Seven Cups Tea Forum » Tea Discussions

Da Hong Pao

(8 posts)

  1. fpfaff
    Member

    I'm new to tea, having converted just a few weeks ago from coffee, but I'm finding the oolong teas quite wonderful. However, the Da Hong Pao tea is a bit of a puzzle to me. Why is it so highly regarded? I've tried it a few times and find it less interesting than other Wuyi teas. Maybe it's because fragrance carries so much weight with me, but it seems that if one wants rich flavor, Yunnan red is the way to go, if you want subtle flavor with wonderful fragrance, oolong is the way to go, but the Da Hong Pao I've tried so far seems to be somewhere in the middle in a not so interesting way.
    From Seven Cups I've tried the lightly roasted variant.
    Wonderful website, absolutely lovely teas. I must be making some sort of novice mistake, probably missing the obvious.
    I'd be interested in anyone's comments.

    - Fred Pfaff

    Posted 4 years ago #

  2. fpfaff
    Member

    I guess it's a bit unusual to reply to my own post, but I was hasty posting the above message. Yesterday I must have got it right because the merits of Da Hong Pao were very clear. I must not have brewed it properly the first couple of times I tried it.

    - F Pfaff

    Posted 4 years ago #

  3. admin
    Seven Cups

    Hi Fred
    I'm sorry that it has taken me a long time to get back to you. You post came over the weekend and due to a water pipe leak in my front yard I neglected to check the forum.

    It seems as if though you have answered your own question in the mean time. I have to admit when I was starting to learn about oolongs the first couple of times I tried what I thought was good Da Hong Pao, I thought 'Well so what?'. Luckily though I did get some good Da Hong Pao, and it blew me away. It is so rich and complicated.

    Just a word about the fragrance in relationship to the taste. The lighter roasted DHP has better fragrance that the more roasted DHP. I asked Master Liu this year to do a light roasting to let our customers see the difference, but DHP isn't usually light roasted. I haven't decided whether or not I will ask for that roasting again, and I encourage you to try the other roasting too. I think that you will discover that same kind of complication with other rock oolongs and oolongs in general, pay special attention to the aftertaste. I also would encourage you to up the amount of tea that you are using. With good quality tea you don't need to worry much about bitterness. I think that you should always err on the strong side than the weak, but that my person taste.

    Please don't be intimidated by tea snobbery. Authentic tea people rarely are snobs, and the Chinese say, 'You can study tea for a lifetime and never learn all of the names of all of tea teas'. If there are few tea experts in China amongst the masters that devote their lives to tea, how many people can justify their snobbery?

    Please enjoy you learning and never feel as if you asking a stupid question on our forum.

    Austin

    Posted 4 years ago #

  4. fpfaff
    Member

    Hi Austin,
    Thanks for your response. You're right about quantity, I think that's why the brew I made last Saturday was so much better than what I had obtained before. My concern with quantity, though, is not with bitterness, it's with caffeine and, with some teas, frankly, cost. I'm very sensitive to caffeine, so I routinely discard the first infusion after a 30-60 second steep.
    I've obtained oolong teas from 6 different online vendors now, my typical first flush explosion of enthusiasm , and your teas are honestly the best. Great website, too.

    - Fred

    Posted 4 years ago #

  5. admin
    Seven Cups

    Hi Fred
    I appreciate your feedback. Yeah those teas are expensive. I think most people drink teas like DHP on special occasions, I know I do, but tea like anything else, price and quality correspond. Still I feel that is still a pretty good deal when you compare it to wine and even good coffee. I don't know that it will always be that way, completion for good tea is fierce in Asia. In fact we are opening another tea house in China this year because the market is so good there, and it is less of an uphill battle for us to market good tea there than here. Perhaps some day you'll get a change to visit us in China, or maybe even Tucson.
    Welcome!
    Austin

    Posted 4 years ago #

  6. fpfaff
    Member

    Hi Austin,
    Please don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, just maintaining some sort of balance. Nothing is more expensive than tea you end up not drinking.
    On this subject, though, why are the Taiwan teas so much more expensive than the Anxi teas?
    Where are your tea houses in China? Just curious. As for Tucson, if I ever have occasion to go near there I'd most certainly visit.

    - Fred

    Posted 4 years ago #

  7. admin
    Seven Cups

    Hi Fred
    Sorry, I didn't think that you were complaining at all. There are a number of reasons why. First of all most of the expensive Taiwan oolongs are grown at a pretty high altitude, which is possible because of the tropical environment in Taiwan. (Taiwan is also famous for fruit) The tea varietals are exceptional. The level of mastery in tea making is superior and by in large more consistent, and has been fetching premium prices for sometime largely because of the Japanese influence in Taiwan and because there was no break in supply when China was closed. Anxi production has sky rocket in recent years because it became a locally grow alternative to Taiwan oolongs, especially in Guangzhou, that was priced much lower but had similar qualities. Anxi, because it was a very poor area, has not developed very good business practices during that boom, has a correlation between price and quality that is established according to the gullibility of the buyer. Anxi oolongs have yet to have establish themselves in relationship to any measure of quality, and some can be very high priced perhaps without much justification. Harrod's London had a very expensive Anxi oolong priced in the $1000 plus area, and though I didn't get to taste it, I wouldn't have paid the price they asked, knowing what goes on in the market in Anxi. Having said all of that, there is some pretty good tea being made there. By the way, probably the most expensive oolongs are the Dan Chong oolongs that come from the Chaozhou area, but that is another story.
    Austin

    Posted 4 years ago #

  8. fpfaff
    Member

    Hi Austin,
    What a great response! Being new to these teas, I find it all very fascinating. You should write a book -- really. I'm sure your exploits and information would make excellent reading.
    Of course, now I'd love to hear the "another story" about the Dan Chong oolongs. I should search the archive of this forum, though, before I ask any more questions.
    Thanks again for your response.

    - Fred

    Posted 4 years ago #

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