Chaozhou Closes Entries for Its Eighth Phoenix Dancong Contest, Judging Set for July 8
The Guangdong championship stopped taking spring-tea samples July 1 and will judge ten single-bush classes over three days, from honey orchid to duck shit aroma.
Chaozhou closed sample submissions July 1 for its eighth Phoenix Dancong tea championship, setting up three days of blind judging that begin July 8 across ten single-bush classes.
The contest is organized by the Chaozhou Media Center and the Chaozhou Daily newspaper with the Chaozhou Guangji Agricultural Investment Development Group, the newspaper said. Sample collection ran until 6 p.m. July 1, and entries divide into two projects: a premium spring "Tea King" competition and a separate quality appraisal for commodity-grade tea.
The Tea King project takes entries in ten classes of Phoenix Dancong, the single-bush oolong of the Fenghuang mountains above Chaozhou, in Guangdong province. Most classes are named for the aroma the cultivar carries in the cup: honey orchid, the eight-immortals cultivar Ba Xian, duck shit aroma, apricot kernel, and dark leaf, alongside Lingtou dancong, other floral types, the Xiyan Qilan cultivar, Chaozhou pan-fired tea, and dancong black tea.
Dancong means single bush. Each cultivar is picked and finished on its own rather than blended, and takes its name from a scent a taster finds in the brewed leaf, not from anything added to it. Duck shit aroma, despite the name, is among the most sought of the group.
The organizers said the event is meant to set up an authoritative and impartial platform for judging the region's teas and to reward the craft of its growers and tea makers. Commodity entries in the second project receive free pesticide-residue testing, the newspaper said.
Blind judging runs July 8 to 10.
Sources: Chaozhou Daily, 收样啦！送茶"赴考"，您的香茗能拿第几名？ | zh.