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This tea is strong with a slight bitterness and a strong roasted barley taste. I am guessing a Dan Cong oolong is related to a wuyi oolong. It reminds me strongly of a Da Hong Pao oolong but without as much complexity. It is definitely near a Da Hong Pao in flavor profile. I don’t know how an expensive Dan COng oolong would taste. This one was fairly inexpensive and tastes that way too.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 6.1g leaf and 190 degree water for 3 min.

This is a tasty tea with earthy notes and I think notes of dark chocolate. Other reviewers have said mushrooms, I didn’t find these but then again I wasn’t really paying attention. Dark chocolate notes are easy to spot and fairly common in earthy shou. The tea broth is rich and thick with I think what you would describe as a good mouthfeel. It was a bit more earthy than expected but then again I used more tea than usual by about a third. In any case this tea is an excellent value. I think I only paid $18.

I brewed this tea seven times in a 207ml Taiwan Clay Teapot with 9.5g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a long rinse to break up the tea and gave it a ten minute rest. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, and 2 min. Judging by the strength of the seventh steep I would guess that this tea had at least five more steeps in it had I wanted to continue.

This is a very tasty tea. I was surprised when I had to enter it into the data base. There was a Four Leaves Ripe but the picture clearly shows a 357g bing, this is the loose leaf. Either Mandala used to sell a bing or someone put it into the database with the wrong picture. Rather than change the picture, I entered this back into the database, right or wrong. This is without a doubt one of the best ripe loose puerhs I have drank. It is sweet, I would call the main note a dates note. The fermentation flavor is very mild. It would make a good first puerh for someone not used to ripe puerh.

I brewed this twice in an 18oz teapot with 6.1g leaf and boiling water. I brewed it for 30 sec, and 30 sec. I put the second steeping in a thermos and will bring it to work with me. My companies religious affiliation is the worship of the almighty dollar and holidays and employee safety are considered second rate concerns at best. Luckily there is almost no dangerous machinery where I work or the employees would be in trouble. We are now open on Christmas too, that should be illegal.

Thank yoy Angel at Teavivre for this sample. This is good tea. I will probably buy some from Teavivre in their Black Friday sale, we shall see if this tea is on sale. The notes of floral, roasted and broth sum this tea up for me. It has a certain amount of natural sweetness and just a little bit of that characteristic oolong bitterness. At first I thought to describe the roasted not as roasted barley but I think that just roasted is a better description. I do not know if this oolong tea is actually roasted. A little sugar brings out a honey sweetness in this tea. I don’t know if it would have been there without the sugar.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 6.8g leaf and 190 degree water for 3 min.

This is an excellent tea and perhaps the first shou gushu I have tried. It was earthy in the early steeps with a fair amount of fermentation flavor. Not a huge amount but about what you would expect for a 2012 tea. There were notes of dark chocolate in the early steeps as well. I agree with the reviewer that said the later steeps had a honey like sweetness. I would even say berry notes in the eighth and ninth steeps. This is one I wish Crimson Lotus had a price for the whole 2kg brick. If the price was right I would buy the whole thing to age it. It should also be noted that I never noticed any bitterness in this tea, if it was there I wasn’t paying close enough attention. This was an excellent tea overall.

I steeped this tea nine times in a 207ml Taiwan Clay Teapot with 8.5g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, 2 min, 4 min, and 8 min. This tea was far from played out. Had I not been drinking so much tea already I think it would have gone for another six steeps or so. This was a strong tea. I hope this ages well. I hope I have some of this left when it is ten years old.

This tea is good and this tea is strong. There were definite notes of apricots in this tea and it was sweet. I drank the first three steeps without sugar and it had apricot and sweet notes, maybe even stonefruits but I am not sure. There may have been a little smoke in there too. It was slightly bitter through the first four steeps and then the bitternessa became first noticeably dulled and eventually gone. The tea had a pleasant aftertaste throughout eight steeps. I must stress again that this was a strong tea. It never got as sweet as the 2014 Wild Monk, its character was a bit potent. It was an enjoyable tea session though and a rare afternoon one for me.

I steeped this eight times in a 150ml gaiwan with 7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it one rinse and let it rest for 10 min. I am not sure this really did anything but it couldn’t hurt. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, 2 min, and 4 min. EVen after eight steeps this was strong tea. I would guess that if I wanted to continue I would get another seven steeps out of it.

This tea is good and I will have to find time to gongfu it. This morning it got steeped western style. It is just slightly bitter and it has a slight taste of roasted barley often found in a Da Hong Pao tea, not strong. There is also that classic oolong taste that I have never figured out how to describe, a slightly bitter vegetal taste perhaps. This tea is not quite as good as I expect a 2nd Prize Tea to be. I think the Three Plum Flower Tea I got from Berylleb was better and that did not do as well in the competition. This tea was purchased from Dragon Tea House and was somewhat expensive but not tremendously so.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 190 degree water and 6.9g leaf for 3 min.

I got this tea recently in an order from Dragon Tea House. As always I checked the seal for the security mark and it passed admirably. It is quite good. There is only a little bit of fermentation flavor left, not much. There was some in the first three steeps but not enough to bother most fermentation sensitive individuals. I brewed this in a large, 350ml Yixing this morning so I only steeped it five times. I will leave the leaves for later and maybe steep it one more time or so. I figure I have already got most of the caffeine so another steep later on shouldn’t keep me awake tonight.

This tea had a variety of complex notes, most notably sweet notes after the fermentation earthiness was gone. I would describe them as berry or even dates notes, maybe both. I added a small amount of sugar which may have accentuated the sweet notes. But then again, I always add sugar and this tea is still sweeter than most.

I brewed this five times in a 350ml Yixing Teapot with 12.3g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, and 30 sec. In the fifth steep the tea did not get appreciably weaker, only a little. I would say that this tea could go for at least 10 to 12 steeps, respectable.

This is a good tea but not incredible. It had notes of bamboo in the first steep, somewhat pronounced. There was a certain amount of fermentation flavor in the first three steeps but not too much. This tea started out quite strong in the first three steeps or so but quickly weakened leaving the seventh steep to taste like a twelfth steep. The later steeps had no fermentation flavor and sweet notes.

I steeped this seven times in a 220ml gaiwan with 8.2g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, and 2 min.

This is an excellent tea I wish I could get more of. I wasn’t paying too close attention to this tea as far as notes went but I did notice two, baked bread is how I would describe the predominant note of the early steeps. In the sixth and seventh steep I noticed a just barely sweet note, not sweet like berries but sweet like something else, I can’t put a finger on it. Less sweet than berries, more sweet than black coffee is how I would describe it, and not really fruity sweet. The tea was also just slightly astringent, just slightly. There was also a strong effect of the Gaba in this tea. I noticed it most in the early steeps. In the first four steeps it was fairly strong and I felt a wave of relaxation hit me, but I cannot use the phrase tea drunk, it was not a high in that sense. Perhaps I noticed it because I was stressed out after a long day at work. I can’t wait to see the next tea from Global Tea Hut, it should arrive any day now.

I brewed this tea seven times in an 8oz Yixing Teapot with 5.7g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 30 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1 min 30 sec, 3 min, and 6 min. The tea was nearly played out at this point but I could have gotten at least one more good steep out of it I am sure.