OOlong Identification needed

[Senchamatcha]

I have had this oolong for a while, but I don't know what it is.
the canister:
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a ... 2262_n.jpg
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a ... 6468_n.jpg

Tea in the plastic bag:
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a ... 0119_n.jpg

Tea leaves, dry, laid out on a plate:
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a ... 5106_n.jpg
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a ... 0745_n.jpg
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a ... 7754_n.jpg

Wet leaves:
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a ... 8562_n.jpg

Tea after a 2 minute infusion:
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-p ... 8671_n.jpg
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a ... 9372_n.jpg

I don't know what it is or where it came from. But it smells and tastes heavenly. Any help with identifying this tea would be awesome! I'm almost out so I would really like to try to buy more of this.

I also noticed the further down in the bag I go the more rich the tea Liquor is. And also the top leaves in the bag were mostly brown, but as you can see of the zoomed in pics some of the leaves at the bottom of the bag have a slight red or green color to them. The flavor has not changed, it has just intensified the further down into the bag I have gotten. Thank you!

[tenuki]

But it smells and tastes heavenly.

A bit more specific would be helpful. What does it smell and taste like?

[Poohblah]

The canister says it's dong ding.

It does not look like modern green dong ding. It definitely looks roasted, so maybe it's high-fire DD. Or maybe it's not the same tea that originally came in the canister.

[teaisme]

it is a unrolled dong ding from taiwan, i've seen very similar before

usually like that because of lower grade, but doesn't mean tea is bad , actually I once I had one that had a wonderful deep earthy tea base that worked very well with the roast (don't expect great things from stuff like this though)

Likely not from dong ding, but they just call it that because of the roast style

I think what you have discovered you like in taste is the caramel like dark sweetness/hint fruity of light/med roasted oolongs

So maybe you would like to explore that a bit, here are some random suggestions
http://www.ebay.com/itm/TEAHOME-Formosa ... 2ea8dfb9e6
http://www.floatingleavestea.com/index. ... 825f294486
http://www.fivestartea.com/en_US/p/2011 ... -Oolong/77
http://www.houdeasianart.com/index.php? ... ts_id=1262
http://www.houdeasianart.com/index.php? ... ts_id=1322

[Senchamatcha]

tenuki, tbh, I have no idea what it tastes/smells like. I primarily drink greens, so the best description I can give you is Honey-ish and rich (I know so helpful huh?) Dry and out of the canister it smells EXACTLY like the fall time (dry) concord grape leaves I used to play with as a kid.

hrmm Teaisme "caramel like dark sweetness/hint fruity of light/med roasted oolongs" that sounds alot like my tea. a honey/caramel aroma.

So I should be on the look out for an unrolled, medium roast, dong ding, from tawain? :3 On the hunt I go.

Thank you all!

[tenuki]

what is your price range?

[Senchamatcha]

Tea + shipping = $30 (max).
Thats all the money I have left in my tea jar.

[Poohblah]

So I should be on the look out for an unrolled, medium roast, dong ding, from tawain? :3 On the hunt I go.

Thank you all!

I would recommend not. Generally roasted Taiwanese teas are roasted to mask a flaw in the tea. I would look for Chinese yancha instead. Da Hong Pao, Shui Xian, Tie Luo Han, etc. Or even roasted Anxi tea like traditional style tieguanyin would be good. If you are dead set on roasted Taiwan tea, you can check out Origin Tea which has some decent but not too heavily roasted Taiwanese teas.

[Senchamatcha]

I would recommend not. Generally roasted Taiwanese teas are roasted to mask a flaw in the tea. I would look for Chinese yancha instead. Da Hong Pao, Shui Xian, Tie Luo Han, etc. Or even roasted Anxi tea like traditional style tieguanyin would be good. If you are dead set on roasted Taiwan tea, you can check out Origin Tea which has some decent but not too heavily roasted Taiwanese teas.

I don't mind ending up with a lesser quality tea (anything is better than lipton), what I am dead set on is trying to figure out what tea I have or finding one that looks/tastes/smells the same as the mystery oolong that I am currently running out of.
I found one over one Taiwan tea crafts, the website looks pretty legit.
http://www.taiwanteacrafts.com/product/ ... a-lot-134/ the picture of the brewed tea looks very much like the color mine brews at.

[BioHorn]

Tea + shipping = $30 (max).
Thats all the money I have left in my tea jar.

This mid-frire TGY from Origin Tea might do you nicely. It is within your budget. Definitely better than Lipton!

http://www.origintea.net/oolong/older-o ... a-tgy-2010

[teaisme]

So I should be on the look out for an unrolled, medium roast, dong ding, from tawain? :3 On the hunt I go.

Thank you all!

I would say at this point in time any good roasted oolong will blow your perceptions out of the water

And as others have mentioned, wuyi oolongs are also very good

As for

Generally roasted Taiwanese teas are roasted to mask a flaw in the tea

I think this statement could be applied to a lot of mass market tea not just in Taiwan.
However, there is a wide range in quality of roast and intentions of roaster/seller in Taiwan. The stuff I linked from fivestar (even the one at the lowest price range, and the shui xian from houde I would say are not roasted because the leaves were inferior. Do you think one day they just decided all the TGY in taiwan was inferior, so they designated it as a predominately roasted style tea? There are lots of people in Taiwan who enjoy roasted oolongs. It is a part of tradition carrying on the skills brought from Fujian.

[tenuki]

I would recommend the FLT house oolong - it's a good quality four seasons varietal hand roasted by the teashop owner. Don't be fooled by the price ( $4 an oz ), it's a decent tea and frequently finds it's way into my cup.

[edkrueger]

[quote="Poohblah"][quote="Senchamatcha"]
So I should be on the look out for an unrolled, medium roast, dong ding, from tawain? :3 On the hunt I go.

Roasted Dong Ding is a flaw? I thought the whole appeal to Dong Ding is that is roasts better than gaoshan.

[Poohblah]

So I should be on the look out for an unrolled, medium roast, dong ding, from tawain? :3 On the hunt I go.

Roasted Dong Ding is a flaw? I thought the whole appeal to Dong Ding is that is roasts better than gaoshan.

You may be right. I'm not going to claim that I know better than you. In any case I was under the impression that roasted DD was not desirable... Maybe SilentChaos could step in here and help us out.

[wyardley]

Roasted is not undesirable, but, as with TGY, the demand mostly skews towards greener stuff these days (with maybe a bit more interest in somewhat oxidized, medium roast stuff in the past few years).

Also, there's a difference between stuff with a balanced roast and stuff with a heavy roast. Not that the latter is bad per se, but it usually doesn't command a high price, esp. if it's as broken up as the example here.