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I almost bought this tea when I was placing my most recent What-Cha order, so I was happy to see it included as a free sample. Guizhou is a region I haven’t come across often in my extensive online window shopping; in fact, I think only What-Cha and maybe Camellia Sinensis stock teas from this terroir. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 200F for 7, 10, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of brown sugar, stewed plums, and wood. The first steep is sticky and sweet with notes of plum, citrus, apricot, brown sugar, tannin, wood, and a bit of malt. It’s a mild tea that nonetheless has a tannic bite. The citrus (candied orange) and stonefruit (nectarine?) get more prominent in the next couple steeps, as does the brown sugar. The fourth steep tastes faintly of stewed greens and is pretty drying, though it still has nice apricot and plum notes. Though the fruity notes persist over the next few rounds, malt, cooked greens, tannins, and wood come to the forefront.

If I had to rate this tea on the first five or so steeps, it would be in the nineties, but the increasing dryness and tannins in the later part of the session lose it some marks. Still, there’s a lot to like, especially if you enjoy citrus and stonefruit, which I very much do.

Eastkyteaguy’s review convinced me to get this tea, which, given my love of floral and fruity offerings from Darjeeling and Nepal, wasn’t difficult. I steeped 4 g of leaf in 355 ml of water at 195F for 5 minutes, plus another long infusion.

The dry aroma is of spice, dried fruit, nuts, and wood. Whoa! There’s a lot going on in this tea. I get dried apricots, tangy lemon and orange, rose, other flowers, roasted almonds, malt, grass, and mild background spice that is indeed chili-like. There’s no astringency, just a long aftertaste. The second infusion emphasizes notes of nuts, toast, cream, malt, and grass.

This is a unique, complex, and highly enjoyable first flush that has more going on than I can put into words. I didn’t get any muscatel, but I found citrus, stonefruit, and lots of florals, not to mention the intriguing spiciness. This is definitely a tea that repays careful savouring.

I’ve discovered a cache of old Davids Teas, some from as far back as 2015. Most of them are unflavoured, so they probably haven’t withstood the test of time particularly well. I can’t remember if I tried this Ceylon black tea before unintentionally archiving it. I steeped 2 teaspoons of long, kind of broken leaf in a 355 ml mug at 195F for 3:30 and 5 minutes.

Prior to steeping, the leaves give off aromas of honey and generic black tea. The first steep has notes of honey, baked bread, malt, and lots of tannins. The tea leaves a tannic aftertaste and is quite drying. The second steep is just a step up from generic black tea.

I’m not sure if this tea was more interesting when I purchased it, so I won’t assign it a rating. As it is, I don’t think it’s a loss that DAVIDsTEA stopped carrying it.

This is the 2019 harvest, and it’s very, very good—so good that it’ll probably be gone by the end of the month if I don’t hoard it. I steeped 2.5 teaspoons of leaf in a 355 ml mug at 203F for 5 minutes, plus another long infusion because I didn’t want this session to end. I usually steep Darjeelings for 3.5, 5, and 10 minutes, but wanted to see if a longer first steep would bring out more flavour for the review.

The dry leaf aroma is of muscatel, honey, and orange blossoms. After steeping, the muscatel wafts gloriously out of my cup. Steeping for 5 minutes was a fantastic idea, except not really, because now I’ll want to drink all my Darjeelings this way. The tea has notes of muscatel, honey, autumn leaf pile, orange blossom, roses, tannins, tree sap, earth, and a bit of chocolate. There’s a whisper of astringency that doesn’t occur if the tea is brewed less heavily. The second steep is a little more astringent, but still has nice honey, muscatel, and sappy notes.

Whether it’s steeped strong or comparatively weak, this is a great second flush Darjeeling with lots of nuanced flavours. It has exactly the soft, muscatel, floral profile I like in this tea type and I regret not buying more.

If you want to get me excited about a tea, put “stonefruit” in the description. The story of a guy reviving an old tea farm also won me over. This is the spring 2019 harvest. I somehow thought you could gongfu it, but the consensus on here is that it works better Western, so I steeped about 2.5 teaspoons in a 355 ml mug at 203F for 4, 6, and 10 minutes.

The dry leaf aroma is of soy sauce, plums, and raisins. The first steep indeed has a lot of stonefruit, such as apricots, raisins, and plums. There’s also caramel, roast nuts, dark wood, and a bit of that umami soy sauce flavour. As others have mentioned, there’s almost no astringency. The second steep has lighter raisin and stonefruit notes, dark wood, a little malt, and some tannins, and by the third steep, it’s just a generic mild black tea.

I’m not usually a huge fan of raisin notes in tea, but this one is still very tasty. I might try adding even more leaf to intensify the flavours, as I think my gigantic mug attenuated them a bit. Also, two steeps seems to be the limit. This is a solid tea that I’ll enjoy playing around with.

Thanks to Fong Mong for the sample. I steeped the entire 6 g in a 120 ml teapot at 185F for 20, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus a couple long infusions.

Wow! The sample nearly fills my teapot to the brim! The first steep has notes of baked apple, brown sugar, and pleasant sourness with a long, sweet/sour aftertaste. Maybe because of the baked apple associations, I get some nutmeg in the second steep. The next couple rounds add a yeasty flavour, which turns into honey and GABA tanginess in the next several infusions. The tea keeps this profile until the end of the session, when a bit of malt is detectable.

This is a smooth, easy-drinking tea that would probably be great cold. Whether you enjoy it will largely depend on how you perceive the taste of the GABA processing, which is noticeable. I found it to be pleasant and mellow, although I prefer other tea types.

Here’s yet another spring 2018 Dan Cong from Yunnan Sourcing! The name and the low price convinced me I needed 25 g of this last year. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of orchids and jasmine. The first couple steeps have notes of pungent jasmine, orchids, cucumber, green pepper, light roast, herbs, and grass. Subsequent rounds add peach, nectarine, and lavender, although the aroma is stronger than the taste. As Togo mentioned, the aftertaste is long, herbaceous, and persistent. The fruity notes are slight and disappear when the tea cools down. By steep seven or so, this turns into an herbaceous, vegetal, floral Dan Cong with some roast, minerality, and astringency.

This is a good Dan Cong that lives up to its name. If the last part of my gongfu session was kind of boring, it’s a reasonable price to pay for the lovely first steeps.

Yay! This is my 150th tasting note! This review is for the spring 2018 harvest. As someone who loves both ginger and Dan Congs, I was curious to see if it would live up to its name. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 203F for 7, 10, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

Eastkyteaguy has captured this tea much better than I can. The dry aroma is promising, with ginger, apricot, sunflower seeds, and fruit leather. The aroma of the first steep is definitely ginger, combined with fruit, flowers, and sunflower seeds. The taste is of delicate ginger, butter, apricots, orchids and other flowers, sunflower seeds, and baked bread. All of the flavours are quite subtle. The second steep has more of the flavours Eastkyteaguy detected, including apple, pear, and pomegranate. It’s kind of like a fruity gingerbread, if that makes sense. The next couple steeps are more nutty and woody, though the ginger and fruit notes are still prominent. Grass, veggies, minerals, roast, and wood appear in later steeps, with orchids and ginger lingering in the aftertaste.

This is an intimidatingly complex Dan Cong whose nuances I’ve probably failed to appreciate. The flavour combination is fascinating, especially the realistic ginger note. It’s a lot less in-your-face than many Dan Congs, however, and requires careful attention.

P.S.: I’ve noticed that a few of the seals have separated from the walls of Yunnan Sourcing’s 25 g bags, making it impossible to close them. Has this happened to anyone else?

The name of this tea intrigued me enough for me to pick up 25 g of it last year. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 203F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

Dry, the tea smells like honey and roast. The first steep smells and tastes like banana bread. (Maybe this is why it’s called Monkey Varietal Dan Cong?) I get notes of char, roast, ripe bananas, honey, grain, and faint florals. The banana bread vibe is even stronger in the second steep, and is helped by the tea’s heavy body, if not by the slight astringency at the end of the sip. The next couple steeps have a very slight fruity note, maybe guava? By the fifth steep, the tea is roasty, bready, and nutty, and the banana is gone. Wood, minerals, nuts, and roast dominate the last few rounds.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say this was a Wuyi oolong instead of a Dan Cong. It’s also much less complex than other Dan Congs I’ve had, though this could be due to my brewing. While the banana bread flavours are fun, it’s way too roasted for my liking and I probably won’t repurchase it.

This was Oolong C in a blind tasting set of high-mountain teas, and I correctly guessed it was Alishan because it was so darn floral. I got distracted during my first reviewing session and had to drink it again, which explains why this note is a bit later than the others. (Also, “having” to drink this tea again was by no means a hardship!) I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at boiling for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry and wet leaves smell like lilacs, orange blossoms, and other flowers. The first steep has notes of spring flowers, maybe orange blossom, lilac, and honeysuckle, plus pear, honey, cream, and grass. The next steep is more herbaceous and citrusy. This oolong is less overwhelmingly fruity and sweet than the lovely SLX, but it’s still tasty.

Steeps three and four have heavier orange blossom and other floral and herbaceous notes, and a nice, silky texture. The fruit is gone by steep five, and the tea becomes increasingly grassy as it nears the end of its life. This Alishan doesn’t have the staying power of the other two oolongs, but neither does it become an astringent, grassy mess.

This was a very good tea that seemed to be more typical of its terroir than the other oolongs in the set. It’s definitely nothing to sneeze at, especially for floral oolong lovers, but it wasn’t as memorable for me as the He Huan Shan or Shan Lin Xi. Still, I will have no problem finishing my remaining 20 grams.