Dong Ding

I had one Dong Ding oolong and really liked it, so I asked for some samples of others and luckily Amy Oh sent me a sample of this one! I tend to love the teas from Naivetea, so I am definitely excited to try it.

This one smells way more toasty than the dong ding from thepuriTea. The roasted grains aroma reminds me of some of the darker oolongs I’ve tried. When I breath in deep I get a nice autumn leaves aroma. The flavor is not unexpected based on the aroma but not exactly what I was expecting based on thepuriTea’s. That one was basically unroasted, but perhaps it is unusual? In any case, I do enjoy it a lot. It’s a bit vegetal, nicely roasty, a tiny bit sweet.

Thanks so much for this sample, Amy, I’m glad I got to try it!

Tea of the afternoon……

I decided it was time to go forth with another new oolong. I have had this from the second Steepster Box?, but am just getting to it now.

It is similar in mothfeel to other oolongs; It tastes thick. It really kind of reminds me of Genmaicha as there is a little bit of a toasted rice taste. But it has a sweeter finish than Genmaicha. Good, but I tend to prefer a more floral type oolong. We shall see what subsequent steepings bring to the table.

Steeped according to the label (even though I see better suggestions on the main page for this tea…will try that next time)…. 2 tsp tea in about 12 oz. filtered boiled water for 3 minutes. No additions.

Slowly I am working my way through two sample packs I got from Naivetea. This must be the last thing I drink with caffeine today if I ever want to go to sleep!

I am very happy with this. The word sublime comes to mind. It is slightly sweet, honeyish with a bit of caramel flavors. It has a lovely golden yellow color and a bit of peach in the aroma. I am getting some buttery notes in the finish. I feel a bit like I’m drinking liquid gold. I’m amazed there is no added flavoring in here. It’s pretty flavorful on it’s own… still going perfectly strong after 3 steeps here of about 2 minutes.

It is quite good so I will probably end up wanting more of it. After the third steep, I was about to cry due to pangs of regret. How could I have wasted so many years of my life drinking crap tea? Naivetea does have a lot of tasty oolongs… :)

Toasty, ricey, little hints of vegetal flavors here and there and pretty smooth. Not silky or creamy, just smooth and soft. The leaves expand quite well, as expected for an oolong.

This is my first Dong Ding oolong. Not sure I am enough of a fan to keep it around, but it seems to be a very nice tea and I wouldn’t turn it down if it were offered. And I will not make it through 7 steeps. I will probably never get through 7 steeps of the same tea in a row. :) Too impatient, too many teas!!!

Again, thanks for sharing, Tamm!

This tea was certainly a welcome part of the Oolong October Steepster Select box. I haven’t had a Naivetea tea for a while, and I’ve missed their exceptional quality Oolong.

Toasty and warm. A delightful tea for the approaching autumn. Will write more about this one as I spend more time with it…

This has a roasted aroma going for it. They leaves are tightly wrapped. The post-infusion color is a medium brown – maybe a little on the lighter side of medium. The flavor is lovely. It’s a roasty-nutty flavor that is sweeter and silky. There are slight hints of a sugary flavor hiding in the background, too. The after taste is much like a roasted rice type taste. The more I drink this the more I like it. YUM!

This is another tea that I won recently! This is the first tea that I am trying from Naivetea. I’m having this after some popcorn (plain-ish) so hopefully that doesn’t interfere. This smells lovely dry. There is something about it that I can’t quite put my finger on; woodsy maybe?
I’m having a hard time letting this cool! It smells lovely; roasted and sweet. Wonderful! It is very roasty without too many malt tones. It has a sweet edge at the back of the sip. There are green notes midpoint in this that remind me of deep spinach. I really enjoyed this one!

The tea turns out to be a beautiful,striking golden yellow liquor. The first flavors in the tea I taste is a lightly roast quality. I also taste some nice sweet, toasted notes, which remind me a lot of a genmaicha’s sweet/ toasted notes. The combination of both of these flavors is very pleasing to my palate.The tea is light and smooth in my mouth, and is not excessively heavy at all in my mouth. The tea rolls into my mouth and smoothly around my palate, which I like.

for the rest of this review, as well as pictures and a video; check the link :) http://bit.ly/hqt369

Phew, I’m so backlogged in tea reviews/adding teas to my tea cupboard it’s not even funny. Since it’s a long weekend here, I’m going to try and get through all of my backlogged reviews…

I was very lucky and won one of the Steepster Select boxes for October and this was included as one of the selections.

I steeped this in boiling water for 3 minutes (directions on the Steepster package, which is different than the directions on Naivetea’s website) and the leaves produced a beautiful light-amber tea with a toasted aroma with a slight herbaceous quality.

The taste was much softer and smoother than I had been expecting due to the aroma and there was a slight caramelized sugar and (very slight) floral finish. The roasting of the tea definitely comes through when I drink this tea and like LissaMarie commented, it reminds me quite a bit of genmaicha.

Though I enjoyed being able to try this tea, I don’t think the roasted oolongs are for me, so I really appreciate being able to try a bit of it without having to commit to a 50 or 100g purchase. My rating of 80 is due to the fact that it really is a lovely tea, just not my cup of tea (sorry, had to! :-P).

Wow! My preference is for greener oolongs, but this roasted oolong is stunning. It has an amazing, slightly savory flavor that is tasty now in August, but will also hit the spot come fall and winter. I need to spend more time with this before giving a number rating, but for now, this tea is wonderful.

Also known as ‘tung ting’ or ‘frozen summit’ this is a wonderful tea from Nantou area of Taiwan ( a varietal export from the Wu Yi mountains in China) and one of my favorites (that I always keep in stock). This is the first time I’ve had chance to sample this tea from a direct Taiwanese importer like Naivetea, having usually gotten this from other sources. I am used to this tea having a very rich, buttery, vegetal sweetness with a deep, sweet and clean undertone. So I saved this sample for the last after having gone through an amazing sample box kindly sent to me by this company. I wanted to make my last cup from this beautiful gift woven with one of my favorite teas.

Dong Ding Oolong ~ naivetea
Dry Aroma: rich, intense nose, elements of toasted wood, soft smoky hint, and buttery vegitables that causes the palate to salivate
Wet Aroma: woody spicy and smokyness, deep vegetal and puffed rice
Appearance: Dark olive green, tightly rolled (almost pinhead gunpowder) leaves with some hints at orange/copper stems – a much tighter roll then I usually associate with this tea.
Cup:
1st extraction: A deep luster of rich honey yellow and green umber hued liqour. A smooth, butter sweet creamy body, clean- refreshing finish with layers of wood, toasted rice, and hints of kiwi flesh. Sweet lingering finish and without astrigency. Steeped for 3 minutes in 190 degree water.
2nd: a resonate yellow-green olive oil color. Toasted, woody, spicy notes with a finishing sweetness. Very expressive and layered with clean, full bodied finish. Steeped for 4 minutes in 180 degree water.
3rd: deep green olive with nearly cat-eye orange-yellow color. notes of toasted bamboo, vegetal spicy, fleshy fruit mouthfeel, and developing astringency. Steeped in 170 degree water for 6 minutes.
4th: pale yellow extraction. Soft Genmaicha/Hojicha taste with body still present and mild flavor and color. Steeped in 170 degree water for 8 minutes. The leaves are when fully hydrated are much smaller, curved and the stems much thinner and twisted then I’ve seem from this tea. The leaves color is very dark green and seem very well picked and crafted.
My final comments are that this is a wonderful tea and very worth the purchase. It seems to be very well cared for in its processing and its oxidation and is amazingly uniform in its final dried shape. I normally relish the rich buttery, deep vegetal flavors I get from ‘frozen summit’ teas and so was a bit surprised by the almost puffed rice/toasted/smoky flavors, but the overall balance succeeded in making this a great tea, just not what I usually expect from this region and this style of tea.
Many Kudo’s to the people out at Naivetea for their amazing gift and I look forward to more from them.

Method: 3grams of tea in a 6 oz traditional Taiwanese gawian.

I should also say, that considering this tea varietal is from Wu Yi Mountains in China, I have to admit this is probably the first time I have tasted distinctly this link…the flavors were very similar to some I would expect from teas from both regions…very neat.

One brewed the leaves produce a light amber-caramel liquor. The steeped aroma more savory than the dry aroma if that can be believed. The roasty nuttiness of this brew has some weight to it, almost meaty.

With a smooth feel and overtones of roasted vegetables and a honeyed edge you’re drawn to savor this tea’s product. Once past the initial palate sensation I noted more vegetal nuance with each sip.

While not astringent or puckery this tea has a long vegetal tails which grows lighter with each steeping. You can expect a good three or four steeps from this tea before any notable flavor degradation kicks in. I used a good seven or eight steeps before I was essentially drinking water.

I still haven’t gotten around to testing some of my tea-of-the-month samplers, so I decided it was time to break them out (especially considering the November batch is coming soon).

This has a great roasted nutty flavor. I didn’t read up on it at all before steeping, so I wasn’t expecting anything in particular. So it was a pleasant surprise! It has a happy scent, too; it fills my room with that same nutty fragrance. It’s a nice tea for autumn. Works well with my current surroundings, with the falling leaves and brisk air (if I wasn’t sitting at work, that is).

This tea is amazing, but full of surprises. Before steeping I smelled this tea, and was surprised by the floral aroma. While steeping, the floral disappeared into a very dank earthy aroma. The tea has a similar earthy nature when you taste it. The earthiness gives way to a slight fruity and herbal flavor.

I am a fan, and can’t wait to see what re-steeping does to this tea.

Scent is nutty and warm.

Taste is standard seed/nut of Oolong, but only lightly. The main portion reminds me of wheat…the dry raspy stalks rather than the seeds.

There is also a strong dark note I can’t place that covers the tongue as it cools.

Over-all? I like this but doubt I’d buy. Maybe, we’ll see as i have some more. This surprises me as I didn’t much care for American Tea Room’s Dong Ding… I wonder what the difference is? My tongue or something about the teas? Who knows? I’ll revisit the ATR’s one to test my taste buds.