---
title: "Fènghuáng dāncóng"
url: https://thetea.app/article/fenghuang-dancong
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-01
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Fènghuáng dāncóng (凤凰单丛)

*Fènghuáng [dāncóng](https://thetea.app/article/dancong)* (凤凰单丛) is an aromatic oolong from the Fenghuang Mountains (凤凰山) of Chaozhou prefecture-level city in the east of Guangdong Province. The name is explained by the old custom of “picking, making and selling tea from a single bush” (单株采摘、单株制茶、单株销售). For the variety of its natural floral aromas it is called “the perfume among teas” (茶中香水). Since 2010 “凤凰单丛（枞）茶” has been a geographical indication product, and since 2021 it has also been protected in the European Union. An overview of the whole *dāncóng* group and the certification mark of the prefecture are described separately (section 13).

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** Oolong (乌龙茶, *wūlóngchá*), a semi-fermented tea — this is how the class is named in the description by the Mission of the PRC to the EU.
* **Category:** Guangdong oolong of the *dāncóng* group; geographical indication product.
* **Origin:** China, Guangdong Province (广东, *Guǎngdōng*), Chaozhou prefecture-level city (潮州, *Cháozhōu*), the Fenghuang Mountains.
* **Protection zone:** Under the municipal protection rules in force since 10 May 2025 — 30 towns and tea districts. In Chao'an District (潮安区) these are Fenghuang Town, six more towns, the Wanfeng forest farm and two areas of Fengxi Town; in Raoping County (饶平县) — 15 towns, including Fubin; in Xiangqiao District (湘桥区) — Qiaodong Subdistrict and four towns.
* **Best site:** In popular descriptions — Wudong Mountain (乌岽, *Wūdōng*) near Fenghuang Town.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **Legend.** According to legend, the last Song emperor, Zhao Bing, fleeing to the south, suffered from thirst on Wudong Mountain; the mountain people offered him a brew of the tea “hongyin” (红茵), and he gave the tea the name “Song tea” (宋茶). The PRC Mission writes that tea growing in Chaozhou was begun by the ancestors of the She people (畲族) and that tea was planted here, “according to legend” (相传), as early as the Song — more than 900 years ago.
    * **Around 1582.** An early written testimony is *Miscellaneous Notes on Chao* (潮中杂记) by Guo Zizhang (郭子章): in Chaozhou tea is little valued, but the tea of the Fengshan mountains is good; it is called both “Daizhao Mountain tea” (待诏山茶) and “yellow tea” (黄茶).
    * **Late Ming — early Qing.** According to a publication in *Jiemian*, “yellow tea” began to be made by the *zuò qīng* (做青) method — by tossing and resting the leaf; this is considered the beginning of Chaozhou oolong.
    * **Qing.** According to the Guangdong regional portal, in the Tongzhi and Guangxu years tea growers began to pick, make and sell tea by individual bushes and to give names to the best bushes; hence the name “*dāncóng*”.
    * **2010.** On 6 April the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine placed the tea under protection by announcement No. 30.
    * **2014.** According to *Jiemian*, in May the market name of the “duck droppings” aroma (鸭屎香) was replaced with “honeysuckle aroma” (银花香).
    * **2020–2021.** The tea was included in the first “100+100” list of the China–EU agreement on geographical indications; the agreement entered into force on 1 March 2021.
    * **2021.** On 8 April the municipal standard was issued (section 5); by June, according to the portal of the PRC Ministry of Commerce, 61 tea companies had the right to the mark. On 11 November four tea associations of the prefecture issued the group standards “Quality Grading” (T/CZTTBZ 001—2021) and “Naming Rules” (T/CZTTBZ 002—2021), in force from 2 December.
    * **2025.** New protection rules are in force from 10 May until 31 December 2029.
* **Name:** 凤凰 (*fènghuáng*) means “phoenix”, the name of the mountains; 单丛 (*dāncóng*) means “single bush”.
* **Cultural significance:** The tea is inseparable from Chaozhou gongfu tea (潮州[工夫茶](https://thetea.app/article/gongfu-cha)); the PRC Mission writes of its “twenty-one brewing techniques”.

**3. Botanical Description and Raw Material:**

* **Variety / Cultivar:** *Dāncóng* are selected plants of the *[fènghuáng shuǐxiān](https://thetea.app/article/fenghuang-shuixian)* (凤凰[水仙](https://thetea.app/article/shui-xian)) population. By karyotype, as *Jiemian* writes, this population is closer to tree-type large-leaf varieties than to small-leaf ones. The PRC Mission counts more than 80 lines (品系).
* **Bush names:** According to the Guangdong regional portal, lines are named after the shape of the leaf (山茄叶, 柚叶, [竹叶](https://thetea.app/article/zhuye)), the aroma, the place, the owner, history and legend. There are also poetic names: “Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea” (八仙过海) — according to the table of old bushes, this was the name given in 1958 to a line from eight cuttings that took root in 1898: the trees look different, but the tea from all of them is good.
* **Oldest tree:** “Wudong Songcha” (乌岽宋茶), in reference books “Songzhong No. 1” (宋种1号). According to the table of old bushes in the appendix to the grading standard, taken from the reference book “潮州茶叶” (2009), it grows in Lizaiping village (李仔坪) on Wudong at an altitude of about 1150 m and is more than 600 years old; for the shape of its leaf it was called “Tuanshuye” (团树叶), during the “Cultural Revolution” it was renamed “Dongfanghong” (东方红), and the record spring harvest of 1963 gave 8.9 kg of dry tea. The same source says that, according to legend, the tree was selected at the end of the Song by villagers surnamed Li. Popular descriptions call it a large-leaf natural hybrid and give its age as 600–700 years.
* **White-leaf variety:** According to the same table, Raoping farmers selected Lingtou Dancong from the *fènghuáng shuǐxiān* population; in the 1970s it was planted on a mass scale in the Fenghuang area under the name “white-leaf *dāncóng*” (白叶单丛), and the reference book calls it the main variety of the gardens of the area.
* **Seasons:** According to the appendix to the grading standard, the two top grades are made from spring tea of old bushes of the main area, the first grade from spring tea of the main area; the second grade admits autumn and winter, “snow”, tea, the third — for example, summer tea and tea from areas other than the main one.
* **Harvest standard:** No data in the sources consulted.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:**

* **Region:** The Fenghuang Mountains in Chaozhou prefecture-level city.
* **Environmental requirements:** The municipal standard DB4451/T 1-2021 sets requirements for the environment, but their figures are not found in the sources consulted.
* **Climate:** No numerical data in the sources consulted.
* **Area:** According to the portal *Zhongguo Zhiliang Xinwen* (中国质量新闻网), at the end of 2023 — 260,000 *mu* of gardens and 30,100 t of dry crude tea a year.

**5. Production Technology:**

According to the reference description of the product on the geographical indications portal, primary processing comprises six stages. The standard DB4451/T 1-2021 separately regulates processing (加工工艺), but the parameters of the stages are not found in the sources consulted.

1. **Sun withering ([晒青](https://thetea.app/article/shai-qing), *shàiqīng*).**
2. **Cooling (晾青, *liàngqīng*).**
3. **Tossing and resting (做青, *zuòqīng*):** The stage of partial oxidation.
4. **Fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*).**
5. **Rolling (揉捻, *róuniǎn*).**
6. **Drying and baking (烘焙, *hōngbèi*).**

The conditions of the stages for this tea are not described in the sources consulted; the notes on them follow the general scheme of the class.

**Standards:**

* **DB44/T 820-2010** — the provincial standard for the geographical indication product: issued on 11 November 2010, in force from 1 February 2011; in 2021, according to the portal of the PRC Ministry of Commerce, it was decided to repeal it, and in the national standards database it is listed as repealed from 1 February 2023.
* **DB4451/T 1-2021** — the municipal standard of 8 April 2021, in force since 8 October 2021: zone, environment, cultivation, processing, quality, testing, labeling and storage.

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

According to the description by the PRC Mission to the EU:

* **Dry leaf appearance:** Straight, large and fleshy, oily and lustrous (挺直肥硕油润).
* **Dry leaf aroma:** No data in the sources consulted.
* **Liquor aroma:** An elegant, clean and high natural floral aroma (优雅清高的自然花香).
* **Taste:** Rich, sweet, mellow, refreshing, with a sweet return (浓郁、甘醇、爽口、回甘). The main quality is the “mountain rhyme” (山韵, *shānyùn*), which, in the words of the source, “can only be felt”.
* **Liquor color:** Orange-yellow, clear and bright (橙黄清澈明亮).
* **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** “Green stalk, green belly, red edging” (青蒂绿腹红镶边).

**Grades under the grading standard.** The 2021 group standard divides the tea into five grades: “jingpin” (精品, *jīngpǐn*), highest, first, second and third. *Jīngpǐn* has a dense, firm, oily-brown leaf, a natural floral aroma that is rich, deep and long, a taste with a vivid “bush” character and a strong sweet return, a pale yellow liquor and an even edging on the spent leaves. The liquor of the highest grade is golden, of the first orange-yellow, of the third brownish yellow, and the taste of the third grade is slightly astringent, with a light floral note. The reference description of the product adds a yellowish-brown, oily and lustrous color of the dry leaf with “cinnabar-red dots” (朱砂红点).

**Aroma types.** According to popular retellings, in 1996 the agricultural bureau of Chao'an County and the government of Fenghuang Town spent 18 months surveying the tea resources of 34 villages; from an analysis of 5120 bushes they identified 18 aroma types: 8 floral-honey, 4 “medicinal”, 3 fruity and 3 others. The rare types later dropped out, and the “ten aromas” became established: gardenia (黄栀香), zhilan orchid (芝兰香), honey orchid (蜜兰香), osmanthus ([桂花](https://thetea.app/article/guihua)香), magnolia (玉兰香), ginger flower (姜花香), night-blooming flower (夜来香), jasmine (茉莉香), almond (杏仁香) and cinnamon ([肉桂](https://thetea.app/article/rou-gui)香). In some versions pomelo flower (柚花香) stands in place of jasmine. The ten with jasmine, “and other types”, was fixed by the 2021 group naming standard.

**7. Chemical Composition:**

The 2021 group quality grading standard sets for all grades: moisture — no more than 7.0%, dust — no more than 1.3%, water extract — not less than 30.0%, crude fiber — no more than 16.0%, tea polyphenols — not less than 16.0%, total ash — no more than 6.5%. The figures of the municipal standard DB4451/T 1-2021 are not found in the sources consulted; nor are data on caffeine and amino acids.

**8. Health Properties:**

There are no verified data on the effects of this particular tea.

**9. Brewing:**

Class practice for oolong.

* **Water temperature:** 95–100 °C.
* **Tea amount:** 5–8 g per 100–120 ml.
* **Teaware:** Gaiwan or a small clay teapot.
* **Process:**
    1. Warm the teaware.
    2. Add the tea and quickly rinse it with hot water.
    3. First infusions — 10–20 seconds, pour off the liquor completely.
    4. Add a little time with each infusion.

**10. Storage:**

Class practice for oolong. In airtight packaging, in a cool, dark and dry place, away from foreign odors.

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

No retail prices in the sources consulted.

* **How to avoid counterfeits:**
    * Protected origin is confirmed only by the special mark of the geographical indication product; the name on the packaging alone is not enough. In 2021 the market supervision bureau of Raoping County refused to open a case on a complaint about tea named “凤凰单丛”: it had been produced under the recommended general standard for *dāncóng*, GB/T 30357.6-2017, there was no indication mark on the packaging, and the labeling and quality complied with the law.
    * The producer must operate within the protection zone. Under the 2025 protection rules, the packaging must carry both the indication mark and the name “凤凰单丛（枞）茶”, and the label must carry the number of the standard or of the protection announcement.
    * According to the municipal authorities, use of the mark is authorized for 225 companies, 49 of them in 2024; in the same year 179 retail outlets were inspected and one case of unlawful use of the mark was opened.
    * Under the grading standard, tea with added flavorings or coloring is defective: the aroma of *dāncóng* must be natural.
    * The PRC Mission calls the “mountain rhyme” the key to the quality of Fenghuang tea, but this is a quality of taste, not a measurable one.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* A batch of *Fènghuáng dāncóng* seeds, according to the PRC Mission, has been to space aboard the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft.
* The “duck droppings” aroma was renamed in 2014, but the old name lives on in the trade.
* The name of the product is written with two characters — 丛 and 枞, and both variants stand in the title of the standard.
* The naming standard allows the tea to be named after the historical name of the bush, after the aroma, after the place, the appearance of the leaf or tree, or a cultural feature together with the aroma — or by a generally accepted nickname; among the examples is also “鸭屎香”.

**13. Comparison with Other Dancong Teas:**

* **Dan Cong (单枞):** The corpus overview article on the whole *dāncóng* group.
* **Chaozhou Dancong Cha ([潮州单丛茶](https://thetea.app/article/chaozhou-dancong-cha)):** The certification mark of the prefecture — a separate registration, without the Fenghuang Mountains in the name.
* **Fenghuang Shuixian (凤凰水仙):** The population from which the *dāncóng* were selected.
* **Lingtou Dan Cong ([岭头单丛](https://thetea.app/article/lingtou-dan-cong)):** *Dāncóng* of Raoping County.
* **Xingning Dan Cong ([兴宁单丛](https://thetea.app/article/xingning-dan-cong)):** *Dāncóng* of Meizhou prefecture-level city, outside the protection zone.

**In Conclusion:**

*Fènghuáng dāncóng* is an oolong with dozens of lines and with bushes that have their own names. The most reliable statements about it come from legal documents: protection since 2010, the 2021 standard, a zone of 30 towns, the first list of the agreement with the European Union. On the past — the age of the old trees, the Song legend — the sources diverge. The buyer should remember the main thing: the name on the pack is not yet the indication; the indication is the mark.