Mi Lan Dancong Black

So…THIS tea…is like a TEA NINJA…it karate-chops ya in the taste buds!

I tastes roasty and toasty but a bit like dark chocolate, too. In the middle of the sip I picked up some jasmine notes but they quickly faded. THEN…wait for it…Avocado! I can taste Avocado! Seriously! But then…there is a bit of dark chocolate again…or carob even. It makes me think of Jason Mraz’s famous Raw Vegan Avocado Chocolate Mousse!

Just when I think I have this flavor figured out it throws me another karate chop…malted milk flavor and fruity-goodness! What the heck?

And not only THAT…but I can pick up characteristics of both black tea and oolong teas! There are malty notes but then there are specs of charcoal notes trying to pop thru.

There is so much going on with this – I can barely contain myself! AND…I LOVE that!

As it cools at room temp for a tick…I can start tasting some lovely, delicate spicy flavors…WOW!!! What a conversation-piece! This tea makes you think…this tea makes you talk…this tea makes you question everything you thought you knew!

KARATE CHOP to the taste buds!

LOVE it!

Good News Mi Lan Dancong Black is now available on the Verdant Website

Pre-release Preview Review Thank you David Duckler for this Sample

Last week I received my order of Laoshan White Tea…so happy to open the Verdant box. There was a note from David Duckler and 2 pouches of samples with handwritten labels that both said ‘Pre-release Preview’ and the name of the tea!
I’ve waited days to try the first tea. No distractions. I wanted to do a proper job of being quiet and still. Sometimes I tell a story with a tea review. A vision will come easily. Today, I had many visions of moonless phosphorescent lagoons and tropical flora. An Island lived on and others traveled to. The visions were many and mine alone. I don’t know why.
The flavors and tastes I am able to share with more ease.

Here are the directions:
4 tsp. tea leaves, 4oz. boiling water
rinse 1 second
steep 3 seconds and add 1 second for each additional steeping
(I followed this method for 3 steepings then switched to Geoffrey’s method of 6 oz water and 8 seconds on the 4th steeping)

The wet leaves smelled initially roasty and vegital, then more and more like tobacco.

The color of the liquor began as a light gold then changed and remained vibrant golden ocre and clear.

Steepings:
Flavor discriptions:

1. Shock! Is this a Black tea or a Dragonwell?
The first taste was such a surprise of sweet, succulent juiciness.
I was caught up in a rush, cream and floral smashing at full force then zoom…all the way to roasted pork loin with crispy skin and the scent of sugared stone fruit at the bottom of my cup. Wow! That was fast! Like the first Star Wars hyperspeed to warp speed…then jump to Lightspeed!

Pause

2. I experienced a little tannin and bitterness for a split second up front. Then, it was all gone. A sweetness swooshed around me like a golden cape of perfect burre blanc sauce with salted yellow plantain. Thick, sweet… ending with freshly sliced mango dripping with fruit sugar. Impossible! This was so tropical for a black tea!

I had to stop and catch my breath!

3. The tea smelled like risotto with a hint of saffron. This was the best flavor. There was no bitterness and the tannin was way back on the tongue. Sweet, honey, creamy with the mango lighty coupled with D’anjou pear. Um um um lick your lips good!

4. Following Geoffrey’s (Business Manager at Verdant) sensibility, I steeped the leaves a little longer to see what would happen.
Ok…
This was the first time I could absolutely tell this was truly a black tea. (I thought there was a mystery involved earlier. A cloak was disguising this Black Dancong.)
Now I remembered some black teas from Napal. Those lavish border blacks that have fruity lightness and are deeply rich that I adore.
The sugar noted in earlier steepings had become wildflower honey and there was a new nutty, salty, pecan flavor in the background that was so light and delicious. The previous fruit and a new floral softness was playfully dancing in my cup as if they had always been present together.

At that moment, all of it came together. The swirl of all three previous tastings and this final one ended with clarity…. of settling down.

I have never experienced a Black Tea like this one. It was like an oolong, a darjeeling or dragonwell and then not. Then again a Black Tea!

Some tea’s are exquisitly Beautiful! Full of private visions!
Some Sparkle!

This Mi Lan Dancong is one of those special tea’s filled with Radiance.

Happy to be back! (Once more, I’ve had to unplug from Steepster for awhile… (My dad was sick again, so I’ve spent most of my time with him at the hospital)

It’s ok, not beign the most active member here, I still greatly enjoy following poeple and their reviews. Even if I have to disappear from time to time, I always come back!

So I’ve had «regular tea» for the last few weeks, not having enough time to indulge in «special tea» such as this one. Tonight is special…I have a date with myself! I’am alone in the backyard, it’s nightfall, and I can hear the owl’s chant, whooo, whooo, very close by…The woods are in my backyard, so I get lots of wild life sounds, and from time to time, wild life visitors. I love all my visitors, they sometimes just pass by, or they stay for a couple of days. Today, we had a red fox sniffing around. It stayed a few hours under the bird feeders, hoping for a snack.

It’s been raining a lot, there’s a wonderful vegetation and earthy smell out here tonight, so fresh and warm at the same time.

I have brought the cast iron kettle outside to keep my water hot, along with the gaiwan. I will write this review the old fashion way by the candle light, in my tea notebook. Not kidding, a real paper notebook, with a real pen, with real ink. I realized lately that I barely ever «write» anymore, using the electronic devices all the time. I’ve missed that feeling… See, in French, (my first language) I write a lot! It’s a habit and a necessity for me. I write everything and nothing. I think in one day, I probably write more than I speak! To write on paper just feels like reading a real book after reading a thousand digital ones! It feels right again…

Back to the tea. I’m following Verdant’s instructions. A few seconds only for big flavor. I will not pretend I can review this tea the way others have. Although I can always identify some of the notes, the experience for me is more about the way it makes me feel than about the actual taste. I don’t care much if I can’t get the « cinnamon» or the «avocado». And I’m not saying that in a pejorative way, au contraire, I do admire people for being able to do that so well in their reviews and I thoroughly enjoy reading them, but it’s just not my main concern when I try to describe my tastings. However, I think it’s fun when I find exactly what has been described, I guess sometimes it’s just more obvious than others…

Anyways, I get so many different notes in one sip of this tea, it would take a lifetime for me to identify them all!

The first infusion was a burst of sweetness, yum! Chocolate and honey for sure… it’s so warming, it surprised me in such a pleasant way.

As the other infusions evolved, it got closer to oolong than black tea for me. I find roasted nut along with ripe fruits and light spiciness. Even after many infusions It’s very intense and slightly astringent.

I can’t write anymore than that, sorry… I’m too chocked up by the pure bliss it is giving me, and the night is just too beautiful not to get my full attention…The perfect tea for the perfect moment… I will type that on Steepster later when I get back in…

Thank you for that, Verdant…

Thanks Amazon for your really great servers!!! (It was an Amazon cloud server problem and not the usual Steepster bugs this time around, it took out Reddit and Foursquare too.)

So now I can finally write this note. I’ve had 5 steeps so far today in my gaiwan and I want more.

The first was the best though. If I could live off avocados, I would. This one tasted like honey and chocolate dipped avocado slices. I got the hints of pomegranate too. Amazing.

After that one, the avocado kind of faded and the chocolate notes got malty. I did start to pick up some jasmine notes too, and the honey definitely stayed through them all.

I should have been writing stuff down as I drank although I did have it pretty much all in my head, but then my mother had to insult me so I pretty much lost it.

The avocado though, ugh so good.

I don’t feel like sleeping so I have steeps 6-8 in a mug right now. There are mostly now honey flavors, with a bit of maltiness. It’s reminding me a lot more of oolong than black tea now. I guess this is a good dancong light for those of us who really aren’t sure about them :P

This tea! I bought it because I LOVE Verdant’s Mi Lan Dancong oolong, and wanted to see what it would taste like in a black tea. I decided to brew it in my gongfu teapot, and have no idea how much leaf I used, I have only a 7 g sample, so I used about half the bag for this brewing.

I did 2 rinses, then steeped for about 4 seconds ish. Oh, and this has that amazing honey smell of the Mi Lan oolong which I LOVE! Mmm this makes me want to have a Yixing session after this, I haven’t in quite some time :( anyways, onto the taste!

The first steeping tastes like pure honey! Even more than the oolong did I think! The dancong taste is still there, but SMOTHERED in honey! I love this! Oh, and I thought this would brew up a darker color, it’s a lovely golden color. Wasn’t expecting that!

Second steep – yes, more honey, not quite as potent, but as I was sipping and reading the discussion boards, I randomly got some of the avocado!!! YES! It’s in the aftertaste, and not overly intense, it’s more almost a textural thing? Anyways, it’s good! Not a whole lot of chocolate yet, still tastes mostly like a bit stronger oolong to me. Bah, my untrained palate :P

I mixed a bit of the second and third steeps before I will have just the third steep, yes, there it is, the black tea taste. It was a little while coming, but now I can taste a bit of that chocolate malt, not overpowering, but just a nice hint of it to remind me this is not an oolong. And the honey is still there. YES!

This is probably my favorite black tea from Verdant so far. I have only tried this and Laoshan Black, but I think I currently prefer this one, it’s more honey and not as chocolatey (maybe I’m crazy for not liking too much chocolate lol). This is really, really good.

Oh, and on a sad, and angering note, I think Canada Post lost my Verdant order. Not impressed. It’s almost a week late, if it’s not here by tomorrow, I will have to call them and figure out what to do..not looking forward to that.

I should not have brewed this up tonight, I’m way too tired for a proper review. Basically, it’s absolutely delicious, and has the same honey notes as Butiki’s Mi Xian Black (does Mi mean honey or something?) There’s an amazing oolongy aftertaste, and I pretty much love this tea. At first I expected something more like the Laoshan Black (only because the aroma seemed to be kind of cocoa-y), but it’s much different. I’ll try more infusions tomorrow, and still have half my sample packet left to try later. Sleeeeeeeeeep.

ETA: Second infusion was pretty good; third was quite weak. This tea certainly doesn’t have the longevity of Laoshan Black. I will hopefully remember to compare the last of this to the last of my Mi Xian Black to figure out how similar they are/what my preference is!

Thanks to Verdant for sending me a free sample of this tea – sorry I am just getting around to trying it now. Dancongs do not tend to be a favorite of mine but I thought I would try this with an open mind. :)

I did a quick rinse and then dumped the whole sample into my gaiwan, did a quick rinse. The wet leaf smells fruity, a lot like an oolong.

I steeped the tea for around 30 seconds and got a very light colored infusion. Aroma smells a bit of honey and caramel which is very nice. The flavor of the tea is fruity, reminds me of sesame but also has a slightly bittersweet aftertaste that really cleanses the palate. It is quite oolong-y in character as others have mentioned.

2nd steep I think might have been around 45 seconds, but I lost track of time looking up recipes for black eyed peas. :) It’s interesting that the fruity notes are fading and I am getting a bready/malty sort of quality, but the bitterness is too strong here so I think the shorter steep is a better idea.

This has been a fun tea to try and Verdant has some interesting selections.

I did a rinse as suggested by the Verdant website under How To Brew.
Then I let my first steep sit for 45 seconds. This produced a light golden brown brew.

Steep One:
The initial flavor on the first sip was sweet, very sweet, like really good honey.
While the flavor of the black tea base is distinctive as a black tea for some reason I keep feeling as though I am drinking an oolong, there is some kind of oolingish kick and aroma in this cup.
I also am picking up already on the wine like flavors of this tea but not in a muscat or grape flavor way, more like a port or Mead.
As the cup cools I am getting a sweet spicy flavor but it is not so much a cinnamon as it is a black pepper flavor.
The aftertaste sits on the palate more like an oolong than a black however with a thickness but yet there is a black tea astringency – not sour or bitter but just astringent ever so slightly. The sweet helps to cut this.

Steep Two:

This steep brings forth a more spicier note to it. The cinnamon is trying to peek through but its not fully developed yet, it still has that peppery note to it.

The body is richer, fuller, and there is more astringency.

The sweetness is still present but more subdued.

Its a little on the tart side almost like a black tea that has been over steeped.
I do not feel I over steeped it.

I prefer the first steep at this point.

The oolongish flavor is mellowing.

Truly nothing TOO special about this steep.
Remaining hopeful for third steep.

Third Steep: Nothing remarkable

Perhaps I did something wrong. It started out SO promising I thought I had hit the mother load and would have to instantly go make a verdant order but alas it was a one trick pony for me. I feel sad as if I missed the boat here. Maybe I will grab a sample size of this to try again. That first steep though was really amazing.

Wow! I have to share something amazing quickly here:

Someone brought Whoppers malted milk balls to work and put them out for us all to share. I grabbed a handful, and then rooted around in my sack-o-tea-at-work to find an afternoon pick-me up. Luck put the Mi Lan black into my hands. THANK YOU, Lady Luck!

So, I ate a whopper, then I took a sip of this tea. Ugh- so delicious. The malt and milk chocolate really bring out the rich herbaceous qualities at the base in this tea, and emphasize the notes of fruit until it feels like I’m have some good and VERY purple concord jelly.

If you have this tea and if you like malt balls, you must give this pairing a try! Omnomnom..slurpityslurp. A match made in heaven.

This is the afternoon pick me up I needed.

I love comparing this to the Mi Lan Dancong Oolong.

All my favourite MLDO notes are here, but with a smooth caramel melting on your tongue sensation.

J’adore!

Today I made a large pot of this. It’s very comforting and a perfect fall tea.
I felt naughty, so I stirred in 1/4 tsp sweetened condensed milk into my current cup. mm I’m getting some sweet honeyed cheesecake notes, but with a smokiness of smoked gouda or havarti. Definitely a mix between sweet and savoury cheese. I love cheese!i

Off to the library!

This tea was a gamble for me. I am not really a fan of Mi Lan Dancong oolongs so much, but I figured, what the heck I’m getting more and more into Chinese black teas, so I might as well give this one a go. I included a sample size of it in my most recent order.

When I first smelled the leaves I got just an aroma of slight chocolate and toasted grains, kind of like dark oolong. Then I exhaled into my teapot and inhaled immediately afterward and I got the most amazing apricot/plum/stone fruit aroma coming back at me. It was quite surprising!

I looked at the steeping instructions on Verdant’s website, and even the western instructions were not that western. I decided to go with the gong-fu instructions and bust out my tiny teapot/gaiwan hybrid for the first time since I returned from Madagascar. My pot is 6oz, so I used the entire 7g sample in it, which filled it about halfway as recommended on Verdant’s site. Two rinses, as instructed, and then the first steep, just a couple of seconds. The wet leaf smells crazy minerally with hints of cooked spinach, and the tea itself smells completely unexpectedly like the woods, like trees, like cinnamon. Actually I’m impressed that I detected that cinnamon note without reading about it first in the description, because I often don’t really find things like that until I go looking for them specifically. The tea is creamy and honeyed, though I don’t find it to be fruity. Never mind, my last, lukewarm sip of the first steep was a tiny stone-fruity. Overall a pretty oolongy steep.

After the second quick steep, the inside of the lid of my teapot and the wet leaf both yield a surprisingly strong floral note, but I would call it gardenia instead of jasmine. The liquor smells sweeter, more cinnamony and less earthy-vegetal, though the florals err on the vegetal side of things. The flavor is again honeyed and more floral this time, in an oolongy way, not a particularly flowery way. I get an aftertaste of asparagus, and as the second steep builds in my mouth the mineral flavor returns.

Overall I would echo others who say this tea seems very oolongy. I guess it’s hard to put a line down on oolong versus black tea sometimes, and this tea definitely straddles that line. Am I glad I tasted it? Absolutely. It was a fun experiment. But I doubt I’ll be picking more up since I’ve never really gotten into those dancong oolongs in the first place. Someone who was would no doubt find this tea very intriguing.

It’s gonna take a couple of cups to get me going today…
I stayed up til 3:30am, wearing my “web designer” hat, & although it was frustrating & there was some drama & a few tears, I’m pleased to say that I’ve updated my website to include a Paypal shopping cart!! If you’d like to listen to samples from my 3 CDs, & perhaps support my tea drinking habit, pour yourself a cup & drop by for a visit @ www.harpsinger.net

I almost didn’t try this particular tea this morning. I have things to do, places to go, people to see. I was thinking of a deep assam, or Laoshan Black…something dark & easy…steep 3 minutes & enjoy. Yet here I sit with my Gaiwan, on steep # 6…make that steep # 7…ah, but I digress…

I actually followed the instructions this time (little Terri is still sleeping).
Steep #1: A mild roasty mushroom-like aroma…mmm, the taste is roasted barley & jasmine…interesting combo
Steep #2: A very Oolong feeling here, with chocolate undertones
Steep #3: Now I’m getting a beautiful depth of flavor that includes roasted veggies
Steep #4 Essence of Jasmine & chocolate, but the chocolate here is different from the chocolate of Laoshan Black or one of Verdant’s tasty Yunnans. It isn’t a dark powery baker’s chocolate, maybe it’s more like a chocolate liquor.
Steep #5: And now a buttery-ness rises, still underscored with chocolate, Jasmine, & the exotic smoothness of an Oolong.
Steep #6: There is a sensation that I can only describe as the surface of still water…
Steep #7: …or the surface of a perfect crystal…
Steep #8: The flavors in this tea linger, & now I taste that avocado that was mentioned.
Steep #9: I have to say, the color is still good, a nice amber. There is now an underscore in the flavor of ‘Stone’, that’s the only word I can think of.
Steep #10 OK, so I’m not going to take it all the way to steep #18, but it wouldn’t be unpleasant to do so, as far as the qualities of this tea go.(luckily these are all small steepings, or else I’d be water-logged, I mean tea-logged, by now)

I have several samples that I have saved for a time when I can pay them special attention. This is such a time, and such a sample, from the generous and venerable Bonnie!

I put my kettle on to boil and carried my eight ounce pot to the stove with the leaves in it. As I set it down, I caught a whiff of what I thought was peaches. I looked around. No peaches in the house right now. Hand lotion? No. Must be the ae leaves, but straight black tea that smells like a stone fruit? Verdant, you have some amazing and unique teas!

I gave it a quick rinse and then steeped for 25 seconds, keeping on the low end of their recommendations. The resulting brew is light in color for a black tea. The first sips are so milky. “Are we sure this isn’t a milk oolong?” I find myself thinking. A dark, baked milk oolong is how I would describe the first steep.

On the second steep, a metamorphosis is occurring. The liquor is now a little darker – I let it steep for 35 seconds this time. Okay, now I taste what I think of as light black tea with an unsweetened cocoa profile that is very light, but it is mixed with a slight milkiness and also quite a bit of green tea flavor. This is very hard to pin down as a black tea as it seems to behave so much like a oolong!

Third steep: What? Color remains a medium light brownish yellow, but the milkiness has increased, most notably on the front of the sip. The impression of a dark oolong has increased on the swallow, but the aftertaste is that of a well rounded green tea and a slight drying is taking place as an after effect, not unpleasantly.

The fourth steep was my favorite. It was even creamier and the unsweetened cocoa has given way to a soft, buttery vegetal flavor. At first I thought the slight drying effect was gone, but as I kept drinking it was still there, though very light. Steep number five: lighter, maybe a little dryer and the milkiness is lifting a bit now. There is more flavor here than I would have expected from a black tea resteeping so many times.

Thank you, Bonnie, for an enjoyable afternoon tea experience!

Tunes: Luc Baiwer/Symphony des Ages – Prelude for a Century, in Memoriam. Remembering the families, the innocent, the broken, the heroes. And praying.

Backlog:

A LOVELY tea from Verdant … of course, that seems a little redundant, since nearly every tea I’ve ever had from Verdant has been absolutely amazing. I can’t recall one that I’ve really disliked … I can always order in confidence from them because I know I can trust them to deliver awesomeness.

This tea was indeed awesome. It has an Oolong-ish sort of fragrance to it. Being a California girl, I sort of disagree with the suggestion that there are flavors like avocado in this tea – but, I can see how the comparison can be made. That said, I think an avocado tea would be awesome.

Here is my full-length review of this tea: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/01/31/mi-lan-dancong-black-tea-from-verdant-tea/

I got this as a sample and it’s great. Reminds me a bit of grapefruit or at least that’s what my mouth keeps telling me :D

Went for this after my last attempt at creating a tasty cup of Laoshan Black. sigh. You should have seen my face at the first sip. I was completely taken aback by the syrupy sweetness. The honey. It was just a bit of a shock to go from one flavor profile to another. It’s also toasty roasty like a roasted dark oolong. Minerally as well. I can also detect that dark cocoa nibs. As I continued to sip, the novelty of the honey notes wore off and was peeking out a bit behind the heavy roasted flavor and the malty chocolate notes.

Not sure that this tea is to my taste as it’s a bit more roasted than I prefer and the honey note isn’t strong enough to make up for it. Might be good as a cold brew.

This is a special tea!!! I just received this sample. Next thing on my list is to order some more of this stuff!

The dry leaves emit a very nice floral, jasminy aroma; very pleasant and inviting. With the addition of very hot water, pure magic springs to life. The wet leaves smell as expected with a very slight and pleasant sourness (vaguely like the smell of fermenting grain or hops). There is a tanginess that is present in the taste of the first steep. There are a lot of delicious flavors in the first couple steeps, predominately cocoa and sweet spice in the beginning which turns to floral flavors later on. This tea has great rhythm. The evolution of flavor from cup to cup is like watching a Wagner Opera: you never know what’s coming next, but you will surely find it enjoyable.
I’m amazed at the shear numbers of apparent and subtle flavors culminating in a memorable tingle and a perfectly clean throat. This is a memorable tea!

The dried leaf leaf is long and slender and beautiful. I brewed this in my Gaiwan for my morning brew with high expectations. The first steeping of around a minute yielded a fruity, sweet nectar that was very, very similar to the Mi Lan Dancong Oolong. This was my morning brew and it did awaken my mind but my body became incredibly relaxed. The flavor and aroma are there. I just think maybe if one wishes to consume this in the morning that a basket-style brewing with a longer steeping will bring out a stronger energy that one needs to start the day. This is a very fine tea that I believe is better suited for an evening cup…

Figured I might as well use today as another opportunity to run through a few steepings of this sample that I recenved from Verdant when I placed my order. Rinsed the leaves, as per the instructions on the website and did a short steep for 30 secs. Theres a subtle scent of cocoa and the tea really is a beautiful gold colour. First sips…hmm wow it’s like cocoa-ey goodness and then there’s this jasmine note that almost comes barging through to say hello! and then that eases back into the very mellow smoothy creamy taste. This is a much more interesting tea to me than my morning run. We’ll see how the next few steeps go.

Second Steep: the colour of this steep is much deeper. there’s still a jasmine note in this. I’m also getting honesy notes, which is interesting.

I’m trying to get a grasp on this tea, but it’s not really doing anything really special for me.
Sure I can appreciate some zing and juiciness in it with a hint of cocoa and smoke, but it’s really not full bodied enough for me.
What am I missing?

I rinsed, then did a 5s steep using 5g leaves per 250 ml just under boiled water.

It’s good. Just not something I reach for or crave or want more of often.
It’s meh.

I get some smoke, some honey, maybe some green oolongish flavours.. possibly slightly similar to a big red robe with a mineral note.
I’m underwhelmed. HMPH.

EDIT.. wait. I just found a mouthful of caramel on my 3rd steep (10s)… Delicious caramel. Not overtly sweet, but creamy. Super creamy cream caramel. Yummmmm.
Ok original rating: 79..
new one.. well, whatever it says.