93 Tasting Notes
Incredible, simply incredible. This a sweet type dancong and ultimately so. The leaves do not have a really strong smell when dry, but add some hot water and… OH GOD O_O. The sheer sweetness of the fragrance of this tea alone would’ve made it one of my favourites but it also has a taste to match. And it tastes pretty much what you expect it to be – sweet :) Actually – “tender sweetness” is how I can describe it. Really really really really…. REALLY tasty :)
The only real problem with this tea is that after 4-5 infusions the taste weakens too much (though it is still nice) and from heavenly becomes simply really good. :)
Preparation
Recently I am all “less water!” with my teas so decided to brew this with minimum amount(just cover the leaves). What can I say – first 3-4 cups are simply heavenly :)
P.S. Best to wait till the tea cools a bit, tastes much yummier this way.
Preparation
Interesting. This time I decided to test the limits I can push the leaves to. Somewhere around 10th brewing now and I register something not unlike Hypericum’s extract. it seems like this taste only becomes noticeable at later brewings and to feel it you need to taste the liquid with the very back of your mouth, almost at the throat.
Preparation
Not particularly impressed by this one. Especially after perfect Da Wu Ye treat I had yesterday. I will not rate it just yet, to experiment with quantities and brewing a bit more, but so far it only has one strong point – its aroma. Others I find lacking…
Upd: nope, not my cup of tea indeed. More leaves – failed, lower temperature – failed, different steeping time – failed… :( Not that it is bad, but I don’t feel the desire to drink more, like with some other teas…
Preparation
To be honest I dont really understand what seller means by “sweetness” when describing this tea. It is slightly more on the bitter side as far as I can tell. That aside, it is a really great tea.
Of the Dan Congs I tried – Da Wu Ye has the most floral taste. Its taste and smell reminds me of when I was a kid and chewed various leaves just for fun. The floral leaf notes are VERY vivid in this one and I find this taste much to my liking. This tea is very refreshing and, as I noticed, tends to clear my head and make the world feel a little sharer and brighter :)
To get the best results I use just enough water to cover the tea in the mug then after 20+ seconds pour the liquid into another one.
Preparation
I have been in love with Da Hong Pao ever since the first time I tried it. It is always on my restock list(along with 58 Fengqing) and is the third most consumed tea in my house :)
Da Hong Pao probably has the sharpest taste of the teas I drink, other ones being rather smooth. The smokines of roasted leaves, imo, is a perfect complement to natural tea taste and it is the balance of smokines vs original tea taste that really differs one type of this tea from another. This one is a “standard” quality I usually buy. It is the second cheapest at JK Tea Shop at the moment but that does not mean the tea is not so good, quite on the contrary.
This first two-three infusions of this tea have almost overpowering roastiness to them(which I quite enjoy) , but not too much so. Then it gradually fades to reveal the taste of the tea itself. I usually infuse this particular type 6-8 times but my favourite cups are the first and the second with their strong smoky taste which is what really makes Da Hong Pao tea stand out from all of the others.
Overall : While not the best DHP I have tried the quality is rather good and it is a perfect “every other day” tea to me :)
Preparation
Bought 400 grams of this nearly 3 years ago off ebay (the seller operates there) and I still cannot finish it. Each time I run out of all other loose-leafs I resort to drinking this for 2-3 days then decide to stuff it back into cupboard. While it can be said that I have yet to find silver needle tea I’d rate more than 70, the taste of this one is totally off.
Preparation
Quite nice. This is the first Shen puer I drink (I have been drinking shens only for 2 years cause I didn’t even know shu existed) and I can say I quite like it. The cake has a rich, strong fruity smell . Breaking it into smaller chunks to brew tea is not that hard even without any instruments and tea starts to give it all it’s got nearly from the very beginning.
The taste stronly reminds me of prunes and persists for at least 8 brewings. I can imagine that one can quickly get tired of this tea if drinking nothing else, but as I usually have 5-6 variaties in my cupboard I don’t think this will ever present a problem :)
