I’m holding off on rating this for now. I steeped some up this morning in the gaiwan and I just don’t get the appeal of it particularly with all the extended verbiage everyone else has used to describe it. It’s okay, but??? Am I missing something? Any helpful advice?
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Hmm. Dancong oolongs can be finicky about brewing. In fact, these oolongs have a reputation for being the most finicky as far as brewing goes. What kind of method were you using in your gaiwan? Water temp, leaf-to-water ratio, time and freshness of water can all make a difference. For these I usually make sure to use freshly boiled, filtered water. I have a small 3oz gaiwan, and fill that up to about 1/3-1/2 it’s capacity with Dancong leaf (or 2/3 capacity if I’m feeling bold). I then use boiling water for a quick rinse of the leaves, and follow with initial infusion for 10-15 seconds, poring off into serving pitcher for drinking. I follow that with another 6 or so infusions at 10-15 seconds each, and start adding +15 seconds time with each infusion after #7. Every 3 or so infusions, if drinking them back to back, I reheat the water somewhat to make sure it doesn’t get tepid. Just a general guideline, as I don’t think it really needs to be super exacting. I get good results with this.
And one thing I will note is that I’ve found freshly boiled water to be very important with this tea. Water that had been previously boiled, allowed to cool all the way down, and then re-boiled, produced dramatically diminished results the second time I tried this. It was an accidental discovery, and only got noticed by the contrast of drinking it again with freshly boiled water the same evening.
Hope this is helpful in some way, Amy. Give it a couple more tries if you can. If it’s still not working for you, maybe the flavor and other qualities of this particular Dancong just aren’t that appealing to your taste, which would be perfectly okay. Dancongs happen to be a particular favorite for me, but they’re not the preferred favorite for everybody.
Thanks, that is helpful. It sounds like I was not using enough leaf for one thing!
Hmm. Dancong oolongs can be finicky about brewing. In fact, these oolongs have a reputation for being the most finicky as far as brewing goes. What kind of method were you using in your gaiwan? Water temp, leaf-to-water ratio, time and freshness of water can all make a difference. For these I usually make sure to use freshly boiled, filtered water. I have a small 3oz gaiwan, and fill that up to about 1/3-1/2 it’s capacity with Dancong leaf (or 2/3 capacity if I’m feeling bold). I then use boiling water for a quick rinse of the leaves, and follow with initial infusion for 10-15 seconds, poring off into serving pitcher for drinking. I follow that with another 6 or so infusions at 10-15 seconds each, and start adding +15 seconds time with each infusion after #7. Every 3 or so infusions, if drinking them back to back, I reheat the water somewhat to make sure it doesn’t get tepid. Just a general guideline, as I don’t think it really needs to be super exacting. I get good results with this.
And one thing I will note is that I’ve found freshly boiled water to be very important with this tea. Water that had been previously boiled, allowed to cool all the way down, and then re-boiled, produced dramatically diminished results the second time I tried this. It was an accidental discovery, and only got noticed by the contrast of drinking it again with freshly boiled water the same evening.
Hope this is helpful in some way, Amy. Give it a couple more tries if you can. If it’s still not working for you, maybe the flavor and other qualities of this particular Dancong just aren’t that appealing to your taste, which would be perfectly okay. Dancongs happen to be a particular favorite for me, but they’re not the preferred favorite for everybody.
Thanks, that is helpful. It sounds like I was not using enough leaf for one thing!