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3-stage filtered L.A. water just off the boil into my white/brown “turned” Jingdezhen gaiwan then into one of my rough clay Japanese tea cups from the 1990s.

Breaks apart fairly easily by hand. Small (but not overly broken) leaf material.

Liquor is a clear, burnt umber to auburn gradient.

After a 20 – 30 second rinse, flash brews a few times before you have to start extending the infusions before the color/flavor starts to fade. Goes for maybe 10 infusions, beyond which you’d need to actively boil the tea.

Free from off notes (fishy/sour/funk/etc.), but a touch weak overall. Can grow bitter if pushed, but is largely dusty/earthy/woody with hints of mushroom and old leather. Pairs well with food. A smooth but unremarkable ripe.

Spring 2022 batch.

Prepared in my Jian Shui gaiwan, and served in my porcelain tea cup via my glass cha hai. Filtered Santa Monica municipal water just off the boil throughout.

Gold/gray/black wiry and fairly uniform. Malty, feed store/nursery aromatics with floral/fruit/earth notes.

Burnt orange/Titian red liquor. Complex nutty aroma is very similar to that of the dry leaf. Earthy/sweet but a little drab on the palate – more leaf litter than fruit or cocoa. Quiet residual complexity with a pleasant earthy finish. Distinct but delicate. I prefer the more robust/chocolate-forward examples of this style/variety. Would be interesting to do a side-by-side with this and the “Premium” and “Imperial” grades of the same variety…

Spring 2021 batch.

Prepared in my Jian Shui gaiwan, and served in my porcelain tea cup via my glass cha hai. Filtered Santa Monica municipal water just off the boil throughout.

Pure gold, large, straight, fuzzy leaves (buds?) – dry, it has a mild yet distinctive aroma. Hints of hay, beeswax, pencil shavings, and nectarine.

Butterscotch to hazy sunrise gradient in the glass.

Infused, gentle sweet aromatics suggest yam, light malt, and apricot. Low floral/spice (saffron?) notes as well.

Distinctive yet subtle flavor profile with hints of summer fruit, johnny cakes, and chestnut. Long quiet finish has a faint cocoa quality. Deep and smooth.

Notably rich mouth-feel, medium-thick, with very low bitterness throughout.

Subsequent to my purchase, I’ve read that this variety is endangered. While the vendor describes the source as a “plantation” (suggesting cultivated rather than wild plants), I’d want to know more about the tea’s conservation status before making future purchases.

Spring 2021 batch.

Black and gold leaves smell of alfalfa.

Prepared in my Jian Shui gaiwan, and served in my porcelain tea cup via my glass cha hai. Filtered Santa Monica municipal water just off the boil throughout.

Alloy orange liquor. Very mild aroma brings to mind hay, corn, and oats.
Sweet on the palate, suggesting apricot and almonds, grain, and a hint of licorice root. The earthy/grassy flavors dominate the finish with hints of baked clay and chestnut.
Reasonable longevity, but the flavor becomes drab after several infusions and it can’t be pushed with lengthy infusions or it just turns bitter without retaining much character.

Pleasant, warming, smooth dian hong – enjoyable but one I wouldn’t seek out again.

Just noting that I’ve been through more than a kilo of this tea as it is one of my favorite daily-drinkers in the office.

Filtered Santa Monica tap water just off the boil throughout. Poured from a pear-shaped purple clay tea-pot into a glass cha hai, and served in a porcelain (“peony”) cup.

6 infusions (20sec, 20sec, 40 sec, 1min, 2min, 4min) Jasmine to pale gold liquor; mild grassy/floral aroma; grass/wildflowers/weeds on the palate leading into a medium-dry, not quite dusty finish. Roast/fermentation are mellow. Low bitterness; Medium thick mouthfeel.

My personal tastes lean towards more robust expressions, but there are no glaring faults from this leaf material if one prefers a mild, low roast oolong.

Prepared in my Jian Shui gaiwan, and served in my porcelain tea cup via my glass cha hai. Filtered Santa Monica municipal water just off the boil throughout.

I have limited experience with sheng, but I’ll share my untutored impressions:

Early infusions result in arylide liquor with a gentle mineral/grassy aroma, a similarly subtle flavor, with hints of burdock and toasted seaweed in the finish which leads to a distinct hui gan. Vegetal/woody elements (along with hints of menthol, weeds, and wildflowers) and thickness of mouth-feel increase as the leaves unfurl and infusions are extended past 10 – 15 seconds. Astringency emerges, though bitterness is low (at first). Somewhere between 7 and 10 infusions, I suddenly found it difficult to steep long enough to extract flavor without that initially mild bitterness supplanting any other notes; so my sessions with this tea ended fairly abruptly (as will this review).

Generous sample kindly provided by the proprietor. ~25g yields about two lengthy sessions.

Prepared in my Jian Shui gaiwan, and served in my porcelain tea cup via my glass cha hai. Filtered Santa Monica municipal water just off the boil throughout.

5 flash infusions: Butterscotch liquor; stone fruit, figs, wood, honey, and yam are all hinted at, but the aromatic sum, which amplifies the scent of the dry leaf, is something more concrete and distinctive even if I can’t name it; sweet palate entry, creamy with hints of licorice, leading into a faintly spicy/woody finish suggesting pink peppercorn; slippery, almost thick mouth-feel with low tannins and bitterness.

Well crafted, subtly unique red tea with impressive longevity (I expect to get another 5 infusions out of this session when I return to it tomorrow morning), although the nectar-like sweetness makes me prefer this as a dessert tea rather than a daily drinker.

Winter 2019 harvest.

Filtered Santa Monica tap water just off the boil throughout. Poured from a pear-shaped purple clay tea-pot into a glass cha hai, and served in a porcelain (“peony”) cup.

5 infusions (10, 20, 30, 40, 60 seconds) – flax/pale straw liquor; moderate roast, faint grain, wildflowers and grass in the nose; mild creamy flavor with hints of vanilla, corn silk, and a subtle floral presence. Faint residual sweetness hints at toasted rice or waffle batter. Clean, medium-thick mouth-feel. No bitterness. Linear flavor progression from palate entry to finish and largely from steep to steep (although 30 – 40 seconds seems to be the sweet spot here).

Refreshing, mild, medium-roast oolong that would likely do well iced – while well crafted, it lacks the complexity that you can find in some high grown or mainland varieties (I wouldn’t normally dwell on these sorts of comparisons, but the hubristic name suggesting the highest rank of nobility seems an open invitation to criticism).

Briefly noting that I’ve found the Autumn 2019 batch of this tea to be gorgeous to look at, but that the aroma and flavor are at best, so subtle that I am incapable of evaluating much less appreciating them. I found this to be bland and flat for all but the initial infusion (which was itself weak), and only gaining some bitterness and a vague woodiness when truly pushed. Disappointing Dianhong. Not my cup of tea, as it were…