Hidden Cave Mother Bush Dancong

This is the most expensive dancong oolong we have ever sourced, the Aofuhou, or Hidden Cave is a true Single Bush production from one of Wen Zitong’s ancestral Mother Bushes.  We were fortunate enough to see this tree be picked and the maocha be processed by Wen Zitong this April, 2023.  This tea is so highly sought after, that the only way we could buy it was by being on the mountain and buying the tea in its maocha form immediately after its processing.  Even in its maocha form, this tea was impossibly sweet and sensational, we have had to wait several months for it to be properly sorted and roasted to transform it into the tea we have today.

The leaves are smaller and more slender than a lot of dancong oolong teas, but the aroma off the dry leaves is rich, deep, and surprisingly redolent of aged shuixian yancha.  There is a good deal of honecomb and vanilla wafer sweetness on the leaves, and as soon as hot water is added, this transforms into something much more savory like black pepper, leather,  and vanilla beans.

The brew is a darker gold bordering on amber, showing off the teas traditional heavy roasting.  The tea itself sits heavy on the tongue and delivers a quick and powerful huigan on the back on the throat.  There is the iconic laocong (old bush) mineral sweetness that lingers long and tingles the tongue.  The empty cup aroma left by this tea is strong and slow to fade redolent of candle wax and dried flowers.