almonds

Oolong haul from Tao Tea Leaf, a local tea shop. Hurray for their boxing week 50% off.

A couple of wuyi yancha to start seriously seasoning my pot, but after sampling some oolong from other places (phoenix dan congs, baozong, and a DHP). Still waiting for Eco-Cha's winter teas to come in before hauling some taiwanese oolongs for the (still very far away) warmer season. Though I have already had their indiegogo campaign dongding, but waiting to take nicer pictures before posting here. Instead see my first reddit review!

First up is the classic Phoenix Dan Cong.
I followed the suggested brewing parameters (excepting upping the dry leaves to 5g) with boiling water, rinse, 30s, 10s then adding 5s. Started to add significantly more time each subsequent infusion past the 6th.

The leaves were also rather broken up, which is not a sign of great quality. There is also a fair amount of stems in the tea, not sure if this is normal.

Taste started off rather woody and transitioned to ever slightly floral in the later infusions. Never tasted any of the nuttiness or almond that the website stated. Also had a very dry aftertaste.  Overall not really impressed with the tea, but this might have been because my pot wasn't suitable for this particular tea. Hopefully the higher grade version will taste better.