Dancong Orchid Honey

Not Japanese tea at all — a dancong, the Chinese oolong style named for single bushes, in the honey-orchid register. Served iced, and the colour in the glass is amber rather than green, which is its own small pleasure on a site that is otherwise all one hue.

The aroma promises something sweeter than the cup delivers, and I mean that as a compliment. What arrives is floral and only lightly honeyed, and then it stays: a long aftertaste that is still there well after the mouthful has gone, which is the thing a dancong is for.

It closes bitter. Not the rounded bitterness of a pushed matcha but a drier, more tannic one right at the end, and whether that reads as a flaw depends entirely on how quickly you take the next sip.