Da Hong Pao Wuyi Rock Oolong

Da Hong Pao, Big Red Robe, is a roasted oolong from the rock cliffs of the Wuyi Mountains in Fujian. The cup is dark amber and mineral, with charred plum, orchid and a long, sweet finish. Most of what is sold today comes from clones of the six old bushes. Brewed gongfu style at 98°C.

Origin & Story

The story goes that a scholar on his way to the imperial examinations fell ill in the Wuyi Mountains. A monk gave him tea from the bushes growing on the cliff, and he recovered, passed the exam and came back to honor the tea with his red official robe, which he draped over the bushes. In some tellings the emperor himself recovered after drinking it and ordered every passing official to hang a robe on the bushes. The tea took its name from the robe: Da Hong Pao.

The old bushes are real. Six of them survive on the Jiulongke cliff, about 350 to 360 years old, and picking from them was halted in 2006; the local government has insured them for 100 million yuan. Their leaf once sold at auction: in 2005 a 20 g lot fetched 208,000 yuan.

So what is in your cup? In the 1980s the Fujian provincial tea research institute took cuttings from two of the mother bushes, and the plants raised from them became the cultivar Qidan, the closest match to the originals. Another selection, Beidou No. 1, was bred by Yao Yueming and reached commercial planting in the late 1980s. When demand outran supply in the 1990s, makers began blending Qidan with Shuixian and Rougui, which is why most Da Hong Pao is a clone or a blend of rock teas, not a leaf from the legendary bushes.

Rock is the point. Zhengyan, true rock, is tea from the scenic core of Wuyi, while banyan and zhoucha come from the surrounding hills and the river islands. A roast finishes the leaf, in good lots repeated over years, and it gives the dark amber liquor and its notes of dark chocolate, charcoal, dried stone fruit and mineral.

One more tale deserves a caution: that Mao gave President Nixon 200 g of Da Hong Pao in 1972, with Zhou Enlai remarking that it was half of the year's harvest. It is repeated widely, but no source for it has turned up and the amounts given run from 50 g to 800 g, so take it as legend.

Put 6 g in a 100 ml gaiwan, pour in water at 98°C, rinse for a few seconds, then pour the first infusion off after 10 to 15 seconds and add a few seconds each round, for seven or more good infusions.

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