Wuyi Mountain Big Red Robe

Tea type
Oolong Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Chocolate, Fruity, Guava, Malt, Wood, Butter, Cinnamon, Flowers, Peppercorn, Scotch, Fireplace, Salt, Caramel, Sap, Smoke, Smooth, Sweet, Toast, Char, Citrus, Cream, Dark Chocolate, Dark Wood, Earth, Floral, Grain, Leather, Lemon, Mineral, Moss, Orange, Plum, Popcorn, Roasted Nuts, Sugar, Tobacco, Vanilla, Berries, Red Wine, Roasted, Black Currant, Nutty, Tart, Astringent, Autumn Leaf Pile, Berry, Blackberry, Blueberry, Cherry, Cotton Candy, Grapes, Honey, Raisins, Raspberry, Musty, Apricot, Bread, Molasses, Stonefruit, Honeysuckle, Melon, Bitter, Grass, Roasted Barley, Brown Sugar, Smoked, Toffee, Winter Honey, Toasted Rice, Vegetal, Creamy, Camphor, Dried Fruit, Spices, Cocoa, Metallic, Soybean, Burnt Sugar, Oak, Rum, Cherry Wood, Nuts, Walnut, Rose, Pine, Powdered Sugar, Apple, Chestnut, Wet Earth, Spinach, Tangy, Espresso
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Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Patrick G
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 1 min, 15 sec 4 g 10 oz / 291 ml

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140 Tasting Notes View all

From Verdant Tea

It took Verdant Tea 4 months of sampling to find a Big Red Robe unique and delicious enough to really justify importing. This incredible tea from the rocky cliffs of Wuyi mountain offers a side of Big Red Robe that most people have never seen. Usually all you get is caramel, chocolate and floral notes. This goes far beyond. In early steepings, there is an intriguing sensation on the tongue, almost like the metallic vibrations of a bronze cast bell, or the idea of fast moving water flowing over slate. As the tea opens up, there is a perfectly synthesized note of orange and elderberry that dominates, and lingers in the back of the throat. In middle steepings, the elderberry orange flavor splits into fruity wine grape notes, hibiscus-infused dark chocolate, and molasses cookies with crystalized Thai ginger. In late steepings, the thick beany and malty flavor of Laoshan green comes through, combined with the lilac sweetness of Tieguanyin. One of our favorite aspects of this tea is that it was expertly roasted in a way that lets so much complexity come through the caramel notes of any darker oolong. If you are interested in oolongs, or seek a very comforting yet engaging tea, give this a try for a new perspective.

About Verdant Tea View company

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140 Tasting Notes

87
687 tasting notes

Having oolong seems to make me want more oolong. So, now I’m drinking this while watching Stargate Atlantis. It smells nicely, a bit maltly and a bit roasty. The flavour is very sweet and creamy. Makes a nice smooth and mellow cup.

Flavors: Creamy, Roasted

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49 tasting notes

My Sunday afternoon pick me up. Not sure why this is called big red robe….. Better look that up…
I’m not tasting any flavors at all. I used the recommended amounts of tea and water…
Will reevaluate later

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1440 tasting notes

This was a sample Verdant sent along with my recent order of LB. I haven’t had an oolong in quite some time. I sort of fell out of love with them a bit, because they are a wee bit high maintenance.

I figured I’d waited long enough, and I’ve been bothered by my box of need-to-sipdown teas lately. This one is tasty, but it doesn’t seem extraordinarily different from many other oolongs, AKA nothing makes it stand out against the rest. This is one of my friend’s favourites, but it’s just another tasty tea to me. Perhaps when another oolong mood rolls around, I’ll re-try this one to see if I can get the magic.

This is a sample sipdown.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 30 sec
mj

That’s exactly how I felt about this one

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91
278 tasting notes

Super. This tea is just excellent!

I like finding finer teas that do well with a Western-style brewing. I admit that I tend toward laziness, and there’s just no time in the AM to pull out the gong fu set. While I expect that this tea would potentially be even more amazing brewed with short steeps, it was also wonderful with one longer steep in the french press.

The aroma was nutty and roasty. It had a very smooth taste, and I was a little sad when the cup was finished, since I didn’t bring any of this particular loose tea to work. I will get around to trying this gong fu style, but I think I’ll also bring some to work and try it grandpa style tomorrow. It had zero bitterness and I think it would be a good, non fussy tea for work.

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75
268 tasting notes

This was one of the teas set out for samples today at Verdant. I guess I don’t have a sensitive palate (also I don’t have a ton of experience) because I didn’t get a lot of complexity from this tea. It tasted mainly roasted to me and was pretty good, but not my favorite oolong.

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95
41 tasting notes

This review is from the Autumn 2013 crop.

I’ve steeped this Western style and it was good but did not blow me away. So I broke out the gaiwan and used the parameters on Verdant’s web page. ZOMG! It’s like a completely different tea :)

My palate is too uneducated to do complete justice to this tea. To mangle an old phrase, I don’t know much about oolongs, but I know what I like. And I really liked this!

Intense in the early steeps. I perceived the initial flavors as a super-intense loquat, but Verdant calls it “tart cherry and juicy nectarines”. OK, I guess I could also call it that. Also got a hint of cloves in the first steep and distinct cinnamon in the aftertaste throughout the middle ones. Stone fruits in the retro-nasal and sweetness in the cooling cup. Citrus notes emerged at the end.

I took this through 16 steeps over three and a half hours, and it was an incredible ride. I remembered seeing an email a week or so ago from Verdant that it was back in stock, so I headed over there to order some more. Oh noes! They’re out :(

Well I have enough for a few more sessions so I will sip it sparingly until the new harvest arrives.

Preparation
4 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
TheTeaFairy

«I don’t know much about oolongs, but I know what I like.» The beauty with tea is no one needs to be an expert to appreciate it :-)
Isn’t it amazing how you can achieve different results just by changing brewing methods/vessels?

TeaExplorer

TheTeaFairy: Isn’t it amazing how you can achieve different results just by changing brewing methods/vessels?
Absolutely, yes!

With many teas I can usually pick out notes in a Western cup that are isolated or magnified in the gaiwan. This tea, however, took me completely by surprise. Flavors came bursting out during Gong Fu that I never detected in the Western cup.

I’ve also noticed a slight difference when using the same parameters on a given tea but switching between a Gong Fu pot (Kamjove type) and a gaiwan.

And so, less than a year into this incredible journey, all I know is that I truly know nothing. And I’m OK with that :)

SimpliciTEA

Great story about how changing the brewing parameters made a huge difference. I think I got this tea as a free sample last time I ordered from them (over a year ago), and I remember thinking I wasn’t impressed with it. But, I must have brewed it Western style, as I didn’t have a gaiwan then. Sixteen steepings, huh? Amazing!

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98
257 tasting notes

The dry leaves have a nice roast & sweet burnt sugar aroma. Nice big dark brown twisted and uniform leaves.
Brewed, the liquor is clear and golden. It has a roasted flavor but lightly roasted. Flavors of cream as well. Then there is a floral note as you breathe out. There is a tiny touch of sweet too.
Very nice and balanced Big Red Robe tea!!!
Thank u Terri Harplady for this sample!!!

Flavors: Caramel, Cream, Espresso

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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93
36 tasting notes

Got this as a sample today with my first VerdantTea order. My very first oolong love this tea very fragrant so nice am on my first steep.Complex flavor.

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98
7 tasting notes

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68
9 tasting notes

Dry leaves smell of musty apricot. The liquor hits with a smokey bitterness upfront, followed by a gentle fruitiness. The fruit, unlike the aroma of the dry leaves, is plum and raspberry. The texture is flat, maybe slightly mineral, and light amber in color. Successive steeps grow more bitter and smokey, loosing its distinctive fruitiness. This teas bitterness was not overwhelming, but it was on the edge. Would have gotten a higher rating if it was just slightly less bitter. All-in-all a very interesting tea, and enjoyable. Different from other Da Hong Pao I’ve had.

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