A dark, spicy, evolving dancong that resembled a black tea more than any other oolong I've tried. It would be top-notch, except that the flavor gave out after 2 steepings.

This is the second Dancong I've sampled from Octavia recently. I was curious if it would be similar to the first--but it's completely different, but tastes oddly familiar. One of the reviewers on the Octavia site says this is similar to black tea, and I agree.

Brews up a dark brown color. Pungent aroma that is very familiar, but hard to describe. There's a pungent quality to the aroma, a sort of dark spicy quality, which I normally only encounter in black teas. There's also a lemony tang, and a fairly astringent finish. It smells very old...a pleasant old, like the old book smell, or being in an old library. There's also a hint of wood.

The second cup is like cinnamon, nutmeg, and dried basil. There's also a hint of anise in there.

The spent leaves have a wonderful aroma of stone fruit, like peach or apricot. But upon brewing, the third cup was a bit thin and watery. I steeped 3, 5, and 8 minutes for these results, and used a very generous amount of leaf.

This tea is significantly pricier (well over twice the price in bulk) than the Eight Immortals Dancong, and I think I actually preferred that tea to this one. I have a feeling that this tea may be one of those ones that grows on me more, or perhaps where I can develop more skill at brewing it to satisfaction, but the way I approached it the first time, it didn't deliver as consistent flavor as the other Dancong from Octavia.

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