Fenghuang Dan Cong Chou Shi

Large, elegant, single, open, slightly-twisted flat leaf. Strip-style. Hand-plucked. 30-35% oxidation. Un-roasted. Appealing, light, refreshing green style flavor suggesting ripe apricots and yellow melons (such as canary melon). Long clean sweet aftertaste. Flavor notes suggest the sweet floral characteristics of green-style oolongs such as semiball rolled oolongs from Anxi and Taiwan, and Baozhong from Taiwan. Pleasant, bright floral aroma that is more elusive than specific fragrances or mixed floral/fruit aromatics. Wu Dong Mountain, Chao Zhou County (Phoenix Mountains), Guangdong Province, China. We were intrigued to taste this tea when the sample arrived. A green-style dan cong oolong? Should it really be called dan cong when the processing and taste is so different from the traditional assumptions about dan cong oolong? I think the answer is YES, as long as the leaf is truly dan cong leaf plucked from dan cong tea trees and or tea bushes and the explanation/description of the tea is clear and truthful. One taste was all it took to convince us that this tea was something quite extraordinary and unique. We ordered a quantity of it so that our tea enthusiast customers can experience this delicious and refreshing tea. Chou Shi is a great example of how manufacturing techniques (i.e. the type of processing steps that the fresh leaf undergoes in the tea factory) tweaked and employed by skillful tea makers can result in the same leaf turning out different types of tea with singular leaf styles and color, and unique flavors. This new adventuring into manufacturing other styles of tea in China is a relatively new phenomenon since we first started to go to China to purchase tea in the year 2000. Back then, it seemed that tradition trumped all and the teas that has always been made in a certain place in a certain way were what was made in each region. Nowadays, skillful tea workers want to strut their stuff and work the fresh leaf into new tastes and aromas. In the case of Fenghuang dan cong Chou Shi, the tea is reminiscent of the flavor and aroma of semiball-rolled style green oolong from Anxi and Taiwan, but the underlying flavor, the size of the leaf, and the richness of the tea liquor in the cup,style is still identifiable as dan cong. This is an exciting and extremely flavorful tea that we are thrilled to have. It is delicious hot or iced – in fact, as iced tea the taste is extraordinary and most refreshing.