What our customers say

Ask Yourself

When seeking evenness of mind and a better disposition, ask yourself which tea might help you face the day with strength and calm. No tea may be more suited to the task than Alishan Guanyin.

Nine grams of this beaded beauty produce a liquor the color of an orange-amber sunrise. The vessel lid offers the smell of warm vanilla and a refined perfume of iris, oak moss and cedar wood – a scent worthy of dabbing onto the skin.

This tea whispers balance; its gentle steam patiently waiting to be inhaled. Ask, and Alishan will deliver perfectly even doses of quiet insight to both nostrils. A fresh morning breeze wafts over with subtle, smoldering hints of a distant bonfire.

Next is a fleeting mouthful of sweet summer peaches dissolving into a slightly smoky, spicy-clean aftertaste balanced on the tip of the tongue, mid-palate and throat.

Notice the transformation of the tiny, toasty tadpoles as they make a magical metamorphosis in your mug. They swell into wild, squiggly creatures of dark slate green. Balance gives way to spontaneity as these friendly, appealing leaf-beings inspire your free spirit. If you don’t believe me, ask them yourself.

The roast on this Dong Ding is exquisite, and exemplifies what mastery in roasting is capable of achieving. This tea initially presents itself as being roast-forward, with the aroma of the wet leaf suggesting a charcoal-heavy experience awaits in the cup, but the broth itself is remarkably soft, round, and silky smooth all the way through, with very well-defined flavors that exist in perfect harmony with each other.

It’s floral, it’s fruity, and it gets a bit nutty with hints of sweet roots & dessert spices (licorice and cinnamon), especially in later steeps, but all the way through the body remains very supple and oily. It resists turning bitter or losing clarity in its flavor profile, even after a very long steep in freshly boiling water it remains incredibly thick and each individual flavor remains well-defined. The aftertaste lingers for a while and mouthfeel remains complex long after the soup has been swallowed.

The element which stands out most to me is just how sweet this tea is. It may be roast-forward in the aroma of the wet leaf, but it’s very much so sugar-forward in the cup, and all of the individual layers of flavor are held together by an element of sweetness that is pervasive across the tea, from the initial sip to the lingering sensations of the aftertaste.

This is a very clean and pristine shu, I’m surprised by both its general roundness and its specific nuances as well. It’s very approachable for newcomers and aficionados alike.

I’ve brewed this up pretty much every way it can be brewed up, from gong-fu style in a Yixing teapot using a 1:10 ratio all the way to a 24-hour long thermos brew using a 1:100 ratio, and water fresh off a rolling boil.

When I brew this up gong-fu style, it becomes more earthy – it reminds me of the aroma of an old-growth forest after a thunderstorm, it has something very addictive and primal about it and I find it very satisfying.

In a thermos, I find the cong wei becomes more focused after a long brew (12+ hours) – it’s a bit incense-like, with notes of moss, bark, and spices that gently lift up the rest of the flavor profile.

Regardless of how it’s brewed up, I always get notes of mint leaf, monk fruit, longan, dark cherries, and I’m sure the more I drink it the more I will discover.

I don’t drink very much shu pu’er but I’ll always have some of this around. The price is amazing… $40 for a cake of old-tree Bulang that has over 10 years of immaculate storage on it? Only at Tea Hong.

Rooster Crowing in My Cup

This tea is the exact color of black coffee with the full body to match it. Zero bitterness. Holds up for multiple infusions, consistently producing the same dark, liquid silk — cup after cup. It’s already on my reorder list.

This tea can mature

Hello Tony, Yes this tea can mature. Please refer to Leo’s Tea Guardian article on storage for storing this tea for maturity.

Good whole day tea

This is very good whole day tea for me. Put some in my very tall mug with tea leaves container to steep for 5 minutes. Drink 5 times or 6 times each day. Very good taste and good smell. I like it very much.