Traditional Dong Ding Oolong Tea from Eco-Cha Artisan Teas

Traditional Dong Ding Oolong Tea

Tea type
Oolong Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Dates, Flowers, Fruity, Honey, Dried Fruit, Drying, Floral, Gardenias, Kale, Mango, Mineral, Nutty, Orchids, Spices, Cardamom, Green, Orchid, Smooth, Sugarcane
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Daylon R Thomas
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 g 10 oz / 300 ml

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3 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Steeped this in my tea thermos on my way to work the other morning. 2g in a 10oz thermos, grandpa style using 205 F water. This was a lovely experience all around. Flowery with a fudgey,...” Read full tasting note
    97
  • “I thought I’ve added or written about this one before. Guess I’ll write about it now, which maybe again. I got this one because it was the same growers and roasters as the Phoenix Village Dong Ding...” Read full tasting note

From Eco-Cha Artisan Teas

Flavor: ​
Nutmeg, cardamom aroma. Savory and pastry notes with a hint of honey. Floral, subtle spicy finish..
The flavor profile of this tea reflects the mastery that evolved from pre-modern tea producing methods — which our friend learned from his grandfather as a teenager. It’s a rich, integrated fruity flavor profile with classic mineral notes, and a truly satisfying clean finish. This is the real deal when it comes to traditionally made Oolong Tea from Lugu, Taiwan.

Garden: This batch of tea comes from Phoenix Village, next to Dong Ding Mountain in Lugu. Our source of Shan Lin Xi High Mountain Oolong harvests this from his family tea garden in their back yard and processes it the way his grandpa used to (but with the help of machines!).

Harvest: Winter 2021. Small batch. Hand-picked.

Elevation: ​750m

This tea is harvested from a family plot of tea in the heart of Taiwan’s Traditional Oolong Tea making region: Phoenix Village in Lugu Township. It’s a small plot of Qing Xin Oolong tea trees located in the backyard of our friend’s traditional 3-sided farmhouse, one side of which is their home-style tea factory.

Tea farmers in this village and throughout Lugu Township most commonly processed their crops of tea in this fashion up until 30-40 years ago. This tea existed before the name Dong Ding Oolong was popularized by the Lugu Farmers’ Association. It was simply the style of tea that was made locally, and gained popularity for its distinctive character. Traditionally, Dong Ding Oolong was not significantly roasted. It was simply a fairly well-oxidized Oolong Tea produced in this area.

The roasted factor developed as a result of tea merchants having leftover stock from the previous year or seasonal harvest. So this leftover tea would get roasted, and became an alternative selection to the newly harvested crop of tea on a seasonal basis. Consumers in turn developed a taste for this roasted profile, and it gradually became an item on its own.

But the original unroasted version of Dong Ding Oolong is somewhat of a local, underground secret. There simply is not a significantly widespread market demand for this type of tea. So it’s only known and enjoyed by old school customers and local tea makers. It really is an under-represented specialty. But maybe that just how it should be!

Brewing Guide: ​9g tea in 300ml 95°C water. Steep for 3 minutes. Re-steep. Adjust to taste.

Cold Brew: Use 8g of tea per liter of water. Brew tea at room temperature for 2-3 hours, and enjoy. Or you can put your cold brew bottle in the fridge to brew overnight and be ready to drink the next day.

​Gongfu Brew: Use 10g for a 150 ml pot. Use boiling temperature water and brew for one minute, then 50 seconds on the second brew. Increase brewing time with each successive brew. The leaves can be brewed 6 times.

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3 Tasting Notes

97
Recommended
676 tasting notes

Steeped this in my tea thermos on my way to work the other morning. 2g in a 10oz thermos, grandpa style using 205 F water.

This was a lovely experience all around. Flowery with a fudgey, medjool-date like sweetness that lingers on the palette. The roast is very light and accentuates the natural fruitiness of the tea.

As Daylon noted, this needs more leaf and higher temperature for best results. I had to brew it close to boiling to get any flavor out of it.

Flavors: Dates, Flowers, Fruity, Honey

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 g 10 OZ / 300 ML
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Recommended
1705 tasting notes

I thought I’ve added or written about this one before. Guess I’ll write about it now, which maybe again.

I got this one because it was the same growers and roasters as the Phoenix Village Dong Ding that was in the club. This is a spring 2020 or 2021 crop, it the box notes the florals and dry fruit more than anything else.

I get those, but this tea is extremely tricky. Either I under leaf or over leaf this bad boy. Given Eco-Cha recommends a whopping 9 grams for western, this tea really needs to be pushed to coax out the full flavor. Every session has been refined, but earlier teas would mostly give me vegetal impressions of fruit, florals, and honey. The honey notes were shy, and usually showed up later. Doing this tumbler style over does the tea, making it too vegetal, and too malty somehow, reminding me of those raw fruit based fruit rollups or That’s It! bars.

As I’ve kept the tea for a little bit, my dry leaves have breathed out. I get more florals and fruit, and less vegetal qualities lately. It’s not super forward, but it’s complex having shifting tones of mineral, macadamia, plumeria or lilac, maybe vanilla, and other florals under a swiss chard body. Western has been the better method so far because it draws out the flavors instead of forcing them out at once giving me more complex mugs that change flavors as it cools.

I’m not sure what to rate it, but maybe between the 80s and 90s. It’s got high marks for aroma, complexity, and individual notes, but it’s harder to brew than the Club’s counterpart of the same kind of tea. I like that it’s easy going and not astringent or super grassy, yet there are so many aspects that are easily missed or overwhelmed by other qualities. I do think this is a much higher quality tea in taste than I gave it credit for, yet it took me a while to get down to it. I still think I overspent when I got it. I am, however, thankful I got so much so I can play and experiment with it. I still recommend Eco-Cha, and especially recommend this for someone willing to do a professional tasting of it. I can easily see some one meditate with this tea, and drink it in one large cup, slurping in spoonfuls after a busy day.

Flavors: Dried Fruit, Drying, Floral, Gardenias, Honey, Kale, Mango, Mineral, Nutty, Orchids, Spices

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