Duck Shit Dan Cong

Don't be fooled by the name, though it does require an explanation! "Duck Shit" (Ya Xi) is a colloquial name for the yellow loam soil that the ancestral mother plant of this cultivar was grown in. The tea it produced was so incredibly fragrant that the farmer feared someone would steal his precious plant. So he called it "Duck Shit Aroma" (Ya Xi Xiang) in an effort to keep it a secret. Lucky for us he failed, and we now have access to this amazing tea.

Extra long, delicate leaves yield an intensely fragrant, sweet, pale yellow brew. The first steeping has a distinctly vegetal flavor. As the leaves open up over several steepings, the flavor shifts more into the floral.
With this tea it's hard to pick out specific flavor notes. Instead, picture a freshly dampened woodland in early summer… a canopy of maples beside a babbling creek and wildflowers in full glory, all sparkling with dappled sunlight after a refreshing rain. Now condense the sensation of being in such a place into one cup of tea.  Whatever it is, it’s an excellent oolong!

Dan Cong is a variety of oolong grown in the Pheonix Mountains of Guandong Province, China. They are known for mimicking flavors of various flowers and herbs, though this one in particular does not mimic its name sake!