I dont have too many Taiwan teas officially labeled Dong Ding WuLong (large cursive chinese letters). Most of what I have is labeled Taiwan High Mtn (small letters) with the name of a mountain or area.
This came sealed in silver nitrogen pack for freshness. The bottom of the tin said packed 12/11/09. It is from a company called YungAn in TaiPei with little internet information.
When I broke the seal there was a subtle dry aroma. The brew was entirely different, filling the nose, washing the tongue, coating the throat, almost intoxicating. It is a forgivable brew. I cant imagine anyone not liking this tea. It is for people who tried a tea once and didnt like it.
The small leaves are from top of the plant picked two to a stem. If you can read the red trademark in Chinese typo sequence it says er gan cha jian two stem tea tip. There is a slight slimey residue asssociated with young leaf. That is about 2g of dry leaf. With this tea all you have to do is count the nuggets for accuracy. In this picture I got the leaves out of the cup. I couldnt get them back in for another cup without crushing. With these leaves I would only use a disposal with a plugged P trap. When I toss mine they hit the spring bedding plants. These leaves will make a nice protective mulch for a late freeze.
The best part $7/100g. The tin is of such quality with beveled recessed lip it would cost $5 by itself in the store. This is one of those teas I will stock to make sure I never run out. There was a Jasmine and Osmanthus version of this which I consider just for comparing scented versus unscented of the same leaf. This is another great example of a commercial tea from a Taiwan company. This Dong Ding is now my favorite exceeding the Good Young company which Ive previously mentioned.
Jim