Testimonials

A True Delight to Taste & Smell Senses!
There are a few teas that truly delight the senses. This is one of them! The tasting notes are varied, blending on top of one another, subtle and yet distinctive.

This tea became one of my favorite floral Dan Congs. Most of the mostly floral Dan Congs from other vendors that I've tried have the tendency to taste quite one-dimensional. So after a few infusions their taste becomes less complex and less interesting. This tea is quite different because its taste becomes more complex in the later infusions. It starts with a very strong floral aroma and in the second or third infusion some slightly fruity and honey-like undertones add more interesting dimensions to the taste that still don't distract from its elegant and calming floral aroma. The aroma is very clear with lots of high notes that give it a quite noble taste.

I prefer to brew it in Chaozhou clay to preserve the high aromatic notes while giving the tea a thicker more honey-like texture in the mouth feel.

It is a great tea to relax and calm the mind. It is quite easy to brew, doesn't turn bitter when brewed too hot or too long. This makes it a great tea to have during philosophical conversations with friends.

This tea sings

There is not much I can add to the official description of this rare and fine tea. It is all the things described -- mellow, floral tones, undulating earth tones. I have a bowl of Honey Orchid Supreme going at work today. The first two infusions delivered exactly what was promised. I poured water for my third infusion but got sidetracked into a meeting, so let it steep too long. Surprisingly, this "over-steeped" infusion was strong, yes, but never crossed the line into unpleasant bitterness. As described, it fully revealed itself with longer steeping. This tea is complex and a pleasure to drink. It will give you what you ask of it -- a soft and mellow experience or a quizzical moment as you try to define its complexity with a stronger-brewed cup. Either way, it is sure to ping your happy place. Every tea from Tea Hong has delighted. I now mourn all the years I wasted drinking "shadow-of-tea-powder" that comes in a typical western tea bag. I can never go back to that now.

Excellent tea

果如所言，2014的宋種，確較往上幾年好飲、且更耐沖泡，沖至六七泡，後勁淩厲，餘香猶在。

One of the few teas that made my heart skip a beat, or shed a tear in pure admiration. Everything about this tea is graceful, refined and elegant. I was shocked since the entry is quiet and subdued, but the mid to late palate is so smooth and gentle with veritable depth. I've never thought that an oolong could emulate a gushu pu'erh. Too many plantation teas smack you in the face with their sappy, candy-like fragrance. This one is the definition of minerality and long aftertaste.

A very special experience for a seasoned tea drinker who has been around the block with both Fenghuang and Taiwanese oolong.

The experience this dancong offers is one that extends far beyond just what is possible to perceive in the cup. You may smell and taste one thing, but if you understand what this is, it will open your mind up to a completely unchartered territory that no other dancong can access, and no other vendor can offer. I have yet to find Wulong genetics elsewhere in a Western-facing market; and even if I could, I sincerely doubt the quality would be the same as what Tea Hong offers.

In other words, this dancong is ridiculously good. What we have here is a genetic fork-in-the-road which represents a thousand-ish year old evolution of genetics that are separate from what normally defines Fenghuang oolong. This is not a Shui Xian hybrid... this is entirely different, and it shows across the full session.

Creamy, buttery, exceptionally round and smooth with tons and tons of exquisite nuances, this harmonizes the subtleties that only the highest caliber dancong and Taiwanese high-mountain oolongs can bring into existence.

It has the powerful minerality and complex mouthfeel that defines premium dancong, coupled with the graceful elegance that make Taiwanese high-mountain oolongs so desirable and expensive, in perfect equilibrium that both balances each other out and accentuates the differences in such a profound way that it becomes impossible to describe, and only possible to experience.

You simply must try this.

A bearer of of satisfaction and contentment in a cup, this BaXian is undoubtedly worthy of its namesake and high praise. Thank you for offering such an amazing tea!

With this tea, I got other people into tea 🙂

This tea is delicious. It's fruity, peach-y, floral, complex, interesting, and has a great mouth feel. The color of the liquor...just wow. It's like peach juice, or plum juice, or something like that. It's perhaps the most attractive looking liquor of any tea I have had yet. This is a tea that I would consistently keep in my personal stash at home.

I actually have a fun story about this tea! So, here in the United States, especially where I am from (Ohio), there are not a lot of people who drink tea (let alone good quality loose leaf). I am always trying to get new people into tea when I have the opportunity. Recently, an opportunity came for me to do so - I made and served tea gongfu style at a Chinese New Year event at my university's medical center that my school's Confucius Institute held. The event included several different tables set up to show off different aspects of Chinese culture. At my table, I had my gongfu setup and brewed tea for the medical students walking through the lobby. I had a sample of the Honey Orchid Supreme that I brought with me, and I pulled it out when I started to get a lot of people around my table. I brewed it up in front of everyone, showing off the beautiful color of this tea in my glass cha hai. I only had around 3g or so left from the sample, and I was worried that it would be too light. However I adjusted the timing, and when I poured some tea into my cup and tasted it, I experienced a wonderfully fruity, aromatic, and interesting flavor, very smooth. I quickly poured out some cups for others to try. The people that first tried it told me that they were amazed that tea could taste like that, and that they had no idea tea could be so naturally fruity and delicious! These people had most likely only ever had tea bags before, so this tea really amazed them. Some people that I handed the tea to stood by the table and talked with me for more than an hour, asking me about the tea and about how they could do this at home. I was able to introduce several people to the work of good quality tea this way, and I made sure to let them know where I got the tea - Tea Hong. I hope these people got inspired to go home and start exploring the world of tea and gongfu brewing, and perhaps they will order some tea from Tea Hong and be wowed some more 😉

Anyway that's my story, I hope it wasn't too boring 😉 I was able to share the experience of tasting great quality tea with these medical students who had likely never had such tea before. I hope I can inspire more people to get into gongfu brewing like this. Great teas like this one have the ability to change people's opinions about tea in general, and inspire others to start exploring the world of tea!

This quickly became my favorite Gaiwan.

The design is wonderful and reminds us to connect with nature. It is easy to decant due to the perfect shape of the lid.

The only wish I would have is for a slightly smaller version of the same design, maybe around 100ml for smaller gongfu sessions.

This tea is like medicine for the soul. It’s a very complex and intriguing experience, worthy of having a focused session where you can really pay attention to the intricacies that would otherwise get lost in the midst of a busy mind.

This is a very powerful dancong, with an incredibly thick and sappy flavor profile that is reminiscent of blooming jasmine and fresh-cut chrysanthemum flowers, drenched in eucalyptus, Chinese liquorice, and wintergreen oils, then rolled in pine needles and left on top of a wet rock to bake in the heat of a hot summer day before being soaked in mint-infused pear blossom honey.

That may sound like a strange description, but this is such a complex tea. It marries powerful, resinous, and sappy textures together with bright, lively, and crisp florals into a harmonized experience that perfectly balances the yin and yang found only within the top tiers of dancong.

Tea Hong’s Ye Lai has a powerful mouthfeel with a graceful presence, and a strong minerality with a lingering sweetness that is persistent, seemingly emanating from the gums and coating the entire throat.

Everything about this tea is superb and should not be missed. I am careful to not even drink plain water for at least an hour after my session; the sensation on the palate is divine.

Stunning & memorable (2011 version)

This is an outstanding tea that is unlike and better than any other Wuyi oolong I've tasted (with the possible exception of Tea Hong's Sacred Lily). It infuses forever, and somehow manages to display lasting aromatic characters alongside power and intensity, but with no element dominant and no intrusive charcoal. Every mouthful is pleasurable. It's worth every cent.

Ask Yourself

When seeking evenness of mind and a better disposition, ask yourself which tea might help you face the day with strength and calm. No tea may be more suited to the task than Alishan Guanyin.

Nine grams of this beaded beauty produce a liquor the color of an orange-amber sunrise. The vessel lid offers the smell of warm vanilla and a refined perfume of iris, oak moss and cedar wood – a scent worthy of dabbing onto the skin.

This tea whispers balance; its gentle steam patiently waiting to be inhaled. Ask, and Alishan will deliver perfectly even doses of quiet insight to both nostrils. A fresh morning breeze wafts over with subtle, smoldering hints of a distant bonfire.

Next is a fleeting mouthful of sweet summer peaches dissolving into a slightly smoky, spicy-clean aftertaste balanced on the tip of the tongue, mid-palate and throat.

Notice the transformation of the tiny, toasty tadpoles as they make a magical metamorphosis in your mug. They swell into wild, squiggly creatures of dark slate green. Balance gives way to spontaneity as these friendly, appealing leaf-beings inspire your free spirit. If you don’t believe me, ask them yourself.