Wuyi Mountain Big Red Robe

A VERY Good Red Robe…BUSY day tho…will review more later :)

Da Hong Pao from Imperial Teas in Lincoln England was my first experience of this tea. I love its darker nature and the toasty/roasted nature.

Wuyi is one of my favorite teas ever. I almost always have at least one variety in my cupboard. This was less dark/toasty than I expected, still very nice. I did detect some herbal (rosemary?) undertone. However, the tea magically transforms when cooling down – all the lovely toasty flavor shines through.

Just got my big oolong order from Verdant (I’m excited to try their spring Tie Guan Yin!), I ordered an ounce of each of their oolong teas, but somehow, I forgot to add an ounce of this to my order. Thankfully, I got a nice sample pack of this tea with my order.

This tea gives you an incredible rocky mineral taste that fills your mouth in the first cup with hints of chocolate. I brewed this in a quick gong-fu style doing only 4 steepings. The rest of the cups were not as strong in the mineral sensation, but lightly smoky and with a really subtle hint of cinnamon.

I will re-brew this tea once I have time to do a longer gong-fu session and post a more detailed tasting note. Overall, I enjoyed this Da Hong Pao very much, especially the first cup.

Got a sample of this one with my recent purchase and all I can say is: WOW. I’m really starting to fall for wulongs. It has so many notes that it’s really hard to describe. It has a great smell, kind of spicy (but lovely) taste and wonderful rich aftertaste. Gotta order it ^^

This tasted like a typical high quality dark oolong. That’s not a bad thing since I’m starting to love oolongs, but I was expecting a bit more given the description.

I had this tea the other day at a co-worker’s tea gathering. I’ve had the big red robe several time before. Some of them were costly premium ones brought over by relatives from Singapore. Compared to what I’ve had, this tea not as heavily roasted as my other big red robe. The one is a bit sweeter but is missing the thick texture in premium batches. Overall this is a decent tea.

I received this tea as a free sample with my order, since the team over at Verdant Tea is so awesome.

If I had to describe this tea in one word: complex. When I first sipped the tea, I tasted a chilly, autumn evening from the view of my parents’ porch in the mountains of North Carolina. Was I actually there? No! But that was the experience this tea gave me as I sipped it up in my small apartment in Gainesville, FL. Quite remarkable.

On to the specific flavors, the first thing I noticed was the mineral taste. It had a good bit of astringency, but given its complexity the astringency was well-balanced. I also tasted a dark sweetness, like maybe a dark chocolate-covered orange or something. There was definitely a subtle woodsy-fruitiness as well, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I think I’ll need to order some more of this stuff to figure it out ;)

I brewed this Big Red Robe Western-style in my IngenuiTEA, so I used 2 tsp. / 8 oz. water. The tea yielded three strong cups, then it pretty much lost all flavor. This is about what I expected, so it’s definitely worth the price. Although I’m sure one could get another cup or two with more leaf or less water.

One thing did surprise me – it had absolutely no vegetal aftertaste that I find in so many oolongs (especially in the other Wuyi I’ve had before). You know how it’s often normal for oolongs to coat the inside of your mouth? I barely noticed that with this tea. It’s not a bad thing at all, I was just surprised by it.

Given the price of Da Hong Pao on most other websites, it seems like the quality and price from Verdant is a great deal. I’ve never had Big Red Robe before, but Verdant’s blend makes me want to come back for more!

Brewed western style. 4g of leaf rinsed once with 208F water then steeped in 8oz at 208F for 1 min. The aroma is… Interesting. A little off putting to me. Notes of marijuana and brass mixed with roasted nuts. Quite a thin mouthfeel with some astringency throughout. Very earthy flavor, roasted nuts, some black coffee. I’ll have to revisit this one later.

I did not take detailed notes on you, either at my oolong tasting or with my husband, but you, my first Big Red Robe, you were roasty, toasty, sweet and delicious and thankfully there is a serving left of you in the sample pouch and this time its all for me. I look forward to seeing your long, dark, luxuriously twisted moist leaves again soon. Oh and what everyone else said.

This was my first experience with Big Red Robe. I’d heard a lot of hype about it, and was skeptical as to whether it could deliver, notwithstanding. It did. Furthermore, this tea has salvaged my interest in oolongs. I recently experienced a few that were underwhelming. This one changed that. I’m usually not given to fanciful descriptions, but this tea seems to warrant it. The scent is earthy and soulful; reminiscent of the smell of hot iron and rain on the horizon (if you can imagine those two). I’ve enjoyed three cups, thus far, and it has held up swimmingly. This is another tea that I’ll be repurchasing. It is absolutely worth trying.

This is my first Big Red Robe. The aroma is rather toasty/nutty.
Reminds me of roasting pine nuts when I was young, only without any of
the sap. The flavor is less toasty, but still nutty, and a bit like
salted butter. As the tea cools, the salt fades somewhat, and a
sweetness makes an appearance.

This is a difficult tea to rate. The flavor isn’t really what I want
in a tea. But there’s something about the taste that keeps calling
for a deeper exploration, as if, should I taste it just once more, I’d
realize that salted butter and toasted pine nuts is exactly what I
should want tea to taste like. It seems you can have good teas, and
interesting teas, and they’re not necessarily the same. This is an
interesting tea.

This tea is quite an exceptional oolong. It has a slightly roasted flavor and is very deep and complex. It is quite sweet and lasts through at least 4 infusions in which the flavor changes and progresses. It starts dark and ends sweet. If you like roasted oolongs then this is definitely one to try.

A soft, caramely, golden-colored brew.

Can’t say that I’m too well versed with the oolongs, but this is certainly the tastiest one I’ve ever had (it’s the second). It leaves my tongue tingling, which I think is because of the high temperature; I’ll lower it in later infusions.

EDIT: Infusion 2 was even better. As expected, lowering the temperature did wonders.