A Tea Addict's Journal

Year old Dahongpao

July 17, 2007 · 2 Comments

Digging up more old tea, I found a tin of a year old dahongpao sitting around, waiting to be consumed. In fact, it might be more than a year old, but I really have no idea at this point because I don’t remember where I got it from. I’d venture to say it’s been in the same tin for almost two years now. Most of it is gone, but some is still there

I did the usual — warmed the pot, filled it up with maybe 75% full dry leaves, and then brewed. The tea comes out a light brown

Not too heavy in colour. The flavours, however, are strong. It’s got an obvious fragrance that is aged a little — a bit of that aged sweetness is creeping in. There’s no sourness of any kind, instead, it’s got a mellow fruity flavour that seems to be buzzing below the surface. The tea has obvious qi, as I was feeling it after one cup, and it’s got a nice rock aftertaste as well as a good throatiness. This is a good dahongpao! Now…. where did I get this again?

I really can’t remember.

Oh well, there’s enough for a few more brews. I also found a box of very high grade dahongpao that I bought about 5 years ago. It hasn’t been opened yet, and I don’t plan on doing so. Perhaps if there’s some great occasion warranting it, but for now… I’ll let it sit in that foil bag for a little longer. I have plenty to drink as it is.

It’s fun going through old teas that you have stashed away.

Categories: Old Xanga posts · Teas
Tagged:

2 responses so far ↓

  • Anonymous // July 17, 2007 at 10:50 am | Reply

    You fill your teapot 75% full of the tea leaves? No wonder it has “obvious qi”!! Isn’t that a lot? I am not too familiar with the ways of gong fu cha, mind you. What about your brew times? I always love pulling something old out and finding a new spark in it. Thanks for this one!

  • MarshalN // July 17, 2007 at 12:05 pm | Reply

    Only for Wuyi teas, and only when the Wuyi tea is either aged or is highly fired.  That’s fairly normal for me for this kind of tea.

    Brew times are extremely short until about the 5th infusion.  I’d say 5s or less.

Leave a Comment