Da Hong Pao

Tea type
Oolong Tea
Ingredients
Oolong Tea Leaves
Flavors
Brown Sugar, Floral, Honey, Peach, Roasted, Smoke, Stonefruit, Toasty, Walnut, Wood, Cannabis
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by toasted toads
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 15 sec 4 g 9 oz / 256 ml

From Our Community

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20 Want it Want it

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28 Own it Own it

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48 Tasting Notes View all

  • “It is our twenty-sixth wedding anniversary today and to celebrate I wanted to…do what we do most Friday nights and get Chinese take out! LOL! i guess I am pretty low maintenance! At least, I...” Read full tasting note
  • “I was kind of nervous about this tea, because, if you’ve read my bio you’d know that I don’t really care much for red robe Oolong teas, but I decided to break out of my comfort zone in a big way...” Read full tasting note
    79
  • “Monday morning tea success! And much needed too! My office Bigwig will soon be arriving. You know the type, right? The Bigwig lives in a totally different state and has no idea how to do your...” Read full tasting note
    96
  • “When teas are fired over three hundred degrees, the Maillard reaction occurs… and what that simply means is that there will be nutty and sweet undertones which will make your life that much better.” Read full tasting note
    93

From Harney & Sons

An exquisite example of the more traditional, darker style oolong. After the leaves are harvested, they are twisted and allowed to oxidize much longer. The darker tea tastes of more heavily cooked sugars and fruits like molasses and roasted peaches. This Da Hong Pao retains a vibrant fruit flavor through the smokey tastes of charcoal firing.

About Harney & Sons View company

Since 1983 Harney & Sons has been the source for fine teas. We travel the globe to find the best teas and accept only the exceptional. We put our years of experience to work to bring you the best Single-Estate teas, and blends beyond compare.

48 Tasting Notes

3437 tasting notes

It is our twenty-sixth wedding anniversary today and to celebrate I wanted to…do what we do most Friday nights and get Chinese take out! LOL! i guess I am pretty low maintenance! At least, I hope I am.

I am getting low on this tea, but since the mystery Da Hong Pao from the restaurant was so good with our Chinese take out I thought we would have this again. At first I thought I should use it up since it is getting older, but I have seen some things that say that oolongs often age well, and on eBay they sell aged and pressed cake oolongs that look like puerh. I need to find out more about this.

There are a lot of notes about this one and I don’t have a lot to add other than that I now find it a favorite to pair with meals.

fleurdelily

♥HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!♥

Lindsay

26! One year more than my folks. Hope it was lovely.

Bonnie

Awe…HAPPY 26TH ANNIVERSARY!

tunes&tea

Twenty six years…that’s wonderful.

Angrboda

That sounds like my kind of anniversary celebration! :D Congratulations.

Ysaurella

Very happy anniversary Ashmanra !

cteresa

Happy anniversary!

JacquelineM

Happy, happy!

mrmopar

happy anniversary!

ashmanra

Thank you, everyone! It was a lovely evening. And I even got red letters and red HEARTS from you guys! :)

Indigobloom

Congrats! Happy Anniversary!!

Daisy Chubb

Yay Happy Anniversary!

Invader Zim

Happy Anniversary!

Rabs

Much-belated Happy Anniversary!

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79
4843 tasting notes

I was kind of nervous about this tea, because, if you’ve read my bio you’d know that I don’t really care much for red robe Oolong teas, but I decided to break out of my comfort zone in a big way when I ordered this tea.

And I’m glad I ordered it! The flavor IS smoky, but, I found that a quick rinse to awaken the tea leaves did much to soften the smoky taste of this tea. Now it is pleasantly roasty with a mild smoky note. It has a nice sweetness and a distant floral note.

Now… I guess I should change my bio!

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96
161 tasting notes

Monday morning tea success!

And much needed too! My office Bigwig will soon be arriving. You know the type, right? The Bigwig lives in a totally different state and has no idea how to do your job, yet is in charge of “suggesting” and then implementing their ideas on how to do your job better. Of course their “suggestions” only add to the number of steps you already take to do the exact same thing…thus causing a major pain in your butt and making you wish you could transport them back to their office…or better yet, some awful frozen tundra of doom? Yeah, I thought so.

So, how about this tea? :)

My first whiff of the liquor resulted in mostly roasty toasty notes, but also a light fruit smell. I’m not quite sure what type of fruit it is, but it’s juicy smelling. That’s right…juicy smelling. That same juicy note comes over in the taste as well, albeit in the aftertaste. The taste progression goes a little something like this: roasty toasty, mineral-y, OOLONG, juicy. The juicy effect actually made my mouth water. Crazyness. I’ve never had a roasted oolong quite like this one. It’s quite delicious. I’m glad I ordered a large tin. Nom nom nom!

More H&S to come!

Lainie Petersen

Harney & Sons is my go-to for good American-style black tea blends, but I need to start trying their oolongs. This sounds delish.

Auggy

Good luck with the Bigwig! Nummy tea can only help!

Stephanie

Eww, Boo on Bigwigs! :)))

LENA

LOL…this tea is today’s Steepster Select!

Jamie

lol sounds like we work in the same office, wishing I had some of this tea to take with me today.

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93
168 tasting notes

When teas are fired over three hundred degrees, the Maillard reaction occurs… and what that simply means is that there will be nutty and sweet undertones which will make your life that much better.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
fcmonroe

Is this the same reaction that causes meats to brown?

Jillian

That sounds more like it would turn it to ash – Wait, are we talking three hundred celcius or farenheit?

Harney & Sons The Store

@fcmonroe- Generally speaking, yes it is!

@Jillian- We’re talking about Farenheit! That’d be a hot hot furnace otherwise.

Jillian

LOL, I figured that was the case, otherwise you’d be steeping tea cinders. ;)

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93
294 tasting notes

I’m going back to what I think is the second tea I reviewed on Steepster. It’s my late evening brew. Da Hong Pao. The first steeping yields a brew that brims with juicy peach flavors. It’s almost as if the peaches were caramelized ever so slightly. Retaining enough of the natural flavor of the fruit with a hint of burnt sugar. This is a very enjoyable tea.

BTVSGal

one of my favorite oolongs.

Charles Thomas Draper

It is quite nice….

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97
120 tasting notes

It has been a while since I logged a new tea. I have been working through my stash, considering a purchase down the road but you know how it is, too much on the shelf to justify more. Well, this will be on my list, when I get the stash dwindled down a bit. I found this to be a lovely tea, somewhat light considering the notes. H&S says it is lighter than usual. Light yet robust? Yes and the deep, dark roasted oolong flavor is there, but veiled like a princess whose beauty is only hinted at through her eyes… Thanks to QuiltGuppy for this excellent experience.

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96
82 tasting notes

So on Sunday I went to the Harney & Sons store, and they had this in their tasting room and I just had to get it.

First steep, 8oz, little less than a minute. Ah this tea is so good. The smell is very similiar to a barley tea , and the taste is just so subtle but still has so body and doesn’t taste very watery at all. There is a definite nutty flavor to it, but it’s not overpowering or anything. I didn’t even steep this with rock sugar and it doesn’t need sweetening at all.

Second Steep. Lower temp water, longer steep, 8oz. The nutty-ness comes out a lot more in this steep, and the color is a tad more dark as well. Still, same flavor but a little more intense. And I’m loving every sip of it. I hope I can get a lot of steeps out of this !

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C
~lauren.

This is one of my favorite “always will have on hand” tea! I haven’t been too successful in second infusions, so will try your tea parameters next time I have this (probably soon, now that this tea idea is planted in my head!).

Kathryn Ann

It tasted fine the first two steeps, but the third and fourth were a little bad. I think because I steeped 16oz for the third and fourth time. Dunno, I always do random sort of steeping times with new teas to figure out how to get the most out of it!

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73
431 tasting notes

So this wasn’t my cuppa. Solid but nevertheless.

A quick video review for your viewing pleasure…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQf-N7aTQt4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

TeaEqualsBliss

I subscribed :)

RachanaC (Rachel)-iHeartTeas

Aww thanks. I’ve listened to your radio shows too. :)

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85
102 tasting notes

This was so good! Roasted oolongs are hit or miss with me. Some I love, others just don’t seem to taste all that great, or the smoky flavor overpowers the oolong taste.

This tea smelled wonderful in the pouch — a bit charcoal-y. It brewed to a medium yellow liquor. When I took my first sip, it started off with a strong roasted flavor, but the finish was sweet and clean, not astringent or bitter at all. This was a surprise, the way the flavors morphed as I drank it. There was no aftertaste.

Such an interesting flavor profile, and yet smooth and easy to drink. I’m looking forward to repeat infusions.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 4 min, 30 sec
ashmanra

This is my favorite roasted oolong from Harney so far!

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88
371 tasting notes

After several weeks of lots and lots of black teas and herbals I realized that my poor oolong yixing teapot was so very lonely. And I missed my oolongs! So I decided to open up a new tin this evening.

This is definitely the nicest Wuyi oolong that I’ve tried so far. It had quite a kick on the first steep — quite nutty with a hint of Play Dough (yes, that’s one of many things I associate with Wuyis. Yes, I know that I’m weird). As it cooled it seemed more and more like I was drinking the essence of plant with just a bit-o-butter. Nom! The second steep seemed like the poor tea gave up. I almost gave up on the tea, but I gave it one more go. The third steep is still nothing like the first steep, but it suddenly has a nice floral note to it. But it’s definitely the last steep for this tea.

Next time I shall try this tea in my gaiwan (sorry yixing!). NE

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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