Tea Habitat

Tea Habitat says tap water is prohibited for their teas, haha. I’m lucky to have decent tap water so that’s what I use for all my home brews.

2022 harvest

Body is viscous and silky in early brews before the dancong oolong bitterness and grassy astringency come in, both of which are never harsh. Quiet, sweet aroma. Taste develops naturally as the aromatics bloom off the tongue. Floral in a fruity way. Plenty of delicate yet rich honeyed buttery melon, persimmon, butterscotch-dates, a hint of osmanthus. White peach aftertaste drapes like a sheer curtain and rises into sinuses. Gently cooling. Lovely. Looking forward to sitting more with this tea.

A brilliant Dancong! I got this tea from my recent TeaHabitat order, and it definitely doesn’t disappoint. Brewed in a Chaozhou-style porcelain gaiwan with Nongfu spring water, this tea really performs quite well. The leaves are nice and uniform, whole and has a nice dark colour. The aroma in both the dry and wet leaf is moderately strong, with beautiful floral and sweet notes in there. The liquor is clear and vibrant. The taste is wondeful, rich mix of florality and sweetness, with a hint of grassiness and spices added to it. The tea is pretty complex, with a bold character and an interesting nuance to it. Texture is solid, smooth and juicy, with the sweet floral aftertaste lingering in your mouth. The tea has some slight buzziness to it in terms of Cha qi, and the steep longevity is pretty good, lasting up to steep 11-12.

Overall highly recommend despite its steep price, maybe just for a one time experience you know?

I haven’t been able to replicate the beautiful sweet potato flavor I experienced when I first tastes this tea. I’ve done 2 sessions with it, and it’s much more of a charcoal, oak, mineral experience. Still tasty, just not quite the same!

This is the other tea I purchased after my tasting with Imen of Tea Habitat. It’s incredibly sweet, and has a nice sweet potato/yam flavor that made it so easy to drink. There’s nothing quite like a wild grown black tea, and Imen really has a talent for finding the best of the best.

I had an absolutely incredible tea experience today. I recently found out that Imen, who owns and runs Tea Habitat, offers private tastings in the Los Angeles area. Imen is considered the foremost authority on Dan Congs outside of China. We talked for 2 hours about tea, and tasted 6 different varieties- 2 blacks, a pu’er, a Wuyi oolong, and 2 Dan Cong oolongs. I ended up purchasing this one and a black that we tried. The tasting itself was only $25, and considering the quality of the tea, and the time she spent with me, an absolute steal. I got to enjoy a nice dim sum lunch at one of the most popular dim sum spots in LA, so it was a nice afternoon.
As for this tea, I was surprised by how much I loved it, as I thought I would prefer the Dan Congs we tried. But, this was incredible. It has a rich, spiced wood flavor that I could not get enough of.

3g in 225ml gaiwan
boiling water poured on sides, avoiding leaves
uncovered & sipped grandpa style

Dry Leaves: light brown leaves large, mimicking flaked layers of wood chip
Dry aroma: sweet, very ripe fruit
Wet Leaves: olive green, fat stemmed leaves & twigs
Liquor: apricot
Base: sweet ginger
Texture: light
Throatiness: fiery and lasting
Quenchless: punchy, bursts in the cheeks, on the roof mouth, tip of the tongue, bowl of the tongue, back of the throat, glowing ball in the belly
Chaqi: rush up to eyes and makes the hair stand on end, keep drinking to be the center of world spinning

2014 Lao Cong Honey Orchid dancong, from Tea Habitat

Prep: 60cc gaiwan, full of leaves, boiling flash infusions at first. After infusion 5, dropped temp to 190 and increased steeps out to chase flavor
Sessions with this tea: 4

Taste/fragrance: I’m going to start combining these categories for dancong reviews because what’s even the point of reviewing the taste of a dancong, is all about the aroma.

When I was growing up in North Carolina I used to have to walk to the bus stop through my little town. Half my walk was along the edge of the woods, and there were these big honeysuckle bushes that grew by the road. On spring mornings there would be dew covering everything, and when the sun was coming up the flowers would put out this thick sticky sweet smell which went with the humidity in the air to create a feeling like being trapped in a fragrant patch of thickened air. I would walk over and pick some of the flowers and pluck the stamens and lick them as I stood and waited for the bus.

This tea has the real deal. It’s thick and layers in the room. I can smell a citrusy fragrance pervading the room, when I put the soup in my mouth and inhale I get the honey, almost like tupelo honey, or honey with little bits of orange rind chopped in. As the tea steeps out the citrus fades into the stickier sweet honeysuckle bush. If you let the tea soup cool down, this is the flavor of the tea as well. I didn’t much enjoy this sticky sweet flavor, so I just drank it very hot.

Body: light and smooth together, very effervescent mouthfeel and “bright” energy

Summary: Easygoing but really good dancong

Prep: 100cc gaiwan full to brim with dry leaf, boiling water, flash infusions at first. About 10-15sec for 4 and 5, and then dropped temp to 190F and steeped out as long as necessary to chase the flavor.
Sessions with this tea: 6

Taste: I don’t understand the flavor, because I’ve not had anything really comparable. At first I wanted to say lemon-lime like 7-up. Plus it had that effervescent and high fragrance feeling of dancong. Then it settled down to like fresh pear with some spices mixed in. It was fresh and floral the whole way without being overly sweet, which is nice.

Body: medium, effervescent feeling, bright. Really delayed buzzing energy.

This tea steeped out for a really long time. I would say this is relatively beginner friendly, but the price! Also I don’t know if this one is still available.

1g in 120ml gaiwan lasted 3 days drinking it per:
http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-simplest-way-to-enjoy-cup-of-dan.html

1, preheat utensils (cup or pot)with boiling water
2, add dry leaves IMMEDIATELY upon emptying and cover lid
3, shake utensil in circular motion (not up and down) occasionally for 1 minute
http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-to-time-good-brew-without-timer.html
dry leaves gave up the smell of peaches & nuts

tasted like http://www.teanerd.com/2009/03/2008-da-wu-ye-jiang-hua-xiang-dancong.html
“Fragile ginger flavor and a sweet aftertaste”
“Gentle brewing seems to help with this tea”; so my mindless random steeping times led sometimes to astringency

“wonderfully delicate … not the most complex or the most powerful tea, but it does not waver in its subtlety or clarity of flavor.*

“Phoenix tea is one of the most difficult tea to brew. No matter a light, medium or high fired; aged, new harvested; Ming Cong, plantation; High mountain, low river side; Rock based, or just plain red earth….etc. " teachat Postby TIM » Jan 7th, ’09, 16:20

http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-to-brew-dan-cong.html

Kingdom :
宋種 (Song zhong) varietals = 鳳凰 (Feng huang)

Phylum :
水仙 (Shui xian)

Class (by quality) :
1) 单枞 (Dan cong), meaning single bush, is the highest grade due to careful selection from the vast number of Phoenix Shui Xian trees. In the past, these single bushes were harvested and processed one tree at a time. Today, single bush processing is still very much practicing and strong, averaging 3 lbs production per tree, the tea doesn’t travel out of the country across the sea much, if at all.
2) 浪菜 (Lang cai), good grade of fresh leaves were used, and processing is slightly more complicated during the fermentation step than for Shui Xian.
3) 水仙 , low grade of fresh leaves. and less careful processing.
http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/2007/12/get-to-know-phoenix-tea-2.html

http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/2008/01/get-to-know-phoenix-dan-cong-3-naming.html

This review is for the 2014 harvest.
While this is a dancong, it resembles a pouchong because of the floral notes and brightness. Yet at the same time it as the characteristics of a roasted oolong because of the color. The darker color doesn’t add any notes you would expect though which was quite a surprise as I was expecting a stronger tea. To be honest: This is one of the most gentle cups of tea I’ve had in a long time. Between the mouth feel and taste, this is a beautiful leaf. The liquid has little aroma and the taste is very delicate. This is one of those teas you have to drink slowly and think about the taste right after to realize exactly what you just tasted; unlike stronger teas that kind o punch your taste buds.

Tea Habitat being included for the 2nd or 3rd group buy in 2016… maybe :)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BA7d331RYD1/

Just a few leaves of this dan cong oolong is enough to feel nourished. The complex, uplifting aroma and ginger-honey flavor are a good start. This is a serious mood-lifter.

Years ago I was given a jasmine oolong from Guangdong, that was one of the teas that set me on my tea journey. It was wonderful mix of jasmine scent and oolong fruitiness. Over the years I have suffered through many jasmine scented teas looking for that tea. They are always the same — over powering jasmine perfume that completely covers the tea. Until now. This tea is what I’ve been looking for all these years and its not even a scented tea — jasmine never touched this tea. The fragrance of the liqueur is like walking through a garden and catching the smell of jasmine in full bloom. But the taste is a slight cream with the orchid taste fans of Dan Cong oolongs love. Jasmine flavor follows, but the quality of the tea shines through. Mouth feel is wonderful with long satisfying after taste. A gaiwan will make the jasmine more pronounce while a clay pot gives you more fruit and a subtle jasmine — a Chao Zhou pot gives you a wonderful balance of fruit, cream, jasmine, & orchid.

I have tried all different ways of brewing and drinking this. The flavor I brought out was wonderful, but nothing like the depth and richness brewed into it by Imen, at Tea Habitat. I clearly haven’t learned to brew tea yet.

Brewed from water stored in a clay vessel, and into a clay water pot, over a small clay charcoal stove, into a teapot made from clay from the same region as the tea…..well, it creates a layer of flavor and depth to the tea that must be tasted to be believed.

This vintage tea is strong, without being sweet or floral. Yet it has strong texture, and holds up to many infusions.

Earthy, full, and grounding. 10 plus infusions still yielded a tea that still had wonderful flavor, as it lessened in color. Brewed Gongfu style in a Yixing tea pot, it is said to be able to take 20 plus infusions and still be flavorful, even when brewed clear in color. The effect of this tea is felt on the whole body, as you drink each infusion you may notice different effects.

Just finished 2 weeks of drinking this daily.

I found that with just a few leaves in my cup, I still really enjoyed this.

Li Jai Ping (viillage) Lao Cong (old bush) is a more descriptive title for this tea.

Earthy and grounding, this tea yields multiple infusions when brewed Gongfu style for about 20 seconds (like most of the Dan Cong teas). My stomach was calmed and soothed.

A passionately floral tea. Still floral, through multiple infusions…6 plus.

I always really enjoy this. It’s wonderful, and the people I share it with agree. It’s not hard to brew, either. Good to the last possible sip, and the aroma in the cup is still something I linger over, when it’s done.

I use a Brita filter on my faucet, and for many things, it’s fine. But for the oolongs I have been exploring, the water seemed to be getting in the way. I’m so over bottled water, and I don’t live by a stream……So lately I have been using a piece of bamboo charcoal in the kettle, when I boil water for tea or miso soup. It seems to act as a filter, and also mineralize the water, to some extent. It’s made a huge difference, with the results being amazing pots of tea. Should have tried this long ago.