Da Wu Ye Dancong

Another Verdant sample that had been sitting around forever in my cupboard. Unfortunately it was far less impressive than the Old Tree Wulong I just finished prior. There were some intriguing aromas – orange peel, wet rocks, and sandalwood – however the taste fell flat. It was pretty forgettable, more like a generic yancha than a typically fruity dan cong. Woodsy with an oily texture. At times, there was a faint floral glimmer in the aftertaste but otherwise it didn’t offer much in the way of flavor.

I’m continuing to make progress on my mission to become more familiar with dancong oolongs. One thing I have discovered so far is that I tend to favor some of the more common, familiar dancongs, and at this point in time, Da Wu Ye might be my favorite. I was not certain how I would respond to this one considering I had previously tried only one of the other Huang Rui Guang dancong oolongs offered by Verdant Tea (the Ya Shi) and thought it was only pretty good, but yesterday was slow and I couldn’t find a reason to put off trying this one. Honestly, I found it to be a very good oolong. Like most of the dancong oolongs that I have tried, it faded pretty quickly, but more or less made up for it with a wonderfully complex mix of aromas and flavors.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 7 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 208 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was chased by 11 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes. Even though I could tell there was still a little life left in the leaves, I cut my review session off where I did because it was getting late. As a side note, I find that I prefer dancong a little lighter and less astringent than many traditionalists, so I do not use quite as much loose tea per session. I have heard of people who brew in the chao zhou style using at least 9-10 grams of loose leaves per 4 fluid ounces. I find that I do not like to go over 6-7 grams unless I have a particularly delicate, subtle tea.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted pronounced floral, fruity aromas. There was definitely a prominent scent of nectarine there. After the rinse, I found aromas of orchid, orange, nectarine, and roasted almond. The first infusion introduced stronger orange and roasted almond scents. I also began to pick up on hints of lemon and osmanthus. In the mouth, the liquor immediately offered up notes of orchid, lemon, and bitter orange. I could see why Verdant mentioned neroli in their tasting note, as neroli is an essential oil produced from bitter orange blossoms. These notes gave way to subtler impressions of nectarine, peach, osmanthus, and roasted almond. Subsequent infusions introduced notes of lychee, pear, tangerine, stewed apricot, cream, brown sugar, vanilla, violet, caraway, and minerals. The roasted almond impressions were much stronger on these infusions. The later infusions mostly featured notes of minerals, roasted almond, and cream backed by lingering violet, citrus, peach, and nectarine notes. Interestingly enough, I could find some belatedly emerging vegetal notes on these infusions. They reminded me of a mix of damp hay and cattails. Verdant mentioned that this tea could be a little vegetal, even specifically mentioning an avocado note. Well, I found some vegetal notes, but avocado was certainly not one of them. Also, just thinking here, but wouldn’t avocado technically be a fruity note?

I seem to be the outlier on this tea because I liked it considerably more than the other reviewers. It’s no secret that I go crazy over intensely floral and/or fruity oolongs and this was most definitely that kind of tea. In the end, I think I can safely say that if you also happen to be a fan of such aromas and flavors, you’ll probably find plenty to like in this tea.

I got a sample of this from a tea friend. That being said, this is not a tea I would have picked out for myself.

The roast and the dark flavors of the tea remind me of a really dark, heavy cereal of some kind, like a brown bread crossed with an oatmeal. Perhaps it’s the cold weather getting to me.

Then there’s another flavor on top of that. I had to look at the tasting notes to get an idea of what I could call it. Rye? Caraway? Something seedy and a little bitter tasting. A kind of odd funk that I can’t quite put a name to. I’m not much of a fan.

There isn’t a touch of astringency for me though, which is nice. It’s a pretty decent, warming tea.

As I’m exploring teas I’m actually learning a lot about my tap water … there is a minerality to everything I try that is probably from that. Interesting. Will try filtered water or a different kettle.

I did a short rinse first and then steeped about 40 seconds in 8 oz, 200 F water.

The first impression was powdery nuts, maybe like walnuts or peanut shell. There is grassiness (I’m a novice tea drinker so I taste a lot of grass, leaves, etc. in everything, hah), some caramel, some lemon. Not a lot of fruit, the bitterness has me thinking only of sour citrus like lemon and grapefruit. Very nice savory, nutty cup that’s enjoyable to sip on a chilly fall night like this.

Drank this during the late night Google Hangouts at 9pm on Monday.

This is not the kind of Dancong I was wanting : (
But, anyways; This tea strikes me as a dry liquor sort of tea in the way that it’s got this hint of rye or some sort of dry wheat to the taste that makes it unique but also for a certain type of drinker. The liquid comes out a bit darker than would be expected, but it’s the taste I’m after. Solid resteeping value here as you can pick up on the more cologne notes rather than the perfume ones being of floral notes. I find myself thinking of a refined leather while drinking this. While it is my personal preference here, it might be possible that those who like higher roasted, dryer, and more astringent teas might find the subtle notes that I’m unable to pick up because of my sensitive tongue.

This is the 4th of the 6 dancongs from Verdant’s August 2016 box that I’ve tried, and this one straight away stands out as being the most different from the others. I almost don’t know how to describe it, it’s quite floral, almost reminiscent of a shou mei, with a similar sort of light thin earthiness, and pretty prominent orange notes. it’s also quite woody with that I want to call a woody texture, at first. It’s got a wonderful full body, this is something I’ve been really appreciating about these dancongs. They all have had really nice mouthfeels, but also different textures with each one, which I’m loving to explore. I got more notes of sour cherry, lemon, apricot, flower stems, there’s a decent amount of dark chocolate in the aroma, but I can’t find any in the taste.
I struggled to really find any new flavours after the 5th(ish?) steep, but it becomes light, with sharp florals, tangerine, apricot,and a bit of seaweed, with bitterness I can’t seem to avoid.
I did prefer the darker, chocolatier dancongs, but this was also thoroughly enjoyable

I did a 7-8 second rinse (woulda been shorter but I’m not used to the new kettle, it pours slow) and then I used 100C water for the first steep, 99 for the second and 98 from there on out, cause it seemed to work well on the Ya Shi I drank yesterday. I filled the gaiwan about 3/4 of the way this time