Sometimes it's a pleasure to drink tea, sometimes a privilege, and occasionally both. When my friend Lew Perin invited me to share his samplings of some of Imen's Dan Congs, I knew I was in for a treat, and so it was. Here are my jottings, mere shadows of the teas we drank and the pleasure they gave us. We drank Zei Shi 06, 96 Wu Dong Da Ping Dan Cong, 86 Vintage Dan Cong, and Huang Zi Xiang Orange Flower 07. (See <http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/> where Imen describes her teas available at Tea Habitat.) Here we go with my lame descriptions, tea by tea:

Huang Zi Xiang Orange Flower 07 --
For me this was the center, the greatest of the set. Strangely, it started off in a Jin Xuan style (I mean to say Golden Day Lily of Taiwan fame), so butter-soft and lovely, corn silky, deep, warm, caressing, inviting, cuddly; but, quickly it revealed a depth that the Taiwan tea lacks: The Hang Zi Xiang offered up its unmistakable Dan Cong flower in a rich yet gentle lemony orange sort of way. You can't describe this tea in the usual linear manner: First, second, third steep, etc, for the tea is too complex. In fact, I've never drunk a tea that changed so much on the tongue and all over the mouth from front to back in so many ways: cucumber-melon flower buttery and bitter, lemon-orange flower, fresh steamed corn, all permuting one into the other for long minutes after the tea is swallowed, each element revisiting again and again. Words fail. This tea is a multifaceted delight.

Zei Shi 06 --
The fruit aroma is extraordinary with a gentle flower essence flowing in and out. The finish is soft, yet slightly astringent. As often happens I can't figure out which of the many fruits and flowers these might be. Was it my imagination -- let's hope so -- or did the aroma off the gaiwan lid echo this tea's name? I leave that to greater minds and more refined noses. (See the tea's name translated and better descriptions than mine under Bears3's post on the Dan Cong tasting at Tea Habitat.)

96 Wu Dong Da Ping Dan Cong --
This one features chocolate overtones together with a citrusy (grapefruit?) taste which in this case is unmistakably bitter, but together with the chocolate, balances beautifully. Some "wood" comes out in later steeps, attesting to the tea's age. Finish there is, but not nearly as long, pronounced, or complex as the HZX above. Unique here is the chocolate (Keemun-like) that keeps peeping through all the other characteristics of this tea.

86 Vintage Dan Cong --
I had written: "Rough, dark, aged, a bit of funky bark wood." Further, I'd say it showed its age mightily, but not unlke many other Oolongs I've drunk of that age. I never took to aged oolongs particularly, and can't see why they'd be purposefully aged, but that says more perhaps about me than about this Dan Cong.

Those were the four we drank. Others await. I'm getting my tea nose readied. More could be said, and I'm sure I'll think of it as soon as I've pressed the "send" button.