Duck Shit, and the tea Plateau.

Soon enough, our tea list will hit a plateau. There isn’t much I feel I could change to diversify it without just being nitpicky and careless with our money. With our most recent order from Hojo Tea in Japan, we welcome the return of Asahina Gyokuro, and will list 3 of China’s most sought after and famous teas, all of very high quality. Xihu Long Jing, Anxi Tie Guan Yin, and the one I am most excited about: Feng Huang Dan Cong Ya Shi Xiang.

The tea list will be expanded to 21 loose leaf teas in total (though some will be discontinued when stock run out)

Feng Huang Dan Cong Ya Shi Xiang, let’s pick that name apart. Feng Huang means Phoenix. Dan Cong means the tea plant is allowed to grow like a wild tree, it isn’t pruned for ease of plucking. Ya Shi Xiang means ‘Fragrance of duck shit’ more or less. So in the end, the fragrance of duck shit tea from unpruned bushes in the phoenix mountain range.

There are 3 other things which are important to learn to understand the rest of this article.

1. Lao Cong means the original ‘mother tree’ which clones are taken from.
2. Wu Dong Mountain is 1 peak within the Phoenix mountain range in Eastern Guangdong. It is regarded as the best source of Phoenix Oolong, and the ideal altitude is between 1000 and 1500m.
3. Old trees give a more sought after flavor, because the plants energy is not focused on growth so much as it is staying alive.

A long time ago, the tea plant Camellia Sinensis var. Sinensis cv. Shui Xian was growing around the Wu Dong Mountain, in Eastern Guangdong . A seed from Shui Xian mutated and formed a new tea tree which would be the Lao Cong of Ya Shi Xiang. A farmer eventually harvested this tree to make tea, and found there was a remarkable flavor/fragrance in the leaf. When others learned of his tea, they approached him to find out the secret behind it, he told them the trick was adding large amounts of duck shit to the soil. Eventually his neighbors stopped believing his stories and cloned his tree, but they passed this story to all the outsiders who came.

Now, because of this cloning there are a lot of we’ll say… ‘duck shit children’ planted around the mountain (of highly varying ages) but, the trees plucked to make this tea in particular are approximately 350 years old (this goes back to the Medieval days sir). They come from an altitude of 1100m on the ever famous Wu Dong Mountain, and held back at least a year after harvest for flavor maturation by our dealer.

It comes in at a price point which is unexplored for us — and many of our guests no doubt. The purchase cost is nearly $275 for 120g (that works out to $2.29 per gram), putting our cost per pot at just over $10. For this to be feasible, we should sell it for around $25 per pot. Despite the price, I have high hopes for this tea and what it will do for our menu because at a very modest comparison, it’s the XO Cognac of the non alcoholic world.

My best experiences with tea have nearly all been with oolong, it has so much to offer no matter what style or country it’s from. Over my time developing the tea list at Q, I have had several outstanding teas, however only one had a taste profile I would describe as ‘nearly inconceivable’. It commanded total attention, but prevented any cohesive thought. The aroma lured me into a trance and filled me with a deep melancholy. That unforgettable tea is another Phoenix Oolong, it may bless our restaurant one day, albeit for $120 a pot! Let’s see how the duck shit goes first.