Roasted AA Grade Dan Cong Oolong Tea * Mi Lan Xiang

this one is sort of OK…
Nose; light roasted grain, grass, lychee, light floral note.
Palate; light honey, lychee, slight herbal — thyme, romaine, light floral note.

I did a big oolong order from Yunnan Sourcing recently and this was the best tea of the bunch. A bit surprising because I’ve struggled with dan congs before and normally shy away from roasted teas.

The roasting on this tea though is subtle and accentuates its honey and fruity flavor. I’m still fine-tuning the brewing, but my experience with it has been amazing. The natural sweetness of this tea is unreal – hard to believe it has no added sweetener. The honey flavor is thick, coating your entire mouth and then finishes with a nice mineral touch. I’m not getting any of the floral flavor that others described. Occasionally, it hits you with a stunning peach flavor that’ll make you swear you were drinking a flavored tea. At present I can only coax it out by cold-steeping the half-spent leaves. I’m sure there’s a way to hot steep it to get even more peach out of it. Currently I’m doing flash steeps with boiling water which works okay. May need to experiment with lower temperatures.

This one makes an awesome cold brew and I can see this being a perennial buy.

Deliciously chocolatey, sweeter than dark chocolate. Had this yesterday for the first time while entertaining guests and they loved it too. It was heavenly and has joined the ranks of my favourite teas.

I brew most of my dan congs at a lower temperature and there’s no bitterness.
Brewing at 180˚F, the lid of the gaiwan smells strongly of peaches and nectarines.
Brewing at 185˚F, the lid smells like roasted hot chocolate.

Dry leaf: ROAST, NUTTY, FLORAL (chocolately roast, roasted almonds and pecans, green leaves, floral, bittersweet)

Smell: NUTTY, FLORAL (is it fair to say that it smells like an oolong? Just that nice bittersweet green leaf meets nutty roast kind of smell. Some floral – orchid, I guess!)

Taste: NUTTY, VEGETAL, SWEET, FRUITY, FLORAL, EARTHY, and MORE! (roasted walnut and almond, roasted corn, brewed dark tea, wildflower honey, light chocolate, orchid, honeysuckle, autumn leaves, light roast and woodiness, mineral, hint of orange and grapefruit rind, tart raspberries). This is a dense tea – flavors are numerous and develop on the palate and throughout individual steepings.

You know what? I like this tea because it demands respect. Upon first tasting it, you are greeted with roasted nuttiness and some bittersweet notes – nothing to write home about, really. To be honest, it only starts to taste good – really good – when you sit down and give it the attention it deserves. Do that, and you’ll have yourself a rewarding experience.

This is my favorite Don Cong I’ve tried, though to be fair, this is only the third Don Cong I’ve tried. The roasted character is beautiful, and the underlying Don Cong varietal character is clean and clear (in its own rustic way) and only mildly floral. While other Don Cong oolongs can be bitter, this is much more balanced. Even with long steeps, there is only a faint drying character. While not particularly sweet, this tea is still very satisfying due to its crisp nature. I really like this, though I’d prefer a Da Hong Pao or Qi Lan rock oolong anyday. I reserve this for when I want something a bit crisper than normal.

Yay thanks for the sample kieblera5!

I drank this at work earlier but was too busy to write a tasting note. I really enjoyed the sweet/ roasty flavor, with the long lingering floral/mineral aftertaste. Quite a nice Dancong, I think they only one I prefer over this one is the one I have from Verdant tea.

Very nice roasty oolong with floral notes and sweetness. I steeped this western style at 195 for 2.5 minutes. I will try this again in a gaiwan at some point.

I have been enjoying this tea a lot in the past two days. Somehow I never “got into” dan cong oolongs like some other people have. The good ones are really wonderful though. The leaf itself smells very roasted and flowery. True to the name, the tea liquor is sweet like honey with a flowery aroma. I am breaking in a new yixing just for dan cong oolongs so I will post some pics soon.

This is nice when the steeps are kept fairly short. Some dan congs will turn bitter very quickly. So I recommend doing some experimentation as to your optimal steeping time. This is nice around 30 – 60 seconds of steeping. It works well for me as an afternoon tea.

So far I am quite pleased with all of my Yunnan Sourcing selections from Dark Tea of the Month. I have only one other dan cong oolong, so I was happy to add it to my hoard… err… collection