Tea Tuesday: Dong Ding Oolong

I'm not really a coffee person. I prefer tea, and I know a lot of fellow writers love tea, too. But have you ever wanted to break out of the Early Grey or English Breakfast norm and try something new? Well, let me help you find some cool new teas! If you need a little hot and flavorful boost to help you reach your writing goal or you're just a lover of tea or you'd like to try some tea but aren't fond of the stereotypical types, these Tea Tuesday posts are for you.

This weeks tea is ... 

*drum roll*

Dong Ding Oolong

How I found it: A few months ago Tea Ave, a Canadian tea company specializing in all natural Taiwanese oolongs, sent me free samples of my choice of three oolong teas plus special oolong tea cups and an oak tray in honor of their grand opening for my review. They were so generous and the teas were scrumptious. Loved them! 

You can check out the reviews for the teas on their respective links (Rose Oolong, Magnolia Oolong, Ginger Lily Oolong). After this awesome first impression, I had to purchase some oolong from them at least once. They are a bit pricey so I had to wait until they had their free shipping sale this past month, but now I am back with four marvelous blends: Alishan Jin Xuan Oolong, Osmanthus Oolong, Dong Ding Oolong, and Oriental Beauty!

The Tea: For these reviews since I'm not judging them based on their similarity to a respective character I'm going to give the teas' product descriptions. Here we go:

This is it: the original Dong Ding Oolong, grown on the Dong Ding Mountain in Nantou County in central Taiwan, where Dong Ding Oolong originated. One of the best oolong teas in the world.  A perpetual favorite among oolong lovers, it has a strong, clean flavor and an aroma of ripe fruit. Partially oxidized and lightly roasted, Dong Ding is an approachable tea—a good choice for oolong newbies to whet their taste buds with. 

Dong Ding turns an amber color when infused and possesses a sweet, fruity flavor and aroma. Longer infusion times will yield a stronger, more vivid tea, with a fuller body and aroma. Smooth, with a clean aftertaste. Don’t blame us if you develop a Dong Ding habit.  


Tea leaves are green and come curled into balls.

This is a good tea, but I wasn't as crazy about it as I was the Alishan Jin Xuan. It's not very strong, though the clean and fruity flavor is nice. It tastes like a good oolong (Spellcheck says oolong is not a word. Yet another fail on its part.), but it didn't make my taste buds sing Hallelujah. Maybe this tea was older since unfortunately in this sample package, I was given a skimpy amount, but this was mediocre and not extraordinary.

Serving Recommendations: Though the directions said to steep it for 1-3 minutes, I steeped it for four minutes, because I like my tea strong then I added sugar.

How much is it and where can you get it? You can purchase all of Tea Ave's teas on their website with a flat rate of $15 for shipping. This particular tea is $9.80 USD or 25 grams or 0.88 oz. The tea can be re-steeped multiple times so you can get at least ten servings from this bag if not more. The teas are very high quality and imported so that accounts for the price.

So how good is it? Good tea, but didn't wow me. Three stars.

Have you tried this tea? What did you think of it? Have you had any teas from Tea Ave?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's tea!