Dan Cong vs Tie Guan Yin

Two aromatic Chinese oolongs from different provinces, one rolled and forgiving, the other strip-rolled and among the least forgiving teas there is.

tea

What is being compared

Both are called oolong, which hides that one is rolled and one is strip-rolled — a difference that changes brewing more than the province does.

Aspect	Phoenix Dan Cong	Tie Guan Yin
Where	Phoenix Mountain, Guangdong.	Anxi county, Fujian.
Leaf shape	Long twisted strips that extract fast.	Tight balls that open slowly over several infusions.
Aroma	Named aroma types — orchid, almond, honey orchid — intrinsic to the cultivar.	Lilac and cream, from low oxidation in the modern style.
Margin for error	Very small. A few seconds too long is genuinely bitter.	Wide. The slow-opening ball is a built-in safety margin.
Price	High, and steeply higher for old-bush material.	Moderate, with a very wide range.

Learn short steeps on Tie Guan Yin before spending money on Dan Cong. The techniques transfer and the cost of a mistake is far lower.

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