Style: Oolong
Origin: Zhongshan Village, Wu Dong Mountains, Guangdong Province, China
Description: Oolongs made in the Dan Cong style are well-known for and named after their beautiful fragrances. There are over 100 different varieties of Dan Cong Oolongs grown exclusively on Phoenix Mountain. Honey Orchid in particular has become quite famous. When you taste it you will easily understand why! It is a delicate but rich tea with a remarkably smooth finish. This tea was plucked in March 2022 from the large and broad leaves of the Bai Ye Camellia sinensis varietal. It was then expertly processed over a period of a month, lending to the thick, sweet and fragrant qualities. Roasting has brought out the delicious honey and orchid notes. The beauty of this tea is owed to the unique landscape where Dan Cong Oolongs grow. The role of the tea master who formed this tea is also paramount to creating something so memorable. We would recommend this tea to anyone: from the well-experienced lover of Chinese Oolongs to the tea drinker who enjoys an everyday blended tea like Earl Grey or Breakfast tea.
Tasting Notes: This Oolong is creamy and complex. The experience is highly aromatic from beginning to end. The aroma of the dry leaf is reminiscent of peach cobbler. Once steeped, a bouquet of honeyed orchid blooms in the steam. The tea is thick, lush, with a subtlety of ripe tropical fruits dripping with honey. There is a pinch of toasted brown-sugar throughout, alongside some Oolong 'greenness' and a spiced-peach finish. There is a long-lasting linger that is both satisfyingly quenching and crave inducing. This tea is all around sweet and elegant.
Brewing Instructions: 3 - 4g per cup. Use 90ºC water. Steep 2 minutes. Re-steep.
The mountains of Fujian province in China are the origin of the exquisite Oolong tea. Known as wulong or black dragon tea, it is distinguished by its long and twisted, almost serpentine rolled leaves. Oolong is the most complex and intricate tea to produce and it is believed to promote good digestion and longevity. Due to its popularity, Oolong is no longer exclusively manufactured in China or Taiwan - India also produces a wide range of Oolong teas from their terroirs, resulting in a variety of flavour within the processing tradition.
One of the most internationally recognized Oolongs manufactured in China is named Ti Kwan Yin, for Kwan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy. Legend has it that emperor Kangxi prayed to Kwan Yin for her to help restore his health. The goddess answered his prayers and later appeared before him in a dream, where she brought him to a mountainous area and showed him the tea slopes and the poor living conditions of the farmers there. She asked that the emperor help the farmers gain prosperity by officially establishing the region as a tea-growing one. Thus, emperor Kangxi declared the tea from these slopes to be famed, and the area’s tea industry, along with Ti Kwan Yin’s flavour, blossomed.
Pu-erh is a fermented tea produced in Yunnan Province. It is the only tea that uses microbial fermentation to process and oxidize the leaves. If done in the traditional manner, the tea is pressed into brick forms after the first stage of fermentation, where it would continue to ferment and deepen with flavour as it aged. These bricks are sometimes stored within the rinds of fruits to ferment, like mandarin oranges or lemons, to take on some of the flavour and sweetness of the fruit.
For many years these tea bricks were used as currency, and it is still common for people to invest in the tea today. Pu-erh exist in two forms – ‘Raw’ Pu-erh, which comes in brick or cake form, and ‘Cooked’ Pu-erh, which is processed as loose leaf. This age-old fermented tea has great health benefits and is highly valued in parts of Asia, and its unique flavour is starting to gain more traction outside China.
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