White2Tea Club - DHP vs Rougui - (Dec 2015 package)

Winter is a great time of the year to enjoy the warm flavors of a roasted oolong such as Wuyi Yancha.  White2Tea knows this and wisely included two different samples of Yancha in their December tea club package; the Rougui and the Dahongpao.  (Note: this is not the more expensive special aged DHP they recently sold, but is more of a standard offering.)  Since I've had a strange winter this year and didn't drink these when they first arrived, I got to enjoy these nice roasted teas out on the patio in March.

The great thing about the way they packaged these samples it that they were not labeled.  One of the packets was a dark brown smooth plastic material and the other packet was light brown papery material.  Of course the club newsletter revealed the identity, but the fun thing to do here is brew these side-by-side and do a blind comparison before looking up which one is which.

Good setup for a blind comparison.  

I put the tea from the papery packet in my satin-finish spring tea garden gaiwan, and the tea from the smooth packet went into my butterfly gaiwan.  Despite one looking bigger than the other, both gaiwans hold about 85ml or so, and I used 5g of leaf in each.

To make this review less confusing, I'll go ahead and reveal which tea is which.  The dark brown package in the butterfly gaiwan is the Dahongpao, and the garden gaiwan has the Rougui.

The Rougui leaf is a little bit smaller than the Dahongpao, and the dry leaf aroma is more chocolaty compared to the slightly more fruity aroma of the DHP dry leaf.  Interestingly though, the aroma is the opposite once the leaves are wet.  The Rougui wet leaf blossoms into an extremely sweet fruity aroma similar to black plums and cherry, where as the DHP wet leaf is not as sweet and almost has an over-ripe fruit aroma, pineapple, with a hint of some kind of melted plastic-like characteristic.  This may be due to the charcoal roast.

No sense in keeping you in suspense.  Dahongpao on the left, Rougui on the right.

Both yanchas brew up a similar looking deep orange liquor.  The DHP liquor might be slightly more cloudy, but both have a good aroma.  Again, the Rougui aroma seems sweeter than the DHP.

Upon tasting, it is clear that these two teas are quite different.  During my last W2T yancha comparison, I had an aged DHP and a freshly roasted DHP to help learn how the roast flavors can dissipate or evolve over time.  From that exercise I learned that the fresh roast flavor can be quite harsh, but I also found it to be very fruity, and it reminded me of guava.  None of the two yanchas here have such a young roast profile; however, the Rougui does seem to be closer to that end of the spectrum than the DHP.

The Rougui seems very thick and coating in the mouth, but otherwise the mouthfeel is not the strong point of this tea.  This tea has a sweet flavor profile of dark cherries which later intensifies into guava, and the aftertaste is just as fruity and seems to show up slightly delayed.

Rougui has nice deep orange clear liquor.

The Dahongpao has a much different mouthfeel.  It has slight astringency and a certain sour characteristic which causes some puckering of the sides of the tongue.  The taste is much more acidic compared to the Rougui, and not as sweet.  The flavor is significantly more mellow and seems to have a higher degree of complexity, though I found it difficult to explain why.  The later infusions have a slight cotton candy-like flavor, but it is not sickening sweet.  The aftertaste has the apple taste that I love in a good roasted tea.

Dahongpao liquor is similar to the Rougui.  The leaves seem slightly bigger though.

In comparison I cannot really say that one of these teas is better than the other.  The Rougui will appeal more to someone wanting a very sweet and fruity yancha that may come across as a bit harsh to some, though I did find that the later infusions did round out quite a bit and became more balanced.  The strength of the Rougui is aroma and sweetness.   The Dahongpao will be more appealing to someone looking for a more mellow flavor.  The Dahongpao's wet leaf aroma may not be as pleasant, but the strengths are in the interesting mouthfeel, nice well balanced aftertaste, and a sense of more complexity.  It's great though that both of these teas do have some depth to them and aren't just full of an overpowering generic "charcoal" taste.

I cannot say that I have enough experience to know if the acidic flavor and slight sourness in the mouthfeel of the Dahongpao is the result of something good or bad or if it's just a natural characteristic of this tea.  I have heard that some oolongs can develop sour notes as they age and absorb moisture, which is why re-roasting from time to time may be done, but I do not know if that is the case here or not.  I personally found myself favoring the Dahongpao over the Rougui.  I liked both teas, but I found the Dahongpao to be more interesting and more relaxing to drink.

I was pleasantly surprised when I finally looked up which tea was which.  The one I seemed to favor, the Dahongpao, sells for $15.50 for 50g and the Rougui sells for $22.50 for 50g.  At those prices though, both are a good deal.    (The DHP is actually sold out at the time of writing this, but hopefully White2Tea will get a new batch soon, and hopefully that batch will be good too.)

Link to the Ruogui: http://www.white2tea.com/tea-shop/rougui-oolong-tea/
Link to the Dahongpao: http://www.white2tea.com/tea-shop/dahongpao/
Link to the White2Tea monthly tea club: http://www.white2tea.com/white2tea-monthly-tea-club-subscription-club/

White2Tea Tea Club - August 2015 (Da Hong Pao oolong)

I am one of the newest members of the White2Tea monthly tea club.  My first month was July which I'll likely post about later, but today I had two of the three teas featured in the August package which highlighted some Wuyi oolongs.

Although White2Tea's primary focus is in puerh, they do have some select Chinese black teas and oolongs.  The tea club package for August hints that they are in the process of adding new oolongs to the selection, one of which will be an aged Da Hong Pao.

To give some perspective on what some age can do to a Dahongpao, the package included a sample of freshly roasted Dahongpao for comparison to the aged DHP.  So it made sense for me to drink them on the same day.

These teas are reportedly made by the same farmer on the same land, but the aged one is about 8 years old.  At first glance there are not too many visual differences, though the aged one may be slightly more brown.  The aroma though does reveal more roast scent in the fresh version where as the aged one has a bit of leather smell instead.  Both teas have a dominant chocolate smell in the dry leaf.

Both teas brew a nice clear reddish brown liquor with similar looking wet leaves, but the similarities stop there.  The brewed fresh DHP smells of fresh cherries and strawberries and is very candy-like.  The gaiwan lid actually smells exactly like cotton candy.  The brewed aged DHP has a darker aroma of black cherries and raisin with a hint of fig.

The mouthfeel of the fresh DHP is very thick but otherwise not very active, while the aged DHP has a very soft body and a mouthfeel that is active with pleasant astringency and tartness on the back and sides of the tongue.

The enclosed description newsletter with this month's teas mentioned that the fresh DPH will have "thrashing youth" and "harsh and sharp" roast flavor compared to the aged one which should be "mellow" because the "fire flavors have subsided."  After tasting these teas I can easily agree that the aged DHP is much more mellow than the fresh.

The fresh version is initially very sweet and fruity, though almost unnaturally so-- like strawberry candy as opposed to real strawberries.  The roast flavor does seem harsh and almost gives the tea a plastic taste, but the fruit flavors keep it enjoyable.  The aged one still has a dominant presence of fruit in the initial brew, but the fruits seem more natural and darker, like black plums, black cherry, and autumn apples.  The aged DHP is definitely very mellow compared to the Fresh and has a hint of that "dry leather" taste that I find in some aged teas.  With the roast flavor being less prominent, the aged tea takes on an obvious mineral/earthy clay flavor under the fruit notes.

The aftertaste of both teas is pleasant and  follows the main taste.  The fresh DHP has a lingering strawberry jam aftertaste and the aged one has a nice apple cider aftertaste with an apple peel flavor in the back of the throat-- I'm not sure what it is about apple peel aftertastes, but all my favorite roasted oolongs have this.  Both teas have a floral component to the aftertaste which begins to show up after a few infusions.

As the teas evolve over further infusions the aged one seems to remind me more and more of a slightly aged sheng puerh as some orange peel and coriander flavors start to come through.  Much to my surprise the fresh one began to transform with very strong and dominating presence of guava!  It still remained candy-like though, and had nearly an identical taste as a guava candy that I am very familiar with.  My favorite Chinese restaurant has a large bowl of them on the checkout counter, and I used to sneak extras into my takeout bag until very recently when I found out that I can buy them in bulk at my local Asian supermarket.  These would be a great way to extend the aftertaste of this tea if you wish.

Overall it is almost difficult for me to say which of these teas I liked better.  As of right now the Fresh Dahongpao is not a tea that White2Tea is planning to have for sale (at least in its young state) and was simply included as a comparison tea for the aged version.  The club newsletter actually mentioned that it would "likely not be a crowd favorite, though some may love it."  I do agree that the "freshness" of this recently roasted tea does come across as "harsh" and "sharp" and the flavors seem almost unnatural, but the flavors are definitely interesting and the tea seems a bit unlike other teas I have had which makes it something I would enjoy drinking from time to time.  I drank it today on a mild summer day which was nice, where as the aged DHP would be cozy on a cool autumn day.  The apple peel taste of the aged tea is a key flavor I love in roasted oolongs and easily makes this one I would consider buying more of.  As of right now I do not know the price since the website has not been updated yet and that would be an important deciding factor.  I also think that the aged one would do better with even more leaf.  I had my gaiwan about 1/3 full but would definitely like to try this tea again with at least 1/2 full.

The third Wuyi tea included in this month's package is called "Clover Patch Oolong," which is reportedly very different from the DHP despite coming from the same farmer.  I will brew that one soon!

Keep an eye on the White2Tea oolong page where we'll hopefully see some new teas added soon.  I still need to try more of the ones that are already there as I've only had the OBSX so far, and it's REALLY good.