Dong Ding Oolong

Backlog:

I am so impressed by Eco-Cha. Their packaging is gorgeous, and their teas are superb. This Dong Ding has a delicious “coffee” like flavor to it. Delicious, toasty, chestnut-y, sweet. I got quite a few infusions out of this one too … and each delivered a lovely flavor.

The first cup (infusions 1 and 2) gave me a hint of raisin-y sweetness that I really enjoyed, plus the aforementioned coffee and chestnut flavors.

The second cup was a stronger raisin note, which made this cup taste even sweeter than the first. Still nutty, toasty, smoky and warm tasting.

The third cup became a little softer in taste and texture but was still very flavorful.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/11/15/dong-ding-oolong-tea-eco-cha/

Reminds me of a lighter Laoshan black from Verdant. Since I mostly stay away from roastier oolongs, the coffee/malt flavors are a surprise to me. Still, it’s a smooth, comforting cup, and very satisfying. I’m a fan, even if I’m not exactly the target audience.

This is what yancha strives to be, IMO. Best roasted oolong I’ve tried. A perfect tea for fall/winter.

Medium sweetness with no bitterness or astringency. Mouthfeel is toasty and smoky. Nice hui gan. Longevity is ~8 infusions.

Another great tea from Eco-cha! They are super impressive so far. Their price-to-quality ratio seems pretty insane too! Will be buying more of this come fall/winter.

Harvest: Winter 2022
Origin: Yonglong Village, Lu Gu Township, Nantou County (elevation 700 m).
Cultivar: Qing Xin
Roast: Heavy but tastes medium?

Dry Leaf: Malt, wheat, bread, dark chocolate.
Wet Leaf: Same
Flavor: Toast, dark chocolate, hazelnut, coffee, smoke, sweet.

Posting to see if Steepster is frozen again… Thank you SkySamurai – this was a while ago!  Even though I just received her half of a swap yesterday! I keep trying this one.  Even though it appears to be a green oolong in person (unlike the photo that is clearly roasted), I’m only really tasting the roast on this one… even though by appearance… there really shouldn’t be any roast flavor here at all.  My brew color certainly isn’t deep amber like the photo! My brew color is the usual pale yellow. I loved the fragrance of the leaves after the rinse though – it was like tamarind (from my remembrance of the Butiki blend anyway).  I wish the actual oolong had tasted like that.  But sadly only roasted flavor here.  It should be fine – I’m only steeping one teaspoon and not overdoing it.  Bigger bundles here!  Charcoal tasting oolongs just aren’t for me. It’s always a shame it’s so one-noted for me.
Steep #1  // 1 teaspoon for full mug // 26 minutes after boiling  // rinse // 1 minute steep
Steep #2  // 20 minutes after boiling //  2 minute steep
Steep #3 // 2 minutes after boiling // 2 min

I have to admit, this tea smelled and tasted a bit off-putting to me when I first brewed it. Maybe it was the unfamiliar roasted nuttiness in an oolong that seemed strange to me? But the more sips I took, it really, really started to grow on me. It is truly unique and sweet and smokey and nutty, and I ended up really enjoying it.

Sipdown 26

Here I need to divulge a guilty secret: Daylon R Thomas sent me this quite some time ago and I have hoarded, read neglected, this in addition to a couple of other things still left in his original posting box. On the upside though, I am currently on a green and oolong whirl, so that’s better because I am appreciating such teas more at this time, right, right?

So here I am having the last of this now. I have had it before and loved it.

Today, I reached blindly into Daylon’s box, knowing that whatever I found would be an oolong, and pulled this one out. The context here is that yesterday I spent the day with that honey caramel sweet spice Jin Guanyin Wuyi oolong from Verdant with the sweetness continuing throughout all the steeps. I wasn’t necessarily in the mood for a something all that sweet today after that extended session, but here we are.

Yes indeed—sweet. Caramel sweet. Maple sweet. Someone mentioned chestnut. I can see that. I just had some roasted chestnuts last week and this tea shares a bit of that caramelized sweet starchiness of them. I can see the whiskey or bourbon aspect too with the richness of the roast. There’s a bit of spice and a bit of wood. Roast sweet potato with marshmallow and caramelized nuggets of walnuts or pecans perhaps.

There’s a considerable overlap in flavours with yesterday’s tea, but here the char and strong spice and woodiness is absent.

It’s interesting that the more I drink oolongs, the more sensitivity to their flavours I develop. Of course, that makes sense. Truly when I was just starting out on oolong journey and I read someone posting reviews with one tea containing twenty-five or so flavours, it seemed a bit much. I get it now. I am becoming much more familiar with how a tea can morph in flavours and how each sip can contain several. Tea journey is a fascinating thing.

To be continued.

Thanks, Daylon, for the share.

And it’s a sip down!

Steeped: 5

My uh oh was a beautiful mistake. I stored two cups worth of the Dong DIng in a very old bag of Golden Orchid. There were leftover vanilla beans that enhanced the natural profile. Still dry, figgy like tea, but the vanilla added a sweetness reminding me of coffee just splashed with cream. Or Thai-Iced tea. Either way, good.

Dong Ding Oolong from Fenghuang, Nantou is a medium oxidized and heavy roasted tea. Typically for Dong Ding, it is intensely sweet, like syrup, combined with roasted flavours. This one further gives hints of clove and a slight vanilla astringency. On the downside, it felt like not as many infusions were possible as I expected.

First off, the aroma of the dry leaf is amazing. Roasty, nutty, caramel, and yes – roasted corn like the tasting notes on the website indicate. Wet leaf aroma adds a bit of smoke. As the leaves open I notice lots of stems (again, good? bad? don’t know). Decided to brew this gongfu, starting with 30 second steeps. The next time I need to remember to follow the brewing tips and use 6-8 grams of tea, or brew grandpa style because my first steep wasn’t that great (user error – not enough tea). Anyway, longer steeps (a minute) were better. The flavor is nutty, roasty, and sweet and the aftertaste lingers on the tongue. So different from the un-roasted/lightly roasted and more floral dong dings I’ve had. I’m looking forward to trying this grandpa style, I think this tea is probably more suited to that style, for me anyway. I love a dark, robust oolong and this is definitely one of those. It’ll be great in the cold winter months.

EDIT: Did try this grandpa style at work, and it was wonderful.

First Sip Thought: “Squash.”

Smell: Before I enjoyed the slightly roasty and floral aroma, I admired the leaves for quite some time. They are dark and tightly rolled which of course makes it more fun to watch steep.

Taste: You may remember when I wrote about Eco-Cha and their mission late last year. You can view that post here. This tea was hand picked in small batches September 2014 in Yong Long, Nantou, Taiwan (just above Dong Ding Mountain). Hand picked. When you drink this tea, stop and think about that for a moment. You’ll appreciate your cup a lot more. This oolong is not as strong as I was hoping but still offers great flavours. To explain my first sip thought, the initial few sips taste just like a plate full of freshly roasted vegetables. Eco-Cha narrows it down to a roasted summer squash as the predominant flavour and I have to agree. I also noticed a dry fruit flavour along with nutty characters. So I guess you can also say another thought that came to my mind during the first sip was “trail mix!” This tea has me very excited to give the rest of the oolongs I have from Eco-Cha a try.

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