Winter FengHuang WuDong Old Bush DanCong "Huang Jing" 2007

Tea: Winter FengHuang WuDong Old Bush DanCong "Huang Jing" 2007
Vendor: Hou De Asian Art & Fine Tea
Price: $19.50 / 2 oz
Source: Wu Dong, Feng Huang county, Guang Dong, China
Vendor Description: A truely unique and precious fenghuang dancong! To make this HuangJing dancong, only winter-season hand-harvested leaves from over 50 years old bushes in WuDong plantation area can be used. Also, more mature leaves instead tender ones are used. The very bold and expressive looking dry leaves is electrifying just by looking at them. When I first time to try to brew it, I was puzzled by what and how to deal with those monster leaves!

This dancong gets its name from the noble golden-yellow color on its dry leaves. The kneading of leaves is different from traditional stripe-form rolling: leaves are folded several times and tightly pressed. I asked the producer for the reason, and he hinted that the mature Winter leaves are very thick so difficult to roll into stripe form. Also due to the bold and thickness, the leaves are easier to "receive firing effect" in such loose form.

Aroma is richly creamy, floral, with a hint of hearty fruitiness.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea is very large and full leaves. They are very fluffy with a brown hue that has hints of green. There is a little bit of blackness to the leaf as well. There is a light faint aroma to it. Some of the leaves have a gnarled looking texture to it which I thought was a bit unusual.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5oz, 208F, 45s, 5s rinse

1st Infusion: This tea has a light amber color to it. There is a lot of aroma to the tea. The aroma was soft, it was sweeter than most other DC's that I have had. The tea has a very mouth watering feeling to it. It is full bodied with a touch of astringency. The flavor is smooth and calming.

2nd Infusion Parameters: 208F, 45s

2nd Infusion: The tea had a light clear color again. The aroma was sweet and reminded me of autumn. It was quite bold. This time around the flavor was a bit more intense. It gave me a mouth cleaning feeling with it's touch of astringency. There was still an interesting mouth watering feeling to it.

3rd Infusion Parameters: 208F, 2:45

3rd Infusion: The duration of this infusion was an accidental oversteep. Because of this there was a lot of power and strength to the tea all around. The aroma was bold and very present. The taste matched, there was a medium sense of astringency that developed as well. It was all around very pleasant despite the oversteep.

Rating: 8/10

Conclusion: I wasn't terribly impressed by this tea. At almost $10/oz I somewhat expected more. The astringency I found in the first two infusions was a bit of a surprise, since it normally doesn't show up that much until later. The aroma was unique as well as the presentation of the leaf, but overall I have had teas that have a very similar experience for less.