Dong Ding Oolong traditional medium roast

This was quite a pleasant tea! The scent of the dry leaves is nice and roasty. With the first infusion, there was a nice bitterness and astringency. The roasted flavor was particularly strong the first infusion, enhanced by the bitterness. There were grassy notes, almost like grass that’s been cut and has been sitting and drying for a couple days. Still pleasantly sweet, but mild.

I’ve got enough of this left to try it once more and, depending on how my tastings of the other Dong Ding Oolong samples I ordered from Life in Teacup go, I’ll make a decision about which one to order more of first!

I tried this with short steeps, but the resulting tea was barely there (despite turning a beautiful deep golden color almost immediately). So I steeped the third time for two minutes, and what a change! This tea isn’t sweet, per se, but there’s a hint of burnt sugar around the edges; there’s still not a lot up front, but the back of it hits almost immediately with a savory grilled flavor that just keeps going.

Very dark leaves. They smell too yummy. Like fresh grass plus yummy hot roast chestnuts. Smells like winter. And funny enough today the cold weather has started here. This could easily be the best smelling tea leaves till now.

But lets see how it tastes :)

Tea is bright yellow. Smells similar to the leaves.

Mmmmm first impression is full roast taste. Smooth, nutty, roasty. It didn’t wow me but it’s quite a good one.

Sipdown no. 186. A sample.

I had a different experience of this than some other notes reflect, but I steeped in the gaiwan for short infusions starting at 15 seconds and adding increments of five seconds for a total of five infusions.

I also used water a bit hotter than I usually do for oolongs, mostly because something happened to the outlet where my zojirushi was plugged in and I had to reboil the water. I didn’t have the patience to wait for the water to cool, so I used it as it was on its way down from boiling.

The result was that my experience of this was more like a green oolong than a roasted one, but it was at the same time a bit unusual for a green. The aroma had a sort of a milky floral scent at first but mellowed over subsequent steeps into something that smelled fresh and nutty — but not roasted nutty. More like green (unroasted) almonds. By the third steep, the floral notes were quite lovely. I thought of lilacs, though I’m not sure that’s actually what I smelled, and by the fourth and fifth steeps, I got a whiff of fresh, raw, sweet, warm root vegetable, carrot maybe. A little less pronounced in the fifth steep. Perhaps more like turnip or parsnip. The wet leaf smelled like sweet potatoes to me.

Really tasty and wonderful, but I wonder whether cooler water would have yielded the same flavors. Oh well, I am not likely to find out soon as I’m on lock down. All I can say is this was excellent tonight.

The first infusion is slightly bitter, as well as smoky and grassy. I don’t like very strong grassy or smoky flavors in my tea, and the two characteristics together are not that pleasant to me. I read in others’ tasting notes that the smoke and grass flavors mellow in later infusions, so I’m trying that as well. The unfurled leaves are large and quite lovely. I can tell this is a high quality tea even if the flavors aren’t particularly enjoyable to me. I like darker roasts, but I much prefer a nutty and malty flavor with no smokiness at all. In the first infusion… I drank this too slowly. It’s cooling to almost room temperature, and as it cools the flavor seems slightly mellower but still not quite something I’m very excited about. I’m very glad I sampled before buying in bulk because I don’t like this nearly as much as other medium/dark roast oolongs I’ve tried. HOnestly, the smoke and grass together combine the two characteristics I most dislike in both black and green teas.

Later infusions: Hm… I agree that the smoke and grass flavors become a lot more subdued in later infusions. The smoke gives way to a more nutty and woody flavor. I do like this better, but the aftertaste is still a bit like ashes.

I’m also realizing that I need my tea to have at least some natural sweetness, and this has none.

I know this is a good tea, but I would only recommend it if these are flavors you really enjoy. For someone with tastes similar to mine, I definitely wouldn’t recommend.

Later afternoon: I tried this again. Wow, it’s amazing how much better it is with savory foods in the afternoon. I have changed my mind — I would try this again. This will teach me to keep ignoring time of day recommendations for types of tea. With savory food, i don’t mind this degree of smokiness at all.

I thought this tea had at least two listing. I picked one and went with it. Then realized it was in the wrong place. I’m not OCD but I fixed it anyway.

Scouring through my drawer today I stumbled upon this one. Apologies to Life In Teacup for misplacing it. It’s all good as today was the perfect day to sit with this lovely tea. The leaf pellets are very tiny and dark but really expand. The wet leaf is highly roasted in scent. The sip is medium to light roasted. I really like this one. It is sweet and tastes like roasted honey (can you do that?). I can definitely see why some called this nutty. After reading it, I totally agree. Seems thick like milk but has more glide. Not sure that makes sense either. This is light and refreshing and not the heavy chunk of roasting I normally associate with darker oolongs. I taste the Taiwan mountain oolong in the lingering aftertaste but it isn’t super floral or latex like some. This is just all around a nice cup for a rainy dreary day.