I need like 59373 updates from this channel daily.

The smell of the wet leaves reminds me of the hike we took at the caves. Turns to bourbon soaked fruit cake made by the Trappist Monks. Then the smell of sun hot apples and fresh mushrooms outdoors. This cup transports me to freedom in the woods and on the trails. Thank you!

Thanks so much for this. I've been trying to piece together this crazy story from all kinds of contradicting sources ever since I got into tea! Finally someone puts it all in one place and it makes sense! This is the video I've been waiting for! The Don of Tea does it again!

Drinking a fake one as I listen to your video ;) Still, it's always enjoyable to drink tea.

I am very impressed Don. As the world often misunderstood Chinese tea, I thank you very much for spreading the knowledge. Great Job!

Thank you so much for sharing the ancient stories and all your knowledge. I purchased Empress and Lost Robe recently .. really excited about brewing both! .. :) Xx

This was really interesting and informative. Thanks!

Nice summary of Da Hong Pao's enigmatic history and an intriguing tasting!

Very clear & well explained!

I tried Lost Robe today for the first time. All I can see is wow! A great taste experience. I'm new to tea's and can see why people get excited about the flavours.

Tried your Empress Oolong yesterday. Mind and taste buds blown. Amazing experience. :)

Nice information, thanks for all the knowledge!

Just got this tea in today. Wow! It's everything you describe. You nailed the slate flavor. I was imaging the smell of the slate formations at the river l fish during spawning season. I also purchases some Empress Oolong as well. I suppose I'll have that next session. Thanks for all the great information Don. You are a absolute legend.

Great video about Da Hong Pao! I tried the empress oolong for the first time a few weeks ago from my Tea Master Selection gift box and loved it. I'm very anxious to try the Lost Robe as well.

+Mei Leaf - Hello from Brazil ! I just discovered your channel right now and I'm in love ! All the informations about Tea. I was thinking of making a channel for the same purpose and you gave me all the motivation I needed! We don't have this type of channel here in brazil ! Thanks a lot for this, and you ear one more fan !!!!!

EXCELLENT video! Thank you so much for the clarification. I couldn’t figure out how people could give away Da Hong Pao if it was so rare. Not only did your video explain this, but it made me crave the Lost Robe! Great job!

watched this after buying a semi expensive one from a new tea vendor, and i think from your description i have a real one! Really impressed with the flavour, on the 3rd infusion it starts to go a bit like a tie guan yin which really surprised me (in a good way). I think oolong is my favorite kind of tea now. Great video by the way, really liked the way you told the story, and you can definitely tell you have a passion for tea.

Thanks. We enjoyed it!

So informative, thank you!!!

From your description of what a Da Hong Pao should really taste like, I am drinking a blended version that gives a pretty good account of itself. Bought this one in Beijing and paid top dollar for it from a tea merchant I usually deal with. Wasn’t able to get too much information about it but my local friends agreed that it was one of the better ones they’ve tasted. Anyway, I’ll get some from you guys when I’m next in London again and just hoping that it’ll be sooner rather than later.

Hey love the videos.....I recently got promoted into R&D at a large tea company that makes/pkgs Dunkin Donuts and Tim Hortons tea blends and found your channel extremely informative.....right now were focusing on pyramid bags and capsules...long story short thanks for the vids keep them comming

Thank you so much for this information about Da Hong Pao. I love that tea and it would be a dream to taste some from the mother bushes (if they ever start using those bushes again!). The problem with tea, which you've mentioned in your videos before, is the integrity of teas, for example the age of tea trees, the age of Puerh cakes, the cultivars of certain teas, and the areas from which the teas come, among others. Pulling some inspiration from the wine world here: in Italy, the Italian government puts DOCG certification on the Proseccos that meet it. The European Union also enforces designation of origin for other wines, for example only true Champagne may be labelled Champagne, only true Port wine may be labelled Port, Cognac, Bourbon, etc. I wonder, if maybe some organization (perhaps the Chinese government?) would create a system of certification for teas, including age of trees, plant cultivars, and area of origin. Just a thought; not sure how well this would go, but it would be nice to go off something more than just the word of farmers and other tea companies. Thank you so much for all the videos!!

Hi! Thanks for publishing all these video's, really informing for new teaheads like myself. I'd love to learn more about how to taste tea's and the SCOPE analysis you do. (I figured that in order to love and learn tea, I should keep track of things.) Could you maybe do a video on this? Thank you in advance! Best, Winny

So glad this video exists. I live in Shanghai and because it's so close to Fuzhou tons of people are selling Da Hong Pao for extremely low prices. I didn't even know selling fake Da Hong Pao was a thing; I must be drinking blend, haha. Either way the blends are nice, but I'm curious as to what a pure Da Hong Pao actually tastes like.

Thank you for sharing the history behind the tea! Really surprised by how complicated a single tea can be. The current da hong pao that I've bought tastes really similar to tie guan yin with that really sweet and flowery taste but with an added bit of chocolate (although the smell is exactly as you described). Is this normal or is my tea a blend of multiple different oolongs like you've said?

I have your lost robe and empress oolongs. The lost robe was very good, and was similar to the last DHP that I had. The empress on the other hand, I found to be quite dialed back in flavor. I got some wood, sour cherry and minerals, but it just seemed to be a lot less than I would have thought. I probably had 3/4 of a 100ml gaiwan full of leaf. Rinse and then 20 second infusion. Seemed kind of low key so I hit it again for 40 seconds, then closer to a minute for the third infusion. By that third infusion, there wasn't much left at all, so I quit the session. I'll have to weigh the leaf next time and try again to be sure, but I think the lost robe is definitely the superior DHP of the two. Unrelated to this video, but I also tried your Alishan cream, and that was possibly the best I've ever had.

Have you ever thought about doing a history of teas series? I really enjoyed learning about the history of Da Hong Pao in this video and think you're a great person to do a history of tea X,Y,Z series. Cheers!

Great video Don, learnd so much. Don whould you make an Video on gunpowder green tea? Whould love to hear your take on that

today my first order in Chinalife!!

as always awesome informative video... any videos you can do on aged white teas ?? Thanks

I love when people say they smell and taste all these different notes. I smell, just i smell tea. Pretty much same tea and the difference smells i cant distinguish the separate notes. Ugh.

Drinking Lost Robe as I watch this, 8gr recommended, I thought that was an error so I only used 5 and oh man this shit's on another level so delicious and soothing. Great find, thanks.

I’m drinking some Da Hong Pao by Tea Canyon. I like it!

Fun to watch when you like a tea you get pretty excited. Burn your fingers hold your earlobes, I thought I was the only one to do that anymore :-)

Thanks. That was very informative. You should do a video on Wuyi mountains for your next trip there.

wau... I think I need to start drinking tea... I mean real tea :) Lots to learn.

There are only 6 Dahongpao trees left in the world, and the Chinese government has restricted the export of Dahongpao tea due to the decline in production. The current price per catty is 5.2 million RMB (approximately $90,000 per catty). It is recommended that lovers who like to drink Dahongpao go to regular official channels to buy, as cheap ones may be counterfeit.

i was wondering how it tasted after 7-10 cups ?

Great portion of tea knowledge again :) I haven't been lucky with tasting really good tea from Wuyi mountain yet. Had some really nice Taiwanese oolongs and some from Anxi mountain but still looking for a good one from Wuyi. You're slowly starting your spring process of selecting tea for new year - right? I would be very happy if you could do a video about picking and processing some tea while being "in the field" and show us plantation, equipment, how it is used etc :) I know you did some sneak peak to it before on videos from trips to China but I'm thinking more of video that would be specifically about this.

I just had my first da hong pao. The first brewing in my gaiwon was alright, I wasnt impressed then the second brew was much different. I was blown away by further brewings. I might have brewed 7 or 8 times before it started loosing its potency.

Why he is pouring tea on table

To muddy the waters, I’ve heard there was a more recent study done that tested the original mother bushes, and there were 3 completely different varieties. Supposedly 2 of the bushes were Qi Dan. I’m unsure of what the other two were. So perhaps the original da Hong pao was indeed a blend. This would also mean Qi Dan is definitively a true da Hong pao but only a piece of the full puzzle. It’s too bad we didn’t have more information on how Bei Dou was developed.

Can you make a Video about the most important teaplant cultivars and what makes them special? =)

Great video! I was told that there’s actually 3 cultivars of the Da Hong Pao mother tree: qi dan, bei dou and que se (bird’s tongue). But I don’t see you mention the bird’s tongue over here. Am I getting the wrong info??

Another top video

Have you ever drank original milky ulung? Not fake ones with milk aroma but the tea from original bushes with less intense but more stable aroma.

I was going to buy some, but the tea is sold out :(

Don, I've seen some other sellers use the terms "nonpareil", "premium" and "supreme" which I'm making an educated guess that these are listed in ascending order (least to best) in the sellers version of classifying the grade of the tea. Is there a standard scale used (which may be this one)? The only thing I'm basing this on is that the price goes up from nonpareil, to premium to supreme. Thanks Don for keeping great quality products for us Tea Heads!

Don's comment about the good gaiwan made me think of the meme "Good Guy Greg", but changed to "Good Gai Wan"

Nice info. Thanks for sharing. I bought Da Hong Pao tea in Indonesian marketplace. Quite pricy compared to other kinds of local tea here but I don't think what I had was the real Da Hong Pao. Any suggestion where I can get the real one in Indonesia?

I just got the Zi Hong pao purple da Hong pao from yunnan sourcing. Haven’t tried it yet but it had good reviews. Do you know if they have genuine good quality da Hong pao?

The color seems darker because you have a blue shirt, maybe :) A video comparing Lost Robe and Empress oolong would be interesting! Thanks ;)

Hi. I've been drinking ulung teas for some time now. As far as I know they are different in production and aome are like really dark (formosa) but some ulungs are nearly like green tea in leaf color. Should I use different temperature depending on tea's color?

How many infusions you usually do with this tea and gong fu tea ceremony? I'm able to do 5-6 infusions with 6 grams / 120 ml water / 20s - 40s. In your brewing guide is mentioned up to 9 infusions but there is no flavor after 5 infusions in my case. Maybe I'm doing something wrong 🤔

I like all your Rock oolongs. Would you consider offering Shui Xian and (Old Bush) Lao Cong Shui Xian? ^^

Can Da Hong Pao also be concidered to be red/black tea and hence the name?

That explains why I was not impressed by the da hong pao I had once. It was pricy and had a nice packaging but it didn't do it for me in the cup.

I had a weird experience with a cheap-ish Da Hong Pao where it had a really rich flavor on the first infusion (despite a bunch of broken leaves not even a rinse got rid of), but it trailed off by the third. It smelled really interestingly, like lemon and a freshly-extinguished campfire, and tasted like oranges and pine with hints of cherry and something else I can't describe. I'm genuinely perplexed by it, because that first cup was to die for, but then the tea's flavor just collapsed.

Hi! By any chance, are going to have the porcelain gaiwan back in stock anytime soon? Thanks :)

So a full minute is too long for Da Hong Pao?

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In all honesty i dont think exchangimg tea to opium doesn't seem that wrong

dou bei dou bei dou bei dou

hi, i would like to know where to buy good jasmine tea. or high grade. i bought my jasmine tea and after drinking/brewing for the second or third time and i saw the leaves/stems unfold. some are leaves, some are stems. the jasmine in the container is rolled in tiny beads. is my jasmine tea a high grade? how can you distinguish between high grade low grade or fine

Drinking da hong dao oolong. Its crazy special taste. It tast like straw

Do you ship to America

My dream one time drink da Hong pao . But it's not true

I'm always a little bit confused when I get different temperature recommendations from different sources. For example, where I buy my tea brewing Da Hong Pao is recommended at 85 degrees Celsius and not close to boiling as you say. Black Tea is recommended at close to boiling and not 90 degrees as you say and silver needle is recommended at 85 degrees. Whenever I am confronted with deviations like these I try both of them and decide which one I prefer. So far 90 degrees for Silver Needle is my preference, Da Hong Pao will still be tested at close to boiling since I got it on Wednesday (what luck you guys made a video just about now!) and black tea is very nice at 90 degrees Celsius in my opinion.

I don't know if I missed that or you don't talk about it - why real mother bushes aren't used now? btw - I bought myself a yixing pot uesterday - should I use it for my favourite pu erhs, oolongs or green teas? What's best for that kind of pot

Can people distinguish a tea from one plant and tea from another? Who here would buy the Da Hong Pao or jin jun mei?

Would you suggest resting teas like these? If so, how would you suggest going about it and for how long? ... Maybe a video on resting oolongs could make its way into your busy schedule? ... Pretty please?

how can you prove its "direct lineage"?

Go play with your phone. You seem to busy to review the best tea in the world.

Is it just me or the video playing on the smartphone in the side is this same video played live and the matter that he's pausing it in between and playing again just fucks my brain... Btw great video on tea love it

Too much information 😂😂😂😂

Coming after rajesh kumar fact😁

So are you one of the few who sell 100% Da Hong Pao from Qi Dan (奇丹) cultivar? Really? What a lucky man.

hey, the tea head shirts are awesome! got four of em and eatchone has a slightly different gaiwan, awesome. the quality feels very nice. everyone should get one. i got one for my domestic tea supplier as a gift :D

Can you make a Video about the most important teaplant cultivars and what makes them special? =)