This Dong Ding will appeal to those who like tea of quite strong fire. Some people find similarities between this tea and thoroughbred Wuyi Shan oolongs.
The tea smells deliciously fruity, floral and bready. In its taste fruity-floral tones also compete with a smack of fried bread crust. This struggle goes through all the seven steepings I made - this oolong, of course, can hold more, but the taste of bread and flowers so satiates, that no more is required.
The tea is very flavorful, loved it. Perfectly revealed itself in the gaiwan, clear taste and aroma of dong ding (i.e. roasted, caramel, chocolate, etc.), but as if the tea goes into the high notes a bit (reminded me of almonds) - an interesting combination, this tea has its own style.
Brief steeps (5-10 seconds) in 90 Celsius water.
Liquor is clear with a medium-dark amber in color.
Taste is a clean, rounded with a good dosage of roasted aroma, a bitter-sweet aftertaste, and a long finish.
Mouthfeel slightly sticky with some astringency on the palate.
Empty cup leaves a slightly sweet roasted scent but doesn't linger long.
Wet leaves are deep olive green with copper brown hues on edges and stems, giving off a baked bread aroma.
The flavor intensity starts to mellow down by the 7th/8th infusion, thus best to do a longer steep from here onwards.
A longer steep (30 seconds) gives a more pronounced bitter-sweet roasted aftertaste with a floral note finish.
Like Wuyi rock tea and conventional dong ding, this tea has that classic high mineral content flavor wulong drinkers will recognize. Underneath the richness of the heavy roast is a satisfying bright taste that, in lighter roasts, would be citrus. It yields many steeps and doesn't oversteep easily. I'll keep this wulong near my tea table for a long time.
Delicious and comforting. Really enjoying the roast on this one. The flavor note in the description really nails it; The crust of a dark rye bread. An excellent deal considering how affordable it is.
very strong bread taste, gives many infusions, my first time having dingdong and also first time heavy roasted oolong