Taiwan Dong Ding

Owes its flavors to oxidation levels between green & black tea.


User avatar
Aug 20th, '08, 21:29
Posts: 591
Joined: Apr 21st, '07, 23:01
Location: Indianapolis IN
Contact: augie

Taiwan Dong Ding

by augie » Aug 20th, '08, 21:29

After reading Bubba Tea's post on Dong Ding, and taking a wrong turn, I stopped at a local Asian food market. Actually, it has all Asian quisines, African, Mexican, everything but Hamburger Helper. Although, I wasn't in the mood for goat.

The translation on the back is funny. However I am wondering if anyone knows why they call it Tone Ting (and not Tung Ting)? Typo? Anyway, for tea from a local world market, it was great. Paid $8 bucks for 100g. Packaged on 01-14-2008.

I am a sucker for cool packaging:
Image
Image
Image
And it did fulfill it's promise of a "leisurely, carefree mood".

User avatar
Aug 20th, '08, 22:30
Posts: 2625
Joined: May 31st, '08, 02:44
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Portland, OR
Contact: Geekgirl

Re: Taiwan Dong Ding

by Geekgirl » Aug 20th, '08, 22:30

augie wrote: Image
Aw, I'm a sucker for packaging too! There's a crappy tea at my Uwajimaya that I want because the tin is so cool. It's called KING oolong. Haha! It's $4.99, but I just know that the tin won't be any good to store actual tea, so I have refrained until now. :lol:

User avatar
Aug 21st, '08, 01:35
Posts: 8065
Joined: Jan 8th, '08, 06:00
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Southern CA
Been thanked: 2 times
Contact: Victoria

by Victoria » Aug 21st, '08, 01:35

Ohh nice tin, yeah I would have gone for it too.

User avatar
Aug 21st, '08, 01:48
Posts: 20891
Joined: Apr 22nd, '06, 20:52
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Back in the TeaCave atop Mt. Fuji
Been thanked: 2 times

by Chip » Aug 21st, '08, 01:48

Nice tin FTW!!! I will buy a cool tin of tea just for the tin!

I hope you enjoy the tin and the tea, augie.
blah blah blah SENCHA blah blah blah!!!

User avatar
Aug 21st, '08, 03:32
Posts: 1051
Joined: Jul 7th, '07, 01:37
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Portland, OR
Contact: ABx

by ABx » Aug 21st, '08, 03:32

I agree. If it's a nice tin then it would cost you about the same to get it empty (after shipping) anyway. :)

Although it's certainly no absolute, I figure that if it's good enough to keep the tea you're buying relatively fresh, then it'll probably do just as well with your tea of choice. Who knows, the tea in it might even turn out to be decent.

User avatar
Aug 21st, '08, 09:07
Posts: 1885
Joined: Mar 22nd, '08, 22:26
Location: Yixing

Re: Taiwan Dong Ding

by chrl42 » Aug 21st, '08, 09:07

augie wrote:After reading Bubba Tea's post on Dong Ding, and taking a wrong turn, I stopped at a local Asian food market. Actually, it has all Asian quisines, African, Mexican, everything but Hamburger Helper. Although, I wasn't in the mood for goat.

The translation on the back is funny. However I am wondering if anyone knows why they call it Tone Ting (and not Tung Ting)? Typo? Anyway, for tea from a local world market, it was great. Paid $8 bucks for 100g. Packaged on 01-14-2008.

I am a sucker for cool packaging:
Image
Image
Image
And it did fulfill it's promise of a "leisurely, carefree mood".
What do you mean?
Ding Dong, oops Dong Ding is Dong Ding cos it's from Dong Ding mountain :)

Tung Ting perhaps is Cantonese pronunciation or Taiwanese..

I've heard Taiwanese tea tins have a number of flower to show the quality of leaves, I would not know..I've only bought from wholesalers..

User avatar
Aug 21st, '08, 10:16
Posts: 591
Joined: Apr 21st, '07, 23:01
Location: Indianapolis IN
Contact: augie

Re: Taiwan Dong Ding

by augie » Aug 21st, '08, 10:16

chrl42 wrote: Tung Ting perhaps is Cantonese pronunciation or Taiwanese..
It's a misspelling, because I have only every seen Dong Ding (Tung Ting). Tone Ting it says on the tin. Reading the english trans. on the back of the tin is a riot.
chrl42 wrote:I've heard Taiwanese tea tins have a number of flower to show the quality of leaves, I would not know..I've only bought from wholesalers..
This tin pictures flowers and butterflies, but no cicadas! It has a cool spray coating over the printing to make the can appear irridescent.[/b]

User avatar
Aug 21st, '08, 12:38
Posts: 2044
Joined: Jan 11th, '07, 20:47
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: Taiwan Dong Ding

by wyardley » Aug 21st, '08, 12:38

augie wrote:
chrl42 wrote: Tung Ting perhaps is Cantonese pronunciation or Taiwanese..
It's a misspelling, because I have only every seen Dong Ding (Tung Ting). Tone Ting it says on the tin. Reading the english trans. on the back of the tin is a riot.
It isn't a "misspelling", because the correct "spelling" is 凍頂 in traditional Chinese characters. There are different methods of romanization, and the sound represented in hanyu pinyin with "d" is kind of in between a "d" and a "t" (i.e., "doufu" (tofu)) - an "unaspirated t". In the past, "t" was used more often, hence "tung ting" or similar romanizations. The Taiwanese generally don't use hanyu pinyin, the system that mainland China uses for romanization, so people either just make it up semi-phonetically, or follow other romanization systems. Thus, what would be 'zhang' in Hanyu pinyin might be written 'chang', even as 'chang' might also be written as 'chang'.

The actual sound in Mandarin Chinese is neither a d nor a t (also, the o in "dòng" is more like the o in "oh" than the o in "clock", and I don't think the "ng" would usually be quite as pronounced as in English, so "tone" is actually probably a little closer to the sound if pronounced phonetically than the way most english-speaking people would pronounce "tung". Also, the "i" is an "ee" sound when it's after a d.

You can hear some recordings of both words at:
http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/%E5%86%BB/1303442
http://www.nciku.com/search/all/%E9%A0%82

I'm not sure how you would say this (if at all) in Taiwanese, but I'll ask around.

User avatar
Aug 21st, '08, 12:46
Posts: 5151
Joined: Dec 20th, '06, 23:33
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Gainesville, Florida
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Taiwan Dong Ding

by Salsero » Aug 21st, '08, 12:46

wyardley wrote: It isn't a "misspelling", because the correct "spelling" is 凍頂 ...
Thanks once again for the no-BS big picture. Obviously, most of us are totally flummoxed by Chinese, no less the native speakers than us foreigners. The patience of a knowledgeable student of the language is much appreciated.

User avatar
Aug 21st, '08, 15:31
Posts: 591
Joined: Apr 21st, '07, 23:01
Location: Indianapolis IN
Contact: augie

Re: Taiwan Dong Ding

by augie » Aug 21st, '08, 15:31

wyardley wrote: It isn't a "misspelling", because the correct "spelling" is 凍頂 in traditional Chinese characters. There are different methods of romanization, . . . .
The actual sound in Mandarin Chinese is neither a d nor a t (also, the o in "dòng" is more like the o in "oh" than the o in "clock", and I don't think the "ng" would usually be quite as pronounced as in English, so "tone" is actually probably a little closer to the sound if pronounced phonetically than the way most english-speaking people would pronounce "tung". Also, the "i" is an "ee" sound when it's after a d.
Cool, thanks. Many times, when reading instructions or the backs of tins like this I just arrogantly assume that it's a misspelling or translation error. I need to be more open minded!

User avatar
Aug 21st, '08, 22:07
Posts: 1885
Joined: Mar 22nd, '08, 22:26
Location: Yixing

Re: Taiwan Dong Ding

by chrl42 » Aug 21st, '08, 22:07

wyardley wrote:
augie wrote:
chrl42 wrote: Tung Ting perhaps is Cantonese pronunciation or Taiwanese..
It's a misspelling, because I have only every seen Dong Ding (Tung Ting). Tone Ting it says on the tin. Reading the english trans. on the back of the tin is a riot.
It isn't a "misspelling", because the correct "spelling" is 凍頂 in traditional Chinese characters. There are different methods of romanization, and the sound represented in hanyu pinyin with "d" is kind of in between a "d" and a "t" (i.e., "doufu" (tofu)) - an "unaspirated t". In the past, "t" was used more often, hence "tung ting" or similar romanizations. The Taiwanese generally don't use hanyu pinyin, the system that mainland China uses for romanization, so people either just make it up semi-phonetically, or follow other romanization systems. Thus, what would be 'zhang' in Hanyu pinyin might be written 'chang', even as 'chang' might also be written as 'chang'.

The actual sound in Mandarin Chinese is neither a d nor a t (also, the o in "dòng" is more like the o in "oh" than the o in "clock", and I don't think the "ng" would usually be quite as pronounced as in English, so "tone" is actually probably a little closer to the sound if pronounced phonetically than the way most english-speaking people would pronounce "tung". Also, the "i" is an "ee" sound when it's after a d.

You can hear some recordings of both words at:
http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/%E5%86%BB/1303442
http://www.nciku.com/search/all/%E9%A0%82

I'm not sure how you would say this (if at all) in Taiwanese, but I'll ask around.
Well, I was mentioning Pu Tong Hua (standard), the one you can find from a dictionary..

Beijing is a romanization of PTH but in West it's often written Peking. And Beijing and Peking is obviously different sound and thats why I thought Peking is from Cantonese (since most of immigrants were Cantonese).

Taiwanese I meant was Chinese-Taiwanese (native Taiwanese language is Hokkien, right?). I had a Chinese Taiwanese girlfriend back then, and what she spoke(mandarin) was a bit different from Pu Tong Hua (let's say Beijing or Dongbei) hence the romanization.


I don't know..maybe someone good with Cantonese (Heavydoom?) can clarify this :)..

User avatar
Aug 22nd, '08, 00:11
Posts: 356
Joined: Jul 30th, '08, 17:42
Location: Springfield, MO

Re: Taiwan Dong Ding

by Bubba_tea » Aug 22nd, '08, 00:11

wyardley wrote:You can hear some recordings of both words at:
http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/%E5%86%BB/1303442
http://www.nciku.com/search/all/%E9%A0%82

I'm not sure how you would say this (if at all) in Taiwanese, but I'll ask around.
Wow - that website is too cool! Great addition to my old standby http://zhongwen.com/

The handwrite character section is sweeeeeet.
:D

User avatar
Aug 26th, '08, 23:15
Posts: 20891
Joined: Apr 22nd, '06, 20:52
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Back in the TeaCave atop Mt. Fuji
Been thanked: 2 times

by Chip » Aug 26th, '08, 23:15

Today's newsletter from Tea from Taiwan:
Our Ming Xiang oolong tea is produced on Dong Ding Mountain. This oolong tea has a unique honey aroma which is produced from activities of cicadas on the tea leaves. The honey aroma of Dong Ding Ming Xiang is a guarantee that the tea is organic - pesticides would keep the cicadas away.
It is always funny that they only tell you so much, then leave the rest to our imagination. "Activity" is a pretty open ... activity. They word it similarly on their site as well.

They do go on to say that their Dong Ding is grown on Dong Ding. Most Dong Ding sold today is only refering to the oolong style and is not necessarily grown on or even near Dong Ding.

Aug 27th, '08, 09:42
Posts: 143
Joined: Aug 12th, '08, 10:51

by cheaton » Aug 27th, '08, 09:42

This is very cool and interesting. We don't like to think of the part insects play in our food production but they're definitely key. The cicadas probably perform a similar task as bees do for us for most of our major crops. Insects are so important in pollonation and crop formation. Thanks for the great info Chip! Someone pass the Dong Ding!

(P.S. Does Adagio plan on carrying a Dong Ding anytime soon?)

User avatar
Aug 27th, '08, 10:33
Posts: 1598
Joined: Jan 11th, '07, 16:13
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: SF Bay Area, CA

by scruffmcgruff » Aug 27th, '08, 10:33

Isn't Oolong #18 a Dong Ding-style oolong? I don't know what mountainous origins it claims, but I thought that was classic DD style.
Tea Nerd - www.teanerd.com

+ Post Reply