Old Style Dong Ding Oolong

Tea type
Oolong Tea
Ingredients
Oolong Tea Leaves
Flavors
Floral, Flowers, Smooth, Honey, Orchid, Osmanthus, Peach, Apple, Apricot, Butter, Cinnamon, Cream, Cucumber, Honeysuckle, Lettuce, Pear, Nutty, Sweet, Nectar, Caramel, Coconut, Grass, Mango, Vegetal
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by eastkyteaguy
Average preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 2 min, 0 sec 4 g 26 oz / 757 ml

Currently unavailable

We don't know when or if this item will be available.

From Our Community

1 Image

8 Want it Want it

5 Own it Own it

17 Tasting Notes View all

  • “TeaTiff TTB #28 I pulled a few small oolong samples from the TTB to try before sending it off. This was one that had barely enough for 1 Western-style mug left. I’m guessing someone who enjoys...” Read full tasting note
    60
  • “TTB Review #52: Simple yet enjoyable. There is a cacophony of flavors, individually subtle, but together present and pleasant. Tastes more like a green tea than an oolong. Better cold than hot....” Read full tasting note
    67
  • “Nothing like the first aroma of a bag of freshly opened tea. Granted it doesn’t compare to smelling it fresh off the processing line. But the mineral and floral scents emanating from this bag are...” Read full tasting note
    66
  • “10g sample was actually 9.5g (no big deal). Used 4.8g for competetion-style brewing. Will follow up with gong fu brewing test. I usually use 7g for gong fu so with 4.7g I’ll use a bit less water...” Read full tasting note
    87

From Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company

This tea is hand-picked, hand-made the old-fashioned way with floral overtones and a very smooth drinking experience.

Here’s an interesting tea. 30 years ago, the most sought after teas on the local Taiwanese market came from three areas: Wenshan, Muzha and Dong Ding which produced a rolled oolong. As the High Mountain Oolongs expanded into other higher mountain areas like Alishan, Shanlinxi and Lishan, the popularity of the lower elevation Dong Ding started to get crowed out. In time, the farmers there started making their teas in more modern ways to cut costs.

Fast forward and now there are a few farmers who have decided to go retro and make Dong Ding Oolong with the same production methodology as 30 years ago! Their goal is to remind everyone why Dong Ding got famous in the first place. We think they succeeded.

This tea is more floral and reminds one of a nice Tieguanyin. We really like this tea and hope you’ll give it a shot!

About Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company View company

Company description not available.

17 Tasting Notes

60
961 tasting notes

TeaTiff TTB #28

I pulled a few small oolong samples from the TTB to try before sending it off. This was one that had barely enough for 1 Western-style mug left. I’m guessing someone who enjoys floral tea would love this one, but for me it was that really intense floral flavor that borders on drinking perfume, so I wasn’t the biggest fan.

Flavors: Floral, Flowers, Smooth

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

67
157 tasting notes

TTB Review #52: Simple yet enjoyable. There is a cacophony of flavors, individually subtle, but together present and pleasant. Tastes more like a green tea than an oolong. Better cold than hot. Feels sophisticated and mature.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

66
1233 tasting notes

Nothing like the first aroma of a bag of freshly opened tea. Granted it doesn’t compare to smelling it fresh off the processing line. But the mineral and floral scents emanating from this bag are pretty fantastic. I will be steeping this gong fu style. Thus will not be adhering to the 3 mins rule. Though from my first sip I can tell this one will need a bit longer in order to release all the precious flavors. The second sip at a minute revealed floral notes, gardenia, and a few mineral notes. I’m now 2-3 mins and getting wet rock notes, popcorn, and tropical floral notes. Overall, its a decent oolong but I feel that I’ve had better and the amount of infusions you get from this one is not much.

Daylon R Thomas

I used to really love that tea, but the last few times I’ve bought it years ago have not had the same flavor as the fruity floral smells.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

87
5 tasting notes

10g sample was actually 9.5g (no big deal). Used 4.8g for competetion-style brewing. Will follow up with gong fu brewing test. I usually use 7g for gong fu so with 4.7g I’ll use a bit less water & slightly longer steeps.

Dry tea looks nice, medium sized balls with some larger ones and a bit of dust. Dry aroma is not strongly present.

Competetion style:
Filtered tap water at full boil, quick rinse. 6-min brew in gaiwan. Tea color and aroma are both surprisingly light. Wet leaf aroma has notes of orchid, omanthus, honey, peach.

Tea taste and mouthfeel are both very pleasant. Tastes about like what a light, unroasted Dong Ding should taste like. Lingering sweetness is present and very nice but less pronounced than in high mountain oolongs? (I think?)

Lots of 2- and 3-leaf systems in the open leaves, as well as some extremely large leaves (Fo Shou cultivar?), a few smaller torn bits, but I’d say it appears hand-picked?

Very nice tea, and would be more than happy with it as an everyday drinker, particularly given the good price ($12.99/56g).

Flavors: Honey, Orchid, Osmanthus, Peach

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 0 sec 4 g 150 OZ / 4436 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

85
167 tasting notes

Comparing this to the roasted Dong Ding from BTTC.

First, I prefer this version to the roasted Dong Ding. More complexity and flavor. Also, the tea evolves a bit between infusions, with more spice and fruit notes showing up as the session progresses.

Second, based on previous reviews, this tea has quite a fan base! I certainly enjoyed it, but I found the flavor to be a bit light compared to other green oolong options. Just like the roasted version, I would consider this to be an approachable easy drinker. I would recommend those exploring their Taiwanese tea options to pick this up along with BTTC’s Baozhong. The Baozhong has a more powerful and assertive flavor profile, so you can determine what your own preferences are. Personally, I think Baozhong or a Tie Guan Yin are more interesting to drink. But don’t take my word for it!
*
Dry leaf – honey floral, cilantro, coriander, perfumey floral. In preheated vessel – buttery green vegetables, “popcorn” roastiness like Bi Luo Chun

Smell – green vegetables – snow peas, buttered cooked zucchini, sweet floral, honey butter, hints of cinnamon-raisin bread

Taste – Arrival/development: buttered fresh green veg (snow peas and zucchini especially), honey butter, buttered cinnamon-raisin toast. Finish/aftertaste: peach, dried apricot, strong lemongrass lingering finish

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec 4 g 2 OZ / 59 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

83
73 tasting notes

Winter 2016 version.

Vernal equinox at hand, and feeling vaguely renewed after attending a wonderful Nowruz family luncheon, I thought this tea might serve me well as a way of demarcating the seasonal shift.

Filtered Santa Monica municipal water, to glass cha hai, to my Taiwanese purple clay tea-pot (mostly used for heavy roast oolong), back to the glass cha hai, into my porcelain cup.

Rinse: Once the leaves are wet the aromatics come to life dramatically: butterscotch, chestnut, fresh bush/wax beans, freshly cleaned wood, etc.

45sec: Greenish lemon chiffon liquor; aromatic but weaker than the wet leaves held under the nose; very delicate nectar-like sweetness emerges from the depths of the finish. Wild grasses, with hints of melon as well.

60sec: More of the same. Fresh cream flavors accentuate the mouth-feel, and suggest hints of butterscotch as well. Lots of floral notes in here, though they largely remain secondary to the gentle sweetness up front and rounding things out.

90sec: Pushing the leaf a bit, liquor darkens slightly to a canary yellow; a hint of spice perhaps (coriander? stale dried mint?) develops, finishes slightly more herbal – otherwise consistent with the initial steeps.

4 – 5 more steeps from 90 seconds up to 3 minutes before the sweetness fades and the floral complexity is diminished/muddled.

Overall – light, floral, creamy, and moderately energizing. Looking forward to trying the roasted version from the same vendor…

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 1 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 3 OZ / 100 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

92
1048 tasting notes

Okay, as those of you who read my previous review for this tea may be aware, I was not completely satisfied with my brewing method, so I decided to change it up a little bit. I still went with a more or less Chinese gongfu approach, but used less leaf and started with a longer rinse and a longer first steep. My steep times for this session were as follows: 30 seconds, 35 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes, and 5 minutes. I still got all of the aromas and flavors I got before and in the same order to boot. Maybe my first attempt, though not ideal, was not so bad after all. I still really adore this tea.

Flavors: Apple, Apricot, Butter, Cinnamon, Cream, Cucumber, Floral, Honeysuckle, Lettuce, Osmanthus, Pear

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 4 g 4 OZ / 118 ML
Evol Ving Ness

Absolutely on my shopping list. When I allow myself. smdh

Daylon R Thomas

Are the shipping rates better for Canada on Beautiful Taiwan Tea Co.?

Evol Ving Ness

The shipping for Canada is free over $50, so yay! (Or $10 otherwise.) I would always do the free shipping limit because one never knows when duty will be slapped onto it too. Usually there is no duty for tea. However, HOWEVER, I got slapped with a serious duty fee on an order out of the States this year.

Evol Ving Ness

And the currency exchange sucks. A lot.

These are all factors.

eastkyteaguy

Evol, the sample of this I had was from an earlier harvest in 2016, but the winter 2016 harvest is in stock now. At this point, I would add three things about this tea. First, if you have had or are used to some of the contemporary Dong Dings that are more heavily roasted, don’t expect this one to be all that much like them. The roast is much lighter than you will expect. Honestly, it is very subtle and tasteful. Second, don’t expect really strong, pronounced flavors, especially if you flash steep. This is the kind of tea that revels in restraint, but manages to keep you intrigued with subtle changes for an extended period of time. Third, invest in more than a sample size. It’s expensive, but go with at least a 2 ounce pouch. With this tea you are paying for both high quality and a unique experience. I would have loved to have had more of this particular harvest so I could have gauged how it changes over an extended period of time.

Evol Ving Ness

Thank you for the addendum, eastkyguy. Much appreciated. I’ve saved it with my shopping list for the moment that my self-restraint fades, not that I have much to begin with. Thank you for taking the time and effort.

eastkyteaguy

No problem. I spent way too much on tea this past year, and especially in the last 2-3 months. I’m fighting off the urge to place a large order from Beautiful Taiwan Tea Co. as we speak, but with my birthday coming up soon, I doubt I’ll be able to manage.

Daylon R Thomas

Same. The Yu Shan looked great and that Dong Ding was one of my favorites. I was able to get some good floral and nut notes the last time I had it, even considering that it was western. I liked alternating on that one though. I decided to get some Li Shan costing under $13 for 50 grams from What-Cha that I really liked. And this way, I got more Rohini Golden Bud Darjeeling and a wild Lapsang that looked promising.

eastkyteaguy

Daylon, I’m trying to decide whether to go with What-Cha for my next order or B.T.T.C. I noticed that B.T.T.C. recently brought in some interesting new black teas, including a rolled Alishan black tea they have never offered before. It definitely looks interesting. What-Cha, however, has a bunch of their small-holder Assams on sale. Right now, I am considering a What-Cha order consisting of the following:

1.) Assam Heritage STGFOP1
2.) Assam Joypur Small-Holder Hand-Made Black
3.) Assam Kanoka Hand-Made Black
4.) Assam Lakua Small-Holder
5.) Bihar Doke Black Fusion Hand-Made Black
6.) Darjeeling Gopaldhara First Flush China Special
7.) Darjeeling Gopaldhara Second Flush China Muscatel
8.) Darjeeling Gopaldhara Second Flush Wonder Muscatel Gold
9.) Darjeeling Second Flush Pasabong Small-Holder
10.) Darjeeling Second Flush Rohini Golden Buds
11.) Korea Dong Cheon Daejak Semi-Wild Green
12.) Taiwan Shui Xian Oolong
13.) China Fujian Jin Xuan Oolong

I don’t know if I’m going to go through with it though.

Daylon R Thomas

How many of them have you had and what are your specific preferences for oolongs and blacks?

eastkyteaguy

Of the teas listed, I haven’t had any of them yet. I tend to like blacks and oolongs almost equally. With oolongs, I either lean toward earthy and roasted or light,creamy, and floral. There isn’t much in between. With blacks, I’m pretty much an open book. I have had some of the more standard Darjeelings from Gopaldhara and Rohini, though I haven’t reviewed them, and I tend to like what those two estates do. I am entirely unfamiliar with all of the Assams listed above. Korean teas are a new frontier for me. I haven’t had any before.

Daylon R Thomas

I can remember one right now which was the Dancha, though I might have had others. I’d think they generally taste similar to Japanese blacks.

Evol Ving Ness

Don’t even get me started. I kept a tea purchase log this year month by month. After the first six months, I stopped calculating the monthly subtotals because it was too painful.

And Happy Birthday to you! This most definitely deserves a blowout or several. :)

Yeah, I’m an enabler.

eastkyteaguy

Evol, thank you. Just so you know, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on a fairly sizable What-Cha order.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

92
485 tasting notes

This is really an excellent tea – the first one I’ve tried from BTT that I actually bought off their site. I drank some of this sample with some teafriends to celebrate the New Year :) The dry leaf looked pretty green, but the had a bit of a popcorn aroma to it, along with some slight green floral. After a rinse, it smelled more like caramel corn. I was surprised with how green the leaves started to look after they unfurled, but the aroma and taste certainly confirmed that this is a skillfully roasted tea.

This tea displayed characteristics both from green oolong and from more highly roasted teas. There were some succulent floral and cucumber notes, but also some more nutty and roasty flavors which interacted beautifully with each other. The tea also came across as very creamy. A sweet nutty flavor, almost like candied almond, lingered in the back of my mouth for many minutes after I finished each cup, even at the very end of the session. It made it hard to start my next tea, because I didn’t want that flavor to go away.

This tea is definitely a hit for me. I enjoyed it with 195F water, the recommended temperature on the package, but it also performed quite well with boiled water. This is a tea which I could certainly see myself reordering after I’ve had a chance to try some of BTT’s other oolong offerings.

On a secondary note, I think I’ve been fully converted to the roasted side of oolong. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely some very good green oolongs out there (including things like the DYL I tried from BTT a couple months ago), but roasted oolongs just seem to offer nicer flavors and greater texture and complexity, at least as far as my palate is concerned.

Flavors: Cucumber, Floral, Nutty, Sweet

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 15 sec 6 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
Hoálatha

This is one of my favorites as well.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

64 tasting notes

Sometimes I wonder if I still have a little of that ornery soul most little boys grow up with where raining on everyone else’s parade is the height of wit.

Seven came before me and drank this tea, and essentially it received unanimous acclaim. So I got a sample since BTTC was good enough to show up to Midwest Tea Festival (thanks BTTC!) and today, I drank it.

With all the accolades, I certainly wasn’t prepared for what I found in my cup.

It was even better than they said.

If such notables as boychik and LP can’t capture this greatness in the limited format of mere words. far be it from me to attempt. But I echo what others have urged – try this tea if you like oolong. Try it if you haven’t had traditional processed Dong Ding, even if you’re not a fan of current style DD.

Or you know, don’t. It’ll leave more for me.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

95
661 tasting notes

My tea from yesterday.

This tea is a masterpiece. Not quite as floral as some oolongs I’ve had but it’s the way the floral blends into the whole picture. There’s so much in the floral aroma and taste. My taste buds are not as sensitive as some so I couldn’t name all the floral notes but osmanthus was definitely there. There was a sweet osmanthus finish with each sip. The tea was smooth and oh so sweet and buttery. I reminded me of a Tie Guan Yin but not a cheap one —a very fine Tie Guan Yin.

Really an amazing tea. A must try tea.

Flavors: Butter, Floral, Osmanthus

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 1 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Rasseru

so many good scores for this one.

Doug F

I don’t drink much Oolong but I might have to give this a try.

Ubacat

It really is the most amazing one from this company so far.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.