About Aged Phoenix Dan Cong Milky Honeysuckle Flavour

Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong is a very special category of Oolong tea produced in the Chao’an district, Chaozhou city, Guangdong province, well-known for its aggressively rich aroma. The reason why it is named ‘phoenix’ is that it comes from the Phoenix Mountain in Phoenix Village.
This Aged Phoenix Dan Cong Milky Honeysuckle has a thicker and mellower taste than the normal one due to the age of the tea tree being over 50 years. This tea has a unique combined milk, orchid and honeysuckle flower flavour.

Appearance & Taste

Aged Phoenix Dan Cong Milky Honeysuckle Flavour

The appearance of Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong is long and slim, the brewed tea leaves are large and stalky. The dried tea leaf is dark brown with a slight hint of red. The colour of the tea soup is clean bright golden colour. The taste of this oolong is very special among the oolong teas. When you taste the first bite, there is little very pleasant bitter but comes with fresh orchid fragrance and mellow milk flavour. This bitterness will then fast transforms into a powerful long-lasting sweet aftertaste. Then the caramel flavour, light baking taste, honeysuckle flower aroma will gradually be revealed. These rich layers of flavour almost conquer every oolong tea lover. This oolong tea can be brewed for more than 20 times.

The reason for its other name ‘The Duck Shit’

In China, this type of flavoured Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong tea is also called ‘The Duck Shit’ tea. The reason for it starts with a legendary anecdote.

The original tea tree of this Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong comes from Wudong Mountain and then be transplanted and planted inside tea plantation in Phoenix Village by a local tea farmer. As it happens, the soil type of this tea plantation was yellow soil type which was called ‘Duck Shit’ by the local people.

After tea was tasted by the other people, people were shocked by its mellow milky honeysuckle flower aroma, and they were eager to know what kind of tea this was, where it came from, which aroma type it belonged to. The tea farmer was afraid that his tea tree would be stolen so he told others that the flavour of this tea is ‘Duck Shit’.

Taste: Bitter, Honey, Honeysuckle, Sweet

Brewing Guide

Tea Cup

4 teaspoon(s)

100°C (125ml)

1-2 mins

Enjoy!

Glass

8 tsp

100°C (250ml)

1-2 mins

Enjoy!

Teapot

16 tsp

100°C (500ml)

1-2 mins

Enjoy!

Kongfu Style

Among many tea wares, we recommend you use (Yixing) Clay Teapot or Gaiwan to brew this most characteristic Chinese tea. The clay teapot used to brew Oolong tea in Gongfu style is specific tiny whose volume is normally around 100ml – 200ml. Or you can also brew it by using normal-sized Teapot with more tea leaves.

For simple glass vessel/teapot style:

Use 100°C hot water to infuse tea leaves for around 1-2 minutes. Re-steep for around 5-6 further infusion. (Adjust by personal taste).

For Gongfu Style:

Warm the Gaiwan/tiny teapot with hot water; discard the water afterward
Add 1g Oolong tea for every 20ml – 30ml of water (recommend 8g tea leaves, adjust by personal taste)
Pour hot water (100 °C) into the clay teapot / Gaiwan, tilt it, slowly rotating it two times and quickly discard the water (this step is for waking up tea leaves and stimulating the special aroma of the oolong tea)
Refill clay teapot/Gaiwan with hot water
Infuse tea for around 2-3s for the first brew, less than 5s for the second brew and then repeat 10 times. After the tenth brewing, extend an extra 5-8s infusion time for the following brew.
Pour the steeped tea into serving cup and divided into small teacups and serve
Repeat around 20 times for this super mellow Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong tea

Origin

Chaozhou City is located in the eastern of Guangdong which is the evergreen city. The climate there is mild and belongs to the south subtropical maritime climate. The average annual temperature is around 21.4 ℃ and the annual rainfall is about 1685.9mm.

The weather characteristics of the tea producing area inside Chaozhou City are cloudy and rainy, the mountain there is high, and the duration of the day is short. The winter is not very cold but is as foggy as the spring, and the summer is not intensely hot but is as rainy as the autumn.

The soil types can be divided into four categories: yellow soil, red soil, latosolic red soil and paddy soil. The yellow soil and red soil are mainly distributed above the 400 meters sea level, the PH level is 4.5 to 6.5, the soil layer is thick which is rich in organic matters (the organic content is around 3.81% to 4.26%) and dozens of trace elements. These organic matters and trace elements undergo a series of chemical reactions such as metabolism and transpiration and then be transported to the tea buds and tea leaves lead to the increase of nitrogen metabolites which directly determines the formation of the special flavor of the Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong. The mother tea tree of this specific Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong tea is planted in yellow soil.

Origin: Guangdong

Picking & Production

The name of the ‘Dan Cong’ means the single shrub of tea cultivars. It is selected from the high-quality Phoenix Shuixuan Species Group, cultivated and picked individually. There are many sub-cultivars under the group of Phoenix Shuixian cultivars, and each individual shrub has its own characteristic in terms of the leaf and shape of the tea tree.

According to the different quality of the raw materials generated from Phoenix Shuixuan Species Group and different level or sophistication of production processes, the quality of its sub-cultivars from high to low can be divided into Phoenix Dan Cong, Phoenix Lang Cai, and Phoenix Shuixian. In simple words, Phoenix Dan Cong can be regarded as the upgraded version of Phoenix Shuixian.

Phoenix Dan Cong has dozens of strains and types. According to the introduction of Chaozhou Phoenix tea tree resources, Phoenix tea can have 79 kinds of different natural flower flavors, 12 kinds of natural fruit aroma and 16 kinds of other fragrances.

Phoenix Dan Cong is plucked before or after Pure Brightness (April 4th, 5th, or 6th).

6 reviews for Aged Phoenix Dan Cong Milky Honeysuckle Flavour

Rated 4 out of 5
Nathan Peters – 19/07/2023
Good tea to start the morning
Rated 5 out of 5
aws.nature – 08/03/2023
用90度左右的水温冲泡，非常清新、典雅的兰花香溢满整个房间，茶入口中，香气充斥口腔，却没有任何侵略性，一丝丝清苦和回甘相互照应，可以冲泡3道左右。
Rated 4 out of 5
michaelcaruso91 – 10/05/2022
This is a very smooth tea, love the creaminess to this one, very unique and one of my fave oolong I’ve tasted yet
Rated 5 out of 5
David – 14/04/2021
Easily one of my favourite teas now. The flavours are so complex and can change depending on how you brew it.
Rated 5 out of 5
Ebony – 23/03/2021
This is so complex I feel like I should be describing a bottle of wine, lol. I think what I enjoy most is that it can be brewed in so many different ways to affect the flavour. It’s kind of like making a great coffee – when you get it just the way you like it, you feel like an artist!
Rated 5 out of 5
alexanderlau25 – 12/03/2021
It actually has a milky scent to it, and is quite smooth to the throat when brewed right. If you steep a too long, a bit of bitterness can slip in, but that’s probably something I need to work on.
Definitely one of my top teas now.