An annual pilgrimage to Wudong for the five-cultivar set
This set comes from the ancient tea terraces of Wudong Mountain, the heart of Phoenix dancong country, where narrow paths run between Mí Lán Xiāng bushes whose leaves carry the memory of honey orchids, past the old Yā Shǐ Xiāng tree that gave the celebrated ‘duck shit’ cultivar its name. It draws on five families of fragrance — honey orchid, duck shit, gardenia, magnolia, and cymbidium — each originating from a single mother bush. The leaves are hand-plucked during a ten-day window in late April, when the high-elevation mists concentrate their aromatic oils. Processing follows the meticulous dancong tradition: withering on bamboo trays, gentle shaking, hot-pan kill-green, hand-rolling into tight strips, and final roasting over lychee-wood charcoal. Every batch is tasted before the sampler is assembled, ensuring each 20g pouch captures the distinct personality of its cultivar. What arrives in your hands is not a faceless flight but a map of Wudong’s fragrance villages.