What you are looking at is dry leaf Feng Huang Milan Dancong from Jing Tea Shop. Somehow, I got wrapped up in the mess that is Bryan's Dancong Fever. I recently tasted this style of tea for the very first time and I'm still confused by it. I ordered a 100g bag of this, 100g of an inexpensive oolong, and a couple samples for about $10. Bryan was describing it to me one night while we were drinking some aged Tie Guan Yin (that unfortunately, didn't pan out to be what we had hoped) and when we looked it up a light went off in my head that simply said "Hey, I have $10!" Never before have I tasted a tea where the dry leaf smells like chocolate, the first infusion tasted like a tangy peach, and later infusions mellow down into something that reminds me of lychee candy. Definitely interesting stuff. I plan to order more samples and see if I can't get a good handle on this one. Recommendations and citations are definitely most welcome. What has everyone else been drinking lately?
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Dancong Madness
What you are looking at is dry leaf Feng Huang Milan Dancong from Jing Tea Shop. Somehow, I got wrapped up in the mess that is Bryan's Dancong Fever. I recently tasted this style of tea for the very first time and I'm still confused by it. I ordered a 100g bag of this, 100g of an inexpensive oolong, and a couple samples for about $10. Bryan was describing it to me one night while we were drinking some aged Tie Guan Yin (that unfortunately, didn't pan out to be what we had hoped) and when we looked it up a light went off in my head that simply said "Hey, I have $10!" Never before have I tasted a tea where the dry leaf smells like chocolate, the first infusion tasted like a tangy peach, and later infusions mellow down into something that reminds me of lychee candy. Definitely interesting stuff. I plan to order more samples and see if I can't get a good handle on this one. Recommendations and citations are definitely most welcome. What has everyone else been drinking lately?
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4 comments:
Dan Cong will undoubted twist your mind totally out of shape! It's everything and nothing and some of them are among the trickiest to brew.
But it can be very rewarding and a lot of fun. Like everything else, there is infinite variety. I drank a lot of them (mostly from Imen) a year ago and haven't gotten back into them really since then. Too much other stuff sitting around crying out to be consumed, and DC (like pu) really asks for a lot of time and attention.
Sal,
Tonight was my brother-in-law's birthday so we went out for dinner and drinks. When I came home, I decided to take a gaiwan and a kettle to bed and I was drinking it grandpa style; right from the gaiwan. I'm starting to find that by sipping it very slowly right from the gaiwan you can get a good idea on just how far you can push each infusion. When you overbrew this stuff, it makes sure to let you know! Plus, a lot of the dancongs I've had so far seem very affordable.
I do have a healthy collection of pu-erh that I haven't even been able to touch yet. I've got another shipment from Scott (including the the new ironcakes he just put up) that should be here any day and I haven't even tasted everything from my last order. Fortunately, with all this good tea around I've still got my entire life left to explore!
jamus~
Drinking Dan Cong tea in bed ... how totally decadent!
There is plenty of expensive DC out there; it's a huge category of tea.
That's what I love about puerh: it thrives on neglect.
Just recently found your blog. Good Stuff! Keep up the good work.
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