Bok wrote:
Just saw the new article on teamasters where he draws a comparison between Yancha and Dongding (traditional version). Basically saying they are similar, just that DD is lacking the mineral notes.
Thoughts?
Having never been exposed to Yancha I am curious.
And also looking for a good excuse not to spend any money on Yancha when prices become China-crazy. If they are indeed similar, I just stick to spend it on the best DD I can get locally and not worry about unknown pleasures…
ah.. which tea master is that?
it is hard to generalize.. the culture of wuyi yancha is alive, that is from the tang/song dynasty it was a whitish tea made into bricks... and then it became uncompressed tea in the ming dynasty.. and as each artisan, each cliff, rock formation, plateau, cavity, etc started having unique plants, cultivars, microenvironments.. that led to the pleurality of wuyi yancha. if anyone had read my paltry writings, huiyan cliff alone has a recorded of 800+ yancha types coming from that spot alone, and that was across half a millenium of history, methods, cultivars, climates, microenvironments etc, these permutations and combinations come and go. the modern "presentation" of wuyi yancha preferred by the mass market today is something that is hefty, thick (from strong nitrogen fertilizer use), and processed to be very forward in aromatics (which means lower on oxidation)... and in comparison, such teas cannot take heavy roast. most of the heavily roasted products on the market are just done to erase flaws. and wuyi yancha is represented by countless cultivars, from various origins and inter-breeding etc to give diversity.
on the other hand, dongding is just a branch off the wuyi yancha stream, it was seemingly unrolled till the 70s, becoming more rolled in the 80s.. and in the 90s onwards it became fully rolled into ball shapes. this ball shape formation results in different effects during roasting, and roast/fire receding. and the dongding development is a bit stunted now, no one except a meagre few pursue the traditional "wuyi style manufacture" that is heavy oxidation, heavy roast. most go for high mountain leaves and push it into light oxidation, light electrical roasts.
however to note, if you run the mountains of both wuyi and dongding as i had done several times over.. you will notice the following trend
1) Wuyi SKLJ tea, or regions with strong microclimates, this is the most orthodox yancha, if handmade, is the closest to the historical deal, the oxidation is heavy, the roast is heavy. nothing from DD matches up
2) Wuyi region outside SKLJ, it is quite varied, some of them are taken care of as well as Dongding/Lishan region, but in both these regions there are poor farming practices. within this category, you can find teas that are "comparable" in aromatics, but the wuyi teas having a bit more bone if there are good microclimates. you will be surprised to know that some of the wuyi plantations are poorer managed than those in taiwan
3) Wuyi tea made outside the supposed areas.. into largely expanded territories.. how many people would actually know the true origin of their teas? machine harvested.. high throughput production...
the famed dongding oolong would be able to match up to top end wuyis. but.. almost impossible to find now maybe.. if you're in taiwan perhaps you can ask around if anyone has any of the real "chen2 ah1 qiao4" dongding oolong.. before his demise, chen ah qiao was the most famous roaster in the dongding region, and the teas he produces had been most highly regarded. dont bother with any of his sons' teas because they're a far far far cry from the real deal.
the point is, on both sides, there are their separate and independent developments.. despite the same root that is. for modern representations of wuyi and dd, they are all superficial creations that suit the market trend at the moment, i wouldnt want to base any comparisons on these products, but instead focus on the heritage
and yup the tea in those tins are rather interesting, but the person whom made them is even more interesting. might be a nice story for Wuyi Episode 3. this is the only person so far whom had been able to draw out a siberian musk note in a couple of his tea cultivars. 
