2023 Spring Wudong Mountain Duck Shit Dancong 凤凰单丛鸭屎香·

The Chaozhou region east of Guangdong province neighbouring Fujian province is famous for dancong made into wulong tea, with a history spanning 900 years of history since the last years of the Southern Song dynasty. North of Chaozhou is the Phoenix Mountain range, with the highest peak at 1,500 m. It is so named because the mountain range looks like a wide base diamond shape, resembling a soaring phoenix with its wings extended. There are numerous peaks within the range, one of it is Wudong Mountain (乌岽山) which is the second highest peak at 1,400 m. At the peak of Wudong Mountain is the Heavenly Lake (天池), a crater lake of a dormant volcano. Volcanic soils are usually nitrogen rich, and teas grown from such soils are usually thick and syrupy.

Tea from Guangdong was always in the shadow of its more famous neighbour Fujian. In the 19th century when the British were importing loads of tea from China, export records listed a tea called Canton Bohea (广东武夷), literally meaning Bohea-style tea made in Canton, Bohea referring to Wuyi Mountain north of Fujian province and Canton referring to Guangdong province. Purchase of Chinese teas were the exclusive rights of the British East India Company during that time, and part of that was supplied to the British court and other royalties.   Guangdong tea in its own name became more widely known only during the Qing dynasty, with the main tea cultivation areas taking shape to what we see today. After the 2nd Opium War in the mid 19th century, the term Dancong (单丛) - translated as single bush - was first used to refer to teas from Guangdong. This is probably to the credit of the chief general of the area in 1662 when he saw wild tea trees in the area and ordered organised tea cultivation on Wudong Mountain and harvesting from selected single bushes that bore specific aromas. 

Teas from Phoenix Mountain are now known as Fenghuang Dancong teas, literally Phoenix (Mountain) single bush teas. The biodiversity of the mountains and the micro-regions created by the different spurs of the range have allowed the natural conditions for the wild tea trees to crossbreed with other plants, developing differences in physical appearances as well as flavour characteristics. Through selection in the last few decades and supported by the maturity of cloning techniques, cultivars with differentiated aroma types were identified and mother trees were isolated. Cloning was done repeatedly to achieve stability in the cultivar, which formed the spectrum of aroma types in the Phoenix teas we know today. Since the cultivars were all cloned from selected single mother bushes, the term Dancong continue to apply.

The famous Duck Shit wulong tea is from our usual Wu Dong Mountain (乌岽山) farm which produces our ever-popular Honey Orchid. One have probably heard of civet cat coffee, and the range of similar products like monkey coffee, elephant coffee, etc. Such coffees are indeed collected from the excrement of these animals. In the same light, Duck Shit wulong tea's extraordinary name often raises eyebrows for the uninitiated, although its growing fame now overruns people's surprise of its name. The mother tree stands at Feng Xi Township Ping Tou Village (凤溪坪坑头村), at around 800m on the slopes of Mountain Wu Dong, on the southeast direction from the landmark of Phoenix Sky Lake (凤凰天池). However, this is not its original location, having been transplanted from Li Zi Ping Village (李仔坪村) south of Wu Dong Village (乌岽村) on the same contour in the 1920s. Planted on "duck shit clay" which in fact is chalky yellow clay resembling duck shit, it gradually took on that name. Of course, the more romantic version of the name's origin was the deliberate masking of the true commercial value of the tea by the discoverer and making the profits alone without his neighbours' knowledge. The secret was out before long, and now it is widely planted in the region. With its growing fame, the more proper name of Honeysuckle Aroma (银花香) was given to it in 2014 exactly owing to its aroma resembling intense honeysuckle blossom.


Brew Flavour

We are brewing the tea using gongfu style in an Authority zisha teapot. With 3 gm of tea, we are using 120ml of 90-92°C distilled water and keeping each steep at 30 sec. The brewed leaves smell of baked walnuts and roasted barley, and it curiously reminded us of the energy drink Ovaltine. The brew is pale yellow. On bringing the tea cup to the mouth, you will appreciate the reason why it is named 'Honeysuckle" - honey and honeysuckle notes rush to the nose. A quenching tea, it is salivating and has little bitterness or astringency. The immediate impression is of roasted barley and honey, with a hint of spices, and ending with honeysuckle. A gentle and pleasant tea, it can be rebrewed two more time before astringency sets in. The tea can be brewed about 4-5 times.  

Packed in 50g loose leaves in tea caddy.

Savouring our world in a cup!