2025
2025 Snowflake Dan Cong
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A late-autumn pluck of Ya Shi Xiang dancong — the "Duck Shit Aroma" single-bush oolong from Phoenix Mountain in Guangdong. Concentrated orchid aroma on a soft roasted body.
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Bought in person from the farmer who made it, on a yearly sourcing trip to China.
Tasted before bought
We taste every lot ourselves before we buy, often against alternates from the same village.
Small lots, single origin
Every tea is named by its village, farmer, and harvest year. Never a warehouse blend.
What is Snowflake Dan Cong?
Dancong means "single-bush": Phoenix Mountain oolong picked from one tree rather than blended across a plot. Dancongs are organised by aroma category instead of cultivar, and the most famous category is Ya Shi Xiang, the "Duck Shit Aroma." The name was kept deliberately ugly to stop people stealing the bushes, and it stuck.
Snowflake, or Xue Pian, refers to the pluck. Most dancong is picked in spring. The Snowflake pluck comes off the same bushes in late autumn after the first frost, when the leaves are smaller and the aroma concentrates. The cup is more intense than the spring pluck and the finish is longer.
Why this tea
- 01
Ya Shi Xiang — the "Duck Shit Aroma" dancong
The most famous aroma category in Phoenix Mountain oolong, named to discourage thieves, kept because everyone already knew it.
- 02
Snowflake pluck
A late-autumn pick from the same bushes, with smaller leaves and a more concentrated cup than the spring pluck most people have tasted abroad.
- 03
From Pingkengtou Village
Picked and processed in the small Fenghuang-area village in Chao'an, Guangdong, where Ya Shi Xiang originally comes from.
Tasting Notes
Pale amber in the cup, almost gold. Orchid and ripe lychee come off the dry leaf, with a gardenia note underneath. Sweet body, soft roast, a long aromatic finish — the aroma stays in the empty cup for a few minutes after you've drunk it.
Oxidation
Stimulation
Fermentation
Body
Brewing Instructions
- Amount
- 5 gper 200 ml
- Temperature
- 90–95°C194–203°F
- Infusion Time
- 5 sec+5 sec each steep
- Infusions
- Up to 10
Rinse the leaves once with hot water before the first steep.
Aging & Storage
Keep sealed in a cool dark cupboard, away from heat, light, and anything strong-smelling. The aroma is the most fragile part of the cup, so a tight seal matters more here than for a heavier-roast Wuyi rock tea.
Origin
Origin
Pingkengtou Village, Guangdong
Cultivar
Wu Ye
Elevation
900 meters
In March 2026 we drove out to Pingkengtou Village in Phoenix town (Fenghuang), where Ya Shi Xiang dancong originally comes from. The category had been on our list for a while: there's nothing else in Chinese tea that tastes quite like it. Most of what's sold abroad as Duck Shit is either spring-pluck (less aromatic) or grown well outside Phoenix proper.
We tasted dozens of dancongs over the visit, most of them spring-pluck Ya Shi Xiang, which is what usually gets exported. The Snowflake came off the same bushes later in the season. It was sweeter than the spring pluck, with less of the bitter edge dancongs get when they're pushed, and the aroma sat on top of the cup instead of fighting it. We bought it at the table.
