Superfine Taiwan Moderately-Roasted Dong Ding Oolong Tea

This is a quick note as I drank this while taking care of a lot of things… going out of town for a conference tomorrow! So again a halt on sipdowns, sigh.

Anyway, this was really nice. I am really enjoying these roasty green oolongs more and more, especially when they are nice and bready like this one. A touch sweet, especially when cool/cold. I should try cold brewing this because I think I would really like it iced.

Roasty green oolong? Unsurprisingly, this one was a big win for me. Absolutely delicious. Roasted, creamy oolong notes, and if there were floral notes, they were masked by everything else (or toned down, and I didn’t notice them). I’ll have to try this one next to an unroasted dong ding oolong, as well as an aged tieguanyin, because in my head, the flavour profiles are all quite similar (and I don’t think that’s quite true).

Second infusion was very similar to the first – these leaves pack a lot of flavour!

A huge thank you to Angel and Teavivre for including this sample in my package!

Earlier today my friend Lisa & I sampled the Duck Shhh Dancong from the White2Tea tea club. There isn’t a listing for it, & I don’t really feel like adding one right now, but I’m happy to report that it was tasty, with almost a milk chocolate kind of essence, & no, it didn’t really taste or smell like duck droppings (ok…I don’t know what that would taste like, but I’ve ducks before, so I do know the smell, LOL).

This afternoon I’ve been enjoying multiple steepings of this oolong, with it’s bakey warm taste, smooth greens, & a roasty nutiness, its a pleasantly warming & cozy afternoon tea. I swear I taste a hint of nutmeg in it this afternoon, & that’s one of my favorite spices. Thanks to Angel & Teavivre for the sample.

Thank you Teavivre for this tea sample!

Almost every evening, the sky at the end of my street where the plains meet the bottom of the Rocky Mountains turns radiant! I wander outside regularly with my camera to capture the Cathedral-like stained-glass window array of colors.

Cold winds tumble and dip down to 5000 ft. creating odd shaped clouds that can hover all day in one spot. They catch the setting sun appearing to be an alien spaceship or flat pancakes.

Of all the places I’ve been (Alaska, Greece, Italy, California, Peru and so on) these sky-scapes are the best!

The Tea:
I drank a little tea…this one in particular…and enjoyed the menthol coolness of the leaves when I put my nose close to the gaiwan after a 2 minute steep.
I tasted sweet corn.
Then cool airy menthol with the corn which was refreshing.

The fragrance was floral and corn which I didn’t taste up front, but on my palate as an aftertaste with slight bitterness (not unpleasant), reminding me of lilies.

The term moderately-roasted shouldn’t scare off those who don’t like roasty tea’s. There’s nothing ‘roasty’ tasting about this tea!

What the roast does is bring this Oolong out of the ‘very floral’ tasting Oolong variety but stopping before becoming roasty. (My opinion)

I wouldn’t steep this a long time. 2 minutes after a rinse was very good to my taste.

The reason I wrote about the sky in my neighborhood and this tea is this: When I drink tea, it always makes me a better person in some way if I let it do so.
Before I began drinking tea, I never carried a camera or went out of my way to notice how beautiful nature was unless on vacation.
Tea put my life in the present moment where I have the opportunity to notice what’s around me. Now I notice the sky and so much more!

Thanksgiving…is for many things.
http://flic.kr/p/dkfA1k http://flic.kr/p/hSECJk http://flic.kr/p/hSDJp2

Many thanks to Teavivre for this tea!

Roasty AND eye closingly and sighingly sweet? Yes! It would seem that these two things would not go together, but I’m here to tell you that they go together wonderfully in this tea. Moderately, pleasantly green and floral, too. I enjoyed steeping this one the entire day yesterday. I sometimes notice dramatically different flavors depending on what steep I’m on, but for me, this one retained the sweet, roasty characteristics on each steep. I should mention I brewed it Western style. So, so enjoyable.

This is one of several oolong samples I received from Teavivre. Its been quite some time since I’ve had a roasted oolong. There is nothing not to like about it. The roasty flavor is just right, and of course, it stands up to multiple infusions. Nice.

Yes, definitely Taiwan flavored. :) can you taste where a wine is from in the same way? I hear you can but I’m no expert.

This is a particularly good Taiwanese oolong. Heavy smooth texture. Green but roasty. Luscious. Floral. Absolutely beautiful tea.

My thanks go to Angel at Teavivre for including me in this tasting again! I always get so excited when I see I have a message from her.

It looks like this time it’s all oolong! Which is great, because I’ve been very impressed with everything I’ve tried by Teavivre in the past. As I open the sample packet, I get the sweet scent of flowers and spring. There’s also a gentle nuttiness. The leaves, to me, don’t look roasted at all. They’re dark green, rolled into little clusters. They must be only lightly roasted?

I followed the pack’s instructions and used boiling water. It says I can let it steep from anywhere between 1-5 minutes, so I went for dead-center at 2.5. I loved watching the little nuggets bounce in the in glass teapot as they unrolled. The water slowly changed from clear to a greenish yellow hue. The spent leaves look like a serving of spinach in my infuser, fully unfurled.

The scent is very different from the dry leaf! It smells like nutty bread, almost. Or cereal! Sort of like plain Cheerios, oddly enough. The flavor is delightfully satisfying and smooth. The hints of floral flavor are still there, but not in the forefront. I can certainly taste that this was roasted instead of dried more gently like other oolongs I’ve tried. I suppose the loss of the fruity/grassy/floral flavor comes with that kind of processing. Which makes it come out tasting warmer and heartier. I like it! It really makes me think about the subtleties of harvesting and preparing raw leaves.

Backlog:

Deliciously toasty, a perfect “autumnal” type of Oolong. Sweet nutty and floral.

The first cup was smooth and light, with lighter presentations of the aforementioned flavors: lightly nutty, sweet and flowery. The subsequent infusions became thicker in texture and taste. Fruity notes began to emerge.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/10/16/superfine-taiwan-moderately-roasted-dong-ding-oolong-tea-teavivre/

I’ve opted to do a follow-up note on this tea as I am steeping it Western style and am curious how it will hold up. I am also happy to report that this samples doesn’t have any of the crushed leaves or powder that I encountered in my earlier sample. I feel badly for suggesting that it is a broken leaf tea when I apparently experienced an anomaly.

As per Teavivres Western instructions, I am steeping the whole pouch in my Perfect Tea mug for one minute in boiling water. I’ve got to admit that despite my innate specticism about some of these steeping parameters, Teavivre is REALLY good about making them accurate to the specific tea. I tend to brew per my own general guidelines but following the exact directions for each tea yields a different (and sometimes better) result for the Teavivre teas. The dedication to optimal brewing per tea and per batch is remarkable, and much appreciated – even from a brewing sinner.

After this minute in the boiling bath, I have a boldly aromatic tea with hints of cinnamon, spice, hay. I can smell it from across my desk, it has a note that suggests a potential bitterness, but is generally appealing. It also maybe smells a bit roasty, and perhaps a bit floral.

First sips reflect the flavour quite well. Some sweet baking spice flavour, some roastiness, no bitterness or astringency. It reminds me of the Taiwan Oriental Beauty I sampled the other day. Very nice!

EDIT: Second steep: As usual, I got distracted with work and this went 2 or possibly closer to 3 minutes with boiling water. This results in some astringency, a very dry tongue with the start of bitterness. I don’t like that, but I know it is my fault so I shan’t try a third. If I can get past the self-inflicted astringency, it tastes much like the first. Bakey and roasty with a bit of sweet and spice. Like snickerdoodles or cinnamon buns.