Feng Huang Dan Cong notes

Hello Dominic,
I have had a little love affair with Dan Congs since I found out that
they existed,By some very nice gifts from very nice persons, (thank
you Tim & Michael)
I think that these teas are fantastic. Being out of the loop for a bit
I havent had any since the beginning of this year. Your description is
awesome. Makes me want to go out and get some right away. Do you know
when is the best time of year to buy these? And how about shelf life?
Are these teas roasted?
I do remember the essence of ripe fruits, and I have thought these
DC's have always been good to me...
I absolutely enjoy these talks of Tea. Thanks for sharing your
experiences and knowledge.
Jenn

I love all dancong once in a while when i get bored with the rest of
the teas. With your notes I think I should compare the teaspring one
with teacuppa. I really love magnolia dancong from teacuppa; also
known as yulan xiang at jts. jts is a bit on the high end *i guess*
due to the price. I have not try that either to actually conclude
anything but just from the price...

> Some are, and some aren't. I much prefer the ones that are. I think
> unroasted Dancong is a recent innovation, but I could be wrong.
>
> /Lew

You is right, sir. They are jumping on the Qing Xiang bandwagon like
most mainland Wulong has followed for the past few years. It was
pretty well roasted for years...

> You is right, sir. They are jumping on the Qing Xiang bandwagon like most
> mainland Wulong has followed for the past few years. It was pretty well
> roasted for years...

Midnight, without doubting you or Lew, I've tasted plenty of very lightly roasted Feng Huang Dan Cong, but never a wholey unroasted one. While those light roasts allowed the vanilla-green flavor to peek through, they lacked fruit and spice and, to me, style. They taste green, not surprisingly. More important perhaps, they are unstable. Roasting stabilizes tea, and they new fangle entries are not. So, after much experimentation, I've settled on the high roasties, if you will.
Michael

> Midnight, without doubting you or Lew, I've tasted plenty of very >lightly roasted Feng Huang Dan Cong, but never a wholey unroasted >one. While those light roasts allowed the vanilla-green flavor to >peek through, they lacked fruit and spice and, to me, style. They >taste green, not surprisingly. More important perhaps, they are >unstable. Roasting stabilizes tea, and they new fangle entries are >not. So, after much experimentation, I've settled on the high >roasties, if you will.

Yes, that is what I mean; Lew speaks for himself always. The lightly
roasted FengHuang is a relatively new creation. All the stuff I had
in the past, I would guess 5 years ago, were pretty full roasts. The
leaves completely dark brown or red and remain that way even after
brewing. Around that time, lightly roasted TieGuanYin began to be a
focus in the market because of it's relative ease in appreciation. I
mean, even to the novice, it's sweet, smells nice, runs down the
throat well; it's the perfect tea for marketing. So, lightly roasted
became the way to go for a while...now it's Pu'er...firstly people
preferred cooked because it's easy to appreciate...now Sheng because
it's supposedly better...

I mean, lets face it, heavily roasted Wulong isn't something that
everyone can get into. There is a huge market down here in Guangdong,
where most people are relatively uneducated about tea and like sweet
foods...you can see where I am going with this.

At least this how the trend has been in China.

Mydnight wrote:
> ... All the stuff I had in the past, I would guess 5 years ago, were pretty full roasts. The
> leaves completely dark brown or red and remain that way even after brewing.

Question please, on a topic concerning which I admit to repetition: the
distinction between fermentation and roasting, and the results and
discernment thereof.

I liked dan cong oolongs from first taste, not too many years ago.
Haven't yet tasted more than 50-60, I'm guessing, but some definite
patterns emerge. To my taste, many are over-roasted and/or smoked (not
the same) to the point of losing most of the light notes. Never yet had
one that seemed seriously under-roasted. (In a few cases, like some
disappointing SRT offerings that were well past use-by date, re-roasting
helped to restore some grace.)

What I *have* tasted is at least two or three dozen dan congs that were
(to my taste) significantly under-oxidized. For this, of course, there
is no easy home remedy. Even on some that were over-roasted to crunchy
dark toast, excessive (to me) astringency and other unpleasant aspects
persisted. Except when roasted to the point of maduro color and nil leaf
opening on steeping, I find that brewed-leaf color is generally
consistent with this perceived under-oxidation - lots of green patches,
vs. the red-to-brown range Mydnight describes.

Others' thoughts or experience with this distinction?

-DM