Verdant Tea

Tasting Master Huang Ruiguang’s Dancong Craft

Tasting Master Huang Ruiguang’s Dancong Craft

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This bundle includes five 25g bags of Dancong tea for 125g total (25 sessions).

Huang Ruiguang is respected across China as one of the fathers of modern Dancong, written about in every text on the region, recognized as a cultural treasure by the local government, and awarded top medals for every tea he produces. Having spent his life improving Dancong craft across Wudongshan, he has now turned the workshop over to his sons. He works with us because of his retirement goal to share true Wudongshan Dancong beyond China, and build worldwide respect not just for his family but for the whole region he helped put on the map.

This tasting kit represents the intense aromatics and wild powerful textural experience that is Dancong. Every tea in the collection is juicy, voluptuously aromatic and focused with a sweet lingering aftertaste. The perfect aromatics that Huang Ruiguang is famous for come from his meticulous hand turning and fluffing process that lasts up to 18 hours to coax out everything the leaf has to offer.

 Taste Master Huang Ruiguang’s Dancong craft: 

Mi Lan Xiang Dancong (25g)

Huang Ruiguang's family Mi Lan Dancong is picked only once a year from single trees that are not pruned back to encourage deeper roots & more robust flavor, year after year. His mountain plot and decades of work in improving agriculture techniques for the region have earned Huang Ruiguang's Milan awards such as the recent 2015 Gold Medal at the Sixth Guangdong Tea Expo. Mi Lan varietal is set apart with its distinctive golden green leaf color in early spring & its luscious deep aromatics.

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High Elevation Jin Lan Xiang (25g)

Huang Ruiguang's family Jin Lan Xiang comes from the extremely sought after high-elevation Wudongshan older tree stock picked from his favorite plot with a cool microclimate & east-facing slope for early morning light. Jin Lan (金兰) roughly translates to sworn brotherhood, and indeed, this tea takes the dedication of a “sworn brotherhood” to finish, requiring over 24 hours of meticulous and exhausting hand processing to bring out the deep aromatics of this striking and rare varietal. Each sip is almost like drinking candy. Master Huang's fifty years of celebrated work in agricultural innovation has changed the world of Dancong for the better.

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Ye Lai Xiang Dancong (25g)

Ye Lai Xiang is named after the tuberose flower which blooms at night. This flower’s heavy scent is used in perfumes and is the inspiration for the varietal name. This Ye Lai Xiang is picked from Huang Ruiguang’s favorite high mountain plot in Wudongshan from older tree stock and meticulously hand finished by Master Huang's sons over 24 hours to bring out the deep aromatics. Master Huang's work in Dancong tasting and agriculture has won him countless awards and recognition, a biography in a 2015 published book on the history of Dancong, and leadership in every convention and tasting event in Guangdong. When Huang Ruiguang personally recommended this tea as a standout example of his reserve collection, it is hard to say no. Expect deep aromatics that linger for hours on the palate, cooling almost electric tingling yun sensation and a deep juicy sweetness that sets this tea apart. Tasting notes rarely do justice to the complexity on offer.

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Ba Xian Dancong (25g)

八仙 or Ba Xian references the eight Taoist immortals, a truly evocative name for a truly unique tea. Huang Ruiguang says that originally, there were eight trees growing next to each other, each with a different flavor and appearance, like the Taoist Immortals. Today, five of the eight original trees still remain. Huang Ruiguang’s tree has one of the most perfectly situated east-facing high elevation slopes on Wudongshan, earned for a lifetime of contribution to Fenghuang as an agricultural pioneer and master taster. His Ba Xian Dancong is lush and juicy, full of tropical flower and fruit flavors, coaxed out over 24 hours of intense hand processing.

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King of Thieves Dancong (25g)

贼王 or “King of Thieves" got its name from the famous story of a thief stealing this valuable tea tree in the middle of the night over 200 years ago, but leaving some of the roots and trunk in their haste to cut it down. King of Thieves growing today is said to have regrown from that little remaining root stock. This tea was hand picked and hand processed over 24 hours of intense labor to bring out its rich nuanced dessert-like flavor and spiced tropical undertones. The biodiversity of the high elevation Wudongshan plot give this tea deep cooling yun notes. Since only several kilos are picked each year, Huang Ruiguang personally oversees the 24 hour yaoqing finishing process, all without machinery, helping his two sons hone in on the striking one of a kind aromatics and texture that this tea has to offer.

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