Wildcrafted Da Hong Pao

TTB Review #55: Well, I was certainly very skeptical upon seeing “wet rocks” listed among the flavors. Smelling it…why, yes, it does remind me of wet rocks! Wet leaves is another apt description. Tree bark, mud, musky grass. The taste isn’t as harsh – woody, nutty, and with just a hint of wet rocks. Despite wondering if I’m drinking puddle water, I kind of like it!

Untamed. There are notes here that remind me of deep forests. Mineral notes are present like in most well-crafted Wuyi oolongs but this one has a sense of clarity. Sometimes sweet like honey or honeysuckle. The longer the leaves infuse the heavier the charcoal notes become. The mouthfeel is smooth.

A very nice oolong, combination of oolong and earthy, smooth, I like it.
Smallish whole-leaf tea, a little nutty.

Sipdown 94-2021
I’m going to consider this a sipdown, as I’m drinking a cup and putting the rest into my swap pile. It’s not my favorite type of oolong. Lots of minerality and a strong presence of the charcoal roast.

i rinsed and im just sitting here smelling the wet leaves for like 5 minutes straight…theyre real chatty my goodness..im still getting myself in the headspace of tasting notes but im wildly excited about this. just poured it off and its smooth and lovely with a well defined structure. exhaling oolong minerality after swallowing. touch of tangy juiciness at the back of the sip. it’s warm and focused and focusing

first infusion was 5g 99c for roughly 20 seconds starting from when i began to pour, so around 15 with lid on

second infusion maybe 27 seconds? pretty even with the first, though i can see the leaves opening much more now. going to post this and maybe return later

edit: hi its 11pm this thing will not die ive taken it all the way to a 10 minute steep, somewhere between 8 and 12 infusions.. just incredibly smooth and subtle roasty toasty notes very lovely even after losing all structure and most flavors theres still just enough to intrigue me into seeing what happens if i fill up the gaiwan 1 more time :)

heres a tea ive had for a while but have never reviewed.. so time to write one.
it looks like its rolled a little and its a darkish brown color, un brewed.

after a rinse the aromatics are heavy with roasty notes, like burnt toast and with nuttiness such as roasted almond maybe.

the first steep fluffs up the tea in the pot more. the liquid is an orange-y gold color, and its really nice to see that much color on the first steep. i just taste old stuff when i drink this tea.. of coarse theres a kind of burnt toast taste, but it really makes me think of old stuff, antiques, books, and egyptian tombs- which i can only imagine the smell of.

on the second, im thinking now that maybe this has some herbaceousness as an under note, and with some definite malt. the flavors have mended and are coming out and oh it is smooth, “so much so me brothers, that all the melanky little hairs now stand up on me arms, they do, me brothers.”

this is the first time ive gongfu’d this tea and now i know that western brewing doesnt do this tea justice. im using my cracked sky blue porcelain pot- Neptune, to brew this, with 4.20g of dhp in the mix. despite what i said earlier, i think ill steep this tea in my tumbler tomorrow morning and drink it at my class.. i brought WP’s rivendell this morning, unfortunately i should have brewed it a couple extra minutes. i digress..

3rd- and i get some astringency but it is thin and is noticed at the front of the mouth. the body of the tea is med- light in presence, as it almost evaporates. for me this tea plays out all around the front of the mouth. its not super active- kind of flat actually, but theres flavor there.

ill stop here and enjoy the fourth in peace, jk- not really. reviewing as i drink is a love/hate thing, so i may halt a review early if i just want to sip and re-watch breaking bad.

this is a good tea but i dont know when or if ill purchase again.. there are too many teas to try and not enough time.

-nycoma

Sipdown.

I brewed this many times over the course of sigh 48 hours. It was the very last of the package and I just can’t afford to rebuy it.

Very sad. And slightly regretful that I chucked out the leaves, even at that point. Like maybe I could have given them one last shot as a cold brew?

The hunt continues for an affordable fruity DHP.

This is my first Da Hong Pao. No real expectations here as a result, although a cursory sniff of the dry leaves smelled like roasted oolong, kind of like the tieguanyin I tried earlier this week, got a bit of a cool wild dry fly away look to the leaves. It also does NOT taste like the tieguanyin at all, safe to say.

3.5 grams to 100 ml gaiwan. Just off boiling water. 30 seconds to start.

The aroma of the amazingly thick, darker gold liquid that comes out of this is reminiscent of roasted floral oolong with notes of honey. The soup is rich, thick, and lingering in the mouth, with a very heavy buttery, mineral-y, honey taste, but without the intense sweetness of honey. There are also floral notes/tastes in the aftermath of the initial, as well as an increasing sweetness across the steeps. A lot like what I would expect nectar to taste like. Very interesting, I like the richness, I’ll be trying this again.

This is my first DHP, so take this with a grain of salt.

This tea is all right. I ordered a sample of it from a promotion the company was having, and was excited to see the package in my mailbox today. I steeped up the tea with 190 degree water, and sipped.

Roasty.

The first steep was good—intense roast on the front end and then fruitiness on the back. However, steeps 2-6 all just tasted like roasted leaves, without nice fruit flavor. I think this might be a freshly-roasted tea…? It’s just so dominated by this roast flavor, which is surprising because the leaves are pretty green. Ah well.

Later steeps are definitely better. The roast dies down a bit and the fruit and flowers come out a little. Still, I can’t help but think that for $40/100g, this tea is not worth the money. Would probably be better if I left it alone for a couple months and let the roast die down.

Imagine a milkshake. Now replace milk with flower nectar. Cover the top with cocoa. Add some salt. Shake. Warm up and add a little fruit juice to cool it down.

That is what this makes me think of.