Taiwan Dong Ding (Tung Ting) Oolong Tea

Sipdown, 124. I actually meant to grab a different sample pouch this morning, but my brain is somewhat addled from poor sleep last night, so this one it is. Another of my winnings from Teavivre’s latest fall oolong giveaway.

Apparently the last time I had this tea (probably a different harvest) I found it to be not very toasted in flavor, but this one seems more roasty in the aroma at least. It is sweet and toasty, reminding me a bit of floral honey on toast (because there is also an awesome honeyed sweeteness in this one). Didn’t get that last time… I wonder if it was my leaf to water ratio? I am packing the leaf a bit more these days, which I think is making a difference when it comes to these oolongs. I am for sure enjoying these toasty oolongs more… maybe it’s my palate changing, maybe it’s that I figured out my optimal brewing for them, maybe it’s the fall weather that’s back! Nice and cool, perfect for curling up with a cup of tea.

I am trying the very last sample of this tea brewing it with the mug style. I have a nice clear mug that I can see my leaves in. I am mostly waiting for the tea to cool down to a drinkable temperature and trying to figure out how to drink it without chugging down the leaves. They are halfway unfurled at the moment and half of them are floating.

The color is a nice clear pale green. It smells wonderfully fruity which I have come to expect. It also smells faintly buttery. I feel like I am doing an experiment in tea leaf reading.

It is very light and delicate. I have a feeling the flavor will get slightly stronger the longer I let it sit. I am learning how to drink tea all over again. I have to keep my lips far away from the leaves as I sip out of my mug and it is starting to look like a forest in there. I will update later as I finish my tea and make more steeps this way.

Edit: It tastes like I’m getting a more of a nutty flavor out of it and it is less sweet than when I steep it in the press. Still delicate and I have no idea how long the leaves have technically been steeping in the water. Almost done with the mug. I might pout some more water on it later because it filled me up.

A lovely Oolong – sweet, and so delicate! The floral notes are very soft in the first cup. With subsequent infusions, the flavors do pick up a little bit, but they remain a little on the delicate side. It is like drinking the air that breezes through a garden: the flowers and the grass, and the clean, crisp air. So delicate and serene.

It is very refreshing too, I find the delicate quality of this tea to be so thirst quenching, and less dry than a more astringent tea might be. Sweet and exotic, and just the right tea for this afternoon. I find myself adoring this tea more and more with each sip.

Thanks LiberTEAS for this sample. Let me start by saying this is a good tea to break me (or anyone else needing broken in I suppose) to green teas in that I’ve not had but a couple I enjoyed and I am an oolong fan so obvious deduction= green oolongs.

Dry leaf is, as you would expect- green (shocker) and smells floral and maybe even fruity. The liquor steeped to a bright yellow with just a tad of greenish brown. Wet leaf smells very green indeed, kinda like seaweed maybe.

I was happy to see that, although this is a green oolong, it starts out not overpoweringly green and with a certain amount of nutiness in the sip. A faint sweetness is present, aside from the organic kind of sweetness I associate with grasses,but there’s not a strong enough presence for me to decipher what it resembles. The level of astringency is within my embarrassingly low threshold of tolerance for enjoyment. It, as I’m learning, leaves my palate feeling clean without any kind of bitter aftertaste. As the cup cools the grassiness becomes stronger, thereby reinforcing my earlier statement that it’s a good drink to break in to greens with. With the utmost of manners it brought me along into it’s vegative flavor and in turn kept itself from being poured out prematurely. Who knew that common manners could be so self preserving.

Since the cordial mannerisms of this tea were worthy to make mention I also deemed it worthy a second steeping. Fret not those of a frugal mindset; I shall not waste this sample but rather once this note is finished will continue steeping for any family members enthusiastic about drinking it during the wind down moments before bed.

Second steeping; a little info to start- often times I try to split even small samples in half in case I oversteep or something. I’m not stocked up on teaware yet so to do this I use one of those two cup glass pots with the finum basket inside you see at Asian groceries. It loses temp quickly. That said, when I went to steep a second time I forgot to set a timer (do not mock my primitive means you fortunate ‘Breville One Touch’ owners) and it went for maybe ten minutes. To my surprise it wasn’t bitter or overly strong…it seemed fine. I can only now assume that with the rapid temperature loss that the tea ‘stopped’ steeping once it got low enough. It was greener still,with a slightly more dry mouthfeel which may have been due to oversteeping. Generally this was a good tea, just not so much for me with my slowly but surely leaning away from green stuff palate.

tunes-Johnny Cash=Hurt/Rusty Cage/Thirteen/God’s Gonna Cut You Down

One of my samples from Teavivre! It’s so hot out, there was pretty much no way I was going to be drinking this hot this afternoon, but I’ve kind of neglected my teas from them so I was determined to make this one. I cold steeped it for 15 hours or so, maybe for too long—it has an ever so slightly bitter taste that I haven’t encountered in cold brews before. It’s not really unpleasant, just there in the background. I also dumped a whole one of the cute little packets in, so maybe that had something to do with it?

This is a soft, light oolong, with mild floral and fruity notes. The floral taste reminds me a bit of gardenia, the fruit like a faint whiff of fresh peaches. There’s also a bit of palate-cleansing creaminess at the end of the sip, perfect for a hot day! I’m getting some light vegetal notes as well, maybe some grassiness though it’s honestly a bit harder to pick out such subtle things when your glass is ice-cold! I’m definitely enjoying this iced though, very refreshing and summery.

Tea of the afternoon…..

I this is the last Teavivre sample I have to taste, but I have one more than this to review. Then I will probably be going through my samples to put an order together. In general, I am thoroughly impressed with the tea I have received from this company. Thank you so much to TeaVivre for the opportunity to try the samples. I know I sound like a broken record, but I greatly appreciate their approach to tea, as well as the quality I can purchase for the price.

Onto the tea. This one is very good. The leaves are green like you would expect with a green oolong. The brew is light yellow with only a hint of green. The vegetal notes are light. There is definitely a hint of butter and a creamy, heavy mouthfeel. Yum. I really like this one. I think I need some soon, but I need to go back to my Tie Guan Yin for a cup just to see how it compares.

Mug method, 2 minutes, 175 degree water. No additions.

A review of Taiwan Dong Ding (Tung Ting) Oolong by Teavivre

Company: Teavivre
Tea Name: Taiwan Dong Ding Oolong
Tea Type/Varietal: Oolong
Region: Taiwan
Steeping Vessel/Amt. Leaf: cup/ loose-leaf
Plucking Season:
Liquor Color: Light green
Leaf Characteristics: leaves are finely curled and when infused in water for rinsing than steeping the leaves become full and plump and are green in color.

1st Steeping:
Water temperature: 200 Fahrenheit
Time: 3 minutes

I pre-rinsed 1 teaspoon of the tea leaves with boiling water and then adding more of the freshly boiled water into my mug with the leaves inside. I place lid on tea mug and leave to steep for a few minutes.

Teas’ aroma is green and broccoli like with a light greenish color. When I do this take sip of the tea is mildly astringent for an oolong and the more I drink it I realize it is not bitter, just a freshly clean yet smooth cup of tea.

I plan on having this tea for remainder of the day by just adding more boiling water to it and letting it cool and sips and sips away.

This oolong is light in body with a mildly astringent when first sipping of tea and as I drink more of the tea I realize it is dry on my palette, lip smacking kind of dryness and with more drinks than the thirst is quenched.

I like this Ding Dong Oolong and I have sampled it before from other tea vendors (Fong Mong Tea Corp) and a teahouse in Seattle who purchases teas in Taiwan as well. I seem to recall mentioning that there are high grade Dong Ding and charcoal roasted Dong Ding which gives more a smoky and woodsy aroma as opposed to this Dong Ding which is very light in body and vegetal in taste and aroma.

Thank you, Teavivre for sending this sample for me to experience and write review of.

Thank you Angel at Teavivre for this sample!

For some reason, I really like the Frozen Summit Oolongs! This one is certainly no let down.

The smoothness is accompanied by the lack of fruity notes, resulting more of a grassy flavor. It resembles a light, more subdued Pearl Green Tea.

There is a mild sweetness to the after-sip, that leaves you satisfied. I will be coming back to this one a couple different times, I’m sure.

This is a sipdown of my sample.
I really enjoyed this lovely oolong. It is a little bit vegetal and I think I prefer more roasted oolongs now. However, I would never turn down a cup of this and rather enjoyed the freshness of the leaves. I might even order more samples some time so I can enjoy it again.

Dry aroma puts me in mind of an Iron Goddess, it smells very much like a green oolong. There is a bold aroma, distinct sweetness with some hay and grass underneath it. I’m not much for greener oolongs typically, but this smells pretty nice.

Steeped at 90 degrees for about 2 minutes, the beau thinks we under-steeped it a bit and I tend to agree. There is a very slight oolong aroma and taste, more sweet than vegetal but it was barely there.

The second steep (of 5ish minutes) shows more strength of flavour, with a fairly strong floral aroma and taste. Still fairly unassuming, but nice. Green oolongs aren’t really my forte and this doesn’t really change that but it was a perfectly palatable cup of tea.

I think this is one of those times where I should have followed the instructions and used boiling water, but boiling water doesn’t work with oolongs for me very frequently. I still have three more little pouches, will try again at some point. Thanks Teavivre for this sample! (From ages ago, whoops!)