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This Dan Cong is very fruity and bright with an engaging bitterness and surprising longevity.
Dry leaves smell of pastries and apricot, while wet ones more like rosehip and red currant. The taste is bittersweet, fruity and woody throughout. I get notes of bark, physalis, gooseberry, parsnip, peach, black locust flowers, among others.
The tea has a soft mouthfeel and a strong, perfumy aftertaste.
Preparation
A lovely white tea. Its dry leaves smell of grass, fur, meadow, apple leaves. The wet leaf aroma brings more of courgette flowers and sage for example.
The liquor is smooth and thick, and has a refreshing, zesty taste. It is a somewhat savoury and vegetal tea with a long sweet and cooling aftertaste. There are flavours of grass, okra, citrus fruits, curry leaves, cinnamon, licorice, hay, and others.
Preparation
This is an interesting tea that I am happy I tried. Until now, I have had the sticky rice herb mixed in with pu-erh, but not yet with green tea. In a sense it should work, green tea can be quite vegetal and savoury. And it does, but still this particular blend would not be one I would buy again I think.
It emphasizes nutty and floral aspects in the aroma, while the taste is bitter, vegetal and sweet with a decent umami and complemented by this curious rice-like touch from the herb.
Gongfu!
This is one of the shou pu’erhs from BLT’s new Maestro series, and I was definitely very drawn to the description of it being a much more fruity and fragrant tea. I definitely found it quite smooth and approachable, though the more medium-bodied mouthfeel was a bit lighter than I personally tend to reach for in a ripe. But, to be fair, I’m guilty of a VERY heavy hand when it comes to my shou sessions.
The fruitier profile hasn’t been undersold, though. In particular, I found this tea to have a very round feeling, sweet black cherry note that very much complimented the more grounded, earthy undertones and the bright sweetness of my strawberry tea pairing. At times the finish and aftertaste also gave off notes of more darkly sweet and biscuit-like black sugar as well. Like what’s sometimes used in bubble tea.
I think I want another session or two before making my mind up, but there’s definitely a lot of good qualities to this tea!!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DRfuM-WEglc/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTp4gmi8Sb0
Gongfu!
This shou steeps up thick and dark almost right out of the gate, with a super opaque liquor save for a tinge of garnet at the waterline. The top notes are a bit brighter and more fruity, with a pleaaant sharpness and acidity that makes me think of red plums. However, that fruitiness passes quickly, and this full-bodied brew immediately plunges into deep, dark, bitter earthiness. Many of the steeps reminded me of chicory coffee, particularly because of that aggressively roasty flavour that makes the root such a good coffee alternative.
Sometimes you drink a shou pu’erh and it’s all sweet browns, but this one is brown tasting in a way that channels the darkest parts of a forest with whisps of smoke and an abrasive, grizzly nature. I like both; they each have a time and place and this one was perfect for a cold Sunday afternoon curdled up indoors.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DRIgsMsks2Q/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H2d0KASDM8
Gongfu!
This steeps so smoothly with a soft, buttery mouthfeel that perfectly mirrors the gentle creamy and floral profile. Not surprising given both the name of this white tea and previous uears pressings, but it has a very overt rosey profile. However, in almost equal intensity are notes of steamed milk, corn silk, and poppy seed. Mellow, mildly sweet, and just a touch nutty. I may even like this year’s pressing more than past ones, but then again that could also be a bit of recency bias…
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DQ-ROKeEkpk/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzivG68Cba4
Thermos brewed!
I wasn’t sure how well this white tea would come out steeped this way, but it’s actually quite smooth and comforting with a light and creamy top note of whipped honey and vanilla and a more crisp, cooling vegetal finish that just screams of snow peas.It’s so miserable and gross out today, but the light, fresh warmth of this tea is making it a whole lot better. I’m sure I’ll get more nuance out of this baimudan when I take more time to steep it gongfu and sit with the flavours, but right now it’s perfect as is!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DQ7wKUnkn8i/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luQtGQ6p82Y
Unsurprisingly, this black tea is superb. Its mouthfeel is perhaps not overly thick, but it is a smooth one with low astringency. Otherwise, the tea also lasts for quite a long time, I get almost twice as many infusions from it than from most other black teas.
Dry leaves smell woody and sweet with a hint of smokiness. During the session then, I get aromas of nectarine, red currant, flowers, tyres, thyme, and nougat.
The taste is bitter, sweet, mineral, woody, mostly smooth and cooling as well. There is that characteristic grapefruit bitterness of LaoManE that I love, but also flavours of honey, cocoa, grapes, root vegetables, quinine and others.
Preparation
This is a very well balanced tea, quite similar to the 2024 version.
It is very soft with a medium-full body and mild-medium astringency. Its aroma reminds me of apple pie, caramel, vanilla, and flowers. The taste is sweet, mineral and a bit bitter. There are notes of apples, root vegetables, bread, and burnt food. The strong and protracted aftertaste brings a cooling sensation and notes of herbs and vegetables.
Eggnog latte!
Not gonna lie, I meant to make this latte using the lower grade of BLT’s matcha, but the two tins look so alike then I ended up accidentally grabbing this one instead. I cold whisked it straight into the eggnog for an iced latte, and it was very good though. Obviously super rich and decadent like eggnog normally is. Adding matcha doesn’t erase that. However, the lovely nuttiness and umami that the matcha added was really delicious with the custard-like creaminess and subtle warming spices in the nog.
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DSNUTCKje-r/?img_index=1 (Second Pic)
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MI1DHbXH68
Another matcha that I enjoyed paired with a mooncake. In some ways, since this was the only Chinese Matcha that I drank during the week, it was maybe the most appropriate way to enjoy all these treats that I had on hand because of the Mid Autumn festival…
The mooncake was just a more “classic” custard filled mooncake, and the light sweetness and more eggy flavour went quite well with this matcha which has a more distinctly nutty flavour to it. It’s got a little bit of a grassier undertone as well, and a tiny touch of astringency to the finish (very mild though) and the pastry also balanced those notes out really well.
It was one of the less “interesting” combos I had this week, but very good!
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DPrpoNakq3j/?img_index=1 (Fourth Pic)
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfwQtv9iCQ0
Okay. Let’s talk about Chinese matcha…
This is a very simplified summery on my thoughts on a very complicated situation. But, whether you like it or not, matcha from China and other alternative origins like South Korea is going to be hitting the market in a BIG way in the next year or so. But, is that a bad thing?
I’ve tasted a lot of awful quality Chinese matcha, but, especially in the last few months, I’ve also tasted a handful of pretty solid Chinese origin matcha as well – such as this “Premium” organic matcha from BLT or Volition Tea’s Mo Cha made using the same cultivar as dragonwell. Sure, it’s a little bit more yellow in hue, and the aroma and taste have more nuttiness and a touch less of the deep umami flavour of a Japanese matcha. However, I’m confident that in a blind tasting, I wouldn’t be able to consistently pick out the non-Japanese origin. And if you’re using your matcha for something like a latte or craft cocktail, then the difference is even harder to nail down.
The reality is that right now, Japan can’t scale fast enough to keep up with North American demand. If something doesn’t ease that burden, prices will only continue to climb as availability shrivels until, inevitably, everything collapses in on itself. No one wants that. So keep supporting your fave Japanese matcha brands, but also maybe don’t turn your nose up at an alternative origin either. Especially when the care is taken to observe traditional processing steps like shade growing, stone milling, and deveining/stemming…
The quality is only getting better and better, and, IMO, we’re going to need to be open-minded about how we find solutions right now if we want to continue to enjoy Japanese matcha in the longterm. China is willing and ready!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DPR_WSgklFf/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYNMBXIdu44
Thanks to Roswell Strange for recognizing which tea this was and that it does indeed have an entry in the database! Reposting the note I initially put in “random steepings”:
Day 3 of the Tea Thoughts fall countdown box. It’s Bitterleaf Sticky Rice Shou, which doesn’t already have a Steepster entry . I don’t want to spend half an hour making one with the website acting up the way it is, so Random Steepings it is.
Sadly, I think this one was wasted on me. The dry leaf has that cozy sticky rice smell, but it’s layered over a scent I can only describe as “rotting earth.” I gave it a try anyway, hoping it might not be so intense in the brew. Unfortunately, the brewed leaf still smells like rotting earth and I only managed one sip of this. It tasted of sticky rice, a hint of fish, compost, and earth. Not a flavor profile I really enjoy.
Iced Matcha Latte!
Sipped on earlier this week and very much enjoyed this! I still need to get around to trying it plain, but it’s tough when I know it’s so good made this way. I still feeling like this is much more nutty tasting without the deeper umami notes you’d expect in a Japanese origin matcha. Thankfully, I quite enjoy that nuttiness all on its own and it obviously goes great with the creaminess of the milk in the latte. I even felt like this latte almost had a slight white chocolate note, and all together it was vaguely reminding me of an unsweet and grassier version of a macadamia nut cookie. Maybe mulberry leaf as a tasting note, too??
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DRDcxN_EidZ/?img_index=1 (Second Pic)
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OcazSP6Hco
Oh, Chinese matcha…
I have so many thoughts and feelings on this, especially in the context of our current matcha shortage and the impending “bubble pop” of the matcha market. Maybe someday I’ll write them all out, but today I can’t be assed to do it. Instead let me focus on the flavour of this first ever matcha offering from Bitterleaf!
BLT released two matchas recently, and this is the lower of the two grades. I will try it as usucha eventually, but to start I made it as an iced matcha latte. The powder itself is bright but with a little more of a yellowy tint to it than you’d see from a higher quality Japanese matcha. It smells fresh, but with a bit more of a hay/straw quality to it and some nuttiness.
In my latte, I found this to be very smooth without any bitterness/off notes. It has an umami profile, but maybe not quite so “deep” feeling as other matchas. Mostly, to me, it tasted quite nutty with a brighter feeling grassy top not. A different time of nuttiness than the Yame matcha from Nami, for example, which is a nuttier Japanese matcha I’ve been more obsessed with as of late. This was still very nice though, and definitely not something so different from a Japanese matcha that I think I’d be able to pinpoint blindly. I think it will work well in matcha lattes!
I had to finally give this tea a proper steep since it’s been sitting on the top of my sample bin for more than a year now, just taunting me. I’m glad I did because this unique and experimental blend of pu’erh was really good! Medium to full-bodied with a rich, brothy, and funky flavour of forest undergrowth, barbecued meats, wet potting soil, peat moss, and camphor but also a sneaky, playful sort of golden raisin sweetness. It’s quite smooth and aromatic and though I would say the tasting notes feel more reflective of the ripe pu’erh in the blend, there’s certainly no denying that the incorporation of sheng adds a lot of complexity.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DPAAd7nknqN/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLDc43hQdNQ
The last of the dancongs from my order. This one is pretty good as well but not amazing. Nothing that stands out, but it is fairly nice. Aofuhou means “behind a dip in mountains.”
Harvest: Spring 2025
Location: Wudong Shan, Guangdong
Elevation: 800-1000 m
Flavors: Fruity, Roasty, Sweet
2/4 dancongs from the order and this one is very unique! Super interesting experience to drink this one and I definitely like the complexity. Worth the money for sure.
Aftertaste is > 2 mins. Mouthfeel is buzzy/electric feeling that lasts into the aftertaste. Moderate astringency; no to minimal bitterness. Mild sweetness.
Harvest: Spring 2025
Cultivar: Huangzhi Xiang (“Yellow Gardenia Fragrance”)
Location: Wudong Shan, Guangdong
Elevation: 700-900 m
Flavors: Chestnut, Citrus, Floral, Fruity, Grapefruit, Roasty, Sweet
Ordered a set of dancong oolongs from Bitterleaf, my first order from the company. I am definitely impressed with their first offering! This is the best Yashi Xiang I’ve tried without a doubt.
Aftertaste lingers 30-60 seconds. Nice sweetness that crescendos in later steeps.
Harvest: Spring 2025
Cultivar: Yashi Xiang
Location: Wudong Shan, Guangdong
Elevation: 700-900 m
Flavors: Floral, Honey, Honeysuckle, Milky, Sweet
