2010 Dongding from Lao Ming
Posted on 19 January 2011
This sample of roasted Dongding oolong tea from Mr. Lao Ming was a kind gift from Sayama, a fellow Polish tea lover and blogger living in Japan.
I have been a little spoilt for Taiwanese oolongs in the last few years, sourcing them exclusively from Teamasters. Stéphane Erler of Teamasters is doing an incredibly good job at selecting and marketing teas through his blog, and with such a wide choice of outstanding oolongs from top locations such as Shanlinshi, Lishan, Alishan and Dayuling, I haven’t really felt the need to explore the offer of other sellers.
I’m told Lao Ming is a well respected source of oolongs, but have little other info apart from a single e-mail listing prices in Taiwan $ (inconveniently, per 600 g quantities). I’m also a little confused by the nomenclature Mr. Ming uses to distinguish the various batches: chinheong-cha (清 香 茶), shu-cha (熟 茶), ‘aged tea’ (老 茶) and ‘special tea’ (特 殊 蔫 茶) is not exactly what I’m used to in classifying various oolongs. (Perhaps someone wants to step in and comment on this). Anyhow Mr. Ming specialises in tea coming from the Dongding area, and the one I’m tasting appears one of his 2010s.
It is a bit heavier-roasted than I’m used to with the Teamasters teas. While the latter tend to be a tactful medium roast that results in notes of cereals and honey, this Dongding veers towards dry wood, charcoal or even coffee. Nothing wrong with that: it’s well-balanced and never becomes burnt or excessively drying. The extra level of roast adds smoothness and roundness and results in a more comfortable, unvegetal mouthfeel.
1st infusion of 15 secs. Dark colour = high roast.
The other quality of this tea is its patience. I rarely go beyond a half-dozen infusions (both because few teas can satisfactorily run that long and ’cause I get bored with drinking the same tea all over again), but here I broke the 10 steeps mark without the tea losing much of its power. This is authentic Dongding with substance and real appeal – recommended.
Disclosure
Source of tea: gift from a friend.