Wu Dong Shan Huang Zhi Xiang

This oolong is okay, but there’s a bit of a dry minerally quality to it that I’m not overly fond of. It’s not bad, I just prefer oolongs to have a richer, juicier profile, if that makes any sense. Although that said, the more sips I take, the more it is growing on me. Still won’t be a favourite, though.

This one is tough for me, I have tried short and long steep at varying temps and I seems pretty consistent.
Nose, I get osmanthus and rose with some vegetal notes like celery, light and delicate.
Palate, sweet orange, same floral notes fading to celery with some peach/lychee notes on the finish, it seems backward ( most taste is at the back of the palate ), unfortunately I find the mouth feel thin and watery, some light minerality, while it is nice, I find some of the other Dancong from Verdant more interesting.
I got it! This one seems to need more heat and time to really open up. The mouth feel was more full and the tea less delicate also a roasted barley flavor and aroma came up. Very nice and well balanced.

mmmmm okay, it starts off with some delicious white chocolate, wood, earth and a bit of spearmint, but with a meat-like quality that’s vaguely reminiscent of turkey. It brews a very light orange-yellow, much lighter in colour than the 5 other dancongs from the August 2016 Verdant club box. It’s silky smooth to drink and as it develops, bitter flowers, orange zest, grapefruit, lemon and lychee begin to present themselves, and it develops a nice creamy texture. Throughout, the tea soup and the wet leaves have the toasty cocoa aroma that all of these verdant dancongs have had, but again without any of this in the taste. I get further notes of grapes, carrots and beets in the mid-late session. This one’s soo tasty, it’s kinda like a cross between the Ya Shi that I adored, and the Wu Dong Shan Mi Lan Xiang. Finally as it fades out, I get notes of cabbage, spinach, and zucchini, with some more lychee at the end.

I’m very interested to try some dancong from other farmers and regions to see just how good these new Verdant ones are :) I think this provided me with a nice amount of experience to know that I want more of this in my life!

I did a 7ish second rinse and then I used 100C water for the first steep, 99C for the second and third, and 98C from there on out, cause it worked well on the previous ones, and it’s good to have consistency to compare them. I filled the gaiwan about 2/3 of the way.