Frozen Summit

This was a sample with my Dachi subscription. This tea is smooth and balanced, with flavors of sugarcane, cream and flowers. There is a bit of vegetal aspect, but very light, like lettuce. Very delicious and long lasting, I stopped counting after 10 steeps.

Thank you Liquid Proust for this sample!

Tasting #1 – Steep Time 2 Minutes
Very faint in aroma, and it actually smells like cannabis. Almost a clear color, barely any flavor other than the slight toasted flavor in the back of my tongue.

Tasting #2 – Steep Time 4 Minutes
More toasty in aroma, like burning greens. Smokey flavor, again most noticeable in the back of my tongue.

Tasting #3 – Steep Time 6 Minutes
Not much change in aroma, the color has deepened slightly.

This tea doesn’t taste grassy and vegetative, it smells and tastes like decay. I’ve never tasted a tea like this. I would say that every other tea I’ve ever had has always tasted lifeful and rejuvenating, and this is not that. Its complicated and conflicting, the flavor is good but I feel contemplative. Like wilting flowers, I know what was once alive but am faced with transition to death. This tea makes me self reflective and I’m finding a desire to create with my complicated feelings.

So I just brewed this and looked into my pot about four times… this has a roasted taste that is 95% the exact same as a roasted green tea in Japan.
Such an odd experience I’m having as I drink through a few ounces of this. While that was happening I decided to try it again because there is just no way… same exact conclusion, same taste, and I am just baffled…

So confused right now…

This is one of the most interesting and delicious oolongs I’ve ever had.

The dry leaf fragrance is roasty with a hint of cannabis.

Again I steeped 2g in my 50ml gaiwan in 96C water for 1min.

The flavour of the first steep is complex – coconut, roasty, honey, granola, brazil nuts and dates. This is amazing, I love it. The finish is fairly long and carries the sweet notes through.

Second steep, 1min again, is quite smokey, almost like cigarettes except not unpleasant. The second steep lacks the complexity of the first.

Third, the complexity comes back with a layer of orchid.

I got I think five or six steeps out of this, but the first was by far the best and most interesting. I wish more of the granola qualities shone in the latter steeps – if I could get multiple steeps that were the same as the first, I’d be drinking this all the time.

I will need to try steeping western style to see what kind of results I get. Even with the less impressive subsequent steeps, I think I will need to pick up more of this.

This is the 2nd of the teas I received from Dachi Tea, and I think I like it better than the Sky High Oolong. This tea is also rolled into pellets which unfurl into broad greenish-brown leaves as it steeps. This one is roasted, and I think it adds depth to the flavor. At first I felt like it has an almost sweet, vegetal taste, but as the cup cooled, it tasted almost nutty. Anyway, of the two I’ve had so far, I prefer this one.

Backlog:

I had this tea the other day. Dachi sent me their package ahead of time so that hopefully I’ll be able to get them some last minute investors in their Kickstarter! Check it out here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/highmountaintea/dachi-tea-the-high-mountain-experience

The package they sent is wonderful – all decked out in a beautiful metallic, coppery gift bag with their logo on it. It was like a little gift. Fun!

The tea is good too. This Dong Ding is sweet and nutty. The earliest infusions offered warm, toasty notes of nutty granola and notes of honey. Later infusions, I tasted butterscotch! Yum! I also picked up on a malt like note which was very enjoyable. A very smooth and pleasant Dong Ding!

You can read my full-length review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/12/31/frozen-summit-oolong-tea-from-dachi-tea/