What Oolong Are You Drinking

[TeaTotaling]

TeaTotaling
How do they compare to the stuff from DJ don mei??

I have only ordered one round of tea from DJ Donny, back when I was new on the scene. There was 30g’s of Dancong in that order, his selected Da Wu Ye from Fengxi Village. That tea was unmistakably juicy and tropical on the palate. Better than the two I have sampled from TH, so far, funny enough. Have you ever ordered from Tea Habitat?

[Baisao]

Also I think criticism of HYC teas should be put in context. If he has aspirations to be one of the best contemporary tea makers, I think you have to judge him by those lofty standards. So I would think people are picking on details because his effort deserves a certain level of respect already, expectations are high because he has been talked up for years, and the bar is correspondingly set high for him.

That is a good point. It’s been more of a hype not really reflected on the status in the country. Discovered by outsiders and put on a pedestal without knowing(or ignoring) what else is out there locally.

This reflects a lot of the hyped teas here. I got grief in DMs for that noxious DD I had from a beloved domestic seller. Excuses were made but it was truly dreadful compared to the DD I get directly from friends in Taiwan.

[LeoFox]

TeaTotaling
How do they compare to the stuff from DJ don mei??

I have only ordered one round of tea from DJ Donny, back when I was new on the scene. There was 30g’s of Dancong in that order, his selected Da Wu Ye from Fengxi Village. That tea was unmistakably juicy and tropical on the palate. Better than the two I have sampled from TH, so far, funny enough. Have you ever ordered from Tea Habitat?

I cant comment because my experience is limited. All I know is that the dan cong from yunnan sourcing is mostly garbage that literally ended up in the garbage except for one. King duck shit- which seemed ok. I have also had hojo and teahabitat, but cant comment too much due to lack of experience.

[TeaTotaling]

TeaTotaling
How do they compare to the stuff from DJ don mei??

I have only ordered one round of tea from DJ Donny, back when I was new on the scene. There was 30g’s of Dancong in that order, his selected Da Wu Ye from Fengxi Village. That tea was unmistakably juicy and tropical on the palate. Better than the two I have sampled from TH, so far, funny enough. Have you ever ordered from Tea Habitat?

I cant comment because my experience is limited. All I know is that the dan cong from yunnan sourcing is mostly garbage that literally ended up in the garbage except for one. King duck shit- which seemed ok. I have also had hojo and teahabitat, but cant comment too much due to lack of experience.

Please do comment on your experiences with Hojo & Tea Habitat. You have me intrigued! Although, I am not a Dancong expert, at this point, I can very much differentiate between a high quality vs. mediocre tea. As I am sure you can, as well. I have read most of your tea posts, you seem intuitive enough. I’m not looking for anything concrete, just your thoughts.

[LeoFox]

I have only ordered one round of tea from DJ Donny, back when I was new on the scene. There was 30g’s of Dancong in that order, his selected Da Wu Ye from Fengxi Village. That tea was unmistakably juicy and tropical on the palate. Better than the two I have sampled from TH, so far, funny enough. Have you ever ordered from Tea Habitat?

I cant comment because my experience is limited. All I know is that the dan cong from yunnan sourcing is mostly garbage that literally ended up in the garbage except for one. King duck shit- which seemed ok. I have also had hojo and teahabitat, but cant comment too much due to lack of experience.

Please do comment on your experiences with Hojo & Tea Habitat. You have me intrigued! Although, I am not a Dancong expert, at this point, I can very much differentiate between a high quality vs. mediocre tea. As I am sure you can, as well. I have read most of your tea posts, you seem intuitive enough. I’m not looking for anything concrete, just your thoughts.

Hahaha,.thanks

I have a few unopened packs of hojo and tea habitat. Will definitely report here when I start going into them. I dont want to comment now also because it's been a long time since I last had them.

[TeaTotaling]

I cant comment because my experience is limited. All I know is that the dan cong from yunnan sourcing is mostly garbage that literally ended up in the garbage except for one. King duck shit- which seemed ok. I have also had hojo and teahabitat, but cant comment too much due to lack of experience.

Please do comment on your experiences with Hojo & Tea Habitat. You have me intrigued! Although, I am not a Dancong expert, at this point, I can very much differentiate between a high quality vs. mediocre tea. As I am sure you can, as well. I have read most of your tea posts, you seem intuitive enough. I’m not looking for anything concrete, just your thoughts.

Hahaha,.thanks

I have a few unopened packs of hojo and tea habitat. Will definitely report here when I start going into them. I dont want to comment now also because it's been a long time since I last had them.

Good deal, Fox Keep us posted.

[Baisao]

@LeoFox, I try to avoid saying anything bad about a vendor. I feel that people can come to their own conclusions by trying their teas. It also avoids making people feel frustrated or “less than” when they find out that their favorite tea is not that great when compared to more exclusive teas.

[Andrew S]

All this talk about dong ding has made me thirsty, so I opened a small packet of 2016 "top" hong shui from Tea Masters.

I found it to be quite a subtle tea, very pleasant to drink, with a relaxing feeling. The emphasis seems to be on purity of flavour rather than fruity or roasty flavours. The roast has taken away the harsher greener elements without dominating the flavour, while giving it a warming nature. There's a slight grip to the finish, but not in an unpleasant way. It tends to work well with the flavour by contributing a mouth-coating feeling.

The slight age to the tea has probably also contributed to the pleasant feeling of drinking this by calming the roast down and rounding the tea out.

I think I might have found a tea like this underwhelming a decade ago, whereas now it's the kind of thing that I'd be happy to drink every day.

Andrew

[Bok]

All this talk about dong ding has made me thirsty, so I opened a small packet of 2016 "top" hong shui from Tea Masters.

At 5y age it should start to get over the boring, flat middle age for Taiwanese oolong, if it is good material it will develop nicely.

Which of your beauties is the pot of choice for this kind of tea?

[Bok]

Dingdong the bells ring for Dongding…

Well, Hongshui Oolong actually, but no “masters” involved, just solid craftsmanship, resulting in a lovely mature profile fit for a Sunday evening.

Cheers!

[Victoria]

All this talk about dong ding has made me thirsty, so I opened a small packet of 2016 "top" hong shui from Tea Masters.

I found it to be quite a subtle tea, very pleasant to drink, with a relaxing feeling. The emphasis seems to be on purity of flavour rather than fruity or roasty flavours. The roast has taken away the harsher greener elements without dominating the flavour, while giving it a warming nature. There's a slight grip to the finish, but not in an unpleasant way. It tends to work well with the flavour by contributing a mouth-coating feeling.

The slight age to the tea has probably also contributed to the pleasant feeling of drinking this by calming the roast down and rounding the tea out.

I think I might have found a tea like this underwhelming a decade ago, whereas now it's the kind of thing that I'd be happy to drink every day.

Andrew

Andrew, your images evoke so much poetry and grace, they are beautiful. You capture the moment full of subtlety, depth, and calm. Just the aspects that draw me to embrace and enjoy tea. My taste has also evolved in the last many years from bold blacks and maté in the ‘90s to a spectrum of more subtle nuanced teas, although I still enjoy rich and complex teas.

These past few days I’ve been enjoying HY Chen’s medium and heavy roast DD from winter 2019. His heavy roast smooths out nicely after just one year, so aromatic and full of complex malty spicy stone fruity flavors with no tannic notes.

[debunix]

After gyokuro morning, starting Rou Gui afternoon, but diluting this lovely fruity version from Wuyi Origin more than perhaps is good for it, due to the hot day. Gotta prep something for sparkling tea later on. But for now, still able to enjoy this warm from Petr-yaki tree bark pot.

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[Baisao]

I enjoyed a modest pengfeng yesterday that came from a Buddhist temple near Hualien, my teacher’s home town. This batch is from 2016 and made from daye that is grown organically on their plot. While it wouldn’t win any competitions it is a very nice, clean tea that the monks produce for their own consumption. It’s malty and has a clean, focusing yet relaxing body feel. This last quality makes it a bit of a treasure.

It’s humble yet delicious, and has a very pleasant body feel for a tea this young.

Loose

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Tea

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[Andrew S]

@Bok: the pot of choice so far is my chubby LQER reduction-fired zini, but I need to play with hongni as well to see what it can offer for these kinds of teas. I have much to learn about teapot matching, since most of my experience so far is only with old pu er and friends.

Is that a 'new' pot of yours or just something I haven't noticed yet? It sits well next to the more dark and rustic kind of teaware that seems to match dong ding / hong shui. You can present 'Variations on a Theme in Bian Deng' one day.

@Victoria: you're too kind, as always. Candlelight helps. It's nice to drink these teas now, since they remind me of how and why I got interested in tea, but listening to everyone else's experiences is encouraging me to explore this genre more to learn what else is out there.

In many ways, it is easier to find high-quality pu er and even yancha, where the only issue might be price, whereas good examples of teas such as dong ding seem to be more in the nature of hidden secrets that need to be discovered with patience and luck.

Andrew

[LeoFox]

@Andrew S the amount of bad yancha at higher price points seem staggering to me. So much seems to depend on good curation. Of course, under a certain price, it's almost guaranteed to be bad.

And then as the prices really get high - we become more susceptible to the "price placebo" effect.