I’ve heard dancongs are really hard to gongfu. This is my first one so far and I’m excited and a bit terrified to try this. What if I screw it up? Whatevs, I have 100g of it so it doesn’t matter if I use couple grams to practise. Maybe?
Guang Dong Phoenix Dan Cong has nice roasted-smoky aroma to it, there is also hint of cherry and wood. It’s not as roasty as Da Hong Pao, which was reeeally roasty to my taste. This Guang Dong might suit my taste based on aroma.
I did really quick 1st steep, like 5 seconds. Taste is not expected, I thought Guang Dong would be something like Da Hong Pao, but this is vegetal and mildly roasty. It has some tannis and really really sweet, a bit cherry like and floral scent. Also it has pleasantly astrigent mouthfeel that I really like. I’m going to push that ‘recommend’ button right away.
Next steep was something between 10-15s, maybe closer to 15s. I’m getting some sweet potato, and woodsy notes, quite strong, but not overly-strong smokiness too. There is also something berry-ish like blackcurrant. This tea is really insteresting since it seems to have typical flavours both to green and dark oolong with its roasty-smoky and floral-vegetal flavours.
I tried shorter steep again to get that nice cherry note, but now it turned smoky and bitter. What did I do wrong? Maybe next one will be successful… And yes it is. Now there is some dried fruit, blackcurrant, honey and… peach? This is definitely my favourite steep. I’m sure this will give many more steeps, I will write about them later.
I’m going to practice with this, but it seems to be really complex tea with a lot of different flavours. Does dancong better in chao zhou-teapots (or yixings). I’ve always wanted one to my collections, but I’ve also heard these are better in porcelain gaiwans
Flavors: Black Currant, Cherry, Earth, Floral, Honey, Mineral, Raspberry, Roasted, Smoke, Tar, Toast
