Dan Cong Xing Ren Xiang

dāncóng xìngrén xiāng

单丛杏仁香

“Almond fragrance” — a single-bush Phoenix oolong named for a clear almond note over flowers, fruit and honey. Oily and sweet with a long finish, it is one of the most refined of the dancong family.

Region: Phoenix mountains, Chaozhou, Guangdong
Harvest: Spring; medium roast
Oxidation: Semi-oxidised, charcoal-finished
Cultivar: Phoenix dancong — almond-fragrance line

In the cup

A clear almond note over flowers, fruit and honey — oily and sweet with a gentle astringency and a long, sweet aftertaste.

What it gives

A warming, relaxing oolong — aromatic and round, easy on the stomach and good for slow gongfu drinking.

Xing Ren Xiang — almond fragrance — is one of the named aroma-types of Fenghuang dancong, the single-bush oolongs of the Phoenix mountains in Guangdong. The dancong tradition sorts its bushes by the fragrance each tree expresses; this one is grown and worked to bring out a clear, distinctive note of almond, with careful shaking to build oxidation at the leaf edge and a medium charcoal roast to set it.

In the cup the almond runs over a base of flowers, ripe fruit, honey and a little spice. The body is oily and sweet, with the gentle astringency of a true gongfu oolong and a long, sweet aftertaste. Among the dancong it is counted one of the more refined and food-friendly.

In the cup

Brew it gongfu, near boiling and short. Keep the first steeps brief and the almond stays clean and high; lengthen them gradually and the fruit and honey deepen. Many infusions follow before it fades.

How to brew