This entire post started when my sister asked me to turn the cup of tea I made for her into cold tea. It was a little late to start cold brewing (given that the tea was already in hand), so I decided to let it cool down naturally instead of adding ice and possibly diluting it. But her request made me wonder what the best way to make cold dancong tea would be – iced or by cold brew.

Note: Yes, I am aware that you should be drinking dancongs hot to full enjoy the aroma and taste [1]. But, I also make tea for my friends and family and I’d like to know the best way to make cold tea too. Plus, Singapore is just so hot that the idea of a cold drink appeals to me as well.

Duck Shit Dancong – Cold Brew

First up – the Duck Shit Dancong. My main concerns with cold brewing, before I started, was if it would respond well to the long steeps and lack of hot water, given that you normally brew dancongs with boiling water. But, we have steeped oolongs, albeit flavoured ones, before so I was pretty sure whatever came out would be drinkable.

In terms of water to tea leaf ratio, this was closer to a Western-style brew than a Chinese style. I estimate [2] I used about 5g of tea to about 400ml of water. I started steeping the leaves at 11pm and took them out at 9am the next day (10 hour steep). The liquor was a dark yellow/orange colour and had a faint aroma. The taste was sweet and floral and I was pleasantly surprised by the lingering aftertaste. The astringency wasn’t too bad either. It’s a very smooth drink, and resembled the first two brews when I first tried the Duck Shit, but it wasn’t as amazing as the traditionally-brewed version. When the tea warmed to room temperature, it became a lot more flavourful, so you might want to let this tea ‘warm up’ a little before drinking.

Since I took the leaves out at 9 am, I figured I had enough time to make another round before the end of the day. This time, I tried a slightly shorter steep – about 8 hours (9 am to 5 pm) – with slightly less water (maybe about 300 ml?) to make up for the shorter steeping time and already used leaves. The colour here was a much lighter pale yellow – I was pretty surprised to see the difference:

The light has a different case because of the time of day, but the second steep still a lot more yellow than the first steep. For some reason, the floral scent for the second steep was more obvious. The tea was still flavourful [3] and the astringency is pleasant. I also got faint bitter notes towards the back of the tongue, which added some complexity to the tea.

I gave some of this to my sister’s friend and they agreed that although the tea looks pretty weak (in terms of colour), it’s really favourful and pretty nice to drink. And I had more fun telling them about the name of the tea and the story behind it.

Duck Shit Dancong – Iced Version

My concern with the iced tea version is that it would either be too bitter or taste too diluted. So I made it in two ways:

Round one was made using the traditional method of iced tea – make the tea stronger than usual so that it does not get diluted by the ice cubes. This wasn’t too bad – the bitterness was definitely much stronger than usual but it wasn’t undrinkable. There were also floral notes, which were sadly not as strong as the bitter notes.

Round two was made by steeping tea for the usual time and then adding ice-cubes. This was actually pretty good – there wasn’t much bitterness and the floral notes were distinct. You do get some dilution, but it would work as a quick fix for cold tea.

Milanxiang Dancong – Cold Brew Version

I made this pretty much the same way as I did for the Duck Shit Dancong so that I could see if the results I got were a one-off or if they could be replicated.

The first round was, as before, steeped for 10 hours with similar rations. The tea was brown with a nice aroma – I got floral notes from this. This tea was actually a bit more flavourful than the Duck Shit Dancong – I got the floral and woody notes very clearly and the astringency was good. This tea lingered in the mouth and unlike the Duck Shit Dancong, did not need to warm up a little before drinking. I didn’t really get the honey notes, but my cousin, who also tried this, got them pretty clearly so maybe my tongue just isn’t as sensitive.

As with the Duck Shit Dancong, the second round of steeping (8 hours) resulted in a much lighter coloured tea:

Sorry, again, for the lighting differences but the difference in colour is more than just the lighting [4].

For this second steep, the fragrance of the tea wasn’t as strong as the first. But, it was still really strong and I was surprised at how distinctly I could taste the honey and fruity notes in the first sip. There was a little bit of bitterness [5], but it added complexity, not unpleasantness. The honey notes were actually clearer in this second round, which was pretty surprising.

Milanxiang Dancong – Iced Tea Version

This… didn’t go as well as I wanted. But, the smell of the tea as I brewed it (the amazing honey notes) reminded me that you really can’t beat the traditional method if you want to get the full flavour out.

Round one (stronger brew): I got some honey and floral notes from this, but the bitter notes were just so strong. It’s drinkable, but it’s not what I would choose.

Round two (regular brew): Unsurprisingly, reducing the brewing time got rid of the bitter notes. But, the tea just tasted very diluted. It wasn’t tasteless – I did get some honey and floral notes – but it wasn’t very nice to drink either. This would have been a good cup of tea if it was drunk hot, but the ice spoiled it.

Conclusions

The aroma of the teas as I brewed it hot for the iced version reminded me that if you can drink the tea hot, do so. It’s going to let you experience the entire tea journey – the amazing aromas and the way it changes from steep to steep. But, if you really want a cup of cold dancong, I would recommend cold brewing it. You won’t get the journey of the tea as it changes, but you will get a very smooth and flavourful cup. Anywhere between 8 to 10 hours should be sufficient and it’s really so easy to make that you can’t mess it up.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t really recommend making iced dancong tea. While I did get a good cup out of the Duck Shit when adding ice to a regular brewed cup, it’s pretty tricky to time it so that the tea is strong enough to stand up to the ice cubs but not so strong it becomes bitter. Since adding sugar isn’t an option for this, unlike regular iced tea, I would not choose to do this unless I really had to produce cold tea in a hurry. If I had to, however, I’d make the tea pretty much the same way as usual (perhaps 5 seconds or longer in terms of steeping time) and then just add ice.

Bottom-line: if you want cold dancong, plan ahead and just make some cold brew.

Digressions

[1] Cher, I’m looking at you

[2] In the age-old Singaporean tradition of ‘aggaration’

[3] I’ve mostly cold-brewed flavoured teas before this (because it’s a great way to help soften teas that have too much flavouring) so I’m used to getting only one steep out of a cold brew.

[4] I am also sorry for the design of the images. It should be pretty clear that I don’t have an eye for this!

[5] Could also be the floral notes – I’ve heard that too much of a floral fragrance will resemble faecal matter so maybe an overload of the floral taste will result in bitterness as well? Has anyone had this experience before?