This Dan Cong is a summer garden party in full bloom. Flowers are giving up their zesty fragrance and we are indulging in the season's ripest fruits baked in tarts and laced with honey.
If you don't know about Dan Cong tea then you need to experience them. The video at the bottom of the page will make you an expert in theory but the experience of a great Dan Cong is transcendent - bustling with aromatics that you cannot conceive would come from one plant and will have you sniffing in rapture for hours.
The different Dan Cong tastes are heavily dependent on cultivar and the pride of Fenghuang (where this tea hails from) is to showcase the distinct and distinguished character of each cultivar with clarity and singularity.
And while cultivars like Milan and Ya Shi have a very precise set of aromatic profiles, Da Wu Ye (Big Black Leaf) is a lot more varied and can be a bit of a mixed bag.
Da Wu Ye is often considered to be a more affordable cultivar for Dan Cong Oolong and it tends to taste a little more 'all over the place' with fruity-ish, creamy-ish and flowery-ish pleasantries but nothing that grabs you. We have not sourced a Da Wu Ye for quite a few years because they are all just 'nice'.
Summer Garden Crush is a whole other story - this tea commands attention from first sniff with a richness and clarity of character.
It transports you to a blissful time and place - summer in full flow with ripe fruit nectars and fragrant blossoms. Imagine yourself at a garden fete surrounded by zesty yellow roses and creamy gardenias. You are lounging on a vinyl garden chair and munching on plum and apricot baked into light custard tarts drizzled with thyme honey.
This is a majestic Dan Cong experience and shows that the finest batches of Da Wu Ye can stand toe-to-toe with the best teas out there.
