Mi Lan Xiang Phoenix Mountain Dancong

I finally got around to this one, and it’s just as well, because it’s taking up a lot of space on my desk. I’ve taken to keeping the teas I haven’t posted about yet on my desk next to the computer so that they don’t disappear in the collection or end up like the four red fruits black from Le Palais des Thes which we’ve gone through 200 grams of and I never actually posted about it. I thought I already had!

So yes. New system. This system keeps them in full view at all times, and encourages me to get to them faster so that I can get my desk back!

This one is from the Verdant order I made some time ago and had been standing there un-opened, taking up a lot of space. I usually have pretty good experiences with Dancong and tend to find them very similar to Da Hong Pao, but somehow more me.

I suspect this is one I’ll be drinking throughout the day today. It’s wednesday, which means I’m off work (oh I luuuuurrrrve working part time!) and I’ve got a to-do list the length of my leg. Well, nearly. Two pages anyway, with half the usual margins and slightly smaller font size. 116 items. Many of them are tiny things that will take maybe five minutes but which I’ll forget to do otherwise so that’s why it’s so long. This approach worked out awesomely for me last week with nearly 80% completion and Husband commenting on the all-round tidyness of the house when he came home, so I’m repeating the success. So here we go. A tea that can be repeated easily throughout the day.

To that end I started out with twice my normal amount of leaf and half my normal steeping time, and the result is something that smells remarkably like honey. And milk, somehow. Or at least sort of creamy. The aroma isn’t very strong, so that’s all I can pick up at this point.

It tastes like Dancong. That’s my first thought when I tasted it. Tastes like Dancong. Um, right. I should sincerely hope it would! O.o And also like oolong. (Duh, brain. Pull yourself together with the associations, please!) That sort of dark, slightly woodsy and kind of humid oolong-y taste that all oolongs must have. If they don’t, it’s a serious flaw for me.

I also like my darker type oolongs to have a sort of caramel-y note. Not outright caramel flavoured, because for some reason I can’t actually imagine that would work, but a natural swet and creamy note that invokes caramel. This is not a requirement in the same way that the oolongness is, but I do prefer it.

Third, it must not be too floral in flavour, and this is where Dancong and Da Hong Pao part ways for me. Da Hong Pao has a tendency to be more floral for me than Dancong. This is not always so, but it seems to be a tendency.

This one has the oolongness and the honey-y, caramel-y creaminess and none of the floralness that I could find. The flavour is somewhat delicate though, and I suspect I could actually easily have left my steeping time at my usual two minutes, even though I had used more leaf. I didn’t really take the volume of the leaf properly into account when I thought I doubled it, so I suspect that I actually used close to my normal amount although it looked like a lot.

Mind you, this is very nice, but do hope that I can bring some forcefulness out in the flavour in the next steeps.

The second steep is back to my normal steeping time. The flavour is the same as the first steep, only stronger this time. All the notes are there and in the same amounts compared to each other. They’re just less delicate now. This is what I hoped would happen.

I’ll take a break with it now and leave the computer before this hospital e-learning course drives me completely batty! It’s mandatory and involves watching a little film which I have now restarted more times than I can count because it just won’t play right. I officially give up! throws up hands

First Review

I am thankful to be able to review this new tea for the first time. Thank you Verdant Tea!

When I opened the packet of Oolong tea…I chuckled, it was beautiful but so long and stringy that I had to pinch my best guess at what I thought 4 grams would be (or for many of us about a teaspoon). This was by far the most cheese straw looking tea I’ve ever seen. Amazingly, there were no unbroken pieces.

I decided to use my PIAO glass pot again because I want to watch the free flowing leaves steep, and the short steeping time (35 seconds each round) were easier to control with this pot.

1. The leaves were dark green when wet, long and strongly rock sugar scented. The liquor was a medium light, champagne yellow green. My first sip was milder than the scent and juicy. There was a spice that acted like a door stop at the tip of my tongue! I pushed past that and discovered sweet bees in the honeysuckle bushes. Nectar! Hot Summer evenings with cream vanilla pie scented Jasmine breezes. That little door stop of spice was tickling my mind. What was that spice? I knew it wasn’t clove. I went to the spice cupboard and rummaged a few things down to sniff at. I settled on Coriander. It was the only soft gloved spice in the bunch that had both the scent of incense and flowers that I was picking up from this steeping. I noted a buttery finish lingering on the tongue. A good round.

2. The leaves had become a little lighter green, still straight and unfurled. You could see what care was taken to pick these leaves. The scent was still rock sugar delight and the liquor golden.
My cup was spicier! Wow! Much tingling! I have to grant that clove had arrived and was the spice winner! Clove was hand in hand with dry parchment for a split second and then POOF! Gone. Quickly, honey followed still juicy and floral. There was unchilled honeydew melon, left out on the kitchen table, buttery melon ready for a spoon and dripping with juice. No acid, no tannin to be found.
I walked away and came back. I put my nose to the cup. If I could just float on my back, on a current of this silky, honey scented liquor…well…it would be heavenly. Goosebumps!

The third steeping is where I usually lose it. I may do or say anything that comes to mind.

3. The leaves were medium green with a bit of yellow and had become more unfurled and vegital scented but sweet. The liquor was lighter yellow green.
This infusion was sweet, floral and had sugar but was much milder and not dry or spiced. It was clean, juicy and the melon more apparent. I did taste coriander again gentle and lovely and warming.

I’d like to say here, that when Verdant noted that there is Lotus flavor…well, I don’t have Lotus around and have no idea what that tastes like and I didn’t taste any grapefruit either. I am me. It will be so interesting to find out what other people find in this Oolong!

Here’s my crazy:
I added 1/2 tsp sugar to the final 4oz of tea. What happened was this: The tea woke up!
The butteriness increased, the floral quality increased. It was like a booster rocket or rewind button on my tasting….all the nectar from tasting round 1. and the honey returned. If you are a doubter, try this. But, use just a little bit!

Beautiful tea! Thank you for such a lovely memory and I hope you will share my gratitude with the people who provide such special tea.

Here’s some beautiful music to drink it with…http://youtu.be/geDoGI-ve3s
(Beethoven)

I’m still inexperienced with oolongs so I was happy to see this included as a sample with my order. I read over the tasting notes on Verdan’ts site and they really hit the nail on the head. INTENSE, intoxicating scent of sandalwood incense in the steeping leaves, I never imagined such a thing in tea but with each new experience my eyes are being opened up to the many different dimensions of tea. I also smelled a jammy scent, apricot maybe? And along with that Ican definitely sense honey like the site mentioned, along with the typical roasty oolong smell. At this point, I’m excited. This is right up my alley.

I followed the brewing instructions word for word because I’m confident the people at Verdant know their stuff. As for the taste, I’m really liking it. Late nights are great for drinking tea, and this one just feels like a night time tea. It’s dark. It’s mysterious. And most of all, it’s roasty. I really can’t fully describe the taste, the only word I can think of is roasty. But it’s much more complex than that, it’s just outside of my tasting vocabulary. As for the texture, it’s smooth like silk or “buttery” as I normally call it, and that’s one of my favorite things in a tea. I will be sure to do at least three more infusions and see what happens.

Infusion number 2:
As always, I smelled the tea as it was brewing and I got so lost in the scent alone that I zoned out and oversteeped it by about fifteen seconds. The sandalwood aroma is more intense than before, as well as the aroma of honey.

As I sip the warm tea I am sure to inhale a breath of the vapor with each sip. I am stoll lost in the aroma. But it’s more than the aroma, as the scent enters my nose and the fluid enters my mouth, the smell melds with the velvety smooth texture of the tea in perfect synergy. This is an experience.

More to come tomorrow.

Oh. My. God! This is really, amazingly good. I should not be surprised, though, as Verdant Tea never fails to elicit a positive response from me. David manages to select the very finest teas and I’m never less than impressed.

The aroma of the dry leaf is breathtaking. Delicious! It smells like fresh melon and flowers and indeed, it does smell like burning incense, just as the description suggests. I also detect the scent of fresh baked goods … my mouth is watering from the fragrance alone.

The flavor is also stunning, with notes of spice, wood, and an undertone of honey-esque sweetness. It isn’t as SWEET as some of the Oolong teas out there, instead, this has more of a savory tone to it, with notes of sweetness to offer contrast, rather than the other way around. The finish is dry with notes of mineral. And that’s just the first two infusions.

Looking forward to the next two infusions … but for now, I’ll post this note and offer another when I’ve gotten to the next cup.

At first I was like, “This thin wiry spinach smelling stuff is supposed to taste like mi dan dancong?” But then the hot water hit the leaves and I was a believer! Smells fantastic!

Steep one: Heavy woody spice. Cinnamon? no…nutmeg? hmm, yeah, more like nutmeg. There’s honey and lychee of course. Autumn forest with a distant fireplace going. …and because I just gave my dogs a treat, I smell faux bacon. yuck.

Just from this first steep, I would say that I prefer Canton Tea’s Mi Lan Dancong. Theirs is less heavy and has more fruity lychee flavor. Not that this isn’t excellent and complex, because it is. It might be even more complex, but I find I like the more joyful flavor of Canton’s version. This one is a bit…moody. Like a ponderous man who’s lost all hope in life. But so complex and dark and mysterious. It’s tastes like cloudy.

Steep 2: Mmm… more honey and lychee in this now. Raisins, a little. yummy. I’m going to cold brew steep 3 overnight. :) It’s gonna be high 60’s tomorrow so a cold drink would probably be quite welcome. :)

Happy Monday!

When I read Verdants description of this I had to try it. Heady and intoxicating is right up my alley. The first few seconds after the water touched the leaves I knew this would be an experience. The aroma of dark fruits and spices had me anxious to try some. I steeped it for perhaps 3 minutes and upon the first sip I thought to myself that this is another must-have from Verdant. After a minute or so I noticed how warming this tea is. And as the description says, heady and intoxicating. My only problem with this tea is I think it would be better suited for cooler weather. It is very warming. Actually maybe it’s purifying. Overall this is a very fine tea.

My wife is headed back East in a few days with our daughter to visit the family, and as a result our work schedules are ridiculous over both the last few and the next several days. I work days and she works nights, so the few hours of togetherness over the weekend were fleeting and gone. And so it was with a heavy heart that I turned to this month’s order from Verdant and specifically the Mi Lan Xiang – hoping to find a spark of inspiration in a sullen night.

I am truly blown away by this tea. Please don’t stop reading the review as I will go into more detail shortly, but my overall impression begs to be stated ahead of how I got there. So much of the experience this tea delivers is in the range of ethereal and doesn’t translate well in terms of trying to describe its flavor profile. Sure, those elements are there, and it is a lusciously juicy and intricate tea in its own right. To say that it is positivity in a cup would sound over the top and nonsensical if you are reading this but haven’t tried it yourself. Please do so.

I measured 5g of Mi Lan Xiang into my little 120ml gaiwan and then put my new Secura thermo-controlled boiler to the task of making my tea life easier and more fulfilled. (After watching David’s video sessions using a Zojirushi, I opted for the cheaper but more practical-for-my-wallet Secura.) Two successive flash rinses warmed the wares and it was time to see if the outlook for my night was going to improve.

Boy did it ever.

The thing that struck me first was the weight of the tea in my mouth. It has an almost simple syrupy consistency and reminds me of the way that a wake will lap at the sides of a boathouse in the cove after slowly rolling in from the thoroughfare. At first the bright taste of an undefined melon is there, and the combination of the scent and the flavor is intoxicating.

As the number of steeps move into the high single digits, a prevailing numbness and dissipating of any negativity builds and washes through my psyche. The flavor arc dances like a dervish, humming and swaying between nectar and spice never-ending.

This is the first tea that I have actually journeyed deeper into the teens with. I have tried with only one other and lost interest not in the taste but in the lack of change between steeps. To date, this is the most singularly enthralling tea that I have had the fortune to experience. Why is it after midnight and where can I put this moxie to best use?! This is one transcendent tea!

Note #500!!

This is actually a backlog from yesterday night. I went to the Dogwood Festival in ATL yesterday because the boyfriend was meeting up with friends from work. It was just one of those days where everything is an uphill battle and generally things don’t go as planned. We had a terrible experience in a restaurant, got sunburned in April, and spent an hour trying to find a parking spot. The reward? Huge crowds of people with no concept of personal space.

Yay, my favorite! – she says, sarcastically.

So my nerves were shot by the time we got home and I wanted something to calm me down. When I perused my cupboard and saw I hadn’t even opened this (?!) and it was a Dan Cong it was game on.

Dry leaf: Honeyed and sweet smelling. Dark, slightly malty and heavy, very much like a black tea. No trace of salt/ocean air, which I normally get in the scent of a dry Dan cong leaf. I don’t mind though – the smell is already starting to calm me down and I haven’t even steeped it up yet.

Steep notes: 5 g. in Midori (my 4 oz. gaiwan). Rinsed x2 as directed on the Verdant website.

1st steep: 10 seconds, the taste is honey/nectary with that definitive lingering peach aftertaste. This is astringent mostly when it’s hot – as it cools that seems to fade away and the sweet peachiness remains. The liquor is a pale peach color as well. Even though I did boiling water like Verdant recommends, the leaf now smells a bit burned…I really did love the smell of it dry and am sad it went away.

2nd steep: 15 seconds. This steep was lighter in color but more fruity than honeyed. Whereas in the first step the fruity character remained predominately in the aftertaste, it is apparent throughout the entire sip. I’m getting the saltwater tang in the scent of the liquor now. Makes me wish I was by a beach for sure.

3rd steep: 30 seconds. There’s a bit of pepper in this steep. Still very fruity and the liquor is not as intense in flavor in the previous iteration.

4th steep: 50 seconds. The astringency is stronger with this steep. Still a strong peach quality though it seems a bit more muted this go around.

5th, 6th, 7th steeps (1:30, 3:00, and 7:00 respectively) Each of these steeps tasted pretty samey to me…that is, nothing really stuck out that was different than the preceding steeps. Fruity, roasty goodness.

I’m so glad I found this last night. I’ll have to try this Western style and see how it compares (see if I get the salty/savory note a bit more) but having it gong fu style was just the perfect way to undo all the crazy of my day. Tea for the win, as always!

I was craving a dark oolong tonight (it seems my preferences have shifted from green teas to dark oolongs recently), and chose this one to brew up as I have a whole ounce of it and hadn’t yet touched it! Given my previous failures with Verdant dancongs, I kind of went with my own parameters, which would be a loose tbsp of leaf (the leaves are so incredibly wiry!), which was likely only a gram or two at most, in 8 oz. water. With no rinse, as I only do that for pu’erh.

The first infusion, for 25s at 205F, looked light but out of lingering fear, I pulled the infuser basket out anyways. Turns out I could have left it in longer, but the result was a light, deliciously fruity/woody dark oolong with intense peachy notes appearing in the aftertaste. I think an additional 10 seconds or so would have made this even better (alternately, a bit more leaf). I don’t have time to get into more of what I’m tasting, but this is delicious and exactly what I was craving, and my cup is almost gone!

The leaves smelled absolutely delicious post-infusion, a complex mixture of aromas I couldn’t place but am dying to try and tease out of this tea! The aroma was so strong, I feel like the leaves could last for far more infusions than I’ll make it to (which tonight is two, hopefully more tomorrow).

Second infusion (35s, 200F) loses some of the fruitiness and becomes a bit more woody, but I almost want to say I’m tasting a bit of fig? Again, the flavour would have been better with more leaf/a longer infusion, but this is delicious regardless!

Definitely a good choice on this one tonight (also on ordering 1 oz. of it!)

Reading others reviews makes me even more sad that I apparently cannot appreciate this variety of Dancong. I had a Mi Lan Xiang from Chicago Tea Garden and got the same grey clay taste with a slight astringency, even though I am doing very short steeps. No honey or orchid to speak of, maybe a tad bit of grapefruit (based soley on the fact that I don’t like grapefruit) and I didn’t even get much aroma from it. I’m not sick, my water is nicely filtered and my teaware was properly cleaned and rinsed with boiling water prior to use so no residue or oders. It is a little better after the third steep, but gets weak by the sixth. This and CTG’s both to have a nice sweetness that lingers on the tongue once swallowed but its getting to that point that’s the issue. I have not completely given up hope, I have a pitcher of this cold brewing in the fridge after reading Verdant’s newest newsletter. Here’s hoping I find more to appreciate.

Brewed gongfu style. I used around 4 tsp for my 6-8 oz mug. The leaves were long and spindly so difficult to measure, I ended up basically eyeballing it.
The leaves smelled chocolatey with an interesting green flavor underneath it. For some reason the scent makes me think of a front porch around the 4th of July in a little town near a river #synesthesia.
The liquor was great smelling – deep, molasses-y and chocolatey.
The flavor is surprisingly spicy and deep. I get great flavors of molasses and earth. There is a tiny salty coppery aftertaste.
To sum up the first infusion: Dirt and Blood. And I mean that in the best possible way.

This is pretty wonderful! It’s intensely sweet and juicy. There are those lovely charcoal type notes but also a melon type taste in there too! On the end sip I can pick up some floral notes that seem semi-warming…maybe a floral-spice combo even!

This is a nice surprise! I like this a lot :)

Remembrance day here in Canada, lest we forget. Had a relaxing morning watching the ceremony on TV, then went shopping with the boy in the afternoon. And now making guacamole and having this tea.

This tea!! Oh my goodness!! I could have sworn there is honey in my cup :D mmm i havent had an oolong like this before! So sweet yet juicy too, a perfect mixture. I feel warm all over :) i steeped the bfs for 30 s, and my cup for 35, after a rinse. Tasted his, more oolong with a light hint of honey, mine is full of it! A creaminess too, and a warming spice. Can’t wait to see what later steeps hold! My cup is almost gone already! Definitely a prime candidate for my incoming yixing pot :)

THANK YOU TeaEqualsBliss for including this in our tea swap! I’ve been so spoiled with teas for the last few months, mostly from Steepsterers. I really appreciate it.

First steep / 37 seconds: I had to read the instructions for steeping this on the Verdant site! It really does not need much steeping at all. It’s very impressive that so much flavor was there so quick. The first cup already has amazing flavor, that isn’t normally tasted in oolongs until a couple cups in, when the leaves have unraveled a bit! This one is PEACH. A light peach, with a bit of a subtle cream flavor. Peaches and cream?!! It also seems like a bit of cantalope or honeydew melon. So it’s a fruity tea. It’s pretty amazing that these flavors can come from tea leaves.

Second steep / 42 seconds: It’s interesting there isn’t much of a floral flavor here that I usually find in light oolongs. This one is strictly fruit. It’s very sweet! This cup is much like the first.

Third steep / 52 seconds: I think I had too high of a temp on this one. The peach flavor is entirely gone now. I thought I waited long enough for the water to cool…guess not. I wonder why the peach flavor isn’t even listed on the flavor profile for this one the Verdant site?

Fourth steep / 57 seconds: I think this one was still ruined from the high temp steep. But now there is more a floral flavor now. With my oolong flavor rating where one is the lightest/most floral flavor and five has the strongest flavor, this tea would be a two.

Unlike most oolongs, I think the first cup was the best. I didn’t rinse the leaves like the Verdant site suggested. I think this is the first Verdant Tea I’ve tried! Nice!

I’m excited to be trying this tea for the first time. I don’t have to get up early tomorrow morning so I can treat myself with some caffeine tonight! The dry leaf smells a bit like those fish food flakes. I actually don’t mind it, but it was a bit of a surprise!

First infusion: It has a nice and mellow scent with no fishy notes at all. I mostly taste a kind of sweet wood. It is almost a little like a mild black tea. I detect a little bit of honey sweetness at the end of the sip. I like the earthy flavors of this first cup. Wood and flowers.

Second infusion: This tea is still rather mellow. Nothing really sticks out at me until the end of the sip when I taste some peachy flavors. I love peach notes in oolong teas! Yes, the flowers are still here as well as a very, very faint presence of bread.

I will update with more information if I continue with more infusions. I’m pretty exhausted from today so I’m not sure if I will continue sipping tonight. I think this tea is fine and reasonably tasty, but it leaves me wanting more flavor.

Dark brown long leaves make this hard for measuring but I’m becoming quite apt at eyeballing the measurements. Dry it smells like maple syrup, honey, sandalwood, and orchid. Wet the tea smells of roasted/grilled stone fruit, like peaches, and a spiced chai latte. The infusion is rather light and smells of roasted fruit, honey, and orchid.

Taste, the first sip I get is a sweet roasted fruit with maple syrup or brown sugar drizzled on top, yum. It seems very juicy with a roasted quality and a warm sweetness that I can only describe as real maple syrup.

In the aftertaste I get the floral creamy orchid and a hint of spices like a chai latte. It seems there is a hint of melon but I’m not sure. It’s that juicy quality again but it’s different from the stone fruit I was getting in the main sip. There is also a nice silky texture on the tongue lasting and being more prominent in the aftertaste.

The leaves become more green than brown as I continue steeping and the wet leaves take on a more prominent roasted scent. I still am not detecting any sort of grapefruit notes. Around the third cup the spiciness becomes stronger and the sweetness starts to take a backseat along with the roasted notes. There is still some juiciness to the tea and definitely orchid notes. The orchid notes are now predominantly in the beginning of the sip though. Maple syrup notes are in the middle of the sip and there is a sort of tingling sensation on the tip of the tongue lasting into the aftertaste.

I received this as a sample with my order and I am not rating this one since this tea is not something I would normally drink, not quite to my taste. I can tell this is a wonderful tea, very smooth and complex and even for me not caring for darker teas like this, I would certainly not turn it down if someone offered me a cup.

I got this sample from Verdant a while back, just finally getting around to trying it. I had students all afternoon, so this was brewed gongfu style, as recommended on the site, initially for 2 – 4 secs per steeping, adding a little time as I went along.

The dry smell of the leaves was salty. Once the tea was wet a sweet floral & almost melon-like scent arose. It steeped to an appealing honey apricot color. With each steep, I took a sip or 2, then dumped the rest into a mason jar, which eventually ended up in the frig as chilled tea (no ice).

The early steepings gave a hint of apricot sweetness & an earthiness that brought to mind a mossy forest in the Fall. There is a slight bitter edge, & in subsequent steepings the taste of cloves, or some similar spice, emerged. Several steepings later I got the puckery mouth-feel & aftertaste of having eaten a grapefruit.

I added 1 drop of stevia to the last cup & then I found the honeydew melon taste.

Not my favorite tea from Verdant, but an interesting change of pace!

First of all, I was surprised when I opened up this bag and found long leaves that resembled black tea. It wasn’t rolled like I was expecting like other oolongs.

The brewed tea is a nice light yellow and smells like honey.

I did a quick rinse and did 8 steepings at 2seconds, then 8 steepings at 4seconds.

The most prominent note for me is sandalwood. There is some honey notes in the beginning. The tea then changes to more of a citrus note, especially grapefruit, since it is slightly sour tasting.

This isn’t my favourite offering from Verdant but I certainly wouldn’t turn down a cuppa (or 2!)

Aroma:
Dry Leaves- waffle cones, spices, and something fruity
Wet Leaves- musky roasted waffle fruit with burnt wood (very potent)

This tea has notes characteristic of a greener oolong in that it’s notably milky, but also possesses that savory roasted quality found in darker oolong. The unfurled wet leaves represent that dichotomy- long browny green strands.

To start, it has a honeyed body and a sweet tangy finish that very much embodies sharp red grapefruit. The aftertaste is citric and sweet- smooth and sharp.

I think I’m on my sixth or seventh steep in my gongfu pot and the tea has become noticeably honey rich, spiced near the end, and woody in a roasted way. I’m glad for this change in profile; even though I love grapefruit I can only handle so much of it. Interesting transition to say the least!

I’m still getting used to darker roasted oolongs. This is a good one for me as it definitely never allows for boredom, and contains notes from my favourite citrus fruit (sometimes I can’t believe these teas aren’t flavoured).

Also, sipdown!

Oh wow, as soon as I poured water over these leaves I got a huge waft of juicy fruit – pineapple! Maybe kiwi? A dash of carmelized sugar, or dark honey. The flavor does not disappoint either. I used the first steep to rinse, and have made 3 more so far.

This doesn’t fit neatly into my categories of dark and light roasted oolongs, but I’m pretty ok with having to expand my classifications :P This doesn’t have the heavy, nutty, dry, roasted flavor Iget from Formosa oolongs, but neither is it buttery and vegetal like a green one. It has the floral notes of a Tie Guan Yin, but then shifts to honey, fruit and incense.

It is getting a little toasty in later steeps (10 now), but still lots of sweet incense and dark fruit now, like cherries or blackberry pie. Aftertaste is very much like pineapple! Sweet, but also has that enzymatic tingle.

I have a bad habit of forgetting my gongfu teas through the day, so to make sure I got all 18(!) steeps out of this one, I alternated making a cup to drink, and immediately making another cup that I poured into a jar to chill and drink iced later! So I actually got to taste the later steeps this time :) and I’m glad I did, because it started getting rather like a pasty, with flavors of grain and butter.