I am aware that I should rinse to wake up the leaves and for hygiene reasons. In practice, I concentrate mainly on hygiene reasons, but then with expensive oolongs where the 1st infusion enthralls me, I often have a sly sip of the rinse before discarding it.dylanstea wrote: . Is it part of your practice to rinse oolongs before the first brew? I've heard differing opinions and would like to hear your thoughts.
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Sometimes I find it difficult to control the taste of a Dan Cong without it biting back at me. The brewing always requires close attention and care to yield a phenomenally sweet and succulent taste.
I do very quick rinses, maybe insufficient to really waken the leaves.
If there is a lot of scum and or bubbles to remove with the back of the lid then I may give it a 2nd rinse.
I don't consider myself to be into the heart of the tea until the 3rd infusion.
Dan Cong I have been lucky with, I have not had the same problems that everyone else moans about. But I like a slight astringency and I don't use boiling water, a little lower in temp than I use for Yan Cha. Also 90% of my DCs come from Tea Habitat and DTH.
You should be able to taste the bottom notes with this tea. Sometimes a caramelized onion flavor can be tasted. I liked this tea.
