Showing posts with label Dancong. Show all posts

M&K’s Tea Co. Cherry Blossom Oolong (Sakura Phoenix)

(Tea Provided For Review)
M&K’sTea Co. Cherry Blossom Oolong (Sakura Phoenix)

I decided to try this Sakura Phoenix tea today because it felt the most interesting of my samples as it is a Chinese oolong mixed with pickled Japanese cherry blossoms. I am not sure if I have ever had a tea like this before; I have had both Chinese Oolongs and pickled cherry blossoms, but never blended together.  M&K to describes this as:

M&K's is proud to offer our exclusive Sakura Phoenix tea! We take the famous Feng Huang Chinese oolong tea picked from wild and independent (Dancong) tea bushes growing on the mountainside, and combine the tea with pickled Japanese cherry blossoms, which retain their unique cherry scent straight from the tree they were picked from in Kyoto, Japan. Sakura Phoenix tea combines tastes of  honey and cherry blossoms with an aroma of garden orchids.  
*We highly recommend you "rinse" this tea before you drink it (because of the salt on the cherry blossoms as well as the Phoenix tea opening up with a rinse). Simply pour boiling water over the tea, allow it to sit for about 10-15 seconds, discard the water, and then proceed with a normal brew!


Dry Leaves: The dry leaves smell strongly of salt which is not surprising, I am a little disappointed that I could not smell any of the base Dancong. As for the tea leaves they are pretty typical of Dancongs, mostly dark brown although there are hints of yellows and greens. As for the pickled cherry blossoms they are in pretty good shape.


First Steeping
Temperature: 190oF
Brewing Time: Twenty Seconds
Aroma: Salt
Flavor: Orchid, Almonds, Salt and Floral
Tasting Notes: I was not planning on steeping this for as long as I did, but I had a bit of a problem with my camera, I’ve had problems with my camera not focusing on liquids before, but nothing like today. Anyways I hope you like out of focused blurry images; because that is what you are in for today. Nevertheless this is a very interesting tea, but first I must admit I did rinse this tea quite a lot; I did three rinses each for five seconds with boiling water to get most of the salt off.




This is a very sweet tea although if you are expecting a strong cherry taste you may want to look for a tea blended with hibiscus instead of pickled cherry blossoms, nevertheless I rather enjoyed it. I suspect most of the sweetness comes from the cherry blossoms, as the base tea has a lot of heartier tastes.  This sort of reminds me of a Mi Lan Xian for some reason. Anyways I decided to describe this as both Floral and having and Orchid flavor because when I brewed this tea it had a very noticeable Orchid taste and a slightly murky floral aftertaste.


Second Steeping
Temperature: 195oF
Brewing Time: Thirty Seconds
Aroma: Salt
Flavor: Orchid, Almond, Peach, Salt and Floral
Tasting Notes: Like the last infusion there is not much of an aroma which is quite a shame, because I suspect the base tea may have a nice aroma, I already mentioned the base tea reminds of a Mi Lan Xian since the Dancong flavors are starting to become stronger.




I prefer this infusion over the last since the salty flavor is starting to wane although more of the base tea and cherry blossom to shine, although the contrast is disappearing as well.



Third Steeping
Temperature: 200oF
Brewing Time: Forty-five Seconds
Aroma: Salt and Floral
Flavor: Floral, Almond, Peach and Honey
Tasting Notes: I am sad to say the Orchid flavor is gone; instead it started to become indistinct from the murky floral aftertaste although it was rather interesting to have a very strong murky floral flavor and aftertaste.  I am happy to say the salty notes are gone entirely, but I feel the pickled cherry blossoms were perhaps a little too salty I feel I missed out a lot the delicate early flavors. As for the flavors they are pretty much as strong as the previous infusion, but with some new honey notes, although without the salty contrast they feel much stronger. From here on out the almond and honey notes start to shine and the floral notes disappear around the sixth infusion.  


At the time of writing this M&K is currently selling 42.5g for $7.29 which seems fair although I’d be happier to pay more for 50g. My major criticism of this tea is the pickled cherry blossoms. While I did rinse this three times I feel it was a little too salty especially considering that I actually remembered to rinse it, I have had pickled cherry blossoms before, but I don’t remember them being this salty. I have a sneaking suspicion the cherry blossoms blended in this tea were intended for confectionaries rather than for tea, but at the same time I have not seen pickled cherry blossoms that looked as nice as these did. And then there is the possibility that I just had a very salty sample. I think this is worth checking out, especially if you do not drink a lot of straight teas, I imagine this would be a nice transition from flavored to straight teas since I could actually taste the tea. I have had a couple Cherry blossom flavored teas before, although they have all had green tea bases and blended with hibiscus and cherry flavoring, but this in my opinion is a much better tea.  
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White2Tea’s Dawuye Dancong

(Tea provided for review)
Origin: Guangdong



I decided it was finally time to get back on the White2Tea hype train and try one of their oolongs. I know I have been sitting on the remainder of the White2Tea samples for a long time and I feel terrible for waiting so long to try some of them, especially because they are so good! Anyways White2Tea describes this tea as:
Dark Feather Dancong oolong tea is a Dawuye variety oolong from the Guangdong province of China.  The tea has a light to medium roast and is sweet, fragrant, and has a lasting complex finish. Best brewed Gongfu style, the Dark Feather can be resteeped many times.
The name makes this oolong sound like it is much darker than it actually is, while it is nowhere near the more heavily oxidized oolongs I would not describe as a greener oolong, it feels somewhere in the middle. I do tend to avoid a lot of the heavily oxidized oolongs, but the roast on this feels rather well done, it is very subtle.


Dry Leaves: The leaves have a slightly grayish tint, but the leaves are predominantly blackish with a little green mixed in. There are a couple long stems and it looks like the leaves are hand harvested. There is a slight aroma of vegetal sweetness to the leaves.



First Steeping
Temperature: 190oF
Brewing Time: Thirty Seconds
Aroma: Floral and Oat
Flavor: Tangy, Fruity and Malty
Tasting Notes: I do not know why I was expecting a darker tea, I have had Dawuyes before. Regardless this is a very fragrant tea; I am getting tons of floral notes and a rather strange aroma that stumped me for a while. In the end I decided to describe it as oats, it does remind me a little of oats, but more so of young grain; although I am not exactly certain while I have seen and smelled wild grains I do not know of any place nearby that grows grains to be sure.





The actual individual tastes of this tea are amazing. It is very easy to see why a store that specializes in puerh. It has a very nice mix of tangy notes that are not exactly sweet, then the fruitiness has some definite sweetness to it and then the malty contrasts both the tangy (almost spicy) & sweet fruity flavors. So far this tea reminds me a little of barbeque sauce in a good way, I can taste some roasted notes in this tea, even though I did not include “Roasted” in the flavor description section. 

Second Steeping
Temperature: 195oF
Brewing Time: One Minute
Aroma: Floral and Woodsy
Flavor: Tangy, Malty, Ripe Fruit and Citron Peel
Tasting Notes: Very creamy this time, while the liquor had a nice (not necessarily thick) mouthfeel in the last infusion it’s becoming much thicker almost syrupy. The fruity notes have changed a bit; they feel much riper this time definitely sweeter than the last time, although it has yet to develop sickly sweet that you occasionally see in teas described as ripe fruit. And there is a new citron peel like bitterness taste this time.





The aroma still is rather lovely, the oat scent has disappeared and been replaced with a woodsy scent that is a little reminiscent of the smell of wood after the bark has been pulled off. The floral notes are still there, but they are starting to weaken. Besides the aroma the tea is becoming rather complex, there are the sweet, but not sweetness of the tangy & fruity notes contrasting with the matiness & bitterness of the citron; its feels like this tea is being pulled in two directions and for some reason it works rather well. While individually each taste is clashing with the others, but for some reason this tea has a perfect balance between them. It has that tanginess yet still malty, it has those sweet ripe fruity notes despite the sharp bitter citron.

Third Steeping
Temperature: 200oF
Brewing Time: Two Minutes
Aroma: Woodsy and Oat
Flavor: Tangy, Malty, Walnut, Ripe Fruit and Tart Citrus
Tasting Notes: Again wow! I am sad to say the bitterness of the last infusion is almost completely gone and instead there is a very murky tart citrus flavor. And there is a new walnut taste that offers another interesting flavor; in later infusions the tea starts to become simpler, but the fruity and tangy notes are the first tastes to wane and disappear. It’s interesting that this tea becomes very earthy and floral towards its end. I did get a lot out of these leaves, I did not really keep track of how many infusions after the eighth, but this has a lot to give.





At the time of writing this White2Tea is selling this for $21.50 and while it a little out of that comfortable $10-15 range I feel that is a pretty good price for this Dawuye.



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