What is Dong Ding Oolong Tea?

Dong Ding is a style of rolled oolong tea from the Dong Ding Mountain region in Taiwan. The aroma is rich, floral, and slightly toasty. The taste encompasses all of those notes, together with a special honey sweetness, and a hint of fruit. The finish is long and sweetly lingering.

Dong Ding means “frozen peak,” referring to the frosty morning weather at the top of the mountain.

History of Dong Ding Oolong

Dong Ding dates back to 1855, and may have been the first oolong tea ever made in Taiwan. It was also the first Taiwanese tea that became famous around the world. For this reason, Dong Ding has a deep meaning for Taiwanese people.

In 1855, a variety of tea plant from the Wuyi Mountains in Fujian Province, China, was imported to Dong Ding Mountain in Taiwan. (The Wuyi Mountains are famous for several types of tea, including Rock Teas.) The story goes that the seedlings were sent home by a scholar from Nantou County in Taiwan, who visited Fujian Province to take the imperial exam.

Left: Dong Ding Mountain in Nantou County, Taiwan. Right: Wuyi Mountains, Fujian Province, China. (Lennartbj, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Fujian Province and Taiwan sit at the same latitude, and lay next to each other across the China sea, so it makes sense that they share some similarities of terroir. This made Nantou County a great fit for the newly introduced seedlings from China.

How is Dong Ding Oolong Made?

Dong Ding Oolong is a “half-ball” style oolong tea, as opposed to strip-shaped oolongs. Its processing method is similar to other ball-shaped oolongs, such as Tie Kuan Yin.

Like all other teas, the first step is to pick some tea leaves!

Harvesting Dong Ding Oolong

Picking Style

Dong Ding Oolong follows the traditional oolong picking style: each piece that is picked includes one leaf bud at the top, and two leaves below, on one stem.

Harvest Season

Tea on Dong Ding Mountain can be picked in several seasons, but the best Dong Ding is harvested in winter or spring. The spring season produces a larger quantity of tea than the winter season in Taiwan, so Taiwanese spring-picked tea is usually less expensive than winter-picked.

In terms of flavor, Spring Dong Ding Oolong is a bit more floral, and Winter Dong Ding is more sweet and creamy, due to colder weather on the mountain.

After harvesting the fresh tea leaves, processing begins right away.

Dong Ding Oolong Tea Processing Method

1. Withering

First comes outdoor and then indoor withering: repeatedly tossing the leaves (called “dancing the leaf”) and letting them rest, until they reach 25% fermentation.

2. Kill Green

Heat is applied to “kill green,” stopping the fermentation process.

3. Rolling and Shaping

During rolling, the leaves become bruised, helping the tea release more flavor when brewed.

Dong Ding Oolong’s rolling method is similar to Tie Kuan Yin or Phoenix Mountain oolongs, which require medium rolling – they are more heavily rolled than other oolongs such as Bao Zhong or Wuyi Rock Teas.

4. Roasting and Drying

All the processing steps are important to make good Dong Ding tea, but the last step – roasting – is crucial for Dong Ding. This tea is medium roasted, in contrast to lightly roasted Taiwanese oolongs such as A Li Shan. The medium roast creates a fruity fragrance and sweet taste.

Usually, medium roasting takes over 15 hours, sometimes over 2 separate roasting sessions. The total time depends on the tea master’s judgement.

It is the roasting process which makes Dong Ding special, and different from other oolong teas.

Who Makes CC Fine Tea’s Dong Ding Oolong?

CC Fine Tea’s Dong Ding Oolong comes from the historic home of Taiwanese tea: Dong Ding Mountain in Nantou County, where the tea garden is at a high elevation of 800 meters (2,500 feet). 

Not everyone can make great Dong Ding Oolong; only experienced, older tea masters can handle delicate decisions such as roasting time. Our Dong Ding Oolong is monitored at every step of processing by an expert tea master.

Mr. Huang has over 30 years of experience with Dong Ding Oolong, and he is famous in Taipei for his skills. The Huangs can be considered a tea-making family; his son recently won 1st place in the oolong tea competition in Taipei!

Have you tried Dong Ding Oolong before? What did you think? Let us know on Instagram or Facebook!

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