Leafhopper Send Message

Yay! This is my 150th tasting note! This review is for the spring 2018 harvest. As someone who loves both ginger and Dan Congs, I was curious to see if it would live up to its name. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 203F for 7, 10, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

Eastkyteaguy has captured this tea much better than I can. The dry aroma is promising, with ginger, apricot, sunflower seeds, and fruit leather. The aroma of the first steep is definitely ginger, combined with fruit, flowers, and sunflower seeds. The taste is of delicate ginger, butter, apricots, orchids and other flowers, sunflower seeds, and baked bread. All of the flavours are quite subtle. The second steep has more of the flavours Eastkyteaguy detected, including apple, pear, and pomegranate. It’s kind of like a fruity gingerbread, if that makes sense. The next couple steeps are more nutty and woody, though the ginger and fruit notes are still prominent. Grass, veggies, minerals, roast, and wood appear in later steeps, with orchids and ginger lingering in the aftertaste.

This is an intimidatingly complex Dan Cong whose nuances I’ve probably failed to appreciate. The flavour combination is fascinating, especially the realistic ginger note. It’s a lot less in-your-face than many Dan Congs, however, and requires careful attention.

P.S.: I’ve noticed that a few of the seals have separated from the walls of Yunnan Sourcing’s 25 g bags, making it impossible to close them. Has this happened to anyone else?