2025 Mr. Chen Medium Charcoal Roasted Dong Ding Oolong

Nowadays, the technique of roasting over charcoal (known as tan bei) is slowly dying out in Taiwan – it is expensive, labor-intensive, and requires considerable skill. Roasting over charcoal takes place at night, when it is coolest.

2025 Mr. Chen Medium Charcoal Roasted Dong Ding Oolong is a tea that has been roasted several times. The process took a total of 56 hours. That’s at least five sleepless nights spent over a bamboo basket filled with tea, placed over burnt, almost white charcoal, slowly releasing heat into the tea.

Interestingly, as the temperature rises during roasting, caffeine crystals can be seen precipitating on the surface of the leaves. At a certain stage, they look as if they are covered with a thin layer of frost.

Back to the tea. There is honey, butter cookies, nuts, burnt jam, and spring floral notes, but also distinct accents of wood and incense. The aftertaste is long and sweet, full of notes of caramel and cane sugar. This is currently my favourite Dong Ding oolong. It is the result of hard work and knowledge of roasting, passed down from generation to generation.