Funalliance Dancongs

[Tead Off]

That's about the shape the teamaster used for dancong in HK. You may proceed, Oni!

[sriracha]

I've tried the Snowflake so far, lovely aroma but it's a thin line between "nice and flowery/fruity" and "unbearably bitter"*, half of which I ascribe to my ham-fisted newbie brewing. Seemed like good quality though, from my perspective.

I have another dan cong sample from Funalliance lying around but right now I can't remember which one...honey orchid?

*=also I'm a bit sensitive to bitterness since I've begun drinking my better-quality teas without milk only recently

[Oni]

Dancong requires short around 15-20 seconds infusions, otherwise it is bitter, but if you do them right they are strong aromatic tea.
A teapot for Dancong should be fast pouring, and the opening should be wide enough to acomodate the jumbo large leaves, so I think that it why fan gu shape was close to what i imagined for Dancongs, but about the thin walled 120 ml fan gu shaped zhu ni, I am afraid to ask the price for a special order from Chen.

[Tead Off]

Why thin wall?

[Oni]

Medium wall is good too.

[Tead Off]

Why not thick wall? Maybe I don't understand what effect a thin wall vs med/thick wall pot has on a tea. Most teas brew rather quickly, certainly Taiwan oolongs and dancong do. And, with the teapot preheated and postheated after pouring water into it, heat shouldn't be a concern. I think maybe the japanese greens are a lot more heat sensitive than the Chinese oolongs.

[Oni]

Heat retention is diffrent with each type of clay and teapot, I believe that thin walled teapot looses heat quicker than a thick walled, so a tea that requires high temperature brewing, than thick walled teapot is prefered, and with greener less oxidized oolongs, like taiwanese oolong, thiner walled teapot is prefered, like a zhu ni for example, that has greater degree of crystalization, and is more like porcelain, but with better heat retention and the surface interacts with tea and water.

[Herb_Master]

Heat retention is diffrent with each type of clay and teapot, I believe that thin walled teapot looses heat quicker than a thick walled, so a tea that requires high temperature brewing, than thick walled teapot is prefered, and with greener less oxidized oolongs, like taiwanese oolong, thiner walled teapot is prefered, like a zhu ni for example, that has greater degree of crystalization, and is more like porcelain, but with better heat retention and the surface interacts with tea and water.

I keep coming across these theories, but without a full explanation it is hard to fathom.

Here is what my intution tells me - my logic process may be totally wrong, and certainly does not comfortably guide me over the multiple infusions smoothly.

1. The various teas to be brewed all require a high heat to start with, otherwise a different water temperature from the kettle would be used.

2. As the infusion/brewing process lasts, successively, different elements from within the leaf are leached into the brew.

3. With some Oolongs / some people, if the temperature is maintained at too high a temperature, for too long, far too large a quantity of one of the elements may be present in the resulting brew - resulting in bitterness, or some other taste which overbalances the brew. With other Oolongs / other people allowing the temperature to fall quickly would underbalance the brew.

4. If a thin walled receptacle (Gaiwan or Teapot) is used then the initial high heat will dissipate more quickly allowing the later stages of the infusion to proceed more favourably.

5. Some people / some teas prefer the high temperature to be retained throughout the whole process and like thick walled, I see this reference from time to time on the Pu thread.

6. Most books and other published brewing temperatures recommend lower temperatures than those preferred by many of the very experienced Oolong drinkers on TeaChat. These same chatters often advocate the use of Eggshell porcelain Gaiwan to get the best out of the tea. Perhaps when using near boiling water, the thin walled Yixing comes into it's own

How this logic is reflected in the very first infusions of a long gong fu session that starts with 2 second infusions I am unsure, and why when 10 infusions later the same ratio of elements would be getting leached from very hot and substantially cooled water also seems doubtful but hey

Every infusion is different, and often the best infusions are those near the beginning, say 3,4,5 and 6 - maybe they are the ones that benefit most from the correct amount of heat retention or dissipation.

[Tead Off]

Heat retention is diffrent with each type of clay and teapot, I believe that thin walled teapot looses heat quicker than a thick walled, so a tea that requires high temperature brewing, than thick walled teapot is prefered, and with greener less oxidized oolongs, like taiwanese oolong, thiner walled teapot is prefered, like a zhu ni for example, that has greater degree of crystalization, and is more like porcelain, but with better heat retention and the surface interacts with tea and water.

This is not my experience, Oni. A thin walled zhuni is not going to lose heat that quickly to effect the brew of the tea. With green teas, like Gyokuro, brew times begin at 1 minute. I can see how you can lose vital heat when your water is at 50C and you want to brew it for 1-2 minutes, but, oolongs in zhuni at under boiling temp is going to be mighty hot for awhile.

Plus, I have 2 zhuni pots. 1 is about 110ml and the other is about 240ml. The small one is thin walled, the larger med/thick. Using Taiwan oolong in each, brewed with the same parameters and not filling up the big pot with tea and water (about the same in both), I usually get a better brew in the big. And, this is with all that air in half the pot. I don't think it is the thickness. I think the larger pot allows the leaves to open getting more water on the surface of the leaves. Maybe I'm dreaming too with this theory!

[Oni]

Do not forget the "showers", with some teas you can omit the shower, with others use a shower, and with teas that require constant heat use a taboat and keep the teapot half it`s height under hot water to avoid heat loss.
My intuition tells me that iron content in a type of clay might influence heat retention.
And the height from which you pour the water influences the heat, generally if you pour higher the temperature of the water that hits the leaves will be lower, so for shu puerh I would pour the boiling water from low, and from taiwanese highmountain oolong I would pour from max height, and water at fish eyes.

[Tead Off]

Let me preface this by saying I am coming off of a cold and my full taste and smell may be compromised, however, I seem to be able to smell just about everything including perfumes, oils, and, food.

So, the package came yesterday. I ripped it open and chose the Snow Flake. 5g in 125ml pot. Big leaves with golden highlights. Hmm. 15 sec/ 30 sec/40 sec/60 sec. I couldn't get anything out of this tea. Either the spectrum of taste and flavor is out of my reach or I am still under the influence of the cold. I left it for 2 hours and came back and brewed maybe the 6th infusion for a couple of minutes. It had more flavor and a faint aroma. But only a tease. I even tried brewing in a gaiwan and Herb Master's suggestion of 1gr for 2 minutes or whatever he said. Nothing.

Today, I broke into the Yu Lan. Same experience. Couldn't get anything meaningful out of the tea. Very discouraging. So far, these are nothing like what I've had in Hong Kong which was an exquisite Phoenix dancong.

I'm not giving up and will continue to try and get something out of these teas, but, I have to think that $7/100g tea might be like drinking coffee in a roadside diner made from watered down coffee packets.

[Intuit]

I'm also recovering from a respiratory virus. My sense of taste and smell aren't fully recovered, and I'm still getting congested at night.

It's more likely that your sense of taste and smell are compromised than that this fragrant/aromatic tea is 'flat' and old.

Iron content in the clay affects the orientation of the flat plate crystals and also the overall surface charge to which counterions are present. In turn, this will determine the density (along with the dewatering steps used for preparing the clay before working the mature clay into shapes and firing it) and thence, the porosity.

It's porosity that determined the clay matrix density and wall heat capacity.

I've often wondered if tea leaf temp between extractions would affect the success and duration of serial extractions.

Pouring height determines the aeration at the surface and to an extent, heat loss of the solvent phase as it hits the tea vessel surface.

Frankly, oolongs are expected to be rather forgiving of variations on a theme for serial extraction steps. Medium or thin wall shouldn't matter much unless there are bitter early eluting elements -maybe in tea dust or highly oxidized surficial oils on these unique (with respect to size and also to growth habit of the bush) rather large twisted and fragrantly oil rich tea leaves?

[Herb_Master]

I even tried brewing in a gaiwan and Herb Master's suggestion of 1gr for 2 minutes or whatever he said. Nothing.

Not me! I go with 7gm to 140ml medium walled yixing

5 sec, 7sec 10 sec for Aroma and Fragrance

Then 25 and increase by 20(+- 10) secs, 40(+- 20) 80(+-40) secs etc for next 4 infusions for Body and deeper Flavours.

The first 3 infusions are reasonably standard for me now, but the next 4 or more highly variable hence bracketed figures - I up the next intended steep if the previous infusion is weakish, lower it if the previous is starting to bring out bitterness.


I have never had DanCong from Kam, most of mine are TeaHabitat, several from DragonTeaHouse and a few others of no particular note.

I have had some good results with a Gaiwan, but my first love is with the Yixing pots.

[Oni]

How are the Dancongs from Dragon teahouse?
Lately I ordered teas from them, and I like their Supreme Huang Shan Mao Feng, it is super high quality leaf.

[Salsero]

I like their Supreme Huang Shan Mao Feng, it is super high quality leaf.

I haven't tried any DC from Gordon, but I had some great Long Jing last year.

As for the Huang Shan Mao Feng, that looks like a great deal ... and with free shipping even better! TeaSpring's best Huang Shan Mao Feng is twice that much ... it is a magnificent tea, of course, and it comes in a very attractive red can ... but I can't help but wonder how much I am paying for the can.