A uniquely fragrant Snowflake Duck Sh*t Dancong Oolong made from the last pickings before Winter. One to experience for any Oolong lover.
These Winter picked teas have a wholly different character compared with Spring picked tea with brighter, higher aromatics similar to a top-quality Taiwanese Baozhong. It is remarkable how different the character is compared with Spring picked Duck Sh*t Oolong and well worth comparing back to back.
The difference between Snowflake and Spring Dancong starts with the fact that they are picked in the cold (sometimes snowy) climate of Fenghuang mountain in late November. This late picking lends itself to a more fragrant tea and the producers must be careful to process the tea to accentuate these Qing Xiang (high/fresh aromatics). Therefore the tea goes through a reduced fermentation/oxidation process and less baking.
BUT here is the problem with a lot of Snowflake tea - often times the producers treat this tea as almost like a raw tea or Maocha - they hardly wither/oxidise and, if they roast, they do it too short in my opinion. Sometimes you even see totally unsorted Snowflake tea with all of the twigs and huangpian.
This lack of attention is mostly to do with the fact that Snowflake tea is commonly kept by the producers and they are used to drinking raw tea themselves but is the reason why we have never purchased a Snowflake tea before.
This tea is different, it has gone through the right amount of careful processing for our tastes. Enough to accentuate, warm, soften and smooth but not too much to take away from the fresh nature of Winter tea. The leaves were left for as long as possible before picking to build that Winter flavour and fragrance before going through a proper wither and half oxidation. The tea was then given a long but low temperature roast and sorted with much more detail.
The result is fragrant beauty of a tea with that clean, wintery freshness. We recommend that you drink this tea within a year of purchasing to experience its intended character.
