Wuyi Origin blended Da Hong Pao, compared to a Chinatown version

 

This backstory should be familiar to most people, that Da Hong Pao seems to mean two completely different things.  On the one hand there were 7 or so bushes that tea plants were derived from, not genetically identical plant versions, but similar, and the later resulting teas from them are Da Hong Pao.  The two main cultivars from those plants are now called Qi Dan and Bei Dou (with more on that story here).  Then a lot of commercial Da Hong Pao could just be anything, maybe only Shui Xian, or as often a mix of other plants.  The blending idea seemed to be to recreate that original character and to create balanced, blended tea versions (so two separate goals, really).  Or maybe it just started with loose branding, copying over a traditional story to broader type inputs.

I think this is a picture of those bushes

This is a blend, the second example.  Cindy sells more original Da Hong Pao variations as Qi Dan and Bei Dou on her website, and is clear about what this is, marketed as blended Da Hong Pao.  I've been drinking a decent Chinatown shop Shui Xian lately, from Jip Eu, so the range is more familiar again.  That version was so inexpensive, one of the rare exceptions where a very low cost tea could pass for mid-range, or really is that, but just isn't priced as such.  That may be a blend of inputs too, but given that designation it's probably just Shui Xian.  This should be a bit better, more refined, more balanced, with subtle aspects that work slightly better.  We'll see.

I should add that Cindy sent this tea to me, not so much for review, but as a gesture of friendship, as I take it.  She's on the short list of my absolute favorite tea contacts, so if bias was ever going to enter in it could related to her teas.  But as I take it they're so good that they don't need help from biased interpretation to shine.  Their description of this tea:

Da hong pao blended (拼配大红袍）2021

Blending Dahongpao is not to mix different varieties together, but we select different varieties, and then complement each other according to the characteristics of the tea varieties. A good mix of Dahongpao requires skills,

Raw material: We used Rougui 肉桂, Shuixian 水仙, Jin mu dan 金牡丹  ，Meizhan 梅占, and  Chun lan 春兰 ，All the materials are from our 2021 Harvest . Baking level: 3times roasted, medium roasting style  ​About Blending: Different materials with different features all mixture together. This blended dahongpao: Zheng yan Rougui and Shuixian fix its strong body. Jin mudan 金牡丹 and Chun lan 春兰 help to enhance the aroma .Blending is a good complement of different materials.

Roasting level : the 1st time roasting : 2021.June.9th

                          the 2nd time roasting : 2021.July .15th

                          the 3rd time roasting : 2021,August 20th

This is a very fragrant Dahongpao, which has been fragrant from the beginning to the end.

that Jip Eu Chinatown shop Shui Xian; a bit more broken, but decent looking

Review:

First infusion:  yep, better than I've been experiencing recently.  How refined this is comes across fast, right after you get a flash of a sense of a few distinct aspects.  There's cinnamon in this, and faint and balanced roast effect, like a touch of edge from French roast.  I tried this prior to checking that description, and from seeing that it makes sense there is Rou Gui in this (which doesn't always taste like cinnamon, or cassia, but often does).

Sweetness stands out, and underlying mineral.  From there flavor is really complex, seemingly involving some cocoa too, and probably a touch of fruit, along the line of elderberry.  It's a lot going on but it links together and integrates.  This tea is barely wet yet and mouthfeel and aftertaste are already quite developed.  A pleasant echo of all of that stays with you after you drink it, not the minutes-long powerful sensation from some sheng pu'er, but it trails off slowly.  It's nice.

That other Chinatown version I mentioned had a few positive aspects that spanned considerable range and worked well together, with no significant flaws.  These parallel each other in some ways, because that's all true of this tea too, it's just a broader set of positive aspects, and it integrates even better.

Second infusion:  depth kicks in; that Shui Xian was pleasant for including mineral tone that tasted like ink (to me), and this now includes a lot of that.  It has more other range and depth, but that one aspect is really close in form and level in this.  It's mineral-like ink that leans a little towards brandy, very pleasant in form.  In this it's nice that the pronounced cinnamon and milder cocoa is filling in complexity beyond that, with roast level really nicely balanced.  The other wasn't so far off this for roast input, which is atypical for inexpensive versions.  Those are usually off in terms of roast, low so that it doesn't provide a balancing input, or more often slightly burned.

It's nice the way that this really coats your mouth and fills in a lot of range of experience.  The aftertaste is much more pronounced than in that lower quality tea.  There's a floral aspect that comes out mostly in the later part of the aftertaste experience.  Both would be fine with a cinnamon roll but this is better suited for appreciating on its own.

Third infusion:  this keeps transitioning; that's different.  To some extent it's about the balance of what I've already described changing in proportion, which alters the effect, making it hard to describe.  I think even very subtle shifts in infusion strength would alter that proportion quite a bit, and that's probably part of what I'm experiencing.  The roast coffee edge stands out even more this round, and the inky mineral range, with both taking over the more subtle parts just a bit.  A flash infusion would probably be quite different, dropping back the heavier range and focusing in more on lighter and sweeter components, maybe with cinnamon, cocoa, and the floral range seeming to bump up.  

It's nice that all these aspects are so positive and balance so well that I'm not seeing minor changes as better and worse so much, just different looks from the same tea.  It's nice how intense this is this round. To be clear I brewed this for 10 seconds or less, so I'm not talking about what happens when you focus online too much and accidentally double that timing.  It would probably make sense to use two thirds as much tea for this to make it easier to dial in shifts in timing, or that could be true in general, that pushing it for proportion always involves a trade-off like that.  It's habit to brew at this high proportion, more than seeing it as optimum.  I don't see habit as such a bad thing though.  Our intuition tells us to head in a certain direction related to outcomes from prior experience, along with some randomness and mixed bias creeping in.

Fourth infusion:  cinnamon is a lot stronger in a very light infusion.  Brewed strong enough this might not taste like cinnamon at all. It's cool the way that the inky mineral range drops back to supporting that, but doesn't drop out when brewed very lightly.  Aftertaste experience is faded to the point of almost being gone at a very light infusion strength.  This tea would probably brew 20 very pleasant infusions made this light, I'd expect.  For most bumping timing up to 8 seconds or so would be better, or dropping proportion back so that something similar resulted between 10 and 15 seconds instead, at least at this part of the brewing cycle.

Fifth infusion:  this is so nice back at what I consider a normal infusion strength, balancing really well.  A floral tone supporting the rest seems much stronger now, with all the other list I keep mentioning giving way to that.  Better Wuyi Yancha exhibits a liqueur-like effect, something that reminds me of the scent of perfume, and this moves on to include more of that.  It almost seems like something that manifests out of a set of other aspects, or maybe it is just more aromatic range I have trouble describing, at the edge of what can actually be tasted.  

It's an understatement to say that this tea comes across as well balanced.  For mixing a lot of inputs in some cases, for some blends, overall effect can seem muddled, and you give up stronger experience of a narrower set, but it's also possible for everything to take its place and combine together, versus getting mixed and lost.  It's probably partly the difference related to mixing teas to work around flaws in some and using better material that contributes different positive range.  Those two wouldn't be completely distinct; probably these individual inputs wouldn't come across as nearly as complex and balanced.  A lack across part of a range could be a flaw, in a sense.  But it would be different trying to drown out a negative aspect.

Sixth infusion:  more of the same.  The slight shifts aren't worth going on about; a lot of complexity keeps changing in balance.  Probably after 2 or 3 more rounds it will thin a bit, and some of that range will drop back, and it will stay pleasant but narrower for a few more rounds.  I'm just not patient enough for a dozen round review, so I won't mention those details.

Conclusions:

Just fantastic, as expected.  It is interesting comparing a really good blended Wuyi Yancha with a recent and repeated impression of a pretty good one.  For a tea to have with food the difference scales way back; both would be ok.  For drinking a tea as the main part of an experience this is more suitable.  You could still just have it with breakfast, of course.

I find myself drinking through lower quality teas I have around faster because of that distinction, that I need to have something quick 5 work-days per week, and tend to drink something as a pick me up in the afternoons that I also don't focus on.  It would be possible to re-structure life to pay more attention to immediate experience, and to allocate more time.  For me I'm not a morning person, so it just wouldn't be practical prior to 9 AM, and I suppose to some extent I only have so much focus to work with every day.   

That connects together well with another theme I'm writing about in another post draft, about how I just ordered a lot of tea, almost all sheng pu'er, based largely on what I could buy that's the best and most interesting in spite of being low in cost.  My tea budget also drives that; my wife was shocked enough to learn of a moderate sized tea order expense.  It's nice that I can keep trying interesting, diverse, high quality teas related to this blogging theme, vendors sending it for review, and still buy modest quality teas in much greater volume that I mostly drink day to day.  This tea costs 50 cents a gram on their website (for the 50 gram amount; down closer to 40 at 250 grams), and it's definitely worth that.  There is plenty of Wuyi Yancha out there not nearly this good selling for more.  

Maybe I shouldn't say what the range for inexpensive but decent sheng is?  On the order of a third of that, which would vary for "how decent" someone is talking about, and their type preference, and vendor source.  You definitely notice the vast difference in tea quality, and there are tradeoffs related to most or less preferred storage conditions input, but one catchy part of sheng experience is that the tea you buy and experience this year will be quite different in two more years.  I think beyond preference for aspect range and the trendiness of sheng pu'er preference that transition is a lot of the rest of the appeal.  

Just related to how positive a tea experience is this Wuyi Yancha really holds its own, with anything else, with considerable allowance required for personal preference.  In general less acclimation and preference development shift would be required to enjoy this; a lot more people would "get it."  It might not be the next natural step to follow drinking Harney and Sons blends but it is a next natural step after appreciating more mediocre Chinatown shop Wuyi Yancha, which can also be really nice, just in a different sense.