Fengxi Old Ginger, classic Fenghuang dancong oolong, 40 g

Taste profile Nose: Vibrant, floral, round aroma with herbal notes in an overtone of freshly peeled well-grown ginger root. Tinkling and complex fruity accents including those of aged dried mandarin orange peel and Xinjiang white raisin. Palate: Full, lively body with dynamically floral, herbal, and fruity tones. Distinct ginger notes and slight spicy tinkles of that fresh root. Undertone of citrus zest and muscovado with astringent bites. Finish: Invigorating, herbal and dry, yet mouth-watering. In addition to the classic 2g tealeaves to 100ml water 5 min infusion approach, do try using a higher leaf to water ratio but with shorter duration and repeated brews to experience the many facades of this wonderful tea Infusion suggestion As with other classic style Phoenix oolongs, Tea Hong’s Fengxi Old Ginger reveals a full spectrum of its taste profile when infused using a 2g tealeaves to 100 ml water ratio for 5 min at 85~90°C. However, for a brightly fragrant tea as this, using a high leaf to water ratio and short infusion duration for repeated brewing sessions can bring about another angle for enjoying this unique tea. Try using 5g of leaves to 80ml of water at 90°C for 45 sec in the first brew and increase the infusion duration by 15% in the subsequent one. Play with increasing the incremental percentage of time. Have fun. The young buds on an Old Ginger tea plant. When the leaf size is about 3cm, picking begins. The original name Jiangmu Xiang The original name, Jiangmu Xiang 薑母香, the fragrance of ginger, is sometimes replaced with a misleading name, Jianghua Xiang 薑花香, the fragrance of ginger flower, or even with a rather exaggerative marketing name, Tongtian Xiang 通天香, a fragrance so high that it reaches the sky. While the aroma is refreshingly flowery and vibrantly so, it is different from that of the ginger blossom. It is complexly floral with the tone of fresh cut ginger root being a prominent element. In case you have read contradictory information from other sources, please use your own judgement or, better yet, compare the real thing. This small tea farm in the foreground is a traditional style Fenghuang tea farm. Notice how different it is from those newly created ones on the hillside on the opposite. In the foreground farm, a small patch of land is created for some newly developed tea bushes, with vegetable growing around them. It is its surrounding that are the production tea trees, mixed with some other local trees. They are not trimmed down like those in modern tea farms. They look like a forest from afar. This is the authentic way of the Fenghuang style. The origin: Fengxi 鳳西 Fengxi is an area in Fenghuang immediately east of Wudong 烏崠, and above another major dancong production area, Daping 大坪, where you will find a lot of farms producing this variety as well. Further east, about 20 min away, is one of the most important water source for the whole region: Fengxi Reservoir 鳳溪水庫. After exploring all sources for this tea, including some from our favourite area, Wudong, we have concluded that the original source gives the most unique and satisfying experience. I hope you will enjoy this as much as we do. Two huge walls of firewood piled up neatly in a front yard overlooking the Fengxi valley. This is the fuel for producing the Fenguang dancong oolongs here, including this Fengxi Old Ginger.