Roasted Dong Ding

My tea arrived from thepuriTea yesterday, but I wasn’t able to try any until today! It smelled so good when I opened the packaging, very nutty! I used my new travel tumbler from thepuriTeas to make this tea too. I loved watching the leaves open up and the water turn to a really nice russet color. I was also happy to get the great toasty flavor when drinking this too. I only got the sample package size this time around, but it may have to go on my tea want list very soon!

I’m back from my Low Country vacation. I spent the last nine days eating some of the most wonderful foods and relishing in architectural and natural beauty. I even found a few tea shops. We started in Savannah, GA, then on to Charleston, SC and finally Murrells Inlet, SC. I’m very excited to try some of my new tea finds, but first I have some samples to sample.

This tea threw me for a loop. Just from judging the dry leaves and the smell, I thought this was going to be too green of an oolong for me. The dark green leaves were tightly rolled and smelled lightly vegetal with an underlying roasted note. The look and smell made me question my purchase, as I tend to stay away from green oolongs. The first steep didn’t quite unfurl all of the tea, so I knew I was in for multiple infusions for sure.

After tasting, my previous judgments went right out the window. This isn’t a dark roasted tea…more of a light roast on the verge of “almost medium”. The nutty flavor is there and I swear I taste a little sweet cinnamon-y note right before the aftertaste kicks in. This only happened on the first two infusions when the tea was screaming hot…not after it cooled. The description mentioned notes of sobacha and Houjicha (both of which I love), but I think these flavors are reserved for darker roasted teas. The tea finishes sweetly and with a slight pucker of astringency. The sweetness in the smell and taste remind me of orchid and honey although subdued. The more infusions, the sweeter and more astringent the tea becomes. The roasty toasty taste vanishes. This would be a good starter tea for those that like greener oolongs but wish to venture into darker and roasted oolongs.

or ‘Rosted Dong Ding’ as the sample pouch would amusingly have me believe.

Irrelavant typos aside, however, I have in the past had some very good experiences with roasted Tie Guan Yins, so based on that I have high expectations of this one.

The aroma is very distinct green oolong, but with a layer of toastyness surrounding it. It’s acutally a pretty interesting smell. It’s all crispy and crunchy and stuff. Í would say that it’s a golden-orange smell, but given that the colour I’m thinking about is the exact same colour as the brew in the cup, I don’t think I can blame synesthesia on that one.

It really is a very nice colour. The white china is looking quite handsome as background for this tea.

The flavour is interesting as well! It has a strong note of something sort of tangy and fruity, like a middle thing between mandarins or apples of the not too sour sort.

Then there’s a note of pure green oolong. Not at all buttery and with just a touch of that earthyness that makes it different from a regular green. Isn’t it funny how oolong is kind of earthy and pu-erh is kind of earthy, but it’s not the same sort of earthyness at all? Oolong-earthy has a more floral tinge to it. Oolong-earthy is spring-y. Pu-erh earthy is autumn-y.

Anyway, this is slightly floral and oolong earthy, plus the indeterminable fruit-note, and all of it shrouded in nutty toast-ness. Flavourful and interesting.

And so Sample Week has reached Friday.

This is a great tea. It is so flavorful. Looks like I will be putting this on my wish list for September once my ban is over. Just read the discription, it is just as it is described. Yummy!

Yum. Toasty without overly so, smooth, flavorful, and just good. This is a good mid-range oolong – not too green, not too dark. I like it a lot.

this one is ok. Lightly roasted, sort of vegetative. Not florally. Needed ~1 tbs for ~6 ozz and steeeping time of about 3 minutes. I would think a shorter steeping time would coax minimal flavor out of this one.

I took advantage of thePuritea’s Cyber Monday deal and got a whole bunch of oolong samples to explore the different types. The shipping was super quick, which was a very happy surprise, as I’m literally on the other side of the country from them and got this 2 days later!

I wanted a darker oolong to try first, so I picked this based on the name. The smell of this dry leaf was wonderful – toasted, earthy and grassy simultaneously. The smell of the brewed tea was similar – which was very comforting and cozy on a chilly night.

The main reason that I chose to try as many oolongs as I could was because I just am not familiar with them. Perhaps it is because of this lack of familiarity that I failed to get a lot of the expected flavors out of this tea. I’m putting it down to steep time (that has been the culprit a lot recently, I think), and thinking I should have pushed it up to four minutes for the first infusion. When I do a second I will really do a long steep just to see if I can improve on the texture and taste.

So mostly, the first time around I just got a grassy, sweet green with the roasted aroma teasing me. I hope that the next time around the roasty-ness will seep into the liquor too. Oh, and some of those honeyesque, vanilla, or nutty flavors – they can feel free to join in. I promise I won’t mind! :)

Every sample from this company has exceeded expectations. This is no exception. If this little teapot could steep only one tea per day, this would be it. No joking here. http://lyt-tea-reviews.blogspot.com/2011/03/review-thepuriteacoms-roasted-dong-ding.html

“light” is the operative word with this tea. Walker Tea Review # 281. Score= 84

Clear yellow-green color, slight nutty aroma, taste also had a hint of a grain, maybe rice.
Two steeps. Second steep slightly more astringent.
Edit: As the tea cools, the grain flavor becomes more pronounced. Definitly rice.

12oz water
4g tea

The leaves are dark green. Some are broken, they seem to have a jagged edge. Golden infusion. The aroma smells roasted is really all i can think of. There is just a bit of astringency on the tongue that you can feel tighten up ever so slightly. It has a lingering sweet aftertaste.