Dancong

[ryancha]

This isn't the passage I'm thinking of from MarshalN--he writes more directly and at length on another post--but this passage gives you the general thrust of his criticism:

[On drinking a curated sample whose type and provenance was first unknown to him.] It’s a dancong all right. Fragrant, not much bitterness unless you overbrew it (a plus), and overall decent, but it didn’t really stay in my mouth, nor did it give me a lingering sense of sweetness or throatiness. It’s basically a taste, and then it’s gone. That’s fine for a regular cup of tea, but I will get bored of such things quite quickly. [http://www.marshaln.com/2008/03/wednesd ... h-19-2008/]

In any event, I'm not trying to blame MarshalN, and I may well be wrongly paraphrasing his opinion. I was just using it as a launching point onto why DC seems to get so little attention in the English-speaking blogosphere compared to other teas. Speaking of which, does anyone know good blogs besides those of vendors (Imen, Teahong, Hojo) that routinely deal with DC?

Teadoff and Ethan both strike me as having put their finger on at least part of the pleasure of puer people: the hunt and the anticipation of waiting, which of course is always part of tea, but seemingly much bigger in that world than DC.

[Tead Off]

Not to argue MarshalN's point, but in every genre of tea, there are an abundance of teas that fit this description. But, there are DC's that go the distance. Every genre throws up their winners, but the losers far outnumber those winners. This is what it means to be a tea hobbyist. You pay attention, you drink, you decide. Subjectivity also enters the equation, further complicating evaluations. Just be prepared to spend money, lots of it.

[kyarazen]

I was just using it as a launching point onto why DC seems to get so little attention in the English-speaking blogosphere compared to other teas. Speaking of which, does anyone know good blogs besides those of vendors (Imen, Teahong, Hojo) that routinely deal with DC?

i guess not many people from chaozhou run an english blog on tea or are there? if you throw a stone in the tea blogsphere, there's a much higher chance of you hitting someone who speaks cantonese. (dont throw a stone at me though, i'm chaozhou, and in my blog i dont write about dancong either).

dancong is heavily consumed in chaozhou, if not traditionally charcoal roasted/heavy roasted, its an incredibly fragrant tea, almost sublime, 色香味韵 all complete and intense, in no way paling in comparison to yancha or pooerh, but can be very finicky to brew. you might come across people whom would say that they had only success with dancong in a particular pot and not others, thats how finicky the tea can be, and how the brewer must understand enough the brewing wares and process to be versatile

[the_economist]

Looks like I must have a Dancong today.

Looking forward to that Dancong post, Kyarazen!

[mganz42]

mganz - Jing's Milan AAA is what first got me hooked on DC. I had not noticed, however, there red DC until now. How does it taste vs a regular DC?

It's pretty interesting. It's the same varietal that you get milan dancong from, but it has a more fruity fragrance, like plums and apricots rather than florals. I would say that it has a deeper body than a regular DC. It's maybe a little less fragrant and doesn't have such an oily mouthfeel. It's got a lot of stamina, I actually devoted a lu ni pot to it and it gets more than 20 steeps per session. Quite a bargain for $8.50 an ounce.

I think, for someone like me who favors body, it's a great tea. But some of the most remarkable elements of dancong are the mouthfeel, aftertaste and fragrance. So someone looking for a real dancong might find it lacking.

[Chip]

Is Dan somehow related to King?

I realllly need to hook up with someone who realllly knows Dancong as I have failed miserably at this one.

[debunix]

All this Dancong discussion has me craving, but I am going to hold off until my nose is ready to appreciate the nuances.

[kyarazen]

Is Dan somehow related to King?

I realllly need to hook up with someone who realllly knows Dancong as I have failed miserably at this one.

if you come to sinkapour i know who to take you to... i've been bumming around a few chaozhou clan associations....

[Chip]

Is Dan somehow related to King?

I realllly need to hook up with someone who realllly knows Dancong as I have failed miserably at this one.

if you come to sinkapour i know who to take you to... i've been bumming around a few chaozhou clan associations....

Thank you kindly.

[ryancha]

kyarazen - I know very little about China, so I'm wondering if you can fill us in on the economics of the DC trade. Given the high price high quality DC seems to command, how much of the good stuff to farmers drink? I know there are plenty of industries around the globe in developing economies where the demand of the wealthy makes a agricultural produce less and less affordable for those who grow it, e.g. quinoa.

[ryancha]

how do people prefer brewing high quality DCs? here are three schools of thought:

* Teahong generally recommends fewer grams and longer steeping; he is adamantly against the chouzhou method
* Imen's standard method is 3-5 g / 100 ml for fairly short
* the chou zhou method of stuffing the pot (this is what Tea Urchin suggests for there teas)

What do people think the advantages and disadvantages of each method are?

[ryancha]

kyarazen - do you have any shopping tips for those of us looking for sublime DC's, or even very good ones?

[BW85]

how do people prefer brewing high quality DCs? here are three schools of thought:

* Teahong generally recommends fewer grams and longer steeping; he is adamantly against the chouzhou method
* Imen's standard method is 3-5 g / 100 ml for fairly short
* the chou zhou method of stuffing the pot (this is what Tea Urchin suggests for there teas)

What do people think the advantages and disadvantages of each method are?

I can have good results with all of the above. Leo Kwan's idea of brewing dancongs gongfu is about 4 or 5 grams per 100ml of water for 20 to 30 seconds... 195°-203°. Using these parameters with lighter dancongs, especially his offerings, can yield wonderful results.
CZ brewing I feel like puts an emphasis on pushing out the most fragrance, and a more in-your-face cup of tea (the CZ people like their tea strong?) and sometimes that's what I'm in the mood for

[kyarazen]

how do people prefer brewing high quality DCs? here are three schools of thought:

* Teahong generally recommends fewer grams and longer steeping; he is adamantly against the chouzhou method
* Imen's standard method is 3-5 g / 100 ml for fairly short
* the chou zhou method of stuffing the pot (this is what Tea Urchin suggests for there teas)

What do people think the advantages and disadvantages of each method are?

nothing is stopping anyone from using novel brewing methods if they deem fit, its even possible to put the best red mark pu-erh into a tea bag, toss the best gyokuros into boiling water, or drop the best dahongpao into a spa bath. what is deemed sacrilegious to some, may appear to be promoted as a recommended way. i've only one thing to say to vendors : 做好本分,不要糟蹋其他文化 (be good at what you're doing i.e. selling teas, but do not destroy the traditional cultures of others)

the more concentrated you brew dancong or any tea, the obvious its flaws, and dancong being finicky, the flaws can come in stray undesirable scents, i.e. grassy, vegetal notes, or in the brew, as an uncomfortable bitter astringency, sharp, rough texture etc.

brewing it dilute, the margin of error decreases. if you go for raoping or lingtou dancong where the 蜜韵 honey "yun" is high and appreciated more than the florals, going dilute is ok since the honeyed note persists even when rather dilute despite the brew tasting off balance and not as full as it could have been.

the disadvantage of such a method with proper dancong (songzhong) from fenghuang area is that the 花韵, floral "yun" will be lost, thinned down, and extremely transient when too dilute. if you talk about the proper fenghuang dancong types such as huang zhi xiang, zilan xiang, guihua xiang, yulanxiang, yelaixiang, jianghua xiang, molixiang, xinrenxiang, fanshuxiang, milan xiang, etc, you are paying for the flower! properly brewed, these teas are akin to having the flower unfurl in your cup, except that the brew's from tea leaves and not an actual flower.

imen's method will work with the highest grades of dancong, i.e using in a gaiwan and not so heavily packed. but if the grade is medium high or middle grade, packing leaves with the use of a pot gives one far more control and more focusing on the floral aromatics. a pot can help control the bitter astringencies as well.

gaiwan was most popular with fenghuang shuixian because the long leaves could not fit into tiny little pots well.

[kyarazen]

kyarazen - I know very little about China, so I'm wondering if you can fill us in on the economics of the DC trade. Given the high price high quality DC seems to command, how much of the good stuff to farmers drink? I know there are plenty of industries around the globe in developing economies where the demand of the wealthy makes a agricultural produce less and less affordable for those who grow it, e.g. quinoa.

the best dancongs dont come onto the market, many are not even sent to competition because of not being able to meet the quantity required. there are "dan zhu" dancongs, picked from a single tree, some trees have names.. 1 jin (500-600g) range from several thousand dollars up to tens of thousands.. we have to accept the fact that it wont be easy to access these teas, either some family connection or something along these lines would be needed to have a taste or to have a chance to buy.

instead on the market, we should focus on high quality, but classical dancong, i.e. like in the previous posts i had mentioned the different flowers of the fenghuang dancong variety that should be explored, then the other aspects i.e. honey related properties of that of raoping/honghua/lingtou, if you want to pursue chaozhou gongfucha. 1 jin of these teas are usually a couple hundred dollars to a few hundred dollars, more manageable in price.

if not, just to have a drink, or just to taste something different, then any brewing method goes, and any "ok" quality dancong should fit the bill.