Daoli

First note after quite some time. Gongfu session, with a gaiwan. Tap water, very hard. Steeps; rinse, flash, 10, 10, 15, 15, 15, 10, 10, 15, 10, 1min, 1, 1.30, 2, 2,

First steeps: aromas of chocolate, cocoa, caramel, wood (oak, perhaps?), very sweet taste, spicy almost. Raspy in the throat, warming aftertaste.
Steeps 6 -9 : The brick is breaking apart and tea is starting to get some more body. It is not only mellow and numbingly sweet – some clear maltyness is braking through, accompanied by some bitterness. Warming. Feeling of very relaxed, alert, plus a slight caffeine headache. I should probably take a break at this point and eat something.
Steep 10: pushing it to a minute: I was overdoing short steeps. This one is thick, complex, warming, pleasantly raspy black tea. Slightly drying aftertaste. More of this please!

There are so many things that I love about this tea … A single nugget will yield around a litre (if not even more) of tea, with each steep offering you a new experience. I have made five steeps so far, and the nugget is still intact somehow, so I reckon I will be able to make at least four more.

1st steep: 3 minutes, 1 dl of water, cooled to 80 degrees C. (Before that I “washed” the nugget in hot water) The colour war bright, aroma and taste very chocolat-y, quite like some other more oxidized wulongs that I had tried.
2nd, 3rd and 4th steep: tea is getting darker as the nugget is falling apart. Chocolate aromas are diminishing in favour of sweet and slightly bitter overtones. It is starting to remind me of black teas. Really tasty at this point.
5th steep: I may have left it for a bit too long. Almost three minutes. The tea got unpleasantly bitter and somehow earthy. Almost like pu erh. Still ok though.

Even though I am still “mid-session” I am confident to say that this is one of the best teas I have tried so far (but keep in mind that I am still newbie when it comes to teas).

I really like this tea, but I’m not sure why. It is one of those experiences that you just enjoy, without actually knowing the reason.

The first steep was bright in colour and mellow, light in taste, since the “nugget” still stuck together. Tne next one was darker in color and very aromatic. I find it hard to describe the aroma and taste, but it reminded me of black tea aromas and spices. The aftertaste was somehow sweet.

I will be definately coming back to this tea in the future. Nice.

What a tea!

With this one. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I haven’t tried raw pu erh before so it was a completely new experience for me. I would like to go into detail wit this one, at risk of someone calling me a snob. I sometimes like things scientific.

Dry leaves look really neat, quite similar in size, not too dark brown in color and mostly undamaged. They also aren’t brittle, but rather firm and strong to the touch.

Firstly, I washed the leaves (5 g) with a bit of almost boiling water for few seconds. Then I steeped with 1 dl (3,4 oz) 90 degrees C water for 45 seconds. The brew had a wonderfull smoky aroma, almost incense-like. Surprisingly light, without the earthiness I am used to with pu erh (but I guess I should know better by now). The taste was almost sweet, but matched nicely with the smell. It reminded me of dried fruits. The lingering feel in my mouth was somehow bitter, put pleasant.

I was really curious about that tea. I tend to associate the smell of jasmine with freshly washed clothes, since washing powders often have the jasmine aroma added. So at first I was a bit put off by the aroma of dry leaves. I just don’t like jasmine that much.

Still, when I made my first cup (1 dl/3,4 oz water, leaves washed) I was pleasantly surprised. The aroma of jasmine wasn’t so strong as I had feared and mixed really well with slightly earthy and salty accents of tea.
The taste itself was well rounded, somehow thick but not too “earthy”. It was much smoother than my everyday pu erh. The aftertaste was an interesting mix of sweet and bitter feels.

Even though I like this tea, it is not the thing I would drink everyday. I am yet to develop the taste for pu erh teas and I don’t like jasmine too much. But for someone who does, this might be his perfect tea.

First, a few disclaimers: yesterday I got I packet of samples from Daoli. Since samples can’t lie around for long, most of my following notes will be about their teas. Secondly – you shold take this particular note with a pinch of salt, since I am not really into black teas at the moment, so I have few “references”.

This was my first morning cup today. I warmed my ware, “washed” 5 grams of leaves with hot water for few seconds, then steeped in 1 dl (3,4 oz) of water. First cup hit me with the aroma I can describe as that of a good stout (beer drinkers will know what I mean). It is slightly smoky at first, which turned into dried apples or pears. I have difficulties pinpointing the taste itself, but it had a full bodied feeling. (At first I was almost disappointed since I anticipated strong tastes associated with beer.:) ) The aftertaste is somehow bitter, but not unpleasant.

I drank my second cup with a piece of chocolate. A party in my mouth! Sweethes of chocolate helped to pronounce the dried fruit aromas of tea. Lovely!

That’s it for now. I’m off to make some more. Overall, this is a really good tea. Again, keep in mind that I am not a black tea drinker so my note might be of little help to experienced drinkers.

An overall pleasant experience. Each time, I steeped in about 1 dl (3,4 oz) of water. Drank it without milk or sugar, of course. First cup surprised me with light, mellow taste and slightly nutty aroma, followed by sweet aftertaste. The following cups were more and more floral in aroma, while still light and sweet in taste. The initial nutty overtones disappeared.

This one tastes pretty good, I’m not really big on flowery teas myself tho

Yummy, very tastey tea :)
It has very bold almost white tea flavor to me that develops more into young raw puerh flavors after a few steepings with a slight spicy almost peppery bite to it while still remaining slightly sweet and vegetal.
See my blog post here with photos :)
http://toadsteablog.blogspot.com/2013/04/silver-trip-by-daoli.html

I’m not really big on flowery teas or Jasmine teas either Unless I add it to the tea myself, I find that most of them have either too much or too little jasmine but that’s not the case with this one.
This has a most wonderful jasmine scent when the leafe is dry and a nice earthy puerh scent with a touch of jasmine when steeped.

The flavor is just perfect, the Jasmine is prominent without being too much and masking the flavor of the tea itself.
I’ve had many jasmine green teas that just aren’t my thing and honestly usually a jasmine puerh isn’t either don’t get me wrong I think they are quite nice sometimes but chances are that I wouldn’t purchase one for myself, if i did purchase one it would most likely be this one tho and I would only drink it when I wanted something special or if I have had company to share it with.
http://toadsteablog.blogspot.com/2013/03/jasmine-trip-from-daoli.html

I haven’t been able to add a tea to steepster with a photo in a while now, it just won’t work for me sorry :( Photos on my blog tho :)

This might just be THE perfect tea. I love the tastes, the aromas and especially the way it steeps. With the same timing your first few steeps are gonna be light wulong and then it will go darker and darker until you reach almost black tea color and taste. I love the way I can make this tea however I want. If I feel like I want it dark I just leave it in a while longer and it comes out perfectly.

Super delicious, Super Smooth very dark with almost chocolaty type flavors, many steeps. This one starts like a really dark oolong a then it almost seems to turn into a super awesome delicious black tea. It reminds me of certian a darker oolong that I keep on hand, this one is out of stock on the site right now, I was going to get some more.
This is a really dark oolong/wulong(whatever it’s called) I enjoy these darker type oolong the best so this one is my kind of tea :)

A good tea, though I’m more fond of less oxidized oolongs. But you can really make a bunch of steeps – at least up to 10.

Great oolong tea. I can get 6-7 steeps out of it, no problem.

Very good chinese black tea, nothing more to say. But quite different from Indian black teas.

One of the best teas I’ve ever drunk. I’ve made 4 steeps, and every single one of them was fantastic.