Auspicious Ayame Wulong

Tried this yesterday at work for two 15-30 sec infusions. So much better this way. Its all honey and orchid roasted goodness, instead of just rarr rarr roast. What can I say, I like my Dan Congs gungfu style. Adding chamomile blossoms and a bit of peach to the third steep was a mistake though (I wanted something for my headache). This was later redeemed when I poured the last of the peach momotaro pot into my cup, quite nice actually.

If only the people at Teavana could brew this right and not stick to their “oolongs are always brewed at 3 mins” method

Probably the best Oolong I have ever tasted, and that’s saying a lot. I love Oolong teas. It’s a combination of sweet, earthy, and floral and it’s pure magic for me. The smell itself is crack for me and the taste is superb. The best sweetner (if you even really need it) would be 1/4 – 1/2 tsp of white gold honey.

This is the kind of tea you can sip on anytime anywhere. Love. Love. Love.

Complex is the best way to describe this one, and it’s my favorite Oolong from them. When it’s hot, it has a taste of barely, but in the back of your mouth you can detect a tobacco/smokey-ness that lingers on your tongue between sips. It’s sweet, and as it cools you’ll begin to taste the ‘rich full orchid’ hidden in the complexities. Stronger than most oolongs I’ve tried.

I plan to re-steep this one to get my moneys worth.

I came into a crapload of this tea in Fall 2012, the week it was getting discontinued by Teavana. Despite my reservations about the company, I was more than happy to accept the free Wudong-shan Dancong which seemed to have nothing wrong with it other than being $12 an ounce. I brewed it a few times in a gaiwan last year, but mostly forgot about it until a friend gave me my first Yixing pot a few weeks ago. I decided to pair it with this tea, using the opportunity to hopefully move beyond my noob status concerning both Yixing and Dancongs.

This was my fourth session with this pairing. I covered the bottom of the 190 mL pot with leaves, then shoved in almost the same amount once again. (I wanted to avoid ending up with weak-tasting liquor like I had in my previous sessions—it’s a bit hard to gauge how much tea to use with the dry leaf being so long and flat.) After a rinse I went through 8 steeps, with the second being the most heavily-perfumed for some reason. All throughout there was an inviting toastiness, and a light body with no noticeable astringency. The floral notes came and went unpredictably, sometimes lingering in the fairness pitcher, at other times appearing in the first sip of a cup. But they were mostly weak or absent throughout this session.

Perhaps my pot is actually inappropriate for this tea, or maybe the clay is still taking more than it’s giving. Next time around, I’m not gonna hold back at all on the leaves, because even with the pot being about a 10th full of leaves, I didn’t get much of what I expected.

By and far the sweetest, loveliest, most delicate oolong I’ve ever tasted! Especially well suited to making iced tea.

Monthly TTB Club.

This is a pleasant enough tea. Flavor wise it seems to straddle the line between light and dark oolongs, which is interesting. It has the smooth almost nutty flavor of some dark oolongs and a light vegetal note. I find myself wishing the flavor were a little bolder, though.

This is so interesting. If I didn’t know better, I would assume this was a roasted Wuyi oolong, not a Dan Cong. The dominant notes are smoke, earth and minerality.

There’s a hint of peachiness, and a floral note that’s pretty overwhelmed by the other flavours.

I did a second, shorter steep, which was lighter but the same flavour profile of the first cup.

This tea has been discontinued for a while. But it was the first roasted oolong I ever tried, and I loved it from the very first sip. I heard it wasn’t very popular with Teavana’s customers, at least not where I live… I still remember the surprised look that one of their employees gave me, when I said it was one of my favorites! She was nice enough to give me a hint that it was about to be discontinued, so a few weeks later, I was able to grab a tin for 30% off.

I still have that tin in my cabinet, so I thought I’d try steeping it gongfu style. It was my first attempt at gongfu, but I enjoyed it. The shorter steeping times made for lighter, sweeter infusions. That said, this is still a very toasty oolong, which I love! Smoky roasted flavor, with notes of orchid and honey that become more prominent each time it’s steeped.

I really need to try more roasted oolongs! They’re one of my favorites, and perfect for fall.

Small Big Traveling Tea Box

I tend to like more malty oolongs than florally oolongs… and this tea is definitely leaning more towards the earthy floral type. It almost tastes a bit like green tea to me which is a bit odd but it also has a stronger flavor than most oolongs that I have tried. The back of my tongue tastes a distinctly smokey note. Not my favorite, but not too bad:]