Thanks to Teasenz sending me these samples!
I’ve been sick the last couple weeks, unable to smell or taste properly and that was horrible, that was the first time since I got really really into tea that I couldn’t appreciate tea and it was very unsettling, but finally I got my sense of smell back today, I have a whole bunch of new teas I couldn’t even sniff for weeks!!
The dry leaf here has a very earthy and woody aroma, the leaves look quite nice, maybe a tiny bit of breakage, but quite beautiful.
I filled the gaiwan maybe halfway, maybe a bit more. After sitting in the heated gaiwan, I got thick fruity notes of mango, pineapple, strawberry and hints of peppermint.
After the rinse, it has a nice earthy, woody, pine tree aroma with hints of mint and .. Can you smell bitterness? I’m temped to say that it smells bitter, sort of like plant stems as well. It’s a nice dancongy aroma
In the first steep, I can’t help but feel that there’s something .. missing. the mouthfeel is very flat, I mean it’s thick and creamy and smooth, but it’s like the mouthfeel is very separate from the taste, it feels almost one-dimensional in a way, it’s not dancing on my palate like Verdant’s did. Well, anyways, the flavours are actually very nice, lovely mango and earth/wood.
The second steep is a bit more alive, it’s creamier, with a pleasant bitterness that I’m quite enjoying. More mango with honey and flowers. The flavours linger for several minutes along with an increasing dryness in the tongue and roof of the mouth.
Some smokiness develops in the aroma with time, and the body unfortunately wound up thinning with each successive steep after number 2.
Dancongs for me are so calming and warming, very comforting, and this totally has all of that, and I’m actually really enjoying this, but around steep 6 or 7 the thinness that had developed became unpleasant and the body wound up putting me off more than I expected it to.
I think this is a really solid dancong for the price point ($0.13/g). I’ll get another session out of the sample which I’ll drink happily :) I am curious what cultivar this is, it doesn’t say anywhere.
I’d say it’s a nice entry level/daily drinker dancong
Flavors: Earth, Honey, Mango, Pine, Wood
