Light Roast Da Hong Pao

Most tea lovers in my area become addicted in the same way. They were introduced to tea other than tea bags in tea-houses or by friends. Most of us started with simpler and cheaper teas and only gradually learned how to enjoy expensive high quality specialties.



But in search of great tea the tea lover should never underestimate the cheap ones. Happens, not often, but nonetheless, that even among them we can find real treasures. One of them is this light roasted Da Hong Pao, sold by Yunnan Sourcing. When I first tasted it, I immediately realized that I discovered something special. Fortunately for me, I already got half pound of this Wu Yi Rock tea.

Of course, you can’t expect a masterpiece, "just" a really good everyday tea. Yet, in this category, it’s among the best that I drank over last two or three years.



Leaves are uniform, whole (the post office workers handled this parcel with less aggressively than they usually do) and they carry pleasant fruity-floral aroma. Actually, fruits and flowers can be found in all characteristics of this oolong, giving it balanced, fresh and energetic taste with pleasant mild bitterness.

Actually, mostly due the very light roast, the taste of the tea differs from the usual Da Hong Pao taste quite a lot, being much closer to the taste of Dan Cong teas. This Dan Congish taste is totally unexpected, especially given the price.



Durability of leaves is reasonable, giving 5-7 good brews in gaiwan or yixing teapot, and only then are the last bitter and fruity flavors lost and the tea transforms to a sweet and refreshing juice.

I apologize for slightly propagandistic nature of this article, but I am really excited about this tea and I wanted to share my feelings.

Oolong speculations

A very disturbing article about speculation with prices of Taiwan oolong teas can be found at TC Formosa Tea. I hope this will not become a regular activity next years and we will be able to acquire a good quality lishan tea in next years.

2009 Wen Shan Fo Shou

I had the Fo Shou (Buddha hand) oolong harvested in summer 2009 in Wen Shan area of Taiwan. I got this tea from a local vendor, Longfeng, who delivered me lots of great teas before. This particular oolong is hand harvested and home roasted.



The leaves are small and even with light fruity smell. I prepared this tea “Czech tea-house style” – it is actually a gong-fu preparation in a yixing teapot, though gaiwan is more often used - mostly because good gaiwan is cheaper than a good yixing teapot. There is one specific though - the water used during preparation is kept hot in a glass pitcher with a tea candle lit under it. Because of this, the water isn’t boiling, so you have to use longer steeping times and more leaves.

This style of tea making has two major benefits – one do not have to care reheating the water and also there is no danger of burning the tea leaves.



This is a quite good oolong – lasted for 8 good infusions, with clear soup and very fresh and fruity aroma. The roasted taste was nearly undetectable. I liked this one a lot.

2008 Spring Pin-Lin Bao Zhong

As far as I can remember, I never drank Bao Zhong oolong before. But I found a really inviting quote on Another Tea Blog about how Bao zhong tea tastes.

I took a whiff and said, "Fuck me." It smelled good.

That made me curious. So, when I made my last order from Guang, I also order 2oz of his Bao Zhong. Because of the small price difference between the Premium and Grade A batches, I have chosen the better one.



Bao Zhong teas, also misspelled as Pouchong teas on European markets are slightly oxidized high mountain oolongs with leaves in stripe forms. My Bao Zhong was slightly crushed, but fortunately most of the leaves survived the journey.

The leaves are very dark green, really very dark green. When I opened the bag, the smell made me to tell Oooh. It’s quite hard to describe, it is very floral and very alive. Exotic flowers in their top form.

I’m still testing the 80cc teapot – I have to find the correct amount of leaves used in teapot of this size. Today I decided to use 4.5 grams of leaves. I may use less, but I wanted this tea to be powerful today.

Some oolongs smell better than they taste, but again this one is not that case. The smell of liquor is very similar to the smell of leaves, alive, floral, young with touch of exotic flowers. The color of liquor is greenish-yellow, very clean. The body of the tea is floral with a touch of citrus, it’s more complex than an average oolong is.



The tea lasted about ten infusions. It could stay a bit longer, but not much and I do not wanted to spoil today’s wonderful experience with some off-taste late brews. I can still feel the aftertaste – this was my first Bao Zhong experience, but I hope it isn’t the last. I do have some 70’s and 80’s aged Bao Zhong I was keeping for the right moment – I think I will give them a chance.

2007 Winter Li-Shan "Da Yu Ling" Oolong

I got a sample of this winter oolong from Guang. Although this batch is already sold out, on HouDeAsianArt spring 2007 and spring 2008 batches are still available. On the other hands, the spring batches could brew different tea than the winter batch. And how does the winter batch taste?



I prepared this oolong in my new über-small teapot, so I used only 4 grams of leaves on 80cc teapot. Still I was able to produce about 10 good infusions, starting with 15 sec and continually prolonging the time. The new teapot produces nice tea, yet I still need a lot of time to use it up to it’s full potential.

Back to the tea. Some oolongs smell much better than taste; fortunately, this one belongs to the category “awesome smell, very good taste”. The very light yellow liquor smells like orchids with touch of citrus fruits. Some might find the oolong tea a bit simple, but it provides long lasting pleasure over complexity. The stronger winter leaves lasts for many infusions. I made ten of them and each one was good.



I liked this oolong. It’s expensive, but it’s worth the money for a real connoisseur.

GABA

GABA. I like how it sounds. GABA. It could be an alien race from Star Wars. Or a 50’s Japanese monster, younger brother to Godzilla. But no, this GABA is drinkable and sold by Hou De. It’s a Taiwanese chin-shin cultivar oolong, one of the cheaper ones.



According to Guang, the history of GABA oolongs is quite special. In 80’s Japanese scientist discovered, that GABA oolongs can help alleviate hypertension by relaxing blood pressure. While in early 90’s the oolong wasn’t very tasty, in later years the producing skills improved a lot and now the GABA oolongs have very special taste and feel. Please, read more at Guang's page.

Also, this one wasn’t too expensive, so I purchased 100 grams. I switched to high mountain oolongs at my work, so getting good and inexpensive tea is crucial for me. And this one was a great choice!

This double-fermented oolong has unique aroma. It’s excessively sweet, with a touch of ripe fruits but without any flowery smell or taste. The liquor is clear, creamy and buttery with a touch of caramel. Certainly this isn’t a good choice for those who like strong tea. Yesterday I forgot about my third infusion and it steeped for 15, maybe 20 minutes. The tea was still drinkable and I was able to squeeze other 4 good infusions from those leaves. I should note there, that I prepared it in yixing teapot with leaves anough to fully fill the teapot.



This is my favorite amongst 2008 oolongs I drunk yet, I can only reccomend it.

By the way, GABA means Gamma-aminobutyric acid, it's the "healthy element" of this tea and you can read more about it in Wikipedia.

2008 HouDe Dong Ding

I got this oolong from Hou De few weeks ago. I drunk Dong Ding oolong from Hou De last year and I liked it really much. It was very pleasant, very sweet, nearly candy like tea.

The Dong Ding (literally Frozen Summit - 冻顶 or 凍頂, source: Tea Babelcarp) is a traditional medium roasted Taiwan oolong. As the site claims, the Nantou style Dong Ding oolong was produced in January 2008 in Taiwan.

The character of this vintage is quite different from the one I bought last year. The tea produces dark yellow, nearly amber liquor. The taste is sweet, slightly caramel with fruity undertones. The aftertaste is strong and leaves an acidic citrus feeling in the mouth. I feel this tea is pushed from the “caramel” to “fruity” side, like the roasting was lighter this year. Altogether I like the change, especially the aftertaste.

I like this tea – the price is nice, so it’s affordable as an everyday beverage, yet the quality of the leaves and the taste is still good to very good. I prepare this tea using 4-6 grams of dry leaves in 120cc yixing, mostly making 8-9 infusions.

Handcrafted tea

My very favorite teas are (not in any particular order):

• sheng pu-erh
  
• dan cong oolongs
  
• wu yi oolongs
  
• anxi oolongs
  
• first flush darjeelings
  

And I especially love high quality teas. They are mostly much better than those of the low grade. And still, one gong fu session of very high grade tea can cost less than a bottle of so-so wine.



This evening I had very high grade of Rou Gui I obtained from Guang. This is a highest grade of spring Rou Gui, literally Cinnamon, from famous wu yi oolong producer, who was elected as one of the twelve "Wuyi Yen Cha Da Hong Pao Heritage Inheritors" in 2006.
This tea claims to be entirely hand processed, from beginning to end. The handcrafted teas tend to be stronger, more aromatic then the machine processed.

While the modern way of processing emphasizes the fruity side of Rou Gui leaving lots of the leaves greenish this tea was processed in more traditional way. Small dry leaves are uniformly dark giving nice roasted aroma.

The first infusion smelled of old wood, fire, spices and malt. While the tea was clearly roasted it wasn’t too robust, the aroma was strong but elegant. Big minus for some oolong is, that they smell much better than they taste. Not this one – the taste followed the aroma leaving long, round aftertaste in mouth and throat.
In later infusions the taste become even sweeter, the roasted bouquet was slowly cloaked by aroma of ripe fruits. Especially the aftertaste become better than most of the candy you can buy.



The tea lasted in way I like it for some 6-7 infusions – it was a short but intensive experience. On the other hand, I used less leaves, so I can enjoy this very special tea for longer.

Te Guan Yin Ice

Most of the teas, unlike pu-erh are best while fresh. Only pu-erh and some oolongs become better aged. So if you encounter some fine green tea, if it's older than 3 months, probably you already missed its peak. But what could be the freshest tea you ever tasted?

Today you can try teas only a few weeks after they were made. But on my last trip to Prague I found a special tea, maybe the freshest I ever tasted.

Te Guan Yin Ice.

No, it isn't Ice Tea you can buy in PET bottles. It's a regular high quality Te Guan Yin that wasn't dried in a pan as the last step of making, but it was frozen instead. I like to thing about it as tea hibernation. Just check the chunk of frozen Te Guan Yin as I pulled it from the pack.



The big problem with this tea is that it has to be frozen all the time. The teashop owner nearly rejected to sell it to me, because he was afraid, that the tea will worsen in my way to home - I live in Slovakia, 4 hours by train from Prague. Luckily, I was able to persuade him, that in January it will be ok.



Few minutes later were the leaves ready to brew the tea. Please, note how green they were - much greener, than the standard Te Guan Yin is. Also, they were clearly hand-picked, with lots of stems. What struck me down was their smell - very strong, very powerful, and very vegetal. This is how the fresh tea should smell.

I brew the tea with nearly boiling water, as the tea master showed me. The brew was light yellow. Again, the taste was typical Te Guan Yin, except I found some citrus flavors I do not expect in standard Te Guan Yin. The tea was thick, strong with long lasting round aftertaste. Also, it survived 10+ infusions very well.



The leaves were not the highest quality - I found a lots of 3 leaves and a bud or even 4, 5 leaves on a single stem. They were rather big with rather strong veins. On the other hand, the stems were still pretty soft, so the leaves were young enough.

A Nepalese oolong

Today I tried a sample of Nepal oolong I got from a local tea dealer. He no longer has it in stock, so I can brew this only once.
Leaves were pretty, mix of greenish-whitish-brown; they remind me of Bai-Lu white tea Guang at HouDe provided. The leaves were whole and beautiful.
I prepared the tea in gong-fu style; this is how I brew anything, maybe except some green and black (red) teas in my office. I started with very short infusions and about 90 Celsius water.
Taste - this was the second time, when Bai-Lu came into my mind. Nepal oolong, unlike Taiwan of Chinese oolongs reminded me of a mix of green and black tea, with the sweetness of black tea and liveliness of green tea. I'm still not sure, if I like that taste. If I have to choose, I would prefer spring Darjeeling’s with their mixture of black tea and fruits.
The leaves were whole, except maybe of one in the centre of photo, which looked sick.