Tagged: dancong
A 2024 Paper Calls Phoenix Dancong a Separate Tea Species
A 2024 paper argues Phoenix Mountain's single-bush oolongs are a species apart from Camellia sinensis on four traits, while a 2022 chloroplast-genome study clustered them with cultivated Camellia sinensis, and no study has yet tested the claim directly.
Honey Orchid to Duck Shit, and Whether the Names Are Real
These Chinese oolongs, the Phoenix Dancong family, are named for a smell, not a place, and nothing is added to the leaf. Gas chromatography has now checked whether a bush named for one scent really carries different chemistry from the next. Mostly it does, but the lab draws fewer lines than the menu.
Oolong Grades and Cultivars
Oolong carries four different things called a grade: a national sensory tier, a government cultivar registration, a trade aroma-type name, and a competition award. The canonical account of what each one actually certifies, and what it does not.
Oolong Regions and Origins
The canonical geography of oolong across its four classic origins: the Wuyi cliffs and Anxi in Fujian, the Phoenix mountains of Guangdong, and the high mountains of Taiwan, with the terroir, cultivars, and elevations that separate them.
Oolong Tea
Oolong is partly oxidized Camellia sinensis, made to a chosen point between green and black: how it is made, the major style families, how it tastes across the spectrum, and why it is brewed gongfu.