2025 Spring Pheonix Mountain Dancong Wulong Teas 凤凰单丛乌龙茶

The Chaozhou region east of Guangdong province is neighbour with Fujian province. Since the last years of the Southern Song dynasty, It has 900 years of history making Dancong (单丛) wulong tea. North of Chaozhou is the Phoenix Mountain (凤凰山) range, with the highest peak at 1,500 m. It is so named because the mountain range looks like a wide base diamond shape, resembling a soaring phoenix with its wings extended.  An active volcano during ancient times, its mineral and nitrogen rich volcanic soil grows tea that is thick and syrupy. The Heavenly Lake (天池) on Wudong Mountain (乌岽山) - one of Phoenix's many peaks - is a crater lake. 

Tea from Guangdong was always in the shadow of its more famous neighbour Fujian. In the 19th century when the British were importing loads of tea from China, export records listed a tea called Canton Bohea (广东武夷), literally meaning Bohea-style tea made in Canton, Bohea referring to Wuyi Mountain (武夷山) north of Fujian province and Canton is the colonial term for Guangdong province. Purchase of Chinese teas were the exclusive rights of the British East India Company during that time, and part of that was supplied to the British court and other royalties. Guangdong tea in its own name became more widely known only during the Qing dynasty, with the main tea cultivation areas taking shape to what we see today. After the 2nd Opium War in the mid 19th century, the term Dancong - translated as single bush - was first used to refer to teas from Guangdong. The origin of term probably traced back to the Qing dynasty chief general of the area Wu Liu Qi (饶平总兵吴六奇). It was him who first organised harvesting from a single tea bush “Fragrance that stretches for 10 miles" (十里香) that bore a distinct aroma.

Teas from Phoenix Mountain are now known as Fenghuang Dancong teas, literally Phoenix (Mountain) single bush teas. The biodiversity of the mountains and the micro-regions created by the different spurs of the range have allowed the natural conditions for the wild tea trees to crossbreed with other plants, developing differences in physical appearances as well as flavour characteristics. Through selection in the last few decades and supported by the maturity of cloning techniques, cultivars with differentiated aroma types were identified and mother trees were isolated. Cloning was done repeatedly to achieve stability in the cultivar, which formed the spectrum of aroma types in the Phoenix teas we know today. Since the cultivars were all cloned from selected single mother bushes, the term Dancong continue to apply. The straight forward names of the cultivars reflect the down to earth and no fuss nature of the Chaozhou people. Some names are elegant, while some are outright eyebrow raising. All are delicious.

In June 2025, we visited one young tea farmer Chen Shao Bo (陈少波) in Chazozhou. A second generation tea farmer (茶二代), he inherited the family farms in addition to the other tea farms which has been abandoned or left unattended by owners who have pursued other interests. A graduate in marketing, he gave up a marketing job with a Dutch company in Guangzhou and moved to 4th-tier city Chaozhou to continue his family business. He now owns 5 outlets in Chaozhou under the brand of Fenghuang Tea Factory (凤凰茶厂). He is a certified Tea Master (评茶师) under the Chinese national tea certification system. He has multiple awards under his belt, the most recent being Gold Award (一等奖) for his Almond Fragrance (杏仁香) and Bronze Award (三等奖) for his Single Tree Harvest (古树单株) this June 2025.

We are featuring four teas from the tea master. Each tea was roasted using a mix of modern convectional roasting machine and finished off with charcoal roasting. Machine roasting cleans up the aroma by expelling undesirable notes, while also increasing roasting efficiency. Traditional charcoal roasting is done at a higher temperature to increase mouthfeel and sweetness. All teas are harvested by hand on decades old small arbor trees.

Honey Orchid (蜜兰香) is undoubtedly the most famous of all Phoenix Mountain Dancong cultivars. It is from Da An Village (大庵村), at the foot of Wudong Mountain. The farm is located around 850m elevation, and the trees are around 50 years old. It is roasted at a higher temperature and underwent charcoal roasting twice. It is so named due to it pronounced honey and orchid notes, accompanied by lychee and sweet longan notes, and smooth syrupy mouthfeel. It reminds us of the local desert 'chng teng' (清汤). 

Angelica Orchid (芝兰香) is a tea that display the twin aromas of Boat orchid (蕙兰, the 'Lan' part of the name) and Angelica dahurica (白芷, the 'Zhi' part). Its Chinese name of Zhi Lan (芝兰) is an ancient shorthand for these two plants (蕙/芷), and ancient text often use the term to reference outstanding disciples. Indeed, Ming dynasty scholar Luo Bing (罗稟) in his tea text (茶解) wrote that orchid fragrance is foremost among all tea fragrance. A prized cultivar today, our tea is from Tian Zhu Keng (甜竹坑), the tea master's family farm, at 800m elevation. The trees are around 80 years old. The tea's thick and smooth body carries the orchid aroma well.

A Dancong that thrives on "duck shit clay" which in fact is chalky yellow clay resembling duck shit, Duck Shit (鸭屎香) gradually took on that name. Of course, the more romantic origin story was the deliberate masking of the true commercial value of the tea by calling it a awful name, in a bid by the discoverer to quietly make profits alone. The secret was out before long, and now it is widely planted in the region. With its growing fame, the more proper name of Honeysuckle Aroma (银花香) was given to it in 2014 exactly owing to its aroma resembling intense honeysuckle blossom. Our tea is from Tian Zhu Keng (甜竹坑), and the trees are around 45 years old. The tea is smooth with sugar cane sweetness. 

If you think Duck Shit is an awful name, Cockroach's Wings (蟑螂翅) would be outright shocking. It is a rare cultivar from Zi Mao Village (字矛村), at 800m elevation on the foothills of Wudong Mountain, from trees which are around 85 years old. It is so named because the tea leaves are thin and translucent, spreading out the leaves on the same nodes on either sides of the stem looking like the wings of roaches. The aroma is floral, resembling Daphne odora (瑞香花) on a woody and almond nutty base. This tea is also sweet and thick.

Brew Flavour
We are brewing all these teas in our Parchmen Glass Gaiwan, with 4g of tea in 120m of 90-92°C low TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) water for 10-15 sec each. This is a variation from the Chaozhou gongfu tea method which employs 100°C for brewing at a similar duration. The teas can be brewed numerous times, with developing sweetness and aroma intensity from the 2nd brew right up to the 6th brew. One will note the coherence of aroma from nose to the brew, a mark of good ingredients and good roasting. It is interesting to note that smelling the cooled tea leaves gives a clear indication of the most prominent characteristics of the tea. The 1st brew usually looks foamy, due to the high levels of healthy tea saponin (茶皂素) present.

All teas are packed in 50g loose leaves in a tea caddy.

Welcome onboard Parchmen & Co, and travel with us to savour our world in a cup!