This is another one from the reserve club. I brewed this one in my yixing, which has a 4-8 second pour depending on how full I fill it. I used 205*F water and went on for 12 steeps. The when I opened the bag I mostly smelled the roasty notes. The dry leaves are mostly shades of brown with a few olive colored leaves thrown in. The wet leaves smelled roasty and cinnamon apple. The infusion was a nice dark golden color and smelled roasty and woodsy.
The tea started out almost like a Mi Lan. It was very juicy and held roasty notes along with fruity, floral, woodsy, melon, and a campfire minus the smoke. It was quite nice. This lasted for a while and around steep four I started to get an interesting thickness in the aftertaste in the back of my throat, this lasted and got stronger as the steeping continued.
Shortly thereafter, the tea started to mellow. There were still roasty notes and a juicy quality, but not as strong. The floral notes started to get stronger and the fruit notes started to fade out. An herbaceous and vegetal note started to come in too around steep 6. Also, the thick aftertaste in the back of the throat started to consume the top-back part of my palate and had a slight almond taste to it.
Then steep seven changed completely. The tea went very floral on me, gardenia, with a note of melon dew, and a vegetal note. The thickness was slowly crawling forward, coating my tongue. No note of fruit or juiciness, no roasty qualities either.
Steeps seven and eight were the same, but a spice note started to come in, focusing on the tip of my tongue. Cinnamon, or nutmeg perhaps, I couldn’t be sure.
Steep ten through twelve did another 180 on me, going back to the beginning steeps, although it was mellower this time. It sounded the return of juiciness, with notes of fruit, spice, with a hint of vegetal hanging around.
I really enjoyed this tea and how it changed. It’s what I like and look for in dancongs. Their ability to have so many notes, the ability to change so drastically, their ability to surprise you in pleasant ways!
