A tiny batch of exemplary Dan Cong Oolong made from very old tea bushes - resinous, wild and deep with griddled peaches, forest honey, frankincense and orange blossom.
Mi Lan Xiang Dan Cong is one of my all-time favourite teas and so I take the sourcing of this extremely carefully. Every year we buy this tea and call it Royal Peach Orchid - it is a teahead community favourite and I feel that it almost defines us as a brand.
This summer (2023) I sampled a wide range of batches of Mi Lan Xiang across multiple producers and we found our pinnacle 2023 batch of Royal Peach Orchid - one of the best years in recent memory. I was happy and placed the order.
Inside the order was a little gift from the producer, intriguingly labelled Lao Cong (Old Bush) Milan.
One taste and I was yelling 'WTF' in astonishment - the tea blew my taste buds away and I spent a good hour just immersed in its immensity.
This tea is from 95-year-old bushes growing in Zhong Xin Yin village.
While Assmica trees can go well beyond 200 years of age (even above 1000 years), any other variety bush approaching a century old is considered to be ancient and unusual. The term 'Lao Cong' is broadly used to denote older bushes, but the use of this term is arbitrary and people could use it to describe bushes over 30 years of age.
Our 2023 Royal Peach Orchid is made from 65-year-old bushes (so it could easily be classified as 'Lao Cong'), so can 30 years of age make such a difference?
Yes and no.
On the one hand, the flavour profile between the two teas has many similarities - stone fruits, orchids, baked cookies, rich honey and a resinous, vinyl quality.
On the other, the older bushes have a deeper more foresty personality - the taste and aroma become even cooked down, gummy and thick and the character shifts to more of a wild, raw and indigenous tea.
It is hard to say that one taste is superior to the other - depending on my mood, I may prefer the crafted and supremely juicy aromatics of Royal Peach Orchid while, at other times, I might have a desire to delve deeper into the fruit forest to enjoy the rich, resinated and wild terroir of this Lao Cong Milan
The finish of this tea is magnificent - sweet and vaporous like no other Dan Cong that I can recall. My mouth and nose were living in a cloud of sweet mangosteen aromtics for hours after drinking.
We have less than 5kg of this single-batch tea. It is about double the price of our Royal Peach Orchid and there is no-one that could claim that it is twice as good, but if you love your Dan Cong then I would highly recommend that you go wild and grab this one.
