Sipdown, 148. I’ve had this tea before but I’m glad Sil sent me a sample because I haven’t had it in a long time. Plus I can get a reminder of kind of a base-level dancong before trying some of the reserve dancongs that came in the last Verdant reserve club shipment.
At one point I’m pretty sure thepuriTea’s description for this tea said that it was actually scented with osmanthus, or at least a previous incarnation of it was. Anyway, it was either mistaken or the tea has changed, because now it is definitely just a dancong oolong. Ah! I found it using the internet wayback machine! In November of 2010 their description included the line “Our Dan Cong has been naturally infused with natural osmanthus flowers.” But that has been removed.
The tea smells roasty, a bit woody, fruity, and a bit of crisp mineral-ness. Flavor-wise, the fruitiness really comes to the forefront. Very much a note of sweet stone fruits, but combined with a woody/barky background profile. There’s also a bit of bitterness/astringency to this one, and I’m thinking maybe I should have gone with a lower temp. I do think this is less floral than when I originally tried it, although it is hard to say from two years ago. This is one of those teas that is fine, but not really up my alley. That woodiness is just too much and really takes away from my enjoyment of the other flavors. Interested to see how the other dancongs I have will compare, but this one is (still) not for me.
