"King of Duck Shit Aroma" Dan Cong Oolong tea * Spring 2017

Sixth tea for March Mad(Hatter)ness! This is for the oolong tea round, going against TeaSource’s Strawberry Oolong.

This is the Spring 2017 harvest, ordered in 2018 sometime. I shared it with my friend Todd during advent season but still haven’t tried it myself yet! Brewed 3.5g to 350ml 205F water for 3 minutes. (And guys, I think my kettle is trying to die… may know exactly what I’m getting myself for my birthday in a week this year!)

The brewed tea smells lovely, I’m getting notes of caramel, subtle roast, nuts (pecan?), and minerals. It sort of smells like a “more roasty” praline! On the sip I’m getting notes of minerally earth, roasted nuts, and a touch of honey-baked bread. There is a florality in the aftertaste, but I can’t place it. The sweetness and toasty/nutty notes really do give me a sort of praline or nougat impression. I think my only complaint is that it is a touch drying, and I wonder if dropping my leaf amount just slightly might smooth that out.

Very satisfying! This is a tough call against the Strawberry Oolong; I have really enjoyed both today, and they both have quite a range of flavors as well. But I think, side by side, this is the superior tea. Ya Shi Xiang “King of Duck Shit Aroma” Dan Cong Oolong moves on!

(It’s strange, I feel like lately I’ve been reaching for green, floral, and fruity teas, but clearly the results of March Mad(hatter)ness have shown I’m really into roasted flavors right now! Huh…)

Day 5 of Sara’s Old Tea!
Why is it called duck shit aroma? The smell is very vegetal.
I brewed it Western style.
Ah as expected of a good oolong, it’s a flavor party.
Very vegetal, and some fruity and floral notes, candy, nutty, butter…
OCTea suggests that I can get four steepings out of an oolong. I’m going to steep this all day until the flavor is gone.

This was one of two sample pouch sipdowns from earlier in the week. Even though Ya Shi Xiang can often be incredibly hit or miss for me, I have a huge soft spot for the “King of Duck Shit” offerings Yunnan Sourcing seems to offer year after year. This one was yet another big winner for me. I found it to be an excellent offering overall.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was followed by 15 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of cream, vanilla, honey, and orange blossom that were accompanied by vague fruity and nutty scents. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of roasted almond, butter, and grass. The first infusion brought out aromas of rose, apple, tangerine, violet, and baked bread. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered up notes of cream, butter, baked bread, roasted almond, grass, and orange blossom that were chased by apple, longan, cherry, and coriander hints. Subsequent infusions brought out aromas of marshmallow, steamed milk, rye, caraway, coconut, green bell pepper, coriander, banana leaf, strawberry, candied orange, and cherry. Tangerine, honey, and violet notes came out in the mouth as did fleeting hints of rose. I also picked up some stronger and more immediate notes of coriander, apple, and cherry. Impressions of cattail shoots, minerals, earth, coconut, banana leaf, candied orange, steamed milk, strawberry, green bell pepper, marshmallow, caraway, and rye also appeared. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized lingering impressions of minerals, grass, earth, cattail shoots, green bell pepper, cream, candied orange, roasted almond, and vanilla that were chased by hints of apple, coconut, cherry, rye, and caraway.

Honestly, this tea was just so impressive. Yunnan Sourcing rarely if ever misses on these “King of Duck Shit” offerings, but this one really hit me hard. I loved the spring 2016 version of this tea, but this one was slightly better. I was left in awe of how well its eclectic aroma and flavor components worked together. I should also note that in terms of body and texture, there was absolutely nothing to complain about with this tea. The tea liquor had just enough heft and firmness to it, and its texture was crisp and never slick or soapy. Had the tea liquor displayed just a tad more longevity, this tea’s score would be much closer to 100. All nitpicking aside, this tea was a standout. Definitely consider trying it if you have yet to do so.

dry leaf: roasted nuts, peaches, greenery, bread
in warmed teapot it’s much darker deeper and some reminders of bael tea.

wet leaf the greener aspects come out. mineral and marijuana, chicken stock

palate is vibrant and mineral with a surprising sweet buttery element. Quite complex

Dancong’s live for their aromas and strong bouquets and those are indicators for good quality when it comes to this type of oolongs.

Already those dry leaves within the warmed up teapot exhale such a thick and deliciously mouth watering atmosphere of almond and hazelnuts with something fruity crisp. This mouth watering effect gets really

crazy after those fine rolled little wonders got soaked with steaming hot water. This mist fills within an instant the whole space around you with such juiciness of now more in the back almonds but majorly tropical fruit baskets starting with mango and pineapple switching to another country for cherry blossoms and pickled cherries! The bouquet of the actual liquor develops such a lovely buttery biscuit touch with a nice additive of lavender and a hint of bourbon vanilla to it!

The texture is a dream of silky creaminess nearly buttery with such a masterly well composed subtle nutty bitter layer as the starting point followed by a major impact of fruitiness like nearly everything you can imagine! Like a multivitamin juice. There are red sweet apples, pears, pineapples, lychee, mango, passion fruit, cherries and cherry blossoms followed by a hint of kiwi and an even more tinier echo of clementines and blood orange but there is also a fragment of grapes to be found red and green ones but also its dried compound counterpart of raisins! Forget about buying a whole basket of fruits the only thing you need is just this one amazing tea and you got it all :D!

The echo nearly never fades and stays persistent within your whole mouth region for a very VERY long time! Within this very echo this whole fruity aspects transforms even into something new – something buttery sweet ~ like butter biscuits! The later infusions also tend to transform into the more bakery direction like the actual scent of the liquor already directed to: Lavender butter biscuits with a hint of bourbon Vanilla plus a fair amount of lychees and the nutty perfectly balanced main base of bitter notes! – Damn that’s good!!!

More Reviews & Photos at https://www.instagram.com/zerozen_artlab/

The aroma of the rinse was rich, buttery, like a floral crispy pastry. The first sip reminded me of the caramelization of meat or sweet potatoes roasted in honey. Later, I got an intensely floral flavor – again like honey. There was something in the experience that reminded of a church smell if churches smelled good – maybe somewhere in the area of old library book about bees and summer flowers.

“King of duck shit aroma” dancong oolong * spring 2017
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbHvvbfAGbN/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbHvx3ngphP/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988

Review:

Ru Yao dragon teapot gongfucha.

Dry leaf: honey, peaches, very sweet, floral.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbHv1KRAXwL/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988

Wet leaf: earth, honey, spices, sweet.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbHv6nEgcqr/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbHv9o7A05Q/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988

Light steep; I smell/taste:
(Smell) light —> earth, honey, clay.
(Taste) light -→ earth, honey, clay, floral, metallic (iron), sweet.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbHv4Heg1W1/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988

Medium steep; I smell/taste:
(Smell) light —> earth, honey, clay, pie(?).
(Taste) medium -→ earth, honey, clay, sweet, floral, metallic(iron), metallic(copper?), pie(?).

Heavy steep; I smell/taste:
(Smell) light —> floral, pie(?).
(Taste) light to medium -→ earth, honey, clay, sweet, floral, metallic(iron), metallic(copper).

All in all, nice flavours/aromas. Nice cha qi! Nice warm feeling. Just yummy and awesome! I rate a 99/100.

give it a try.

where to buy: https://yunnansourcing.com/products/king-of-duck-shit-aroma-dan-cong-oolong-tea-spring-2017