Traditional Da Hong Pao (literally "Big Red Cape) Oolong Tea grows in a protected UNESCO World Heritage site. Many tea scholars believe Oolong Tea was invented in this area, and the quality of the area's tea has kept a continuous culture protected here for at least the last millennium, when notably after the fall of the Tang Dynasty a Wuyi kingdom emerged here to be the only Chinese-Han controlled area in China. Different invaders and successive Dynasties found the revenue generated by this area's teas reason enough to tax them and leave them alone, but the diplomatic ability of local leaders also helped the area to flourish. It was the Qing Dynasty, China's last dynasty that made Da Hong Pao the official tea of the Emperor, which lead to the army's presence protecting what is today one of the most pristine areas left in modern China.
Da Hong Pao as a style of tea has only become prominent in the last few hundred years. The process by which this tea is repeatedly baked and rolled and heated is one of the world’s more complex methods for making an oolong tea. This process is believed to accentuate the tastes of particular minerals in the earth the Da Hong Pao tree grows in. This earth is found only inside the Wuyi National Park UNESCO protected area. This makes it very hard to increase Da Hong Pao production as new farms lack the proper soil. This same complex curing process is used on other tea varieties found inside the park. The taste of Da Hong Pao is considered to be one of the most complex of all teas. Enthusiasts of Da Hong Pao contend that what differentiates it is its greater depth and range of flavors which a tea artisan can extract from the leaf. Da Hong Pao tea's curing process is also unique in that for the first decade storage of a Da Hong Pao tea requires the tea be recooked every every few years. The tea is heated to remove moisture that is absorbed by the excessively dessicated leaves, but also during each re-cooking a new flavor is extracted from the Da Hong Pao leaf. It is said that often one re-cooking will not create a successful flavor and the tea must be set aside until a few years later when recooking can again be attempted. Old Da Hong Pao teas are exceedingly rare.
Inside the park many varietals of tea tree grow out of the red, crumbly, highly-mineralized stone, which gives the many teas from this area the common name, ‘rock tea’. Many of the tea trees most famous in this area were only popularized in the last three hundred years. In 1950 there were over two hundred and thirty varieties of rock teas which grow throughout the park. Mature tea tree leaves rang in size from a little finger to a whole hand. Almost all the tea trees are used to make tea, but each type of tree has a different taste profile and yield. The spindly Da Hong Pao tree produces fewer leaves than the other ‘rock teas’ and so it is thought to concentrate more minerals from the soil in the leaves. The Da Hong Pao tree is considered to be the variety which contains the most complex taste. It was a favorite of the Dynastic government of two hundred years ago, and it is still mostly reserved for the highest ranking Chinese government officials today. There are only five original Da Hong Pao trees left, and cuttings have been used to propagate the this varietal over the last few centuries, however only a small area contains the mineralized red soil that gives this tea its full depth of flavor, which means that as China has grown richer and demand for this tea increased authentic Da Hong Pao has become one of the most rare and expensive teas in the world. Traditionally Da Hong Pao trees in the park are classified by how many cuttings removed they are from the original trees. This classification has been discouraged by sellers of lower quality Da Hong Pao, and by the government, which keeps the best. It is also one of the most faked teas. There is an established tradition for imitating Da Hong Pao, made by mixing the leaves of larger yielding plants. Many tea vendors will readily acknowledge that much Da Hong Pao is not from the Da Hong Pao tree.
Perhaps due to the ancient tea culture here, farmers have a highly developed ecological theory of tea science which stipulates, among other things, that a tea tree yields more flavor when it grows surrounded by greater biodiversity. This leads to farmers having developed remote tea gardens nestled among narrow valleys which incorporate the surrounding plant life. Today all development inside the park has been halted, and these groves are in one of the best kept parks in all of China. It is a lovely place to wander. The biodiversity of this area is second only to Yunnan province in the far South of China. At the back of park behind these small rock tea groves there is a wilderness area. An institutes here maintains and studies an incredibly pristine ecology which dates back to before the last ice age. Somehow this area didn't get covered by the sheets of ice, and even now monkeys and tigers and bears still prowl through a vast protected area. The local museum guide claims over twenty species of poisonous water snakes still thrive. That put a damper on our wanting to swim in the enticing blue green water.
Setting aside Da Hong Pao's lofty claims, we are none-the-less enthralled by the ponderous aesthetics experienced through a sip of authentic Da Hong Pao. The best rock teas, including Da Hong Pao come from five traditional groves in the park considered to have the best mix of ecology, climate, altitude and soil. In the spring and fall of 2010 we made some very special acquaintances with families of traditional tea growers who farm one of these five most prized Da Hong Pao tea groves, called Shui Lian Dong. Most of their tea they sell to the government, but some they keep for themselves, and of this we got some.
We met a young woman from a family that had lived at the base of Shui Lian Dong (translated “water-faced cave”) until her family was relocated in 1998. She still has access to some of her family's ancestral tea trees, and we spent a few days with her trying these teas and visiting her plants inside the park. We chose a spring Da Hong Pao she picked in 2010 to offer here. She tells us the tea won a a silver medal in a local competition, but we are most impressed by the taste. We and our friends think the tea infusion exhibits the wonderful rounded body of flavor indicative of the best teas grown in the mineralized clay stone found only in this park. This tea also had another quality we can only describe as transporting. When we drink this tea, and we drink it a lot, we are reminded of ancient moss covered shrubs and the blankets of mist that curl among these red rock faces. There are no factories near here, only brisk moist mountain air. Writing about it now I will take a break and go brew a cup. Complex yet delicate, this tea makes apparent how full and lush, soft and sensual, intellectual and contemplative an oolong tea can be. We proudly agree it is one of China's national treasures.
