The Secret of Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong

Phoenix Dan Cong oolong is produced from Chao-zhou, Guangdong province. In Phoenix town, the oldest tea tree tea is at around 900 years old. However please do not misunderstand that the process of making phoenix dan cong oolong was invented about 300 years ago.

Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong has a lot of similarity with Wu Yi Oolong Tea

Generally, this tea is not globally recognized in the tea market compared to Wuyi oolong tea. The Phoenix Dan Cong oolong belongs to the same family as Wu-yi oolong. Shui Xian is a tea cultivar that exists both in Wu-yi and Phoenix Mountain. Since the distance between Phoenix Town and Wu-yi Town are not very far away, it was assumed that the tea from Phoenix Mountain was brought over to the Wu-yi Mountain and was planted there about 400 years ago. Now, Shui Xian is one of the famous Wu-yi teas in the market. However, on the Phoenix Mountain, the oldest Shui Xian tea tree are around 500-900 years old, which are doubled the age of Wu-Yi Shui Xian.  

The overwhelming fruity flavor of Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong

If you try the authentic phoenix dan cong oolong, I am ascertain that you will be shocked by the overwhelming extent of fruitiness. It is hard to believe that the flavor is developed naturally from the tea leaf and it is not the scented tea. Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong is produced with very sophisticated process, yet it its fruity flavor and sweetness is very easy for everyone to instantly accept and enjoy.

The Meaning of Dan Cong: Essential for quality Phoenix Oolong.

In Chinese, the Phoenix Dan Cong oolong is also known as Feng Huang Dan Cong Oolong. Feng Huang means phoenix in Chinese. There are many people who often address this tea as the Dan Cong Tea or the Dan Cong Oolong. The term Dan Cong refers to an individual tea tree grown independently which is different from the garden tea. In ordinary tea garden, the tea is planted in a column and the trees are pruned regularly in order to maintain the desired height, shape and size. As mentioned, Dan Cong means an independent tree by its own, randomly planted in the wild which is usually at the slopes of mountain, and similar to other native trees. The "Dan" means single and the "Cong" means Bush or Tree in English. Based on the definition, the term Dan Cong is not applied for only Phoenix Dan Cong oolong, but should be also applied for Wu-yi oolong and sometimes Pu-erh tea as well.  

Garden tea is also sold as "Phoenix Dan Cong oolong"

There is countless number of garden teas planted throughout the Phoenix Town. Every year, in order to keep the tea trees in desired size and shape, it is mandatory to prune the trees grown in the tea garden. Therefore, the tea trees are maintained as low bushes in a continuous phase of vegetative growth causing those tea trees to produce young branches quickly, hence, increases the productivity. However, the faster they grow, the minerals and organic substances exist in each cell become lesser than those in tea leaves that grows slower. Needless to say, the quality of tea produced from the tea garden is not very favorable. Those garden tea should be called just "Phoenix Oolong" rather than Phoenix Dan Cong, since they do not originate from a single tree. Unfortunately to the consumers, any kind of phoenix tea sold in a tea shop is absolutely called as Phoenix Dan Cong oolong. The garden tea is obviously cheaper than the genuine Dan Cong oolong.

The astounding characters of Phoenix Dan Cong tea produced from the old tea tree.

There are still a number of old tea trees remaining in the Phoenix Mountain which are classified into respective names of Phoenix Dan Cong depending on its character, especially flavour. The old tea trees have very long roots yet it usually grows slowly and produces lesser number of leaves allowing the minerals to accumulate and become concentrated within the limited number of tea leaves. After tasting the real Phoenix Dan Cong oolong produced from an old tree, you will never thirst for the garden tea of Phoenix Oolong again. Well, the differences are very obvious.The Phoenix Dan Cong oolong produced from an old tea tree provides a long-lasting flavour. It also has stronger body and after taste. Usually, we are able to determine the difference in quality just by smelling the fresh raw tea leaves. When I was up on the Phoenix Mountain, I often plucked and tasted some of the fresh tea leaves from several old trees. The very old Dan Cong tea produced a very thick flavour that lingered in my throat for a long time. Contrarily, the flavour of the fresh tea leaves produced from the young tea trees were only detected around the upper part of the nostril but vanished at once. The quality of the raw materials plays a crucial role in producing Phoenix Dan Cong oolong teas.

Trimming is not conducted at all. Hence, the branches grow towards different directions causing the appearance of the tea bush to look just like some other native plants found in the mountain.		Wu Dong mountain has plenty of rocks everywhere. Tea bushes grow in between the rocks.

Diversity of flavour on Phoenix Dan Cong oolong

When Phoenix Mountain was developed a several hundred years ago, legend acclaimed that there was only one or two kinds of tea cultivar that existed. Once, tea was grown out of a seed where the offspring are different from their parents. It is like the Mendelian inheritance (or Mendelian genetics or Mendelism) that we studied during our days education. It is a theory where inherited traits blend and pass on from generation to generation. Due to a few hundred years of cultivation, the cultivar of Phoenix tea trees have undergone years of natural hybridization or mutation, where such biological changes brought diversify to the flavors of respective trees. Tea leaves plucked from different trees will produce different flavours, even if the processing methods or techniques were the same. The name of various Phoenix Dan Cong oolongs was given based on the flavour of tea leaves produced from its original tree. There are so many varieties of flavour, as many as the number of tea trees on the mountain but each tree can only produce less than a few kilograms of tea. Therefore, even if the tea comes with the same name and same selling price, the flavour will be different depending on the tree.

Important element for the quality of Phoenix Dan Cong oolong.

Summer tea gives bitter taste

I often come across customers who comment about Phoenix Dan Cong oolong being very bitter or astringent in taste, hence, they need to store it for a few more years. In fact, if the tea is plucked during early spring, it should not be bitter. Generally, the tea harvested during the late spring, summer or autumn, produces bitter and astringent taste, and it leaves a very unpleasant feeling on the tongue. Majority of the Phoenix oolong available in the market are from the garden tea which is harvested throughout the year. During the humid season, the tea grows faster and could be plucked over and over again. You cannot expect the good quality and the prices are extremely low compared to the Phoenix Dan Cong oolong plucked early in spring. For the old tree Phoenix Dan Cong, it is harvested once a year in spring. Due to the old tree, it grows extremely slow. The tea leaves are rich in substances and minerals, yielding a strikingly intense flavour and long-lasting taste.

Wu Dong Mountain is the best for quality tea

The premium grade Phoenix Dan Cong oolong is grown at an altitude above 1000m. The Phoenix Mountain consists of a number of peaks including some remote or minor peaks. Somehow all these peaks are called Phoenix mountain as long as it is situated in and around the Phoenix Town. The Wu Dong Mountain is the most famous peak for premium quality Phoenix Dan Cong oolong because of the existence of many old trees that has aged up to several hundred years and planted around this particular peak. Furthermore, the soil from the Wu Dong Mountain is very rich in minerals and these minerals bring about a soft and thick taste of the tea. The Wu Dong Mountain is the signature peak for the Phoenix Dan Cong oolong. Inevitably, Hojo selects its tea from the Wu Dong Mountain.

Phoenix Dan Cong oolong, the oldest Rock Tea (岩茶)

The reason Wu-yi tea is very famous is not only due to the age of its trees, but also its growing environment. The tea bushes of Wu-yi tea are planted at a very rocky place. Indeed, the growing environment of Phoenix Dan Cong oolong is also very rocky... The tea bushes of Wu-yi tea are planted at a very rocky place. Indeed, the growing environment of Phoenix Dan Cong oolong is also very rocky. As some say, ‘seeing is believing’. As you gaze at the photos below, it is unimaginable to picture where the tea trees are planted. From afar, its view is nothing but a rocky mountain. These photos were taken at the Wu Dong Mountain. The tea trees were planted in between the rocks and the harsh environment keeps the trees under a stressful growing condition causing the rate of growth to be very slow. Eventually, the tea leaves become very rich in minerals. Wu Dong mountain is surrounded by plenty of rocks. Tea bushes grow in between the rocks.  

Keeping weeds as they are

If you visit the Phoenix Mountain, you will be amazed by the way the tea trees are grown. Among all the other native plants within the mountain, the tea trees are actually grown randomly. In the Wu Dong Mountain, there are numerous number of native plants found surrounding the tea trees. The farmer never remove the wild plants. The leaves of those plants contain great amount of minerals too. During the fall, the native plants will shed its leaves and those fallen leaves will rest on the ground for some time. After a while, decomposition by micro-organisms occurs causing the minerals to be re-absorbed and then recycled and accumulated by the tea trees. I also observed this similar practice being carried out in Yunnan. In Japan, we have a tea called Gyokuro that is planted in a tea garden. This tea garden is covered with rice straws on purpose, to extract the minerals from the straw when rain falls, enabling the soil to absorb the minerals present, and then later being re-absorbed by the tea trees. Evidently, the quality of Gyokuro grown under the rice straws is completely different from the Gyokuro grown without the rice straw. There is another reason for the weeds to be left unattended. The farmers in Wu Dong Mountain follow a tradition where they do not apply fertilizers. There are some bacteria such as the azotobacter, which lives on the root of leguminous plants and has a symbiotic relationship with the plant. It has the ability to gain nitrogen from the air and ingest it into its system. I believe there are many other kinds of bacteria that have the same capability to supply wild plants with nitrogen. In order to maintain the health of the tea trees, the weeds play an important role. What if supplying fertilizer? It results in an excess of nitrogen causing the tea trees to grow too fast and as a result the taste of tea becomes very thin. Moreover, due to the excess nitrogen in the soil, certain types of bacteria tend to grow rapidly causing a disruption in the soil’s ecology.

1. Nitrogen is recycled from the decomposed leaves dropped from other native plants
2. There are certain types of bacteria that have the ability to acquire nitrogen from the air and supply them to the plants.

This is me, Akira Hojo, tasting the leaves plucked from a very old Dan Cong tree.

Making the Mao-Cha of Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong

Withering

After harvesting, the fresh tea leaves are brought back to the factory, and then spread to a thickness of about 10 cm on a bamboo mat...

Cooling - Secondary stage of withering

After withering under the sunshine, the tea leaves are transferred to a shady cool place indoor and are left to cool for about 1 to 2 hours...

Fermentation

This process is also called 碰青 (Peng-qing), or 浪茶 (Lang-cha) which is the most critical process in making Phoenix tea...

Pan-frying and Rolling - Preliminary forming the shape

During the pan-frying process, a high temperature and short duration of heating treatment will deactivate the enzymes instantly...

Drying

The tea leaves are dried in a bamboo basket (烘笼 Hong-long) that is heated using charcoal...

The secret of making the distinct flavour of Phoenix Dan Cong oolong

Firing is the key to develop the unique flavour of Phoenix Dan Cong oolong

Based on my experience and understanding, the crucial process in making Phoenix Dan Cong oolong is the firing process...

The art of maturation

The mechanism that allows the Phoenix Dan Cong oolong to develop its unique fruity flavour is very similar to the aging of pu-erh tea...

Preparing Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong

You will need to carefully select the teapot for Phoenix Dan Cong oolong

Due to the unique composition and rich content of minerals exist in the Shui Xian tea family, Phoenix Dan Cong oolong is not compatible with many kinds of teapots...

For more on where Phoenix Dan Cong comes from, what Dan Cong and Lao Cong mean, and how it is made and brewed, see What Is Phoenix Dan Cong?.