Dongshan Dolce

Note: the bottom of this review contains a personal story I felt like sharing, but I’ve inserted a line for folks that just want to read about tea.
Perhaps this is just me, but most of what I’ve had from Adagio has seemed “stale”. I put FOUR heaping teaspoons in my steeper, steeped it for 2 minutes, and I got slightly green tea flavored water. I’d talk about what this tasted like, except that’s where it stops. I can tell there was some tea in the water – that’s pretty much it!

Ironically I just ordered something from Adagio, but it was a tasting cup. I really wanted a small cup to taste some teas with; the steeper I typically use makes 16oz, which just doesn’t work with lots of steeps.

And right after I ordered it, I had a funny mental intersection of tea, memory, and emotion.

When I was 19, I liked to get up in the morning and drink at least two or three cups of coffee. I lived with my friend Marc, who was brilliant on a ceramics wheel (and in lots of other ways too), and he surprised me one day with a HUGE mug that he’d made for me. The thing had to be at least 24oz. I loved it, and used it to drink BIG cups of coffee and tea.
About a year later, he drowned while in Africa for work. It was strange and shocking; he had traveled to lots of different countries, and was in great shape since he was an avid swimmer and rock climber. It took me a long time to accept that he had passed away, and then to grieve. A couple years later my then significant other dropped the mug one day, and it shattered into a million pieces. I felt shattered too.

Right after I ordered that tiny little cup, I thought it was so odd that nearly a decade ago I had loved that big, big mug. And now here I was wanting this tiny little cup to drink my tea.

I’m back after a really really long time! yaay! Prepare for an assault on you’re dashboard pages! Then again, it was only 2 or 3 weeks, which kind of proves that I’m a ridiculous junkie for not only tea, but steepster as well.

So I found myself on adagio’s website…you know, ordering presents and whatnot. I wasn’t going to get anything for myself, but I thought that I’d might as well, since I just happened to be there. I limited myself to 1 sample, but then I saw a couple more I wanted, which left me at 4. I actually had to chase myself off when I realized that I was eying full sized tins.

Anyway, based on the description Adagio gives, this should have been UH-MAY-ZING. Telling me that it’s sweet, luscious, and indulgent seemed to cater to exactly the flavors I was craving. I didn’t stand a chance. Even if I had read the reviews here, I doubt it would have made a difference. It was like I had fallen deeply in love with someone I’d just met on the internet. I was ready to pack up and move to Iowa. Turns out that jerk used a photo from 10 years ago, before the first two marriages.

Actually, it isn’t bad, I just really wanted to use that analogy. I just feel like it’s nothing special. The first two steeps, I found, were simple and nutty, with a sweet aftertaste. The third was my favorite. The nuttiness was less prominent, allowing it to blend more with the sweetness. There’s a hint of buttery, also. There may have been a bit of toast somewhere, but nothing as exciting as advertised. I’m just finishing up the 5th steep, which is still very drinkable. I really should up the score a bit for re-steeping power. It’s quite sweet (for how weak it is in general, anyway) and the nuttiness has become an aftertaste. It’s not complex by any means, but it’s about as exciting as it’s always been.

Steeping: Water was heated to the point where I could juuuuust make out steam rising
1-2 minutes (it smelled really vegetal at about 1 minute, so I stopped it early out of fear)
2-3 minutes (package directions)
3-4 minutes
4-4 minutes 45 seconds
5-6 minutes

It’s entirely possible that I’m just not so much a green tea person. I tend more towards whites, blacks, and oolongs, so I just might not be refined enough for this. I kinda doubt it, though. Dongshan Dolce is pleasant enough, I’ll definitely finish my sample, but will not buy it again. I suppose it would be good for people who want green tea without grassy flavors. The entire time I’ve been drinking it, I keep thinking that it’s a less plant-y version of Andao’s Spring Snail Shell.

It looks like this is a fairly polarizing tea – a lot of 80s and a lot of 60s. I’m going to be on the 80s side of the fence because I really like this. It’s very mild and I imagine that might be problematic for a lot of folks (the hubby likes much bolder flavors so I don’t think he’d be a fan) but I like the gentle softness of it.

The dry leaves smell of sweet hay and a little bit of buttered grass. The smell post-steeping is almost non-existent but has a little hint of sweetness and a mineral note. The flavor is very mild but really pretty. The front end is the softest with just a hint of sweet hay and floral nectar. The middle bit of the taste is probably the most ‘normal’ Chinese green tasting like… a Chinese green. The endnote is where the pretty really comes in. There’s a beautiful sugary sweet and floral endnote that flares up and couples with the more mineral note that I’m used to getting from Chinese greens. It makes me think of asparagus flowers. Not that I know what asparagus flowers smell (or taste) like, but in my world they smell pretty much like a floral version of asparagus.

Since the flavor is so very mild, it’s not a good tea for a grab-and-go kind of tea drinking. It’s for more of a sit-and-relax-while-meditatively-sipping kind of tea drinking. But I’ve been gravitating towards that type of tea lately so I give this one a big thumbs up.
^3g/6oz

After reading Cofftea’s review I was afraid of this tea…but here goes…I am typing as I drink this.

Before steeping the dry leaves smelled like a dandelion stem with very small hints of sweetness.

I steeped a little less amount than I normally would based on the prior review. It has basically no color as stated by Cofftea. Once in the cup – basically no scent…after steeping. The first taste was a little mossy-grassy. I am going to go neutral with t his but try resteeping and adding a little more loose leaf next cup and repost/rereview. I’m really not sure about this one.

SO it smells more rich and complex than it tastes. It’s very very very light. Almost like a second steeping. I don’t love it. I don’t hate it. But I’m glad it was a sample. It gets a meh from me.

This is an okay cup of tea but is not has described by Adagio. It is a very light cup of tea with hints of sweetness and grassiness.

This might be the first green tea I have really enjoyed, hot and plain. The description is right on – if a tea could taste like a soft, buttered dinner roll? This one does. Not the least bit vegetal, as I understand the word, no spinach or asparagus. Just a light, smooth, sweet and savory flavor. Compared to other light teas (white, green, oolong) this is very tasty.

Ended up getting ~ 4 steeps out of it, all 2-3 minutes

I really like this tea. It is sweet and buttery. A bit of vegetative flavor but not strong.

Very, very good.

Upon opening this tea a sweet aroma with hint of grassiness caught my attention. The very delicate leaves unfurl in the cup only slightly and the resulting liquor is pale green. The taste is almost exactly like the smell of the dry leaves. Very sweet, very little grassiness if any. This reminds me of a sweeter version of Adagio’s Green Pekoe tea although the leaves of this one are much thinner than the Pekoe. Bottom line: if you’re looking for a sweet green tea, this will be perfect for you.

Method: 1 tsp / 8oz water; 165º- 170º; 2-3 minutes.

I really like this one. It has a sweet, buttery, floral scent. The taste is a very light buttery, nutty, with a very slight vegetal. It reminds me more of a white tea than a green tea in its light taste. The color is a pale, cornsilk yellow that is very appealing. I may steep it for a little longer than 3 minutes next time to see what it does.

Own one ounce sample. Tips look grey/green, golden and silvery, unlike the bright green photo on website. First brew per instruction at 180F/2 min, 3 tsp in 500ml. Came out very, very light yellow tasting of hot water with only scent, but more flavour followed when sipped cooler. Second steep tried at boiling temp but that brought some bitterness. It didn’t ruin taste but at least deepened the liquor colour. Third steep back down to 185F: brew seems to improve with later steeping and am picking up
a toasty flavour that I never noticed before. Light bulb idea to try adding toasted rice to this Chinese green to make own blend of toasted rice green tea.

I’m finishing off my sample right now and I’m still iffy about this tea… On one hand there is something about its taste that makes me think about repurchasing it. The tea is slightly sweet, buttery, refreshing and totally devoid of any vegetal notes that I don’t appreciate in green teas. On the other hand the brew feels way too light, I can’t get the impression of drinking tea-flavored or sweet-bun-flavored water out of my head as I sip. Aroma is virtually non-existent as well. I tried to vary the amount of leaf and steeping time but it hardly affected the brew quality.

The second infusion is even lighter, grassier and less flavorful. Seems like a poor value to me.

A very light liqour. Although Adagio advertises this tea as “like that of a sweet bun, with biscuit and butter-like notes,” I did not find that description to be true of either of my infusions.

It’s fine. Good even. But for me it seemed weak and lacked the sweetness not only described by Adagio but even the sweetness that I expected as a frequent tea drinker.

I always see people who are looking for a good tea to dip their toe into the green tea world. This would probably would make an excellent choice for someone looking to try a green tea but scared by its somewhat fussy and sometimes bitter nature.

Gave it an 83. Could have had stronger, more complex flavors/aromas.

http://walkerteareview.com/http:/walkerteareview.com/tasting-review-163-adagios-dongshan-dolce

I didn’t put anything extra in this tea.
When brewed the color is extremely light but, I brew a pot at a time instead of a cup and if you do this you will notice that the tea gains color as it cools like most whites and minimally processed greens. So its lack of color just seems normal to me.
The flavor starts sweet, hits a little wall of toast and jumps it so fast you’ll wonder if you imagined it. The finish goes right back to sweet. Sweetness that doesn’t go away for an extremely long time.
This is a great tea for non-obtrusive tea drinkers.
I had an idea that it would work well as a palate cleansing tea because of the extremely long finish and stubbornly sweet qualities. It does work well to remove strong sweet flavors like fruity cookie samplers but for thai spicy kind of food it was more of a pleasant compliment than a palate cleanser. I was not expecting that at all but it’s lean to compliment spicy makes me thing that this might be a more oily tea.
Anyways… I find food and tea combos interesting.
Great tea.

I just received this tea yesterday and I’m just now getting to my first steep. Its nice, a bit sweet with a great aftertaste that lingers for quite a while. I was too, surprised at the non-color of it but am looking forward to my next steep, I know it will be more delicious than the first..just cuz thats how it usually goes! Can’t complain over here.

I got this in the new arrivals sampler free w/ $19 purchase. It came w/ 2 oolong teas and a jasmine oolong. The raw tea leaves have a very faint non descript green tea aroma.

I steeped 2.25g of tea leaves in 6oz of purified water heated to 175 degrees F. This tea is a very light tea not only in aroma, but in weight. 2.25g is approx. 3.25 teaspoons so unlike a lot of loose leaf green teas I’m expecting this to be a darker green.

Well… I was wrong. 3 min later and this is by far the lightest tea I’ve ever seen. If I didn’t know it was tea, I would probably mistake it for funky water. Surprisingly though, it does have an, albeit very light, aroma. Absolutely no scent of pu erh like some greens, just a light grassy smell w/ a sweet finish.

Surprisingly this does have a taste, although I have to strain to taste it. The flavor is very weak, but the flavor that is there is a very basic but good, smooth green tea. Nothing special.

Infusion 2, 4 min: Ok… Interesting… This infusion is actually darker than the 1st. I’m thinking that’s because there was not enough leaf to require the full min of extra steeping time that additional infusions usually require. Both the aroma and liquor are stronger versions of the 1st, nothing different. The taste is also stronger… I’m wondering if the caffeine is stronger in this infusion even though everything I’ve read says most of the caffeine is released in the 1st infusion.

3rd infusion, 5 min: When I originally steeped this I would have never imagined that I’d get 3 infusions out of this. The 3rd infusion is a weaker version of the 2nd in sight, liquor, and taste, yet stronger than the 1st.

Conclusions: While the 3rd infusion is still of a VERY good quality, I think my favorite is the 2nd. The 1st is pretty much a waste for me. This tea requires quite a bit of leaf for a solid 2nd infusion and good 3rd, but even that much results in a useless 1st infusion. I’m glad I tried this, but I’m also glad that I got it free. I would have been very disappointed I even wasted $2 for a sample of this. This tea requires a lot of leaf and a wasted infusion to get only 2 good infusions (I didn’t try a fourth, maybe that would be drinkable as well) so it’s more expensive per cup than you would think. Just not worth it for me when there are so many other wonderful green teas out there.

Smells plant-like, but not grass-like. It is strange to find a green tea that doesn’t at least have some amount of grass smell in it. With this one, I’m not getting any. It steeps up a light gold color. I may need more time on this, but with green’s I’m really shy about steeping them too long (bad results in the past).

Taste strangely reminds me of cornflakes without the milk or the crunch, but only if they were combined with some kind of green leafy vegetable which is a very strange taste for tea in my mind. I’m having a very hard time pinning this one down taste wise beyond that since I’m still in oddworld taste wise thinking about corn flakes. After swallowing my mouth feels slightly dry but I’m not getting any bitter (either good or bad bitter).

So far as green teas go for me this is one of the better ones so far, but I feel like I am missing out on a chance to drink a good cup of white or oolong tea this afternoon instead. I am still looking for a green that I can call my own.

The search will continue! I will try steeping this with more leaf and with more time next to see what happens (4 teaspoons in a little under 2 cups of water)

I had a second steeping of this tea today after the first steeping sat for about :15 minutes, and it had a musty/mossy aroma and taste that just didn’t agree with me. The color was still very light, and there was a grassy after-taste, but overall, I didn’t like this one.

Brad – very good, plain, green. Very pleasant but not exciting. Great for the price. Would get again. Rating: 90

Sarah agrees.