Superfine Da Hong Pao

Casey picked this as the tea we were going to drink tonight. In the first steeping I could smell and taste coffee, pipe tobacco, caramel and cinnamon. There was also a bit of rum raisin. As I am writing this, I’m thinking that it is sounding much better than it actually is! It is smooth going down, leaves a dusty texture in my mouth. Casey is noticing a smokiness on the second steeping. I can detect the aroma of burnt sugar. The flaw in this tea is that the beautiful aroma does not match the taste. The taste is not sweet or complex, it is slightly bitter and flat.

I’m not sure if this is the exact grade of DHP I drank from Wuyi Star this morning – the Ali listing was rather laconic. Anyway, this tasting probably isn’t the most fair, as I used the whole 7.3g sample (heavier than I would normally go for yancha) in a 100mL pot. That wouldn’t have been at all bad, but these yancha seem to have a nasty habit of clogging the holes in this pot’s filter, so I got a good number of infusions which were much longer than I intended. I have to start brewing more of these samples, especially when I only have enough for a single attempt, in my gaiwan so I can control them a bit better.

This leaf had a nice aroma – roasty, nutty, and chocolatey. After a rinse, I smelled the roast pretty heavily, but some cocoa still came through. My first couple infusions were quite bitter, again mostly because half of the water sat in the teapot much longer than intended. So the bitterness was what I mainly tasted in my mouth, but after I swallowed, some of the sweet flavors came through (I didn’t much mind the bitter either). I got sweet and creamy notes, with a bit of floral. The second steep actually was a bit unpleasant, as it was oversteeped to the point of being sour, but still pleasant aftertaste.

After those first two steeps, I had better luck. The tea took on a pretty sweet, if a touch drying, floral character, with a sweet caramelized finish. The tea died off rather early – I got about 8 steeps from it. I’m sure part of the reason for this was the abuse I subjected it to early in the session.

This tea was pretty good – I’m not sure I’d order more, but I enjoyed it.