Daxue Jiadao

5.4/90/boiling

wet leaf: smoke, floral, honey, berries, carrot
quick rinse.

1. good texture, sour, fruity (grape?), malt
2. deeper honeyed taste, some strawberry-like tartness, faint aftertaste that builds in the throat
3. similar. refreshing cooling quality to finish. had this w a friend before that compared it to something green tea adjacent. maybe goji berry and some bubble gum too.
4. light. something continues to linger in aftertaste, but it’s delicate and maybe citrus like.

I stopped steeping and taking notes bc I was tired but this was interesting. I don’t know if this is normal for dianhong, but the shifting qualities remind me of the XZH Diangu, except not bitter. Someone said Diangu is cursed puer, and if that’s the case, dianhong can be described as cursed hongcha. In any case, trying to grasp at it feels like the over-the-top Ratatouille imagery when Remy eats something.

Anyway, the first time I had this was w a friend right after trying the Lincang bainian ‘22, and I think that made it hard to pick out notes for this after (sensory overload/deadening). The bainian is enjoyable, but not subtle. This tea was harder to pin down, and really benefits from attention and focus. Since I mostly lack that energy lately, when ordering Explorer 3 from the recent DXJD release, I wasn’t inclined to pick up more of this.

6/90/212, truth serum water

1. woody, slight bitter, cinnamon and spices. faint caramel candy-like taste that dissipates
2. good texture, woody again w/ bitter under. chocolate, and some minerality with slight throat presence
3. wood, pleasant and mineral. some throat but more subtle and not as gripping as steep 2.
4. vegetal, cinnamon spice and some sweetness. faded.

cold cup: so good. goji, woody, some bitterness, but full.
i think thermos was good, but can’t remember fully since this was a while ago and I didn’t take notes on that. Yanchas are generally one-offs for me bc of the price (at least for good ones), but this is sold out anyway.

6/90/212.

did not rinse. first try yesterday, so not a fully formed opinion, but wasn’t particularly wowed like I was with the DXJD white tea set last weekend. This is comfortable and at standard entry level oolong pricing, this felt par for the course for the price (vs. some of the entry OWT and TSR options iirc). and I didn’t take notes, but all I remember is a light goji berry scent on the lid at the end. Otherwise, my impression was that I should’ve just bought an extra cup from them instead of 50g of this.

I ordered a bunch of teas from Daxue Jiadao back in early 2022, and this is the first one I opened. I’ve been keeping it for special occasions, but sadly, I’m near the bottom of the bag and it’s now sold out. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of jammy raspberries and elderberries, forest floor, and mushrooms. The first steep has notes of strawberry, raspberry, elderberry, forest floor, hay, and mushrooms. Honey, wood, and even headier berries appear in steep two, and the woodiness of the tea makes it feel drying without any astringency. I get hints of eucalyptus and earth in the next couple steeps as the berries recede somewhat, though they’re still very apparent in the aftertaste. A little malt emerges in the next two steeps, and the woodsy notes become stronger. Subsequent rounds achieve a nice balance of soft berries with wood, malt, minerals, honey, and earth. The tea gradually diminishes in flavour over the final long steeps, but is still tasty until the end of the session. I often steep it overnight to get that last bit of jammy goodness.

This is the best purple tea I’ve had so far and is also among the best teas from Yunnan. It has all of the berry and forest notes I associate with purple teas and very little of the funkiness. As Derk mentioned, this is a meditative tea that rewards careful attention.

As stated in a previous note, this a meditative tea.

I’m back from China. Rather than give a complete synopsis in one go, blurbs will find their way into future notes should a tea elicit the desire to write of my experiences. Here I will start with the end of my trip, as with all endings come beginnings.

On the first leg home, the China Southern flight attendant placed some floppy “old man brown” slippers on my first-class feet in Wuhan. As my ankles swelled by the hour, I figured why put my shoes back on. Those ugly, oversized slippers whisked with me through perfumed boutique shops in the Hong Kong airport, swept the (clean) floors of Taipei Taoyuan, shuffled me through U.S. customs in San Francisco and tripped me up as I boarded the bus that brought me back home. Sunday night around midnight I finally made it through the front door in a state of time-travel delirium and searched for my old girl Sophia.

I found Sophia after settling down for a bit, only to lose her less than 24 hours later. Monday was the end of our 22-year companionship. She waited for me to come home from my journey and passed in the comfort of my arms in her favorite chair and blanket. Now she rests under the lemon tree with the other kids, to feed the fruits that bring us happiness. I will be able to see her live on through my bedroom’s back door while I sit with tea. And these stupid China Southern slippers will be worn until they fall apart – little reminders of over half my life, arguably the most formative of my years, spent with a little warm body that made biscuits on my chest, sea foam eyes that softly spoke “You are mine and I am yours” and a vocabulary that always let me know what was on her mind. My little nugget, my little shoulder cat. So many feelings.

So yes, with all endings come beginnings. The end of Sophia’s life – full of patience, tenacity, wisdom and love – will be mirrored in my slippered steps as I stumble forward into this dream of farming tea.

Love you, baby.

I splurged for the last available bag of this after trying a lovely sample from Leafhopper. Brought some with me camping. This note is mostly to say this needs to be brewed with lots of leaf in a little pot that retains heat and not in a bowl. It’s a refined tea that deserves attention and works better as a much-needed meditation after work. I think the stately natural environment I was in while sipping overrode this tea’s quiet character.

Beautiful tea and energy. Feels like a silky sun-dappled forest with the scent of mushrooms pushing up from the ground. Is this what hawthorn fruits taste like? Each cup that comes to my lips mixes with the scent of patchouli on my wrist. It’s a grounding combination. Makes me feel very present.

Thank you Leafhopper <3