In episode 83, Denny and James review another oddity for TeaDB, a Dancong from White2Tea. The Da Wu Ye Dancong is an interesting tea, fairly green for an oolong, with much of its greenness coming out visually in later steeps.
In episode 83, Denny and James review another oddity for TeaDB, a Dancong from White2Tea. The Da Wu Ye Dancong is an interesting tea, fairly green for an oolong, with much of its greenness coming out visually in later steeps.
8 responses to “White2Tea’s Da Wu Ye Dancong Oolong [Episode 83]”
Most of the higher quality dancongs will be light to medium oxidization/roast such as what you have here. This family, in my opinion, offers more complexity than any other type of oolong. They can also be very tricky to brew to their full potential. Their complexity coupled with their picky brewing requirements makes most people unsure of them at first. I get best results with 2 – 2.5 grams per 50ml of water, 195 to 200 degree water for 20 – 30 second infusions starting. Dan Cong’s can give incredibly unique mouth feel/oral sensations and deep huigan ontop of complexity of taste. Check out teahong.com, they offer some of the best Dan Cong’s for the western market. These teas were my first love before yancha and puerh started to share the spotlight, now they are special treats brewed occasionally because the nice ones get rather pricey
Hi brian,
Thanks for the comment and sharing your knowledge! I’ve heard similar things about the price of high-quality Dan Cong.
Will have to check out Tea Hong at some point.
Cheers!
-James
I can’t find this one listed on the W2T website. Did you chaps get a special sample from Two Dog? Sounds like a tea I might like, as I dislike heavily-roasted (though not heavily-oxidized) oolongs.
Hi Peter,
Thanks for the comment! Yes, this was included as a sample from Two Dog. I figured, he’d add it to the site but that doesn’t seem to be the case yet.
Cheers!
-James
I agree with Brian that Dancongs are fairly tricky to brew. Often one would end up with an overly bitter brew or quite the opposite, a bland taste and little mouth feel. In the beginning I was sometimes put off by some of the astringency you get from certain Dancongs even when using decent brewing parameters but now I can appreciate as part of its special texture. Also, it makes the silky huigan even more attractive 🙂
As for pricing, even living in Fuzhou, just 300km from Wuyi mountain and with decent access to tea farms and wholesalers, I find that in general Dancongs tend to be better value. One would typically get a much more carefully crafted Dancong as compared to a Wuyi Yan Cha in the same price category. I love Wuyi rock teas and they are one my tea staples but there is way too much hype around them, resulting in a very chaotic market and more often than not one would just end of drinking fire water 🙂
Hi Raphael,
Thanks for the comment and sharing your experiences. I’m sure I’ll be revisiting them if/when I decide to dive into Dancong!
Cheers!
-James
Agree with your assessment of this tea. Not a bad dancong by any stretch but I also can’t identify with it and as a result don’t find it particularly interesting. Not an expert in the genre and would be interested to try brewing parameters similar to what Brian describes. I’ve had good luck previously with more like 3.5grams of leaf and brew times about half of his.
Hi Richard,
Yes, it was an interesting tea. Not too surprised that TwoDog didn’t decide to post it on the site. Still kind of a fun little session this time.
Cheers!
-James