Harvest Location: Fenghuang Shan, Guangdong, China
Harvest Date: Spring 2026
Cultivar: Mi Lan Xiang
Elevation:  1200m
 
Mi Lan Xiang (蜜兰香), or “Honey Orchid Fragrance,” is one of the best-known aroma types within the extraordinarily diverse world of Fenghuang Dancong. Despite its evocative name, no honey, orchid, or other flavoring is added to the tea. Its fragrance develops naturally through the interaction of plant material, mountain environment, leaf maturity, oxidation, roasting, and the skill of the producer.
 
This Spring 2026 Mi Lan Xiang has been given a darker roast, creating a noticeably different expression from the lighter, highly aromatic versions of Mi Lan Xiang commonly encountered today.
 
What does the darker roast change?
Mi Lan Xiang is naturally known for an expressive combination of floral fragrance, ripe fruit, honeyed sweetness, and a distinctive lingering aroma. A deeper roast doesn't simply add a roasted flavor—it transforms how those characteristics present themselves.
 
The brighter and more immediately floral notes of the fresh leaf become integrated with the effects of roasting, developing greater depth, warmth, body, and structure. Look for the relationship between honeyed and floral aromatics and deeper impressions of ripe or dried fruit, caramelized sweetness, warm wood, and roast as the session develops.
 
Good roasting should not bury the character of Mi Lan Xiang. As the early roast notes recede through successive infusions, the underlying personality of the tea should increasingly emerge.
 
Fenghuang and the Dancong tradition
Fenghuang Dancong comes from the mountainous Fenghuang region of Chaozhou in eastern Guangdong, where tea cultivation and Chaozhou Gongfu tea culture have developed together over generations.
 
Dancong teas are particularly fascinating for their extraordinary aromatic diversity. Different selections and lineages have traditionally been recognized according to distinctive natural fragrance characteristics, giving rise to names such as Mi Lan Xiang, Ya Shi Xiang, and others.
 
For NYTS, Dancong is also a wonderful expression of what Gongfu means beyond brewing technique. The skill begins long before the tea reaches our table—from cultivation and harvesting through withering, bruising, oxidation, firing, and roasting. The brewer is simply the final step. Let's not mess it up. 😉
 
In the cup
Rather than looking only for the famous “honey-orchid” aroma, follow this tea through the entire session. Pay attention to the transition from roast and deeper fruit in the early infusions toward floral sweetness, texture, returning sweetness (hui gan), and persistent fragrance as the leaves open.
 
Learn before you brew: Explore the NYTS guide to Fenghuang Dancong, watch Yi Tian Yi Cha, and browse the NYTS Tea Education Library. You can also explore the Virtual Tea Club.