Gui Hua Xiang Dancong

guìhuā xiāng dāncóng

桂花香单丛

“Osmanthus fragrance” — one of the ten classic aroma-types of Phoenix dancong, carrying a natural osmanthus scent with no scenting at all. From high-mountain Liziping, it is clean, honey-fruity and mineral.

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

In the cup

Pure osmanthus and honey over ripe apricot and pear — silky and medium-bodied, with a clean, long finish and a mineral “mountain rhyme”.

What it gives

A relaxing, aromatic oolong — light in bite and rich in essential oils, settling and quietly uplifting.

Gui Hua Xiang — osmanthus fragrance — is one of the ten classic aroma-types of Fenghuang dancong, the single-bush oolongs of the Phoenix mountains in Guangdong. Its claim is remarkable: the osmanthus scent is entirely natural, drawn from the bush by processing alone, with no flowers ever added. So true is the effect that even seasoned tasters in a blind cup have suspected scenting.

The mother bush grows in the high village of Liziping, where the air is cool and the soil mineral. The cup is clean and silky — golden osmanthus and honey over ripe apricot and pear — with the shānyùn, the mountain rhyme, a mineral-and-honey note felt deep on the palate, lingering long after the swallow.

In the cup

Brew it gongfu, near boiling and short. A white gaiwan suits it best, reading the osmanthus pour after pour. The early steeps are perfume-clean; as it opens, the honey and stone deepen and the finish lengthens.

How to brew