonefruit notes are more pronounced in steeps three and four, though I don’t detect pineapple as Daylon did. However, I see where he’s getting cilantro. I taste pronounced apricot with overtones of peach, with the sour, herbaceous, floral finish of Tie Guan Yin. The next few steeps are greener, with grass, spinach, and other veggies blending with the stonefruit and florals. This is starting to taste more like a regular Tie Guan Yin. The final few steeps fade into generic veggies and flowers.

Like Daylon, I had a hard time listing everything I tasted in this tea, and think that “ethereal” is a good way to describe it. I found it to be more like a Tie Guan Yin than a Li Shan oolong, though the profiles of these teas overlap to some extent. I’ll have fun playing with my 50 g of this tea next year.

I saved this sample from Daylon for a special occasion and enjoyed it on Christmas Day. (I’m posting my note today because I had a couple more steeps to savour.) Given their high shipping cost to Canada, I haven’t had many teas from Whispering Pines and was very much looking forward to this one, particularly as I have a soft spot for fluffy golden teas from Yunnan. I steeped the entire 6 g sample in 120 ml of water at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

As expected, these fuzzy black and gold leaves are pretty! The dry aroma is of rye bread, dark chocolate, caramel, and malt. The first two steeps have notes of rye bread, malt, caramel, cocoa, dark chocolate, butter, molasses, wood, and fleeting hints of cherry and apricot at the front of the sip. The chocolate really steals the show. The next couple steeps add hints of vanilla, although there is some slight astringency to complement all the decadent flavours. The stonefruit also goes into hiding at this point and doesn’t return. In subsequent steeps, the tea doesn’t change very much, though it seems to get more caramely and bready as the session goes on. The tea eventually fades into faint chocolate, malt, caramel, wood, minerals, and tannins.

If this one is any indication, Whispering Pines has some wonderful offerings. Though I would have been happy if those stonefruit notes had stayed longer, the chocolate, caramel, and rye bread made for a cozy Christmas gongfu session.