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Rooster King has a beautiful soft, sweet smell reminiscent of ancient ruins with a hint of blackberry. It has medium to full body. The taste is smooth, bitter upfront with subtle sweetness that takes over in the finish. There are notes of dark ale, alcohol, charcoal, cloves, black pepper, dark roast coffee and chilli. The mouthfeel is very creamy, thick and coating.

This is a sweet and medium bodied tea, whose smell reminds me of baked figs and honey a bit. There are some notes of cocoa and also melon in the aftertaste. The taste is balanced with a good depth.

Overall, Red Tiger is a great fruity oolong that is also very affordable. Highly recommended!

I am not a fan of this tea. It is light bodied and thin with very little going on apart from the strong coconut smell.

Dry leaf has a very complex smell with notes of fennel, celery, roasted nuts and peach, at least as far as I could tell.

After the rinse, the fruity aromas seem to be amplified, although not totally dominating. It’s a beautiful smell in any case. Another note that I picked up is that of fried plantain. Later on also some more green and floral notes of rose and cactus.

The first thing I noticed when I started drinking the tea is the incredible softness of the liquor. I would say this is a full bodied tea without a dominant flavour. There are some vegetal notes, it has some fruit sweetness and sourness in the finish. A lot of complexity and a lot of associations are brought, but few persist or are strong enough to be of note. The taste profile is somewhat reminiscent of a Baozhong Oolong with a tiny bit of background roastiness adding some more depth to it. Not much astringency is present and virtually no bitterness unless pushed a lot. At least in early steeps that is. Later, there is a light celery bitterness present.

The cha qi is warming and makes me quite relaxed and easy to enter a dream-like state.

Woah, what a complex and pleasant tea. I feel like the 25g I have will not be nearly enough for me to figure this tea out, but I will surely enjoy drinking it whenever I feel like exploring and/or relaxing. It’s the kind of tea that’s really not suitable for doing something else while drinking, because it just takes all my attention.

It’s very interesting how well this tea has aged. It almost tastes as if it was slightly roasted. The texture is quite bubbly and thick. I also notice some hay notes not unlike ones you can find in young sheng.

Full bodied tea with little bitterness and nice astringency. It has a very enticing strong floral/forest cooling smell. The taste is a mix of vegetal, floral and herbal notes. In particular, I notice sage, pine wood, thyme, honey and celery. The cha qi is strong and warming.

This was the last bit of my sample and I think I might get the whole cake next time I order from YS.

The dry leaf smells of nutmeg and muscatel. The wet leaf smell is much harder to identify for me, but it is quite fruity with some rum and sandalwood note to it. I find the liquor to have slightly milky smell too. The taste is super smooth and bright, with a nice bite thanks to the astringency in the finish. It’s a mix of fruity and floral notes with hints of alcohol and conifer trees. The sour parts of the taste linger longer and join the floral aromatics and astringency for a very nice long lasting aftertaste with some huigan too! Later steeps also have a considerable lager-like bitterness. The mouthfeel is milky and coating and the qi is very pleasant and calming.

The liquor is medium bodied and has a very nice dark burgundy colour. Leaves’ smell is predominately reminiscent of prunes, but there are notes of peat, blueberry pie and in later steeps some smokiness as well. I could also identify some mushroom aroma in the liquor itself.

The taste has nice coffee bitterness and is quite varied. Up front, it’s mostly sour. The finish is fairly sweet, but then the aftertaste becomes somewhat savoury. The later steeps become even more sweet and nutty (walnuts and brasil nuts).

The mouthfeel is slightly mouth-watering, powdery and coats the mouth quite well. There is a little bit of astringency too. The cha qi is warming and seems to defocus the mind, probably better for relaxing than working.

The aroma of this tea is fairly weak for a Dan Cong oolong. I can smell some cookies (especially in the dry leaf), overripe fruit (passion fruit in particular) and sometimes cheesecake. The taste is bitter and crisp, with some notes of honey and herbs. Mouthfeel wise, I also found it somewhat underwhelming. It’s quite thin, soft and slightly sticky. Astringency levels are good, maybe a little too high, but that could very well be due to my brewing not being perfect. I didn’t detect any particular cha qi.

It is definitely not a bad tea, I enjoyed drinking it. However, given the price, I cannot recommend it, especially compared to other Dan Cong oolongs from YS.

The dry leaf has a mild scent of cookies with a hint of chocolate. After the rinse, the smell is different – very fruity. It has a little bit of Longan fruit note to it. As the leaves open up, it becomes even more prominent and oolong like, but never too pungent.

The taste is also akin to fruity dark Taiwanese oolongs, fairly sweet, fruity and nectar-like. The finish is actually somewhat savoury, although the sweetness then returns in the aftertaste. Unfortunately, I found the body to be quite light, despite the large amount of leaf I used. Definitely thinner than I am used to with Taiwanese teas.

I would say that this might nevertheless be a good choice for casual drinking, especially if you like darker Taiwanese oolongs.

edit: This tea also works really well with a 10 minute simmer as the last infusion. It brings out the roasted notes a bit more and creates a more balanced and richer brew with a little bit of bitterness. The smell of this infusion somehow reminds me of blueberry cheesecake :D