Butter Flower

This was another sipdown of mine from late last year. I ended up receiving a free sample of this tea with an order from teaware.house. I had no real information on it at the time and still am not certain whether this tea was a 2018 or 2019 production. I found it to be an odd tea with tremendously intense character, though it did not strike me as being unappealing.

As I only had a 5g sample pouch of this tea with which to work, I opted to prepare it gongfu style. After a 10 second rinse, I steeped 5 grams of loose tea leaves in 3 fluid ounces of 203 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was followed by 18 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minutes, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and 20 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of pomegranate, red wine, blackberry, plum, and black raspberry. After the rinse, new aromas of orchid, candied pomelo, cream, butter, and honeysuckle emerged along with a subtle spinach scent. The first proper infusion added additional aromas of bread and vanilla. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of pomegranate, butter, red wine, sour cherry, blackberry, orchid, and cream that were balanced by hints of bread, black raspberry, black currant, fig, and candied pomelo. The majority of the subsequent infusions introduced aromas of violet, peach, sour cherry, and sugarcane in addition to a much stronger candied pomelo fragrance. More dominant notes of bread and candied pomelo emerged alongside impressions of violet, almond, grass, minerals, earth, sugarcane, plum, and nectarine. Hints of honeysuckle, apple, peach, spinach, and vanilla were also present. As the tea faded, the liquor continued to emphasize notes of minerals, grass, sour cherry, pomegranate, nectarine, butter, and orchid in addition to a stronger peach-like presence. Fleeting hints of almond, plum, spinach, cream, blackberry, bread, candied pomelo, red wine, and sugarcane continued to be detectable in the background.

I don’t normally write extensive concluding notes for teas I review, but I did for this one. The tea had a boozy presence in the mouth and packed a huge caffeine wallop. The energy it provided was almost overpowering at times. The texture of the tea liquor was typically thin and slippery, but it had a habit of shifting unpredictably, creating something of a chaotic presence that kept me on my toes through the entirety of the drinking session. While I respected this tea’s complexity, vigor, and durability, it offered a lot to process. I doubt it would be suitable for beginners or casual drinkers.

I got this as a sampler in a very long ago teaware order from teaware.house back in 2018. I figured from the name that this would be a floral-leaning oolong, so I decided to brew this gong fu style this morning for the March prompt “a floral tea.”

180ml (mini pot) | 7.5g | 205F | Rinse/20s/25s/30s/35s/40s/45s

The leaves after the rinse smell strong of bitter melon and lilac flowers, and the rinse liquor smelled similar, with a stronger floral/muscatel presence. On the first steep I’m getting aromas of wildflower honey, stewed fruits, and a mix of a raisiny musctatel smell with bitter melon. The first infusion tastes strongly of medicinal bitter melon, with a pungent and biting bitter aftertaste. The aroma was already smelling more mellow by the second infusion, with a nuttiness coming forward. The tea tasted of syrupy floral honey, raisins, nuts, and stewed fruits, with the edges mostly smoothed out now and none of the face-scrunching bitterness of the first steep. As the tea cooled, a soft lilac florality settled into the aftertaste. The floral notes were more pronounced in the third steep: mostly lilac, but also a bit of that “grapey” jasmine note and an aftertaste of lavender. The last few infusions were quite mineral and floral. Steeped a total of 6 infusions. Plenty of floral, never got any butter. As far as oolongs go, I found this one not unpleasant, but a little meh.

Gong Fu Sipdown (586)!

Free sample from an order a while ago, I’m pretty sure.

Six steeps in total – I’m sure I could have done more, but I got sick of this one pretty quickly. It’s not that it was bad tasting at all though. In fact, this one is very aptly named as the flavour was definitely REALLY buttery and floral (magnolia/orchid/more fragrant and less heady florals). A little bit of a Snow Pea undertone to it, but just dominated by those titular flavour notes. Tasty, and I enjoyed the steeps that I did have; with the exception of one HORRIBLY oversteeped one right in the middle of the session due to some carelessness on my end. Those are also just flavour notes that, while I like them, I also grow tired of quite quickly. Not an “every day” type of thing for me.

Photos:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqV8uxuFhTe/

Song Pairing(s):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c7_0CgE9IE&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=13&t=0s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rm3wU4C1aE&index=14&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ

The main characteristics of this tea are fruity, herbaceous, mineral and alcohol like. Personally, I didn’t get much butter out of it. It has some bitterness and astringency like one would expect from a Dan Cong, but it’s not overwhelming.

The wet leaf smell reminds me of an alpine meadow in its floral and herbal realm, with some fruity (mostly peach & nectarine) aromas on top. Taste is tart, juicy and mineral overall. There are notes of dry grass, lavender, apricot and pear skin. There is also a strong herbaceous aspect to it that reminds me of Provence. The aftertaste is very long, floral and drying. It doesn’t present many new notes, but they come in different combinations. I found it somewhat sour and reminiscent of peach and lavender for the most part.

Liquor is medium bodied, soft and smooth. Not as thick as some other Dan Cong oolongs, which makes it easier to drink I guess.

Overall, this tea is VERY similar to Zhong Ping “Jasmine Aroma” from YS. So much so, that I am not sure I would be able to discern them unless drunk side by side. This one is surely more fruity, otherwise, the qualities are very comparable, both in terms of character and how enjoyable it is. However, the difference is that the YS one is less than half the price. It’s a great tea (I am a sucker for Dan Cong, mind), but I would take the Jasmine Aroma from YS anytime over this though, given the price difference.

Received as a freebie with my teacup purchase, thanks!

My past tries with dancong brewed with the chaozhou gongfu method produced cups that were upfront way too bitter and astringent for my liking, so I went with a recommendation by eastkyteaguy to use less leaf and lower water temperature. No stuffed gaiwan nor boiling water.

Gone glass gaiwan. 7g, 150mL, 200F. Flash rinse that I drank plus 8 more steeps at 10/12/18/22/28/35/45/60s

The dry leaf smelled tangy with yogurt, grapes and apricot. The wet leaf throughout the session was incredibly fragrant and produced scents of dried apricot, yogurt tang, green grape, hay, nectarine, white peach and fresh apricot. The aroma of the liquor was an intoxicating mix of honeysuckle, white florals and white nectarine that remained strong from the rinse to about the fourth steep. The liquor started off very thick with kind of a penetrating, tingling astringency only on the tongue, later becoming thinner and more astringent. Some bitterness appeared in the back of the mouth midway, turning into a full-mouthed bitterness for the last two steeps. The first several steeps were strong yet ethereal in taste with butter, honeysuckle, white floral, white nectarine, minerals and apricot and had an aftertaste of white peach for at least 30 minutes. As the session progressed, the butter faded yet the other notes remained.

I find it difficult to judge my preference for this tea since I don’t have much experience, let alone good experience, with dancong oolong. I’m not sure I’d purchase more, but it was a very pleasurable session.

I do look forward to using eastkyteaguy’s brewing recommendations again for the other two dancongs I have in my cupboard.

Aptly named! From the very first brew, you can taste both butterery and floral flavors. Both are strong yet oddly complementing. In addition, there’s a perfume like aftertaste that I’ve never tasted before!

As a steeped more, the floral flavor became stronger and the butter moved more into the background. The floral perfume aftertaste is still sharp.

It gets to the point that I find it unbelievable that this oolong isn’t scented… it kind of taste like a strong jasmine oolong!

Overall, very interesting tea. I don’t like it more than Taiwanese oolong (my favorite) because I found the sharp floral aftertaste a bit off-putting. Definitely worth a try though.

This tea was really great, much higher quality oolong than I’ve ever had personally. Obtained through an 8g sample bag put in my first W2T order. The first steep is a real slap in the face, and I mean this in the best way; all of the colorful flavors and high notes attack your tongue at once, for an excellent floral dynamic. As the steeps continue into the 3rd and 4th, this gets even more diverse, as a very small bite of astringency is present, but is quickly washed away by the sweet notes, offering a very interesting (and good) balance to the tea. Full of sweet and savory syrupy notes with a very floral flavor, this tea left me truly wishing I had more.

8g of tea in 100ml brewing vessel; 5 seconds for first steep + 5 for every after that, till 40 when I switched to 10 second steeps, till 1 minute to 15 second steeps, till 2 minutes to full minute steeps. Ended after 16 steeps.

Received this tea in whichever w2t club package gave us three little oolong packets a little while ago. This one’s name definitely suited it. The dry leaf has a sweet, milky aroma which was somehow cool and airy to me. The wet leaf smelled like sweet/salty kettle corn with a bit of a milky underpinning.

The flavor starts off slightly vegetal and green, but still floral – I’m thinking floral stems – with a slight fruity finish, like peach rind. As the session progresses, the vegetal start builds sweetness until it evens out into just a sweet and creamy flavor with a strong, but not punchy, lingering floral finish. The tea had a strong and noticeable throat-tightening feeling. Interestingly, the floral finish got more intense and faster rising as I got closer to the end of the session. The last few steeps had a soft vegetal note, like cucumber, still in front of that floral finish.

I also tried the tea with slightly hotter water (205F vs 195F), and found it to be a good deal more vegetal, almost sharply so, especially in the early session. The finish was floral and creamy from the get-go. As the session progressed, the heavy vegetal note smoothed out, and the floral finish got deeper even than it had in the previous session – almost sticky as well. The session with hotter water just kept going and going as well.

I’m not sure which water temp I preferred it at. I really would’ve preferred to get a bigger bag of it so I could to some more experimentation. The little club packet was barely enough for two small sessions. Might consider picking up 50g of it in my next w2t order.

Got this in w2t club. It tasted like flowers. Sweet, somewhat creamy flowers.

Part of the W2T club –
100ml gaiwan, 200F, 4.6g
Dry leaf – flowery
Overall this tea was thick, sweet, floral and oily. Towards the end of the session, it became mineral, coating and dry.
I got 8 steeps from it.
The second session – 190F, 75ml teapot
Super floral and sweet, plus buttery. I liked this better at a lower temperature. Yummy. Lingering floral and sweet aftertaste. Very nice oolong.