Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
Phoenix Dan Cong is a famous Tie Guan Yin from Guangdong Province. The tea has a high aroma with a different taste between the first sip and aftertaste. Along with the fragrance of sweet potato, an aroma of litchi will also be felt from the liquid. Be aware of the infusion of this tea. If you use gai wan, remember to quickly pour the liquid into your pitcher, instead of a long time’s infusion. A shorter time for the first brew will bring a more wonderful taste because the fruity aroma is stronger by now.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
So good! I’m really glad that I read the website’s description of this Guang Dong Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong Tea from Teavivre (the description above!) before I steeped this. I took extra care to only steep the first infusion for 30 seconds rather than the usual 45 seconds (I add 15 seconds to each subsequent infusion), because this ended up tasting amazing with just 30 seconds infusion time!
It has a strong litchi (or lychee) fruit taste to it. In fact, had I not known this was a pure (unflavored) tea, I would think it was a lychee scented Oolong. The fruit flavor is really quite profound! I am also getting the sweet potato notes that the description suggests – not just in the aroma but in the flavor – a note that is especially distinguishable in the aftertaste. This is a very flavorful Oolong.
It has a pleasant, silky texture to it with a mild astringency. There are some woodsy notes to this tea as well as the fruit notes. I am surprised at just how flavorful this first cup (infusions 1 and 2) is. I find myself looking forward to my next set of infusions!
The second cup (infusions 3 and 4) to be sweet and very flavorful. I am noticing more of the aforementioned “woodsy” notes in this cup than I tasted in the first. The litchi notes are still quite profound here. I notice fewer of the sweet potato notes in the taste and aftertaste. This cup is a little less “silky” feeling. It has a dryer finish than the first cup.
With my third cup (infusions 5 and 6), I found the flavors beginning to soften and become more unified. The flavors here are less sharp and focused, but, there is something quite lovely about the way they all come together. It is still sweet, fruit-like, and delicious. In fact, this may be my favorite of the three cups because it is much more relaxed.
This is a unique Oolong – quite different from any other that I’ve tried … or at least, any that come to immediate memory! I can’t recall a pure Oolong tasting so distinctly of litchi. It’s rather remarkable and I enjoyed it.
