Phoenix Dan Cong by The Tea House
Oolong Tea / Straight
I received Phoenix Dan Cong as part of my swag bag from the 2020 Virtual International Tea Festival. At the time of writing, Phoenix Dan Cong was not available on The Tea House’s website, so I was unable to determine the price of the tea.
First Impressions
Phoenix Dan Cong came to me in sealed, non-sealable, silver packaging – nothing a tight fitting metal tea canister or even just a zip-top plastic bag won’t fix in a pinch. This was part of my swag bag from the 2020 Virtual International Tea Festival. I don’t have a lot of information on this tea, as it’s product page was not available when I was writing this review, but I’ll do my best!
The leaves are wiry and very dark brown. There are some deep, stone fruit aromas from the dry leaf, which are really intriguing. Traditionally, Phoenix Dan Cong is an oolong tea and is grown and harvested from Phoenix Mountain in China. This tea looks like a straight tea and I don’t believe that there are any other added ingredients (just the way I prefer my oolong teas…).
Preparation
The Tea House recommends steeping Phoenix Dan Cong in 190°F (88°C) water for 1 minute. I opted to use 185°F (85°C) water and did an initial steep for 1 minute.
First Taste
Phoenix Dan Cong steeps to a pretty light golden yellow colour. It has a remarkably smooth texture, with notes of plums or apricots (both lovely stone fruits), and just a floral finish at the tail end of each sip. The tea does a nice job of just coating the inside of my mouth with flavour, which is quite well balanced. Zero astringency and zero bitterness and just overall quite smooth and easy to drink.
A Second Cup?
I resteeped Phoenix Dan Cong a total of seven times (eight times total with the same leaves). The colour of the steeped tea definitely gets darker, a more golden yellow and the flavour deepen as well while staying fairly consistent in terms of the flavour profile. I found that the fruity notes got stronger while the floral notes did back off a little bit. Still an easy tea to drink though, and quite enjoyable.
My Overall Impression
I loved The Tea House’s Phoenix Dan Cong. I thought that the tea was a lovely experience from start to finish. I really appreciated the level of complexity in the flavour profile and how it subtly changed as I drank it. It really made for a delicious cup of tea and I thought it had some great flavour for a tea that doesn’t contain additional ingredients. The floral finish was really one of my favourite parts of the tasting experience with this oolong.
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