Very, very good tea that was a sweeter than expected. I loved the unroasted, and got this one for comparison. The two were a lot closer than I imagined. The dry leaf aroma was very much like cookies, roasted nuts, macadamia, almonds, vanilla, and potato chips.
First off, I tried it western just to plow through. I’d thought it be like the dry leaf, and while it was, a melon note sneaked through with more florals, lead by a heady violet and magnolia. They rose up, then fell in later steeps. The later ones were more heavy with the roasted nuts and cooked vegetables western.
Gong fu, much the same happened, but the florals were more concentrated in steeps 2-5. First brew was a wash of 15 sec, then 25, 20, 30, 35, 40, 50, 65, 55, 65, and every other brew improvised in minutes. Later steeps were a little bit more vegetal, but still had some acidity of some melon. Overall, it was floral, nutty, buttery, and akin to some butternut squash.
I was very pleased with this one and like it a little more than the unroasted version in some ways. I kept on coming back to it that I actually sipped it down in two days. This is what I’d want in any mildly roasted dong ding and do recommend it.
Flavors: Almond, Butter, Butternut Squash, Cookie, Floral, Gardenias, Melon, Nuts, Potato, Roasted Nuts, Savory, Sweet, Vanilla, Vegetal, Violet, Zucchini
