Funalliance's dancongs

[Tead Off]

Les, this is also my experience, exactly as you say. Once you have tasted a good DC, you know immediately. You cannot buy good DC at this price point. Doesn't exist.

[betta]

having not tried a really top notch variety, maybe my ignorance is bliss!

Sometimes yes...
But the most important is that each individual enjoys the tea. It's not the matter of who has the highest grade tea.
Even the highest grade tea will deliver bad result if steeped improperly.

[Komsip]

Komsip, how did you brew the Funalliance Dan Congs? DCs have a wide variety of taste profiles and aromas. Some are more powerful like Milan DCs with their peachy flavour and some are more subtle. If you have subtle DC and you use yixing that is not made of real zhuni or modern good-quality zhuni it is possible that you lose those subtle flavours and aromas and end up with tasteless tea. I would recommend trying a porcelain gaiwan if you haven't already done that. If your DC doesn't have taste when brewed in porcelain gaiwan then you can be sure it's the tea and not the yixing. Same applies to high mountain oolongs and green TGY: floral nuances are easily lost if one doesn't use porcelain or good (and very often this means expensive) zhuni pot. I know it from experience

Hi I only brewed them in my zisha pots (2 dark purple ones, 1 red-orange ish one of those cheap massproduced ones from the 80s, but certailnly none of them are zhuni). I never tried it in gaiwan before actually I realized when I read this, so I tried it in a gaiwan (porcelain); much better! Now from the gaiwan indeed I get a lot more out of the Big black leaf (Da Wu Ye 大乌叶) tea! A big difference! I'm drinking it right now very nice! I will try the Yulan Orchid (Yu Lan Xiang 玉兰香) from Funalliance and the Honey Orchid (Mi Lan Xiang 蜜兰香) that I got from a Swedish store in the gaiwan too, after this and of course the Snow flake (Xue pian 雪片) from Funalliance if I can find it. (I can't find it! I have no memory of where I put it! Argh! Weird!).
I guess dancongs just don't work in my zisha pots, they are good pots and yes they are absolutely real zisha, but not zhuni.
I never realized that you need zhuni or porcelain gaiwan to make dancong, but the difference is clear: the tea that I thought was hopeless really gets flavor now (very subtle but very nice).
As for tieguanyin, I tried that in gaiwan, but I don't notice much difference from my zisha pots, except the cheap reddish one which has a rougher clay that I think soaks up a lot of the flavor. I almost only use that one for raw pu'er though. It's kind of dedicated for that, so I try not to use too much other teas in it.
I find gaiwan hard to use, so I don't often use the gaiwan. But in from now I think I will always use the gaiwan for dancong, unless I one day buy a zhuni. But I hear the zhuni clay mines have run out of clay, only some pot makers have zhuni clay in their storage, so I guess they will be expensive in the future. I don't want to buy a "modern zhuni", either I buy a real one or none, but I'm a student, it's not really what I should put my few pennies on at the moment.

***Update: I found my Phoenix Snowflake Dancong Tea (Feng huang xue pian dan cong cha 凤凰雪片单丛茶)!*** I had put it in a different looking tin from the other dancong teas, and wrapped in several bags inside bags inside the tin. I'm kindof paranoid of oolong and green teas losing flavor so I seal them off as much as I possibly can. I am now making little stickers with the name of the teas to put on the jars and tins I store my tea in so I can keep track of what tea is where from now on.
I will make this tea in the gaiwan now, it was very weak when I tried it in my zisha pots so I hope I'll get a better result out of it now.

[Cha Nacho]

I will make this tea in the gaiwan now, it was very weak when I tried it in my zisha pots so I hope I'll get a better result out of it now.

Hi Komsip, how did the snow flake turn out in the Gaiwan? Any improvement in taste or aroma? I find it quite aromatic, the flavour is subtle but lingering. Let us know if there was any noticeable changes.
cheers,
Nacho

[Komsip]

I will make this tea in the gaiwan now, it was very weak when I tried it in my zisha pots so I hope I'll get a better result out of it now.

Hi Komsip, how did the snow flake turn out in the Gaiwan? Any improvement in taste or aroma? I find it quite aromatic, the flavour is subtle but lingering. Let us know if there was any noticeable changes.
cheers,
Nacho

Well it was already pretty aromatic to begin when brewing in zisha compared to the Big Black Leaf, but not at all like the Yulan. But yes there's a difference when I brew it in the gaiwan, I get more aroma out of it. The main aroma reminds me of the leaves of some garden flower plant my parents grew in the summer when I was a kid. Can't put my finger on which one though.

[Herb_Master]

.....
would recommend trying a porcelain gaiwan if you haven't already done that. If your DC doesn't have taste when brewed in porcelain gaiwan then you can be sure it's the tea and not the yixing. Same applies to high mountain oolongs and green TGY: floral nuances are easily lost if one doesn't use porcelain or good (and very often this means expensive) zhuni pot. I know it from experience

.........I never realized that you need zhuni or porcelain gaiwan to make dancong, ...............

there is always a third alternative
Chao Zhou pots

http://www.teahabitat.com/store/index.p ... 01fdbcoid6

I am still saving up to buy mine, but a number of tea chatters have purchased them - I wonder what the general consensus is?

[Komsip]

.....
would recommend trying a porcelain gaiwan if you haven't already done that. If your DC doesn't have taste when brewed in porcelain gaiwan then you can be sure it's the tea and not the yixing. Same applies to high mountain oolongs and green TGY: floral nuances are easily lost if one doesn't use porcelain or good (and very often this means expensive) zhuni pot. I know it from experience

.........I never realized that you need zhuni or porcelain gaiwan to make dancong, ...............

there is always a third alternative
Chao Zhou pots

http://www.teahabitat.com/store/index.p ... 01fdbcoid6

I am still saving up to buy mine, but a number of tea chatters have purchased them - I wonder what the general consensus is?

Ooh I always thought Chao Zhou pots were made out of zhuni, didn't realize it was different.
I only have two zini pots and then I have one cheap pot that is reddish same colour as the Chao Zhou pots on that page you linked to, but it was very cheap and the clay is very rough and porous, plus it's much lighter in weight than my other two pots, it's some cheap mix clay probably with iron oxide thrown in for color. I have a porcelain (one of those cheap blue white jingdezhen that almost everyone and their grandma have) pot though, maybe that could work if I preheat it first. Should logically work better than gaiwan (less heat loss+more room for leaf expansion). The bad thing is it's so big, I'd guess about 400 ml (13.5 oz), I could never use it unless it was for at least four people. Or maybe I could pour it up in the rice bowls of the same porcelain series.

[Herb_Master]

It may have the same effect as Zhuni and may to all intents and purposes be the same as Zhuni

The locals also call it Zhuni although not the same clay as Yixing Zhuni.

from

http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/2009/ ... t-how.html

[Ritva]

Komsip, I'm glad that you are getting more taste out of your DCs now! If you can't afford a proper zhuni yixing or chao zhou pot and don't like using a gaiwan, Dragon Tea House has these cute little porcelain pots:
http://stores.ebay.com/Dragon-Tea-House ... ec0Q2em322
I don't own any, but they look really nice and I think they would work ok.

[Bubba_tea]

I found similar results to others where the yixing pots seem to rob some fragrance from the DC's. I much prefer gaiwan brewing for these (and in the shops where you buy these DC's - I didn't see many people brewing in yixing pots).

For those of you not getting much flavor, someone here gave me a tip which seems so obvious now... add more tea! I regularly stuff a pot to the top with dry leaves. I wasted a lot of money with insipid cups of tea trying to not waste the tea, when in reality it required a lot more leaf to get the best out of it (and you can brew many many cups of good flavored tea rather than trying to pick delicate flavors out of a watery brew).

[Komsip]

Komsip, I'm glad that you are getting more taste out of your DCs now! If you can't afford a proper zhuni yixing or chao zhou pot and don't like using a gaiwan, Dragon Tea House has these cute little porcelain pots:
http://stores.ebay.com/Dragon-Tea-House ... ec0Q2em322
I don't own any, but they look really nice and I think they would work ok.

Yeah they look perfect for that, and they are jingdezhen just like the other porcelain teapots I have. I really love the jingdezhen porcelain design. Just wish I could find one with suiting motif for my other jingdezhen ware. I have rice bowls that I use for cups in various jingdezhen blue-on-white designs. I'd like to have a full kitchen set in all jingdezhen blue-on-white, starting with tea ware would probably be a good idea.

[tenuki]

I use either an eggshell or glass gaiwan for DCs. The faster cooling seems to bring out the fragrance and flavor better. It seems they do like the water to be near boiling initially, but if they stay there too long it seems to rob them of subtly.

Disclaimer - This post expresses my own personal experience and my own personal opinion. I am not an expert nor do I claim that this is either verifiable or substantiable. Attempts to 'prove' this stated experience and personal opinion as 'false' will be properly met with derision and ridicule instead of counter arguement.

[AdamMY]

Disclaimer - This post expresses my own personal experience and my own personal opinion. I am not an expert nor do I claim that this is either verifiable or substantiable. Attempts to 'prove' this stated experience and personal opinion as 'false' will be properly met with derision and ridicule instead of counter arguement.

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