It's All About Tea

Duck Shit Oolong (鸭屎香 – Ya Shi Xiang) – is one of the most fragrant oolongs in the world: honey-sweet, gardenia-floral, and named by a farmer trying to protect his prized tea trees from thieves. This is the story behind the name, the tea, and what makes Phoenix Dan Cong so special. (Read more)

Tea bags account for close to 95% of all tea sold in the U.S., but they usually contain the cheapest material possible, delivering little more than a brown liquid. Here's a brief history of how tea bags came to dominate the market, and why high-quality loose-leaf tea is worth the switch. (Read more)

Yellow tea (黄茶 – Huang Cha) is the rarest of China's six tea types, less than 1% of the country's tea. It's made like green tea with one extra step, Men Huang (sealed yellowing), which takes away the grassy edge and leaves a smoother, sweeter cup. Here's how it's made and which yellow teas to try. (Read more)

Both Sheng and Shou Pu-erh start from the same Da Ye Zhong leaf, but they part ways at a single step – fermentation. One ages slowly and naturally; the other is fermented quickly through a process called wet-piling. The result: two very different teas. (Read more)

It is very easy to spoil perfectly good tea. But the good news is that making good tea is not so hard either. Just follow the basic principles for brewing tea, and you’ll be able to enjoy all teas at their fullest potential! (Read more)