I just love the look of a Dafo, the uniform flat dry appearance and the way it steeps, dancing in the cup, unfurling it’s beautiful two leaves and a bud. This tea is teaching me. It’s teaching me that longjing is not longjing is longjing, is longjing. What an expansive world.
Again, I think this tea suffered every so slightly from Tea Trekker’s (TT) clear sample packaging, or maybe this Dafo is not quite as pristine as some others I’ve seen, but it still is lovely to look at. And again the photo posted here, from the Tea Trekker site, does it justice. That’s so appreciated. When pictures aren’t available I always take great effort to make sure I photograph them in a way that represents them well. Glad to see TT goes the distance.
I jumped into this tea hoping it might bring me around to Dafo. I hate that I like the visual aesthetic and ritual of Dafo, but don’t appreciate the taste equally. I hit it with my usual tumbler/decanting routine, linked in my profile. But after a couple of tries I’m not particularly excited about this tea.
I’ve come to two conclusions:
1. To really get this tea to a place where I find a strong enough flavor, I have to steep it in a more traditional sense, letting it go a good 2-3 mins, allowing 2/3 of the leaves to sink. Maybe it’s the denser leaves, or possibly less surface area is exposed with this. I don’t know.
2. This tea strangely reminds me of many of the white teas I’ve had. I really noticed it had a stronger affinity with their flavor profiles.
Overall I found it a bit dryer, with some hay qualities, while having a light sweet aftertaste.
I still can’t say I’m joining Team Dafo anytime soon, but it sure can be pretty.
