Dancong

[BW85]

I have a dancong question for anyone who can shed some light:

Does anyone know if phoenix shuixian and wuyi shuixian are the same/very closely related? OR is phoenix shuixian more related to assamica/puerh trees? There's a lot of contradicting information floating around and this is something I've been curious about

Dancong trees do get rather large, larger than most c.s.sinensis

[Tead Off]

All this talk of DC wet my lips. I decided to inaugurate this Hokujo shiboridashi and see how it would brew DC. Normally, it would be used for Gyokuro or Temomicha, teas that you want to brew a small, concentrated amount of and a flattish shape to allow the leaves to open. I wondered how this kind of clay would handle the DC as opposed to gaiwan and Yixing that I normally brew them in. Lovely.

The tea is Orchid Gratus from Tea Hong. Shown is both dry and wet leaves.

Orchid Gratus.jpg (80.22 KiB) Viewed 1262 times

Orchid Gratus wet.jpg (76.07 KiB) Viewed 1262 times

[kyarazen]

I have a dancong question for anyone who can shed some light:

Does anyone know if phoenix shuixian and wuyi shuixian are the same/very closely related? OR is phoenix shuixian more related to assamica/puerh trees? There's a lot of contradicting information floating around and this is something I've been curious about

Dancong trees do get rather large, larger than most c.s.sinensis

noooooOoooo!
different.
phoenix shuixian is "song zhong" varietal, descending from over 900 years ago, there are many old trees, some are quite huge but only in the range of xiao qiao mu/slightly bigger.

wuyi shuixian is fujian shuixian varietal, the plantation bush type is luo yan shuixian.. the old bush type is lao cong shuixian..

speciation wise i cannot confirm as i've given away my 2011 copy of the china agri chajing.. and the 1980s copy i have left doesnt document that much of species. i would think they are a bit towards the more primitive sinensis.

[kyarazen]

kyarazen - do you have any shopping tips for those of us looking for sublime DC's, or even very good ones?

hmm.. i would think the best way to approach dancong is to go for variety instead of climbing the very steep slope of higher and higher grades of a single type. this steep slope is very slippery. its easy to contrast the ginger fragrance of tong tian xiang with the honey orchid aroma of milanxiang to the jasmine fragrance of molixiang etc.

as of most teochew people... they would say that amount of dancong produced is insufficient for them to drink.. the worst thing that can happen is for the tea to become hyped and unaffordable, so it's some kind of well kept low profile secret..

a dancong vendor that impressed me the most is a rather low profile tea merchant across the street of one of my favourite noodle restaurants.
the merchant owns tea plantations in chaozhou and there is no middleman, he wholesales most of his teas in mainland china, and only retails small amounts through his shop in singapore.

you can read about them here :
http://www.singaporefoodie.com/rituals-tea-tasting/

and have a look at what dancong really is.. beneath the superficial "dancong" that most people know..
http://www.phoenixhill.com.sg/en/online ... 7-dan-cong

not sure if they do international orders..but you can probably email them to specially compile a whole sampler set of 28-30 types of dancong (7 grams each?) for about $200 maybe. i'm in no way affiliated to them but i found their sampler set extremely instructive and enjoyable. the dancong green tea trumps many taiwanese high mountain greens, the Lao Ku Ye aged dancong has no bitterness and yet beneath the floral fruity note is a hollow blue camphor note.. nice!

[Haddemall]

What an incredible selection, thank you so much for the tip! Sent them an email and will report back.

[ryancha]

kyarazen - thanks for all the great information.

I am not fully following your remarks on how to brew DC. Are you saying
* that really high-quality teas (like those Imen sells) are best brewed with 3-5g / 100 ml? or that they aren't best brewed this way, but doing so will produce a pretty good result
* that lower quality leaves need more like 7-9g / 100ml to bring out the full floral element?

Thanks for the recommendation about Phoenix Hill. (Do let us know, Haddemall, what you find out.) How would you compare their product to, say, Imen's? I take it by your remark that they sell the product of their own "tea plantations" that their product is what Imen calls commercial grade DC?

Thanks again - I really appreciate it.

p.s. I was just checking out your blog - this was really helpful: http://www.kyarazen.com/chaozhou-gongfu-tea/ -

another question: you say earlier on this thread that a gaiwan is most popular for brewing DC, but this blog post assumes a pot..?

[kyarazen]

i think the wares aside, for dancong its best savoured in quick steeps, good amount of leaves, boiling water. i'll go with 5g of leaf in a 80-100ml gaiwan (pot).

do note that my CZ gf post is just to show some information on the traditional brewing style and how it was done historically. the focus is still on getting the best out of the leaves, and CZ gf brewing style fulfills this aim. however with high quality dancong, you may not want to restrict yourself to 3 steeps but instead can go up to many more.

I wouldnt think the grades of PH's teas to be "commercial" grade, they carry the best dancongs that I have seen in the region, with all the teas being spring tea, and only Xue Pian (snow flake) dancong from autumn.
if you are in the region or happen to drop by SG, do pay a visit to them, I'm sure the owners of PH will be as hospitable to anyone else just as they were to me. really passionate about teas, and they fly to chaozhou every month or so

it wouldnt be fair for me to make a comparison of Imen's teas to the stuff PH carries, since I had only had one sample of Imen's before. It wouldn't be appropriate too, I do highly respect Imen's works in expanding/promoting chaozhou tea culture in the States.

but lets just say that there are other online vendors that I used to play $6/g for some of his teas.. had an aged tea that I had to use a flat pot to restrict the bitter astringencies and maximize the fragrance.. with PH's tea I was using a 70's hongni xianpiao with nice height, demonstrating the difference and care in their processing.

whether a pot or gaiwan is better, its subjective, but there was some records on writings in the qing dynasty on the advantage of the pot, which i'm currently experimenting and researching on. there was supposed to be a CZ GF tea post number 2.. but i'm slow and lazy..

kyarazen - thanks for all the great information.

I am not fully following your remarks on how to brew DC. Are you saying
* that really high-quality teas (like those Imen sells) are best brewed with 3-5g / 100 ml? or that they aren't best brewed this way, but doing so will produce a pretty good result
* that lower quality leaves need more like 7-9g / 100ml to bring out the full floral element?

Thanks for the recommendation about Phoenix Hill. (Do let us know, Haddemall, what you find out.) How would you compare their product to, say, Imen's? I take it by your remark that they sell the product of their own "tea plantations" that their product is what Imen calls commercial grade DC?

Thanks again - I really appreciate it.

p.s. I was just checking out your blog - this was really helpful: http://www.kyarazen.com/chaozhou-gongfu-tea/ -

another question: you say earlier on this thread that a gaiwan is most popular for brewing DC, but this blog post assumes a pot..?

[Tead Off]

More DC... this time Mi Lan Xiang. Long leaves, darker juice. Full flavor and aroma.

Mi Lan Xiang.jpg (70.91 KiB) Viewed 1158 times

[Haddemall]

Well, I have 21 7g samples in the air for 233 SGD. That will keep me off the streets for a while. Julie at Phoenix Hill was very nice to deal with.

[iGo]

More DC... this time Mi Lan Xiang. Long leaves, darker juice. Full flavor and aroma.

Mi Lan Xiang.jpg

Beautiful leaves. Is this from Tea Hong?

[Chip]

Well, I have 21 7g samples in the air for 233 SGD. That will keep me off the streets for a while. Julie at Phoenix Hill was very nice to deal with.

COOL!

[Tead Off]

More DC... this time Mi Lan Xiang. Long leaves, darker juice. Full flavor and aroma.

Mi Lan Xiang.jpg

Beautiful leaves. Is this from Tea Hong?

No, not from Tea Hong. This was a gift to me through business dealings. It came in a 250g metal cannister/caddy. It was a big surprise to me how good the tea is.

[Haddemall]

Took less than a week to get here. Thanks again, Kyarazen.

[miig]

oohhh that looks so nice! Have fun discovering the world of Phoenix Dancong

[kyarazen]

Took less than a week to get here. Thanks again, Kyarazen.

http://i1063.photobucket.com/albums/t51 ... c72e97.jpg

oh wow! you must have paid a lot for the shipping for it to go so fast!

not sure which are the varieties that you had gotten but i thought i would suggest trying the following few samples first

1) Rougui dancong 肉桂 (nice spicy cinnamon note, a licorice like mild bitter sweetness that persists up to over 10 steeps). classical well roasted DC.
2) Da Wu Ye 大乌叶 (a round but hollow, mildly camphorous transparency)
3）Ya Shi Xiang 鸭屎香 (bright, floral fruity) - classical "greenish" DC
4）Green (deep floral fruity, a purplish note) - reminiscent of a really good taiwanese oolong without the vegetal note!
5）Lao Ku Cha 老苦茶 (dark, cool camphorous notes with a smooth feel)
6）Mo Li Xiang 茉莉香 (a very upfront and endearing jasmine sambac note)
7) Tong tian xiang 通天香 (a sliver of ginger flower note in the front of the brew)

the full sample pack unloaded into a 60-80ml gaiwan, boiling hot water, rapid steeps, 8-15 secs, calibrating as you would like