Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) Wuyi Rock Oolong Tea Fujian

Thank you Marzipan for the sample!

I thought I didn’t really care for this type of oolong, but it has been more than a year since I have had one and I’ve never tried TeaVivre’s so I decided to give it a shot. I’m actually really enjoying this tea! It is toasty, roasty and satisfying. I like the sweet plum/raisin notes on top and the oolongy tang. I am a Big Red Robe convert! YAY!

When Teavivre offered to send me more samples, I immediately had to request this one. Both because the school I went to had a mascot named Big Red (think McDonald’s Grimace, but red) and because our newest baby, a little redfoot tortoise, is named Da Hong Pao! We have three cats and a tortoise, and after the first cat, we got into the habit of tea names. We’ve an orange cat named Pekoe and a grey cat named Earlie. So, of course, when we decided on a red foot tortie, Da Hong Pao made perfect sense! We call her Pao or Pao Pao for short. For the record, our first cat is a brown tabby who is named Rosabella, but would have been Chai if we had been thinking of tea names back then.

Anyhoo, I don’t know that I’ve ever had a Da Hong Pao before this, and I’m not going back through 1000+ notes to figure out if I have. But dang, I should have! This is roasty, toasty goodness and I think I’m in love. Reminds me of home, with tobacco smoke and an underlying nuttiness that takes this tea to another level. I’m on my second steep of a sample packet in a Bubble Teapot (24 ounces) and, as is my habit, I dumped the leaves into a DT Mason Jar (25 oz) to coldbrew overnight. I want to get every last drop of goodness out of these amazing samples, but I’m way too lazy to gong fu. But I see an order in the near future, once the moneytree comes into bloom.

harvest 6/14
I picked 100g on awesome July Anniversary sale.
I suspect this tea didnt have enough rest and develop the flavors, its kinda one dimensional. it is nice but not wow. based on all raving reviews i had high expectations. ok, i’ll wait. i will revisit it in a 6 months. thankfully i got a lot to experiment.
Gongfu method
6g 100ml gaiwan 195F
rinse/ short steeps

This is my second experience of Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe), thanks to a generous sample from Teavivre. I believe that this one came in the oolong sample pack.

The last time I tried this darker shade of oolong (I believe that one was from Harney & Sons), I appear to have overleafed and oversteeped. Fortunately, boychik corrected the error of my ways, and I am happy to report that I like this tea a lot! I already had three delicious infusions, steeped in a nice ceramic mug with a deep infuser and a lid. It seems the perfect method for preparing multiply infusable oolongs and probably will be my new vessel of choice for this type of tea in the future.

So why is this good? The liquor is dark amber and tastes like a combination of all of the tasting notes listed by everyone else. Basically indescribable, but highly imbibable!

I should start off by mentioning that the tea that got me into drinking tea was Wuyi, now it was indeed a teabag, but I think we all were there at one point or another :P (in-fact I am relapsing back into teabags). After about 6 months of strictly drinking Wuyi as my tea of choice, I decided to move on and try different teas, about 3 years has passed since then, so this was the first time in 3 years that I tried Wuyi again, and I was not disappointed! This tea was everything that I remembered minus the bitterness and a bit more full bodied. After a quick rinse, the first steeping was a bit bitter and uneventful, but I find that common in oolongs. The second steeping was where all the flavor came out, and it brought back memories of drinking my Wuyi out of a 32 oz. Mason jar in a massage chair looking out the window in mid fall _. The third steeping was a little bit weaker than the second, but it was still very good, but then I felt like it had a sudden drop off at the fourth steeping, but the way I was steeping it, I was quite impressed with the third! I’ll admit, the tea was a little dusty, and had a decent amount of sediment at the bottom, but for the most part, it was clear, and very nice to look at. I would recommend this to a friend that is on the fence about drinking tea, this is a darker tea, but I recommend it just by the mere fact that it drew in me, a devoted coffee lover instantly.

Over all, the taste was 100/100, aroma 100/100,and the was appearance 93/100.

I ordered a sample of this from TeaVivre during their 3rd Anniversary Sale, just because I was curious. I’ve been experimenting a little bit with oxidized and roasted oolongs lately, mostly due to my love of GTT’s Eastern Beauty. I haven’t really loved them so far, I find that they mostly taste like autumn leaves to me with a little bit of something else mixed in. But still, the curiosity has its way! These leaves are very large and brittle, and quite twisty. They’re very dark in color, and they’re closer to being grey than brown. Dry scent is autumn leaves with hay and some vegetal notes. I did a 2 minute steep at 200 degrees.

Brewed, it still smells quite leafy. There’s definitely a bit of bread there as well, along with some honey sweetness and lovely fruit notes. Hmm… I’m beginning to think these teas may not be for me. This one also tastes like dry autumn leaves, which I guess is because of the roasting done to it. There’s a little bit of bread or grain, along with an earthy wood flavor. I get a tad bit of fruit and some creaminess near the end and in the aftertaste, but I wish these were more present throughout the sip.

I find that this genre of teas tends to bore me a bit, if that makes sense? I’ll probably try this tea gong fu style as well, but I found that it tasted rather the same with the dancong I tried that way. I’ll still try it though, just to give it a chance!

Any recommendations on the best way to brew dancong and da hong pao teas would be lovely. :D

This tea is pretty good. I steeped it four times in a 180ml gaiwan, or at least the gaiwan was sold as 180ml, it may be a bit smaller. I used 5g leaves in 185 degree water. I steeped it for 15 sec, then accidentally oversteeped the second for 25 sec, then 15 sec, then 15 sec. I found the notes of honey and yeast in the description of the tea. There is also another note, I am sot sure how to describe it. It is slightly stronger than the other flavors. The best flavor in the list to describe this is mushroom, although that is not quite it. Overall I enjoyed this tea. It has a serious depth of flavor and tastes like a 2014 Oolong, I don’t know if it is this year’s harvest.

I just realized I had one sample left from TeaVivre’s very generous offerings that I have not reviewed yet. Since it was time for morning tea, I figured it was time to get to it!

Method: 3.3 g, 3 oz, 205 degrees, 15-20-25 seconds, ru kilk gaiwan

Aroma: Roasty scents, with some hints of floral and fruit, and also a mineral note

Flavor: Toasty yum. This tea has some pretty floral notes, but the main show is the roasty toasty flavor. There’s also a bit of sweetness and a slightly dry finish. This has a very pleasant aftertaste that really stays awhile. I blended the first 3 steeps into a mug and I’m having some difficulty not just chugging it all at once! Thanks to TeaVivre for the sample!

Thank you, Teavivre, for a sample!

Used with the gongfu method. 2 one-second rinses. Steeping times were 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45.

The dry leaf aroma smells of honey and and pineapple. The wet leaf aroma, which sits very well in the bowl, has notes of a mixed juice, strawberries, and – this is an odd one – Juicy Juice gum (I haven’t had that since I was a kid). The liquor is pale gold, clear and clean, and thick in texture. After going months without having a Wuyi oolong, this one was refreshing to drink. I love me dark oolong any time of the year, especially when it is complex. A mineral note was prominent in the first infusion. Thereafter, a fruity sweetness took hold and was consistent throughout the rest of the session. For one of the middle infusions, sweet evolved to slight tart, prickling my tongue. At the end, when the flavor began to give, the sweetness faded, and a roasted quality took over.

SSTTB: Pick #22

So, when I said earlier this evening that the Hot Apple Ginger Toddy was the last one from The Box I guess I lied, inadvertently though; I totally forgot that I had this one too last minute while packing it up and that I’d yet to log it.

However, going through my notes just now reminded me of it!

Here’s what I jotted down while drinking it:

- WTF? It’s roasty like a Hojicha?
- Some serious malt/bread notes
- Floral Endsip/aftertaste
- Very weird as an oolong; pleasant enough

Obviously it was maybe a little forgettable overall given that I’d totally forgotten I even had it; but now that I’m thinking back on it now I am doing so fondly. It was really good in the moment and while I was really thrown by the flavours in it I thought it was very comforting.

Not something I’d need to drink again, though, I think.