Phoenix Honey Medium Roast

• Harvest: Spring 2024
• Elevation: 800-1000 Meters
• Oxidation: 40-45%
• Production: Hand Oxidized, Finished Baking by Charcoal Heated Pans for 15 hours
• Farming: Traditional Farming

Our latest spring 2024 harvest Phoenix Honey Medium offers a complex aromatics of honey, wood, fruit, and spice. This year we asked our farmers to lighten the roast, and they experimented with a lower temperature for two roasts. The first roast is at 120 degrees Celsius for 13 hours, and the second is carried out half months later at 125 degrees Celsius for 10 hours. 

While in China, Phoenix Oolong is usually processed with deeper roasted profile, but for Teance, our farmer has been lightly roasting our house Phoenix Honey oolong to our specifications for the last decade, that is until last year. To try something new, we sampled three different roasted Phoenix Honey with our customers, and as a consensus, this medium roast was a must for our list. This oolong’s intense aromatics and complex flavor make it delightfully engaging. 

From the old-growth tea trees on Phoenix Mountain, Guangdong, China, Phoenix Honey is a Single Grove (Dan Chong) oolong 鳳凰單叢烏龍, meaning that the tea comes from a single grove of identical tea trees to ensure its particular honey fragrance. Each leaf must be processed by hand and lightly charcoal-roasted in order to retain its bright green center within a deep red perimeter. Its characteristic body of fruit and spice flavors coats the whole palate and lingers without end. This transformation of this tea from steep to steep is a joy to experience. A true connoisseur tea! If you always liked our Phoenix Honey and wanted something new, this is a perfect tea for those chilly seasons. 

Steeping Guidelines:

• 6g or 2Tbsp | 8oz. @ 200˚F | 45 seconds (Gong Fu style 6oz. of water)
• First steeping 30 seconds, increase 10 seconds next steeping for the smooth and sweeter taste.
• Keep increasing the steeping time to your personal preference of the taste for the rest of steeping.
• May be re-steeped multiple times.
• Use a porcelain or YiXing teapot.
• Drain completely and serve.

Tasting Notes 2022

First 20-25 second steeping creates an intense sweet, citrus and honey fragrance with a hint of smoky spices. 20 second more on second steeping, the smoked spice flavor comes to a crescendo as the fruity sweetness blends into the background. From steep to steep, the transformation of this tea  is a joy to experience, a perfect tea to warm up your winter. 

- Weiin

From the first sip, the medium roast is a striking tea. Bold in its presence compared to its sibling. Both teas have this beautifully delicate astringent flavour (honey like) that is definitive of Phoenix Oolong. The roasted notes of the medium roast goes that extra step to punch up and enhance the overall flavour.

- Timothy