This is yet another tea I didn’t add in time enough last year before the site ran out of stock on it. I got this as one of the oolongs from a giant splurge I did on Trident’s tea selection last year, and this is one of the ones I’d rank on the higher end.
I got this one because I still had over 300 grams of different dancongs left, including 8 immortals, Iris Orchid, Mi Lan Xiang, Ya Shi, and so on, and I’ve had red leaf only one other time. The note descriptions were also unique: Red Apple, Orchids, and Caramel. I’ve never gotten a caramel note from a Dancong personally, but this one was really interesting flavor and aroma wise because it actually had some caramel in the profile. Gong fu is the way to go, though, since it can pack a punch.
It does have the trademark dancong bitterness in later steeps, but the earlier steeps had a lot of caramel to it that was extremely smooth. I’m not used to this kind of oolong having a more western palette of flavors over tropical ones, but its nice. Later steeps become more intensely mineral based and acidic, having a little bit of a bamboo woodiness. It is from 2018, so it has settled a little bit, but it can be a bit too bitter to drink super often despite how much I like it. It also gets me a little too tea drunk. Forehead is definitely sweety…I can feel my tonsils.
Compared to other dancongs, it is a happy fruity medium in oxidation. I didn’t have a lot of tea today-but it’s giving me a little bit of headache. I got a tea drunk headache last time I had it, which is why I still haven’t finished it. I might swap or pass this one along because I want to see what more people think of it. I still love the aroma and flavor, but it can be intense for my sensitive stomach.
Flavors: Bamboo, Caramel, Floral, Fruity, Oats, Orchids, Pleasantly Sour, Red Apple, Sweet