Honey Orchid, what an alluring name for a tea. That just makes you feel like this tea is going to deliver on sweet floral notes. What that name doesn’t say is this tea is also robust, rich, and full of a slight earthy flavor that mingles perfectly with the honey and floral tones.
This particular oolong from JK Tea, a tea shop dedicated to offering high quality teas to the tea community, doesn’t have any notable aromas when you first open the tea. But after brewing this tea with fresh water prepped right under boiling and allowing the tea to brew for a few minutes, this tea gives you all the loving you can handle.
Gorgeous rich but subtle earthy notes lay the ground work for these pops of sweet floral touches that you can pick up through each sip. There is also this underlying fruit note that adds to the sweetness. I greedily gulped, yes gulped, this tea down. With all the wonderful flavors being so well balanced, I couldn’t help myself.
Don’t judge this tea by how simple the flavors sound. This is one of those teas that you need to literally sit down and thoroughly enjoy without distraction to really focus on what the tea leaves are yielding. Highly recommend this tea for those that are looking for a break in what they normally drink or just to change the pace up a bit. Simply beautiful!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: JK Tea
Description
When we come to the shape of the Mi Lan Xiang Dancong Tea, if you look for some photos, you can see resemblance with dried seaweed, both in color and it’s twisted, stick-like shape, but the texture of the Tea is a bit firmer and maybe we can even make a comparison with vanilla sticks, if you can imagine them ultrathin and strained. For the taste, it enjoys strong, delicate honey aroma with light floral aroma as well; sweet taste with lingering after taste sweetness; rich & complex mouth feeling after sipping the tea liquid. For some people, it is hard to believe that such strong fruity flavor is developed naturally and with such sophisticated process, but this is true.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Firebird 2015 Fenghuang Dancong Songzhong Oolong from Bitterleaf
Firebird 2015 Fenghuang Dancong Songzhong Oolong from Bitterleaf is really something special! It has a crustiness or bakey-like flavor to it – much like some of the more bakey black teas I enjoy but with the leaf of an oolong! The product description says it’s ‘the closest thing they’ve experienced to drinking a sticky bun’. I was intrigued at that statement. However I didn’t have that exact experience – I did still have a wonderful sipping experience regardless!
Having said that Firebird 2015 Fenghuang Dancong Songzhong Oolong from Bitterleaf is slightly sweet and does have that touch of natural caramel goodness laying underneath while still providing a VERY strong crustiness to the sip and I find that amazingly wonderful!
For kicks I decided to add a few pure sugar crystals to this – which I almost NEVER do – but I had them on hand. By doing so I found that Firebird 2015 Fenghuang Dancong Songzhong Oolong from Bitterleaf taste a bit more like the ‘sticky bun’ nod the product description claimed.
The natural honey-like aftertaste is something that certainly lingers on to the aftertaste. This is a really interesting offering from Bitterteas and I’m honored to have tried it!
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong Tea
Where to Buy: Bitterleaf
Tea Description:
One of our first two selections from the world of oolong, our Firebird Song Zhong Dancong is medium oxidized with a roasted sweetness. With honey and caramel as the most prominent flavours, this tea is about the closest thing we’ve experienced to drinking a sticky bun. The soup brews also out a clear honey-orange, but no actual honey was added, we swear.
This tea comes to us farm-direct from Chao Zhou.
Learn even more about this tea here.
Medium Roast Da Wu Ye Dan Cong Oolong Tea from White2Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong Tea
Where to Buy: White2Tea
Tea Description:
I couldn’t find this exact tea on the White2Tea Website, however, I did find their Dark Feather Oolong – Dawuye Dancong which I think would be somewhat comparable and that description states as follows…Dark Feather Dancong oolong tea is a Dawuye variety oolong from the Guangdong province of China. The tea has a light to medium roast and is sweet, fragrant, and has a lasting complex finish. Best brewed Gongfu style, the Dark Feather can be resteeped many times.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Medium Roast Da Wu Ye Dan Cong Oolong Tea from White2Tea was a nice experience. Upon opening the sample bag I noticed long, sturdy pale grayish green leaves. The dry scent is gently roasted yet semi-sweet. Once infused the medium roast aroma is still there and it bumps up the sweetness to the overall scent, too! The post-infusion liquor color is a palish-grayish-yellow. The flavor has a nice amount of roast to it but an equally appreciated sweetness as well. The aftertaste lingers nicely, too! This has woodsy and earthy notes throughout the sip that fade in and out while you continue to sip it.
For those you appreciate a nice hearty roasted oolong try Medium Roast Da Wu Ye Dan Cong Oolong Tea from White2Tea I think you just might like it…I know I did!
Dark Feather Oolong – Dawuye Dancong Tea from White Two Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: White Two Tea
Tea Description:
Dark Feather Dancong oolong tea is a Dawuye variety oolong from the Guangdong province of China. The tea has a light to medium roast and is sweet, fragrant, and has a lasting complex finish. Best brewed Gongfu style, the Dark Feather can be resteeped many times.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh how lovely! This Dark Feather Oolong – Dawuye Dancong Tea from White Two Tea is a wonderful Oolong tea.
To brew, I went gongfu style and grabbed my gaiwan. I eyeballed a bamboo scoop size measurement (these leaves are too long and wiry to actually fit in the scoop) and put them in the bowl of my gaiwan. Then I heated water to 180° and poured enough water in the gaiwan to cover the leaves. I let this steep for 15 seconds to rinse the leaves. Then I strained the liquid and discarded it and started over with more hot water. This time I let the tea steep for 1 minute. Ordinarily, I will steep an Oolong 45 seconds for the first infusion, but after 45 seconds, the color was very pale so I went with another 15 seconds. I added 15 seconds onto each subsequent infusion. I combined the first and second infusions for my first cup; my second cup was infusions three and four … and so on!
My first cup: It’s so sweet and has delightful fruit and honeyed notes. The sip starts out with the honey flavors right away, filling the palate with delectable sweetness. Then I start to pick up on some hints of flower. Mere hints, this is not what I’d call a floral tea, but there are subtle whispers of flower in the distance. Then I taste the fruit. I taste notes of plum and peach. They are intensely sweet fruit notes – like cooked fruit (pie filling, perhaps!)
Just after mid-sip, I start to pick up on subtle notes that are slightly earthy and woodsy. Again, these flavors are very subtle, because this tea is mostly about the fruit and honey flavors! It’s all about SWEET with this tea – I like that! The texture is soft and thick, almost brothy. Before I knew it, the cup was empty and it was time to steep those leaves again and discover what the next two infusions had in store for me.
My second cup: This cup has a slightly lighter texture to it. The flavors are different than the first cup too. This is more focused on the fruit notes and I taste both sweet and savory elements from the fruit tones. I get a slight tart note to the flavor; it’s a nice contrast to the sweeter flavors of the tea. I taste a slight mineral-y note now. There are notes of honey, but these have thinned a bit from the first cup are not as dominate.
I can taste more of the roasted flavors now. They taste savory and slightly smoky, but, again, this smoked note is very slight. It’s not really a ‘nutty’ flavor the way so many other roasted Oolong teas taste, instead, this tastes more like the fruit has been drizzled with honey and then roasted. YUM!
My third (and final) cup: Because I noticed that the texture was lightening up in my second cup, I decided that my third cup would be the last for me. Oh, don’t get me wrong – the flavors are still there and still ABUNDANT! This tea is delivering many wonderful infusions, just like a good Oolong should.
And this third cup is probably my favorite of the three! Yes, the flavor and texture is lighter than the first and second cups, but I like the way the flavors have all melded together. It’s sweet with just enough savory flavor to bring a nice contrast to the palate. I’m picking up on light buttery notes and I find those to be so lovely! There is a light creaminess to this cup that I didn’t taste in the previous two cups – the texture is lighter but it’s creamier.
A really lovely cuppa. If you’re into Oolong teas (or even if you’re not!) this is a tea you should try. Those early fruit and honey flavors as well as the creamy, buttery notes of the later infusions make this a tea journey definitely worth the trip!
Supreme Phoenix Dancong Snow Flake Oolong from China Cha Dao
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: China Cha Dao
Tea Description:
Phoenix Dan Cong, a Famous Oolong / Wulong Tea from Chao Zhou Province in China.
Tea comes with a superb aroma and sweet taste!
The Phoenix Dan Cong are noted for their ability to naturally imitate the flavors and fragrance of various flowers and fruits, such as orange blossom, orchid, grapefruit, almond, ginger flower, etc…
Dan Cong is a botanical term that refers to the morphology of the tea plant. Most tea bushes emerge from the ground as a cluster of branches, however, the uncommon Dan Cong variety emerges as a single trunk that branches off higher up the stem.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Supreme Phonenix Dancong Snow Flake Oolong from China Cha Dao (deep breath) is …. a mouthful! A mouthful of goodness that is.
This is not necessarily in line with my favorite flavors in a tea, but I absolutely appreciate it for what it is. The flavors range from citrus, to sandalwood, floral, to astringent.
The aroma is that of flowers, orange, and grapefruit. The liquid should be rather pale, be sure not to over steep this one. Gong Fu brewing is recommended.
I prefer the second steep to the first, and in the future would probably even do a quick rinse, like one would do with pu-erh, before sipping.
This is a unique tea with a completely different flavor profile from any oolong that I have ever had. I can see where some would adore this tea and where others may not care for it. I think those who adore it will want it in their stash at all times, however for those we do not, they should at least experience an oolong like this once.
I feel as though this years Snow Flake picked up plenty of citrus elements, and then secondly floral aspects. I really had hoped to pick up the almond flavor, but could not.
The leaves of this tea are long, full, and lovely but do expect some stems as well.
China Cha Dao started on Ebay but they now have their own website and it is designed quite well. Their teas are sold in larger quantity 4.4 Ounces or 125 Gram being the norm, with Worldwide Free Shipping. The site even has a language translator in the upper left corner of the page.
What I have noticed about this tea that is also unique is the heat retention. My cup seems to have stayed warm for far longer than most teas do using the same cup. It also is a heart warming tea, meaning that I feel as though I am warming up from the inside out as I drink it. Seems perfect for a winter harvest!
Be sure to check out their Chinese New Year Sale here.
