Phoenix Black Tea

Most people associate black tea with its dry tannins, floral aroma, with a reliably one note profile. This black tea will make you reconsider everything about what you think black tea is, and make you fall back in love with it harder. 

Sweet honey aroma, woody depth, subtle mango citrus notes on top, with the sweetness of honey nuttiness of peanuts that lingers in your mouth. The layered complexity and natural sweetness makes it hard to believe that this black tea was able to achieve this completely naturally, without any added flavors. The experience drinking the tea itself is something thats hard to experience with black tea. This Phoenix black tea has good mouthfeel and body that coats the tongue and goes down very smooth without the drying sensation usually associated with drinking black tea. Another unique aspect of this tea is the almost cooling sensation you get from the back of the mouth to the throat when drinking this tea, despite it being brewed hot. This cooling sensation is similar to the cooling feeling you’ll get when eating certain spices like cinnamon, ginger, or star anise. 

This Phoenix Black Tea (凤凰红茶) is produced in the Phoenix Mountain region of Chaozhou, Guangdong, famous for its high-quality tea varieties and shares its roots with the well-known Phoenix Dancong Oolong. The tea has a bright, reddish-gold color with a sweet, honey aroma and a smooth, rich flavor. Its production process is similar to other black teas but retains the distinct characteristics of the local terroir that makes this black tea so unique.

This black tea is well-suited for Gongfu-style brewing, cold brewing, and grandpa-style steeping. Due to its high quality, this tea is very adaptable to varying temperatures and brew methods, making it a great pick for tea drinkers of all levels. 

To brew this Gongfu-style, use 5 grams of tea leaves in a 90ml gaiwan with 205°F (96°C) water. If rinsing this tea how you traditionally would in China, rinse the tea quickly with lower temperature water (around 190°F/88°C) so that you won’t rinse out too much of the flavor. However, skipping this step and going straight to brewing won’t affect the taste of the tea negatively either. This is up to personal preference. Then steep the tea for 15-20 seconds before pouring. 

To brew grandpa style, put the 5 grams of tea leaves directly into a glass/mug and fill with 205°F (96°C) water and leave enough room on top to comfortably hold the hot cup (about 300 ml/g of water total). Then enjoy the tea directly from your cup at varying stages of the infusion without worrying about this tea ever becoming bitter from “over-steeping” (unimaginable to be able to say this about black tea). 

For those who enjoy cold drinks in the warmer months, the Phoenix black tea makes a great cold brew as well. Since it is a black tea, in order to extract all the flavor, you will need to shock the tea leaves with hot water (205°F/96°C) with just enough hot water to submerge the tea leaves. Let it steep for 2 minutes, then fill the rest of the bottle with room temperature water and keep in the fridge. 

With a tea thats so easy to handle and a black tea experience this different, this Phoenix Black Tea is a must-have in your tea collection.