Dong Ding Ming Xiang (冻顶蜜香)

I still have more of my Tea from Taiwan samples!!!

I steeped this in an infuser mug with 195 F water for about 1.5 minutes. Based on my experience with oolongs this seemed to be a good place to start. After my first steep I noticed the leaves have an aroma of molasses – nice! This is very nutty and toasty. I think I get an aftertaste of honey & molasses too (it is not a flavored tea I believe) …

then I notice in the description that the honey flavor is left by secretions from cicadas! How interesting. Also I learned from a documentary on wuyi tea that the dong ding oolong came to Taiwan after the wuyi tea was planted there. So it does seem like it has elements of both for sure.

2nd steep: The leaves are starting to open up here and smell VERY molasses with a hint of anise. Also some peach aromas are emerging here. This is really quite delicious! I am getting mesmerized.

3rd steep: Some woody notes are starting to emerge here and the molasses aroma is giving way to something intensely floral… pretty neat!

Recommended to those of you who like darker style oolongs.

The Final Sipdown: Day 11
Decupboarding Total: 25

The Final Sipdown will be great for my few remaining Tea from Taiwan samples, of which this is one. I’m not exactly sure why I haven’t tried this in the ages I’ve had it. Typically, I’m a big fan of this type of oolong. And yet this sample has been sitting, lonely, in my pantry. No longer!

The smell and flavor are a bit less intense than I expect from greener oolongs, but that could be due to the length of time it has been in my pantry, vacuum-sealed or not. There seems to be a little spicy bit to the green note. It’s also darker, heavier and a little… roastier? than expected. But there’s also a sweet, light orchid-ish or some other floral note that begins to come across as the tea cools.

This really reminds me of a lighter, greener version of Samovar’s TKY or Chicago Tea Garden’s Zealong Dark. But instead of making it a dark-ish oolong that I like (green oolong fan that I am), it seems a bit indecisive to me. Not a creamy, floral, soft green oolong but not a sweet, honeyed, roasty wonder of dark oolong. It’s good, don’t get me wrong. It’s just a hint of confusing.
^8g/14oz

Strongly floral and honeyish. I don’t usually like darker oolongs, but this one doesn’t taste like the typical dark oolong. Honestly, it’s probably only medium dark, maybe less.

The fragrance and flavor are deeply floral. I’m not good at identifying the different kinds of floral flavors that are usually found in teas. Some expert will have to teach me. Volunteers?
There is also a pleasant honey flavor. Together with the floral flavor, it’s like a top notch floral honey. yum! And underlying the whole thing, there’s tea. Possibly lightly roasted. It keeps the whole thing from being too sweet and cloying. There’s also something a bit like plum about to be over ripe.

Man! This tea smells good!

By the third steep, the roasty tea flavor is stronger and the floral honey is starting to lose.

All my steeps are at a pretty low temperature so far. I find that higher temps bring out harsher flavors. I pretty much treat oolongs like white teas. I’m such a rebel. The leaves are starting to take up a lot of space already and it’s only just starting. I’m always amazed how a tiny amount of dry leaf takes over the whole pot. I can’t stop smelling the leaves. I want my laundry to smell like this. My puppies smell like laundry cause they roll around in the warm clothes from the dryer. Then my clean clothes smell like puppies. So does this mean I secretly want my puppies to smell like tea? My trains of thought take me to crazy places.

Steep four is still strong and delicious. All the previously mentioned flavors are still present but more mellow and blended. I will need to take a break from tea now.

How do you guys keep your tea leaves in between steepings? I just leave it in the pot if doing gong fu style or strainer if doing western style, at room temperature. If I leave it in the pot, should I keep the lid on or off?

I appreciate the samples sent by Tea from Taiwan. They arrived pretty quickly. Our postman required a signature, which also happened the first few times we received tea from Teavivre, but not any longer. Anyway, I prepared this Gongfu style, rinsing first, then steeping the whole 7 gm sample in my Gaiwan for 25s,35s,45s, 90s, 120s x 2. It has a pleasing gentle scent and is the color of honey. My husband, who drinks tea unsweetened and enjoys oolongs a lot,thought it was very nice from the start. I sweeten my tea and needed the longer steep times to fully appreciate this tea. I found the warm honey notes to be very pleasing and also picked up on a bit of a toasty flavor in later steepings. We stopped at 6 or 7 infusions, though I think it may have been possible to get more because there was plenty of flavor in the last cup. The Tea from Taiwan website gives detailed instructions about brewing oolongs Gongfu style-I did not see this information until after we had made the tea, but fortunately, we had been pretty close to their recommendations

yum- dark,but not too dark. roasty,nutty with a lingering sweetness that makes this tea wonderful.

Tried my sample of this last night and I LOVED it. Nutty and sweet while not too dark. YUM!!!

Thank you for my sample of this tea :) As promised here is your review.

Upon opening the pack this oolong was beautifully dark green in colour and it oozed a milky/creamy/sweet floral fragrance. Now this has been rinsed just before my initial first steep it’s exuding a strong green and fresh smell, one of the strongest oolongs I have experienced so far.

So I will do 7 steeps with my gaiwan for this oolong for the following times: 25s,35s,45s,55s,65s,75s,85s. Also note this is with just under boiling water and with 7g of tea which works out to be a whole sample.

First steep – 25s – The tea is honey coloured with a gentle floral scent. The taste is stronger than the smell, it’s very floral and a little fruity with a toasted tang. It’s also sweet and fresh tasting, a lovely example of a stronger oolong.

Second steep – 35s – Slight more floral now in fragrance. Again the same lovely fruitiness and strength but it’s sweeter than the first steep. It’s a dark sweetness similar to molasses but more subtle and fresh.

Third steep – 45s – Now this smells like toasted fresh flowers and has darkened slightly but still remains virtually honey coloured. The green flavour has increased and reminds me of raw broccoli, also the sweetness is being a little overwhelmed by the toasted flavour but the floral notes keep it fresh.

Fourth steep – 55s – Same toasted floral smell. Same colour. Perhaps a little dry and nutty could be added to the aforementioned flavours. Still fairly strong and very nice.

Fifth steep – 65s – The broccoli elements have more or less gone now and the floral tastes have come back into play with more sweetness. Also just a note about the tea, the oolong itself has now expanded in my gaiwan to reveal dark brown and dark green long twirled leaves.

Sixth steep – 75s – More subtle now than the last few steeps. Floral and sweet once more, similar to the first and second steeps. No real toasty flavour or nutiness other than for a second in the after taste.

Seventh steep – 85s – Pale yellow now in colour with very subtle floral fragrance. Very gentle and light but keeping the floral tones and sweetness.

Overall this was a very nice oolong that whilst not committing to full strength was still fairly strong and flavourful. Very fresh and pungent. Suitable for people that love strong oolong or floral tea.

Ooh, my little Tea from Taiwan package arrived delightfully quickly! I wanted to try definitely unflavoured milk oolongs and ordered up their sampler. I also threw in a set of samples including this. Advance warning: I don’t know what I’m talking about or what I’m tasting, really. I just like oolong and thought this would be a good place to start learning.

I chose this at random to try first. It’s nice and mild, with a pleasant sweetness. It’s not knocking my socks off, but it’s very enjoyable. I love the scent.

This is a dark oolong, plenty of toasty fragrance overlaying an orchid-y, fruity sweetness in the dry leaves. I got 4 steeps out of this, one minute duration each, by the 4th it was getting pretty ordinary so I don’t think I’ll bother with a fifth. Orchid flavour in the first and second steeps, and for some reason ‘melon’ popped into my head as well… mellowing out to toasty, new-leathery and woody flavours in the 3rd and somewhat in the fourth steeps. This is a great tea for a grey, cool and rainy day which is what we’re having in Melbourne today (not that I’m complaining after the heat we’ve had the rest of the week).

I started in on this oolong after 2 rinses for 10 seconds each with 190 degree f and let it sit for 2 minutes in my yixing. My first steep was at 190 for 50 seconds. Incredibly floral, very long tea echo, very slight earthy…the beauty of this tea is in the aftertaste…its not very strong tasting while in my mouth but after it goes down, theres this explosion of sweet, perfumey flowers with a hint of citrus that reminds me of the same citrusy note i get from a yutaka midori fukamushi sencha. All in all a very enjoyable oolong that doesnt let your mouth forget its flavor after its long gone.

First of all… I think this tea is mis-named. On the package it says “Dong ding ming xiang” but then the Chinese characters are “Dong Ding Mi Xiang” (i.e. 冻顶蜜香 = Frozen summit honey fragrance). I don’t know what this “Ming” is… I’m assuming it’s just a typo.

Anyways, I might change my rating a bit later, but for right now I’m comparing this mostly with the Wu Ling (also by Teas from Taiwan) that I tried just a couple days ago. This one is a bit smokier and less sweet. Around the 3rd or 4th steeping I tasted hints of the same butterscotch-ish flavor, but it wasn’t nearly as pronounced. I liked this tea, but I think it was different from Dong Ding Wulong that I’ve had in the past.

Overall, a nice relatively mild but satisfying balanced tea. It rates below the Wuling, but it is still good!

Tried this in my brand new gaiwan that I just received yesterday from Jings Tea Shop. Much lighter than the mainland oolongs I have been drinking lately. Actually smells and taste lemony-sweet on the finish as do the leaves after the first steeping. Other than that, I just can’t get into these type of teas. Just too “light” for me. Maybe I should have prepared it in the Yixing? Oh well…sample is gone now.