Dan Cong Mi Lan Xiang (dāncōng mì lán xiāng 单丛蜜兰香) — honey orchid Phoenix oolong

In the cup

Honey and orchid, with stone-fruit sweetness and a clean, brisk finish — intensely aromatic over a smooth body.

What it gives

A bright, lifting cup — aromatic and full, with the gentle warmth of a medium-oxidised, lightly roasted oolong.

Mi Lan Xiang — honey orchid fragrance — is the most popular of the Phoenix Dan Cong oolongs, the famous aromatic teas of the Phoenix (Fènghuáng) mountains above Chaozhou in Guangdong. Dāncōng means single bush: traditionally each tea is picked from one old bush, and the cultivars are named not for place but for the natural fragrance they carry — orchid, almond, ginger-flower, and here, honey orchid.

The leaf is long, dark and twisted, medium-oxidised and lightly roasted to fix and deepen the aroma without burying it. What makes Dan Cong remarkable is that this honeyed, floral perfume is natural to the leaf — no scenting, no flowers, just the bush.

In the cup

Brew it fast and hot from a gaiwan — Dan Cong turns bitter if oversteeped, so keep the early infusions short. Done right, the cup is brilliantly aromatic: honey and orchid over stone-fruit sweetness, with a brisk, clean finish. It gives many fragrant steeps, each a little different, and rewards a careful hand.

How to brew