Your favorite Dan Cong vendor?

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Baisao
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Fri Mar 06, 2020 5:21 pm

gld wrote:
Fri Mar 06, 2020 4:27 pm
I have a question. Does the fragrance of doped tea remain when the tea itself fades?

I bought Huang Jin Gui from Jing Tea Shop last year. it was too floral for cheap tea (in my opinion) so I just drank it at work and forgot about it. Now a year later it's faded and mellow with a little added depth; no fragrance (as would be the case for non-doped tea) but with a nicer body. It may just have died nicely, but the extra-floral taste is gone.
It’s going to matter how the tea was stored. More volatile compounds will evaporate from the tea if it is stored carelessly. I assume that some of the artificial scents will evaporate more readily than the scent compounds intrinsic to the tea, but I can’t say for certain. Also, a benign doping of powdered allspice will probably stay with the tea and age appropriately.

We can speculate but I have know way to be certain as I suspect they use a variety of doping agents, from artificial floral scents to powdered allspice.
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aet
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Fri Mar 06, 2020 8:17 pm

The problem is, that no one knows for sure ( now lab test evidence ) but many people like to talk about it. That causes issues with buying trust. Newbies come to forums like this and listen the voice of community, rather their own.
Speculations, hypothesis and such ...all that creates the doubt when you buy a tea which is much cheaper than other famous tea shop and it tastes "good to be truth", trying to find some errors in taste without even considering other simple logic which is applied when purchasing other things .
One of them would be : you never know for how much tea was purchased from the original source , what expenses each vendor has for running the business and what profit desire each vendor has.

To find a good DC , as with any other tea , matter of try & fail. Many ( I'd say even the most ) of tea drinkers are not participating on any forums , and even less bother to type anything.
Also some people just don't want to disclose their source because took them long time to find it. I've even read somebody saying that he doesn't want to his source raise prices once get popular, so that's why not recommending ( I think it was on Reddit ).... I know some collectors are like that ( but not with tea ) .
So the 2nd part of your "homework" is to learn names of DC teas ( CN names in pinyin ) and sit on google. Sample, sample and sample. Make a system of that , not just random sampling. Sample by comparing particular items - conditions. Practice makes better and in terms of tea is also fun.
Once you reach the level that you could source good DC for fair price, you may find out , that journey costed you lots of time and money and you might ( not saying you will ) get the same opinion with the collectors ;-D

I feel of repeating my self quite a lot in that matter. Maybe it would worth to make some beginners guide here after all?
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LeoFox
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Tue Oct 20, 2020 5:59 pm

Has anyone tried yunnan sourcing dan cong? A friend of mine thinks it is sprayed but he is not very experienced.

Price seems good..
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Baisao
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Tue Oct 20, 2020 7:05 pm

LeoFox wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 5:59 pm
Has anyone tried yunnan sourcing dan cong? A friend of mine thinks it is sprayed but he is not very experienced.

Price seems good..
I don't purchase from that vendor.

I am now generally suspicious of dan congs and don't buy them unless I've tried a sample to satisfy my opinion if it's doped or not.
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Nis
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Thu Oct 22, 2020 5:00 am

LeoFox wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 5:59 pm
Has anyone tried yunnan sourcing dan cong? A friend of mine thinks it is sprayed but he is not very experienced.

Price seems good..
I have only tried the Phoenix Village "Da Wu Ye". It wasn't obviously tampered with.
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Bok
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Thu Oct 22, 2020 5:15 am

LeoFox wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 5:59 pm
Has anyone tried yunnan sourcing dan cong? A friend of mine thinks it is sprayed but he is not very experienced.

Price seems good..
If a tea is doped with something can look something like this:

Fragrant smell only from the dry leaves but not the infusion.

Fragrant smell in the first brew but not afterwards. Or in general if first and following infusion are radically different in taste.

Odd sensations on tongue and throat.

(Obviously) nauseating or otherwise not good feeling when drinking.

But some things are odourless, so...
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LeoFox
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Thu Oct 22, 2020 6:20 am

Bok wrote:
Thu Oct 22, 2020 5:15 am
LeoFox wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 5:59 pm
Has anyone tried yunnan sourcing dan cong? A friend of mine thinks it is sprayed but he is not very experienced.

Price seems good..
If a tea is doped with something can look something like this:

Fragrant smell only from the dry leaves but not the infusion.

Fragrant smell in the first brew but not afterwards. Or in general if first and following infusion are radically different in taste.

Odd sensations on tongue and throat.

(Obviously) nauseating or otherwise not good feeling when drinking.

But some things are odourless, so...
Thank you for the advice!

My wife drinks a lot of flavored teas. There is one that has a very strong smell that makes me dizzy: paris from harney and sons. There is no doubt some strong flavorings and scents have been added. These seem to be present not only in the dry leaf and the first infusion, but persist infusion after infusion...

I guess the difference is that the natural flavorings and scents in teas explicitly marketed as flavored to the west probably comply with some safety standards and regulations. Whereas this doping is hidden and uncontrolled.
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OCTO
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Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:23 am

@LeoFox

From my past experiences with DanCong, once roasted at the correct level, it's always fragrant with a very sweet aroma. Quality DanCong will always be extremely fragrant and long lasting. Aside from what @Bok has mentioned, a genuine fragrance from good quality DanCong is very refined and delicate. It lingers in the nose and mouth yet not being intrusive or overwhelming.

Cheers!
wildisthewind
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Sat Oct 24, 2020 9:16 pm

dyungim wrote:
Wed Mar 04, 2020 9:00 pm
wildisthewind wrote:
Fri Apr 06, 2018 12:54 pm
Teachronicles wrote:
Fri Mar 23, 2018 9:40 pm


I can't speak to those Dan congs specifically but I enjoyed the traditional tgy's sold by W2T. And also liked a number of other teas I've gotten from him.
I've tried them both - definitely the genuine item. Not sure if I prefer their Xing Ren or Cindy Chen's, they're good in different ways, but the Ye Lai was superb. (My first experience of that cultivar, TBF, so I can only evaluate it in comparison to Dan Congs in general.)
Which ones did you try from Cindy?
I have the 2016 Lao Cong Gui Hua Xiang (Osmanthus fragrance). I've had one or two others of hers, but I can't remember which.
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TeaFox269
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Thu Dec 03, 2020 8:55 am

Nis wrote:
Tue Jan 23, 2018 10:17 am
The Yu Lan Xiang and Da Wu Ye were both obviously flavoured with additives, with the base tea not having much flavour on its own.
Are there any tells that a tea might be artificially flavored? Not just for Dan Cong but in general. I ordered a bunch of teas a while back that had vibrant first and second infusions and then suddenly fell flat, I'm wondering if they had been sprayed.
Last edited by pedant on Thu Dec 03, 2020 9:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: mod edit: fixed quote
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Bok
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Thu Dec 03, 2020 9:54 am

TeaFox269 wrote:
Thu Dec 03, 2020 8:55 am
Nis wrote:
Tue Jan 23, 2018 10:17 am
The Yu Lan Xiang and Da Wu Ye were both obviously flavoured with additives, with the base tea not having much flavour on its own.
Are there any tells that a tea might be artificially flavored? Not just for Dan Cong but in general. I ordered a bunch of teas a while back that had vibrant first and second infusions and then suddenly fell flat, I'm wondering if they had been sprayed.
That doesn’t sound like Dancong at all... normally they start light and get stronger and stronger for a lot of infusions before they suddenly drop out, but that’s after at least 8-10 infusions.
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TeaFox269
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Thu Dec 03, 2020 10:30 am

Bok wrote:
Thu Dec 03, 2020 9:54 am
TeaFox269 wrote:
Thu Dec 03, 2020 8:55 am
Are there any tells that a tea might be artificially flavored? Not just for Dan Cong but in general. I ordered a bunch of teas a while back that had vibrant first and second infusions and then suddenly fell flat, I'm wondering if they had been sprayed.
That doesn’t sound like Dancong at all... normally they start light and get stronger and stronger for a lot of infusions before they suddenly drop out, but that’s after at least 8-10 infusions.
My bad, I should have clarified, these teas where Yancha. I was curious if this happens to other categories of tea, or if there was anything to look out for when you suspect a tea had been sprayed.
Last edited by Victoria on Thu Dec 03, 2020 12:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Mod edit: corrected quote
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Nis
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Thu Dec 03, 2020 10:47 am

TeaFox269 wrote:
Thu Dec 03, 2020 8:55 am
Nis wrote:
Tue Jan 23, 2018 10:17 am
The Yu Lan Xiang and Da Wu Ye were both obviously flavoured with additives, with the base tea not having much flavour on its own.
Are there any tells that a tea might be artificially flavored? Not just for Dan Cong but in general. I ordered a bunch of teas a while back that had vibrant first and second infusions and then suddenly fell flat, I'm wondering if they had been sprayed.
The most obvious is when the rinse is just as intense as the first steep. Normally the rinse should be weaker than the first, second and third steep, at least. The "best" steeps tend to be 2, 3 and 4 with a gradual tapering off in flavour and intensity after. If the flavour just seems to fall off a cliff after a few steeps, it's almost certainly flavoured. If you stick your nose in the bag and it smells very strongly, that's also a hint that something might be wrong.

It's also very important, when evaluating dancong, to use boiling water and porcelain. If you use less than boiling water and clay, it's all too easy to be fooled.
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cbrace
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Thu Dec 03, 2020 1:00 pm

Nis wrote:
Thu Dec 03, 2020 10:47 am
It's also very important, when evaluating dancong, to use boiling water and porcelain. If you use less than boiling water and clay, it's all too easy to be fooled.
Interesting. I have been brewing dancong with 85°C water all this time...
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Bok
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Thu Dec 03, 2020 6:37 pm

cbrace wrote:
Thu Dec 03, 2020 1:00 pm
Nis wrote:
Thu Dec 03, 2020 10:47 am
It's also very important, when evaluating dancong, to use boiling water and porcelain. If you use less than boiling water and clay, it's all too easy to be fooled.
Interesting. I have been brewing dancong with 85°C water all this time...
Big mistake... Oolong likes it hot, no matter if it’s Dancong, Yancha, Tieguanyin or Taiwanese varieties. Full steam ahead!
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