Togo Send Message

This is only a second tea of this type that I have tried as far as I can remember. I would like to see more of Japanese oolongs on the market though.

The aroma of dry leaves is sweet and toasty with notes of nectar and grass. During the session, it is much more floral with hints of orchid and burdock among other associations.

It is a full bodied tea with a thick creamy mouthfeel. The taste is a little bit like a green Taiwanese oolong. It is sweet, vegetal and mineral with a little bit of bitterness, lending to a long and sweet aftertaste. There are strong marine and grassy flavours, as well as those of custard, kale, lemon balm, lime zest.

A nice white tea that has quite a rustic character with a strong dry grass/hay presence to it. I like its smooth colloidal mouthfeel in particular.

The taste is sweet and vegetal with mild bitterness and flavours of gardenia, burdock, peanuts, and tree bark.

This tea is now sold out unfortunately, but if it comes back in stock, I would highly recommend it. With the inflated prices of Oriental Beauty in recent years, it is hard to come around such a great example at this price.

The tea has a lot of depth and complexity and is more robust than some of the Taiwanese high grades. The dry leaf aroma is super sweet with notes of flowers, nectar, beeswax, and maple syrup. Wet leaves then smell very perfumy. There are notes of petrichor, soap, rose, and forest floor.

The taste is generally very sweet. Floral and woody notes dominate, with fruity ones in close succession. There is, however, also a sort of mineral, savoury undercurrent, as well as mild bitterness, which helps to keep it a thoroughly engaging session. Some specific flavours I noticed include peach, charcoal, and sugarcane. The aftertaste is very long, a bit drying and refreshing.

The tea has a medium body and a pretty soft mouthfeel, it is not super thick, but very pleasant to drink.

Quite a subtle black tea that is not as robust as most examples of the category on the market. Its aromas are very floral with rose being the primary association for me. The taste is bitter and has a woody astringency as well as coffee-like sourness. There are notes of sap, peanuts, earth at first. Later, more of a “Japanese” character comes forward. The taste has more umami and hints of shellfish and wheat, as well as molasses and allspice in the aftertaste.

I really like many Jing Gu teas and this one is one of my favourite ones among them. It also shows how well teas from this region can age, I am really happy with its progression in my home storage.

The tea has quite a vegetal and savoury character with plenty of bitterness, but its taste profile is really hard to describe. What I can say with certainty is that it makes me want to drink more. The aroma has a sage note. The taste notes include dry earth, bread, sunflower seeds, cocoa beans, parsnips, almonds and also a strong fennel one that persists into the aftertaste. The tea is thick, oily and a bit spicy.

The more times I drink this tea, the more I recognize how amazing it is. Some pu-erh teas can have a very complex flair when very young that recedes over the years and perhaps never comes back. This one, even though it changes noticeably, remains interesting and tasty with every passing year, at least so far.

Even the aroma is surprisingly complex for a 5 year old tea. It is sweet with notes of coffee, dried cranberries, and pumpkin. The taste is herbaceous and grainy at first, with a bread flavour present. Second steep is quite sweet with mild citrusy note as well as malt and pine flavours. The third one brings more woody bitterness of tree bark, but also honey and cloves flavours.

I’m finishing my sample of this tea and getting more out of it than in the past. I particularly like the depth it offers while being very floral as well. The overall character, with its floral and vegetal notes, underlying bitterness and strong umami which transform into milky sweetness, reminds me of a Japanese green tea. The aftertaste is also very pungent and evolving and offers another layer of the experience on top.

Today I drank the last 9g of my cake. It was a very nice way as well. First I had some of it with breakfast, during which I also filled up my thermos. I then drank from it during the day, as I went skiing. It was an awesome powder day with blue skies, something we have had very little of this winter so far. After returning, I did another batch brew, which was super satisfying. I especially appreciated the amazing texture and strong flavour you can get from a tea like this without any danger of making it unpalatable as there is basically no astringency and only very little bitterness. To conclude, I boiled the tea for 15 minutes, which I do quite rarely these days, but I thought it was a fitting end to my very positive relationship with the Rooster King.

The king is dead, long live the king!

This Dan Cong is on the pricier side, but it delivers. It has a great complexity and depth overall.

The dry leaf aroma is nutty and flowery with additional hints of cookies and molasses. During the session, the smell gives a bunch of associations, such as purple corn, green pepper, Breckland thyme, and orchids.

The liquor itself is very fragrant as well, its smooth and tender character in the mouth quickly transforms into a strong presence with punch and astringency. The tea has a superb bitter and floral taste with notes of apple and sugarcane. Its aftertaste is also quite rich and mineral.

This tea has a great pungent taste, which is indeed very floral. I also love the aromas, they remind me of forest, nettle, peat, and also Mao Feng green tea.

The first infusion is sweet and bitter with strong forest vibes and a biting, spicy aftertaste. The second one bring vegetal notes (moss) and woody bitterness (pine). The aftertaste present really good huigan, as well as some apple note and a strong savoury minerality. Overall I get a sensation that makes me want to drink water in between the tea.

There is a strong clarifying energy to the whole experience. However, I found the mouthfeel to be a bit uninteresting for a tea at this price.