Dancong from Teaspring, noobie question

[Oni]

I recently recieved all the 5 types of Dancong from Teaspring, Classic-Mi Lan, Da Wu Ye, Qing Xian Song Zhong, Song Zhong; and Da Hong Pao traditional, jade TGY, and Dong Ding.

My Question is: Has anybody tried these teas (Dancongs from Teaspring)?
I brewed all of them, the leaves were nice, the fragrance was wonderful, but I couldn`t get a decent cup of tea out of them. I brewed all in a 120 ml gaiwan.

Maybe they need yixing pots, or did I go wrong with using soft mountain spring water, and measuring the right amount by eye is difficult, I have no problem brewing TGY, I make excelent Dong Ding, to the teas full potential, but with Dancong every time I make it I feel like there is something missing, the tea has more potential than I am capable of prying out of it

[gingkoseto]

I have no experience about dan cong from teaspring. But wow their song zhong price is even lower than the general price range in China. Well, song zhong is a flexible concept. But I am also curious to learn if anybody tried this song zhong and how it is.

About brewing, what's the infusion time you used? When you said you didn't get a great cup, was it tasteless or bitter? Based on what I heard from other people, most people who didn't get a great cup used too long infusion time (>8 or 10 sec.) and got the tea bitter.

[Oni]

Should I use flash infusion? 5 seconds or less?

[xuancheng]

I recently recieved all the 5 types of Dancong from Teaspring, Classic-Mi Lan, Da Wu Ye, Qing Xian Song Zhong, Song Zhong; and Da Hong Pao traditional, jade TGY, and Dong Ding.

My Question is: Has anybody tried these teas (Dancongs from Teaspring)?
I brewed all of them, the leaves were nice, the fragrance was wonderful, but I couldn`t get a decent cup of tea out of them. I brewed all in a 120 ml gaiwan.

Maybe they need yixing pots, or did I go wrong with using soft mountain spring water, and measuring the right amount by eye is difficult, I have no problem brewing TGY, I make excelent Dong Ding, to the teas full potential, but with Dancong every time I make it I feel like there is something missing, the tea has more potential than I am capable of prying out of it

There has been a lot of discussion about dancong brewing here and there on this forum with a lot of good posts from ABx and a couple of others, names escape me at the moment.

Then, of course you have to read this post on tea obsession
http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/2008/ ... -cong.html

and if you want to know more about Chaozhou brewing style in general, check this other post out.
http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/2008/ ... style.html

[Salsero]

I am also curious to learn if anybody tried this song zhong and how it is.

I had some song zhong from them a couple years ago. It may be a very different product now, of course, but my notes are all over the place. They mention smokey and burnt tasting, mild, sweet, apricot, tapioca, ginger, plum aroma, and a couple mentions of how it reminded me of some sheng puerh I was drinking back then.

There seem to be themes of 1) astringency, 2) fruit tastes, 3) varying perfume aromas, and 4) some smoke. I dimly remember that controlling astringency and still getting a strong hit of aroma/taste was tricky. I wound up using pretty substantial amounts of leaf and very short brew times in a gaiwan.

I would be curious to try it again, but I think it was probably not a great dan cong. Around that same time I had another cheap one from Kam at Funalliance, Snow Flake Lone Bush, that I also found to be a real brewing challenge but I enjoyed.

On the other hand, this Ba Xian Dancong sample I just got from Jing Tea Shop was easy to brew and very rewarding ... but expensive.

Of course, Imen is the Queen of Dan Cong.

[Oni]

Regarding Kams TGY king grade, is much better than teasprings jade TGY.

[gingkoseto]

I am also curious to learn if anybody tried this song zhong and how it is.

I had some song zhong from them a couple years ago. It may be a very different product now, of course, but my notes are all over the place. They mention smokey and burnt tasting, mild, sweet, apricot, tapioca, ginger, plum aroma, and a couple mentions of how it reminded me of some sheng puerh I was drinking back then.

There seem to be themes of 1) astringency, 2) fruit tastes, 3) varying perfume aromas, and 4) some smoke. I dimly remember that controlling astringency and still getting a strong hit of aroma/taste was tricky. I wound up using pretty substantial amounts of leaf and very short brew times in a gaiwan.

I would be curious to try it again, but I think it was probably not a great dan cong. Around that same time I had another cheap one from Kam at Funalliance, Snow Flake Lone Bush, that I also found to be a real brewing challenge but I enjoyed.

On the other hand, this Ba Xian Dancong sample I just got from Jing Tea Shop was easy to brew and very rewarding ... but expensive.

Of course, Imen is the Queen of Dan Cong.

Thanks for the review! I just had my first ever song zhong recently, and it's a relatively low price product among song zhongs. I am not in a hurry to step into the high price range (yet ) partially because of spending limits, partially because I am still enjoying mid-low price range dan cong very much and haven't got over them yet.

The teaspring one, song zhong or not, the price is very encouraging And the funalliance one, the price is really good, actually tempting! Except that they didn't specify what varietal it is. "Snow flake" is name for any winter tea dan cong, not a varietal name. But anyway it sounds good and I would like to give it a try! It's common for winter tea dan cong to be hard to brew (in terms of very short infusions and through drainage of water). So I don't think it's a shortcoming of funalliance's "snow flake". The Jing Tea Shop's is also a winter tea, and if brewing is not as challenging as many other winter dan congs, I think their tea was processed very well then. For a well processed ba xian dan cong, their price is totally ok, even pretty good!

[Oni]

Da Wu Ye is good, the leaves are intact, and the teajuice doesn`t go bitter, it resembles TGY, but it leaves my mouth dry, after drinking Dong Ding I feel good, and it doesn`t leave my mouth dry, and I also tried the other Dancongs, I brewed short, 5-10 max 15 seconds, they don`t go bitter, but they leave my mouth dry and they are not intensive enough.

[xuancheng]

Da Wu Ye is good, the leaves are intact, and the teajuice doesn`t go bitter, it resembles TGY, but it leaves my mouth dry, after drinking Dong Ding I feel good, and it doesn`t leave my mouth dry, and I also tried the other Dancongs, I brewed short, 5-10 max 15 seconds, they don`t go bitter, but they leave my mouth dry and they are not intensive enough.

You should find a vendor who knows what they are doing and ask them for a nongxiang dancong. Tell them you don't want qingxiang.

nongxiang means "thick fragrance," and it is traditional to brew them in a gaiwan or pot for 40sec to a minute each infusion. They may still be a little bit astrigent, but they should have a very intense flavour and fragrance like you are looking for.

[Oni]

There are a lot of Dancongs on the market, maybe there are some that suite my fancy, but I think my teajourney will head in a diffrent direction, I want to explore Wu Yi Rock oolongs, and Taiwanese oolongs, Dancong may have to wait, maybe I didn`t uderstand the tea, or I am not experienced enough for them, I generally enjoyed high quality japanese green teas in the past year, and some green oolongs, and they have satisfied my need for tea, but there are so many tastes out there, parfumes, aromas, echoing aftertastes locked in leaves of tea, that a lifetime spent exploring them is not a waste.

[gingkoseto]

Da Wu Ye is good, the leaves are intact, and the teajuice doesn`t go bitter, it resembles TGY, but it leaves my mouth dry, after drinking Dong Ding I feel good, and it doesn`t leave my mouth dry, and I also tried the other Dancongs, I brewed short, 5-10 max 15 seconds, they don`t go bitter, but they leave my mouth dry and they are not intensive enough.

You should find a vendor who knows what they are doing and ask them for a nongxiang dancong. Tell them you don't want qingxiang.

nongxiang means "thick fragrance," and it is traditional to brew them in a gaiwan or pot for 40sec to a minute each infusion. They may still be a little bit astrigent, but they should have a very intense flavour and fragrance like you are looking for.

I believe the so-called "qing xiang" should have intensive fragrance as well, more floral kind than roasted, caramel kind.

The mouth dry problem actually is quite mysterious. I've heard different people describe this problem, although I don't know if it's the same kind of mouth dry. In the past, I also had a few qing xiang (greener) TGY that made my mouth slightly dry afterward, but not too much dryness to annoy me.

I heard different explanations about the mouth dry problem. One possibility, as suggested by a first hand tea dealer (hum, I mean, the guy directly buys from villages of An Xi), some newly processed TGY, included greener and roasted kind, may cause mouth dry, and after the tea rests for a while it should be ok. I think it's a possible cause, especially nowadays teas are sealed very well and therefore don't have enough "waking" time. But I never had mouth dry problem with dan congs, either greener kind or roasted kind. That seems consistent with the tea dealer's explanation. Dan cong leaves are looser than TGY, so it's easier for them to be aerated and therefore less likely to cause mouth dry.

But Oni's mouth dry problem is from a dan cong. So above explanation is not relevant. Another explanation I heard is that it has something to do with tea processing. But it sounds abstract to me and I didn't get any details how tea processing may cause it.

And another explanation is mouth dry may be caused by artificial flavor added to the tea. If that happens, surely mouth dry will happen. But I don't believe any of my previous teas had artificial flavor, since they are all from reliable suppliers. Well, a few were from friends, but normally when people send (to me ) gifts, they choose the best and most reliable products, very often brand name products, so I don't think artificial flavor was a problem. And I believe teaspring is a reliable enough supplier and generally artificial flavor is not a problem in US market.

So the mouth dry problems still seems very mysterious to me!

[Oni]

The TGY Kam sells on funalliance, the leaves are intact, and it leaves pleasent aftertaste in the mouth, it oils the tongue and it can be felt for a few minutes, but teasprings dancongs just are not meeting my standards, maybe it is my fault, but I`ll stay away from them. PS I am waiting for rich barbarian TGY, I put great hope in it.

[Oni]

With the Jade TGY from Teaspring I am greatly unhappy, the leaves are broken beyond imagination, the teajuice is weak, it is machiene harvested and very expencieve for this quality tea 23 $/ 100 g, it is an outrage, when I think that kam sold me for 13 $/ 100g TGY cha wang, that was handpicked, leaves were uniform, intact without stems and was lighyears ahead of teasprings, although Dong Ding that they sell looks great, leaves intact, and 3-4 leves left on stem, sign of handpicking, and the taste is strong.
It dissapoints me when a shop sell a very poor tea for high price, I don`t know about trusting them again. I have ordered from several shops, but none sold me something this bad for such a high price, and specifying that it is king grade, which it is obviously not.