Gongfu, >5g/100mL, 100C
Upon opening the bag, you’re hit with this really powerful roasty honey aroma, this tea smells amazing. The wet leaf smells just as good! I gave this one rinse before diving in.
1-3 (20s): This tastes like it wants to be astringent but if anything it leaves the mouth with a silky sort of feeling. The texture is thick and full too.
4-7 (30s): A savory taste of stonefruits up front and in my nose. However, the aftertaste has an interesting quality I noticed in the aroma of the wet leaves: a sort of wintergreen feeling, super super refreshing. This is really interesting. Though the liquor is bitter first and sweet second, it coats my tongue with a strong fresh tingliness, like a slick honey infused with wintergreen. This is very much about the mouthfeel and aroma..
8: out of curiosity I steeped for <20seconds, and was greeted with that sort of tangy honey sweetness taste—super cool! But less aroma and thick tongue sensation this way, giving way instead to honey in both taste and finish. I think you can vary steepings to get very different experiences out of this tea. I wish I had more tea but its still going nicely at 8 steeps so I can’t be too upset. I haven’t had a chance to compare this to other vendors’ dancongs yet, but boulder’s is really expensive.
Update: I’ve blown through over 1.5L of tea from these 5 grams. I’m just having fun switching the steeping times and min-maxing the sweet honey vs. mouthfeel/aftertaste now
Flavors: Brown Sugar, Honey, Menthol, Roasted, Spearmint, Stonefruit