Goodbye Tea, Long Live the Tea: 2006 Da Hong Pao

Tea is like wine. A particular type of tea changes year-to-year, even if grown by the same farmer on the same plantation & roasted by the same person. Environmental factors (such as rain fall) and terroir play a factor, not to mention how the roaster might have felt that day.

Then there's the aging factor. Over time (especially with roasted & fermented teas), the flavor profile starts to shift. Sufficed to say, tea is never the same from session to session even if all of your brewing variables are the same. 

If one thing is constant, tea always changes.

This is a 2006 harvested Da Hong Pao (DHP) that I purchased 2 years ago. It's a very fine specimen of DHP that I've had the pleasure of drinking. I've carefully stored it in the time I've owned it, and it's just gotten better with age. 

It's with great sadness that I've now come to the absolute last of this particular tea. I've tried to drink smaller amounts in smaller teaware, but I can't keep it forever and tea must be enjoyed, not hoarded. There will always be more tea.

I've included some of my notes from different times & sessions. In it, you'll see a change in my brewing style as well as I perceive my tea.

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Tea Information

• Type: Oolong; Da hong pao
• Vendor: Yunnan Sourcing
• Cost per gram: $0.36 USD

Description from Company:

A lovely aged Da Hong Pao from Wu Yi Mountains in Fujian. This has been lightly roasted three times over the course of more than a decade and then stored in a good clean condition. The result is a complex tea with powerful cha qi. The early brews have a strong vanilla and roasted currant aroma. The taste has some roast, some vanilla and mineral rock sweetness. In the later infusions the roasted taste fades more and the fruit, mineral sweetness and velvety smoothness takes center stage. The tea goes 10+ infusions and remains complex and interesting. This tea was harvested in 2006!

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Tea Notes

I've had this on a number of occasions.  I don't have tasting notes for each tea session with this tea, but here are a few. Some are more complete than others.

7/17/19 on Steepster:

• Teaware: 150ml ceramic gaiwan 
• Tea amount: 5 grams
• Brewing times:  30 seconds increasing by 10 seconds every steep until 1 minute.
  Then an additional minute after that until 4 minutes.
• Brewing style: Chazhou Gongfu

It’s no secret that I love oolongs and this one… this one is like a fine aged Scotch with a damn fine Cigar…literally.

It’s starts off with & sweet (light) smokey taste a roasted malt flavor hinting at dark chocolate with a touch of bitterness that doesn’t last long. It’s slightly earthy with tinges of oak, and has that touch of minerality that oolongs sometimes possess. This what happens if you take a roasted oolong and it had sex with an aged Puerh. (This is probably due to the multiple roastings over the course of its lifetime)

This tea is velvety smooth, complex, and the cha Qi goes straight to my head. I’m so glad I had this as an after dinner drink instead of on a partially empty stomach!

Flavors: Coffee, Dark Chocolate, Malt, Mineral, Smoke

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Nov. 5, 2020

• Teaware: Zhuni guava-shaped teapot 100ml 
• Tea amount: 5.06 grams
• Brewing times:  20 seconds increasing by 10 seconds every steep until 1 minute.
• Brewing style: Gongfu
• Brewing temps: 198+ 
• Broth: This is a very robust tea with notes  of smoke, chocolate and smoke.  It went on for at least 6 steeps. So very good 

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May 22, 2021

• Teaware: Hong ni Fang Gu teapot
• Brew style: Chazhou Gongfu 
• Water Amount: ~ 150ml
• Tea Amount: 9.14
• Brewing Temperatures: 200+
• Time (seconds):  ?? I'm going by feel.
• High notes of the aroma:  Sweet smoke
• Low notes of the aroma:  Burnt firewood
• Leaves: Dark strips (see top photo)
• Broth: 
• 1st steep - I think I steeped it slightly too long. It's very smokey with chocolate notes and a dark chocolate bitterness to it. It's strong, but extremely drinkable, smooth, and mellow.  Interestingly, not a very viscous tea, but it is has a nice dark roasted flavor with a nice astringency at the end.
• 2nd steep: (~20-30 seconds) I've paid attention to this brew time. The smoke is less than the first steep, and still fairly malty with a nutty aftertaste. It still has cigar notes, which I typically like. There's an astringency at the back of my throat and the warming of Qi down my esophagus and chest. My tongue tingles slightly. 
• 3rd steep: Damn. I didn't steep this long enough. The broth is much lighter than #1-2. It's a bit on the light side of flavor, but still fairly tasty. It's still got that after note of astringency that hits the back of my throat, like too much salt on popcorn, but it leaves a nice juicy feeling afterwards, and extremely warming down the throat and into the chest, which then spreads outward
• 4th steep: 90 seconds. The high notes of this leave smell of molasses and hints of floral...interesting! This still has that nice dark roasted flavor notes that I like, but it doesn't have that completeness of flavor from previous steeps. Unsure if I'm missing the boat on the steep durations.
• 5th steep: I'm letting this steep for 3 minutes. This tea never really gets bitter to the point of undrinkability; it just gets stronger so I'm comfortable letting it steep for this long
• High notes of the aroma: The molasses and floral high notes are still present in the aroma of the  tea leaves, although I can't taste it.
• Broth: The flavor of the tea is nearly all gone, but the general effect of this tea's cha qi remains. It still has that mild astringency at the back of the throat and the nice warming feeling going down the throat and spreading out across my chest. It's rather pleasant. 

Figure: Steeps 2-4

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