Lao Cong Song Zhong in a beautiful small Chaozhou teapot. Both absolute highlights for me. I can say I had one of the best sessions of the year, with this setup on my balcony.
The tea: Song Zhong is one of the oldest cultivars used in Fenghuang Shan. As it’s name indicates it dates back to the Song Dynasty and there are a few Song Zhong mother trees on Wudong Shan and surroundings which are several hundred years old. This tea isn’t from one of those but from ca. 200 years old bushes and is sourced by Akira Hojo.
The teapot is from a unique artist in ChaoZhou. She makes super precise teapots and uses horizontal patterns for decoration! This is one of her smallest teapots with around 75ml, perfect for some real gongfucha sessions and around 6-7 gram of dancong.
A beauty of a tea pot and a great tea! The Lao cong song zhong is a light roasted dancong and has a ver fruity sweet smell! After the first infusions the leaves already open up a bit and reveal a beautiful range of colors, from green over yellow to red.
The first fragrances coming from the tea pot are amazing, a mixture of cotton candy and peach! The taste is first light and sweet but has a long finish. It is very refreshing and offers hints of white grapes and peach. Compared to many other Dancongs this one has almost zero astringency. A really beautiful tea, maybe on of the best best dancong oolongs I ever had!?
Final thoughts
Even though I often prefer heavier roasted Dancongs and also am a big fan of Mi Lan Xiang, this tea really impressed me! The subtle fruity flavors and the smell really reminded of a grape variety called cotton candy, for an old and original cultivar the taste profile is very clean and focused, maybe also cause it is made from only a few bushes. And the aftertaste with this tea is really nice and long; there is a strong sweetness sitting in the gums! Also I think this chaozhou clay worked quite well with this light roasted tea. So all in all a great session!
