Dancong love

[BW85]

The long, beautifully twisted leaves; the way they look after the first and second gongfu infusion, shiny wet, still mostly twisted, still very dark but giving way to lighter greens and red edges.
The intoxicating higher pitch fragrances or the seductively warm, fruity aromas.
Exciting oral sensations. smooth and nectory, sometimes a pleasant sharpness. Maybe a wonderful bitter sweet finish, or just a touch of dryness.

I love dancongs

Now back the huangzhi xiang in my gaiwan

[ethan]

"nectory" good word: I guesss = like nector
welcome to teachat

[thirst]

I love dancongs too! Well, I only have one. But still. It’s amazing how much you can get out of it with flash steeps at a low ratio of leaf to water.

[bonescwa]

They seem so fickle to me. One day they fill the room with aroma and the next they're flat and dull. Same water, same leaf amount, same temperature. No idea what causes this.

[debunix]

....same brewing vessel?

I brew mine in different vessels and get different results--the porcelain gaiwan permits the scents to be stronger but also leaves in more of the bitter notes; the Chao Zhou and yixing and treebark pots round the flavor more, but also rob a bit of the high notes of the scent.

I find them not so much fickle, as demanding a bit more attention than some other teas to give the very best, mostly because I use high leaf to water ratios and the margin between perfect and overbrewed/bitter is very slender on those short infusions.

[bonescwa]

Yeah, same porcelain gaiwan, same leaf/water ratio. It's probably the tea.

[the_economist]

Other variables include the brewer, the drinker, and the weather. It's not necessarily the tea.

[BW85]

It is definitely a tea that needs to be brewed with care and attention. Easy to over infuse, and then easy to under infuse when trying to counter act the over infusion. Most will have a sweet spot and when you find it it's wonderful. I personally like a slight bitterness in my dancongs when it can be balanced with other flavor notes. I usually start with 4-5 grams per 100ml of water @195-200F for 30 sec or so, all variables adjusted to the specific leaf

Now brewing xing ren xiang

[BW85]

"nectory" good word: I guesss = like nector
welcome to teachat

Yeah I may have made that word up, not sure hah. But we can do that, right?

And thanks

[bonescwa]

Other variables include the brewer, the drinker, and the weather. It's not necessarily the tea.

I brewed it both times, I drank it both times, and the weather was the same. Maybe it was the fact that Capricorn was in Jupiter and it's the year if the horse?

[Muadeeb]

I'm having some iced Dancong right now to battle this oppressive San Diego heat. I brew 6 grams in a 150ml yixing with boiling water for a minute, pour over ice, and repeat continuously. This was a budget version from Dragon Tea House and it doesn't have many high notes to mute, so it lends itself to this kind of drinking/chugging.

[the_economist]

Other variables include the brewer, the drinker, and the weather. It's not necessarily the tea.

I brewed it both times, I drank it both times, and the weather was the same. Maybe it was the fact that Capricorn was in Jupiter and it's the year if the horse?

You have much more confidence about your brewing consistency than I do in mine. No man stands in the same river twice, maybe not even once (Heraclitus and Cratylus).

Takes real gongfu to achieve that so my congratulations on your tea mastery.

[bonescwa]

Other variables include the brewer, the drinker, and the weather. It's not necessarily the tea.

I brewed it both times, I drank it both times, and the weather was the same. Maybe it was the fact that Capricorn was in Jupiter and it's the year if the horse?

You have much more confidence about your brewing consistency than I do in mine. No man stands in the same river twice, maybe not even once (Heraclitus and Cratylus).

Takes real gongfu to achieve that so my congratulations on your tea mastery.

Why thank you. Did I mention it was cheap as hell? Maybe you should have been a snarkonomist instead!

[the_economist]

No no, thank you! Maybe you should've been a bonesnark instead. I must have missed the clarification that you were referring to only cheap-as-hell tea rather than dancongs in general in your first comment. 'They' is such a very general pronoun.

[bonescwa]

No no, thank you! Maybe you should've been a bonesnark instead. I must have missed the clarification that you were referring to only cheap-as-hell tea rather than dancongs in general in your first comment. 'They' is such a very general pronoun.

I wanted to be a bonesnark but they said I wasn't snarky enough. Sorry about the pronoun-related misunderstanding, I must have let that mistake slip through the cracks. I was verklempt because the tea came out so poorly after being phenomenal two days ago, you see.