I’m bored and don’t feel like doing any housework, so I may as well keep the tea reviews coming. This was yet another of my backlogged late 2020/early 2021 Dancong oolong reviews. Everyone who has ever read any of my previous reviews of Yunnan Sourcing’s King of Duck Shit Aroma Dan Cong oolongs knows that I tend to love them. The King of Duck Shit aroma oolong tends to be one of Yunnan Sourcing’s teas that I look forward to every year. This one ended up being no exception.
I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a 10 second rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 fluid ounces of 203 F water for 7 seconds. This infusion was chased by 17 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes.
Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of honey, cream, vanilla, cherry, orchid, orange blossom, and peach. After the rinse, new aromas of cinnamon, roasted almond, geranium, and grass emerged. The first infusion introduced a subtle banana aroma. Once in the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of grass, cream, roasted almond, orchid, and geranium that were balanced by hints of pear, orange blossom, banana, and cinnamon. The majority of the subsequent infusions added aromas of longan, steamed milk, dandelion, pear, apple, white grape, and violet. Stronger and more immediately detectable notes of pear emerged in the mouth alongside mineral, longan, earth, peach, vanilla, cherry, orange zest, dandelion, plum, apple, dandelion green, steamed milk, white grape, violet, and sugarcane impressions. I also detected hints of honey and lime zest. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, orange zest, grass, apple, white grape, dandelion greens, and geranium that were chased by a pleasant swell of dandelion, sugarcane, cherry, steamed milk, violet, orchid, roasted almond, and banana flavors.
Like previous King of Duck Shit offerings, this was a pleasant, balanced tea with more than enough depth and complexity to satisfy. The thick body and creamy, milky smoothness of the tea liquor was also very enjoyable. At times, I was concerned that some of the flavor components would start clashing, but that thankfully never occurred. Overall, this was a very masterfully produced oolong.
Flavors: Almond, Apple, Cherry, Cinnamon, Cream, Dandelion, Earth, Fruity, Geranium, Grass, Honey, Lime, Milk, Mineral, Orange Blossom, Orange Zest, Orchid, Peach, Pear, Plum, Sugarcane, Vanilla, Vegetal, Violet, White Grapes
