Roasting 04 Hong Cha Tou

One of the new items I current stock is 2004 Hong Cha Tou - a wild Hong Yin Phoenix Oolong. This batch was belonged to and stored in the warehouse of Guang Dong Province Tea Import Export Company- Chao Zhou Branch for the last few years. It's now released to the market and I got a hold of the entire batch.

When I first tasted it, the first infusion had a sea breeze smell, not the most enjoyable, yet does not put me off type of thing. Once that's gone, the following infusions taste creamy and full of flavor. The creaminess reminds me of the nurishing stomach comforting chicken soup. No, not interms of flavor, just the feeling of it.

After a couple nights of contemplating, I remember younger Phoenix Dan Cong can use a dose of roasting every couple of years. So I did, tested with a small batch, the seabreeze was gone completely, went all the way out to the pacific ocean. The finished tea is even sweeter and smoother. With this encouraging result, I have been busy roasting the rest of the batch, all 8 kg of it. My roaster can handle 3 lbs at a time. It take 6 long hours each time.

Fill bamboo container up to rim, dig a hole in the middle of tea leaves to allow hot air travel up. Cover with clean paper, NO lid.


Set roaster to 80 C to preheat leaves.

Wait an hour then turn up the dial to 100 C, wait 2 hours, turn down the dial to 80 C again, sit and sip tea for 3 to 4 hours. Done!

This tea is now my new fave. Can't get enough of the sweet dessert like creamy texture. Great value at an affordable price.

Roast tea over fire

Briefly roasting tea before brewing has been a practice since the Tang dynasty. However this form of art is lost in the main stream tea culture, but still practiced by minority groups in rual parts of China. There's a little bit of revival here and there today.

This is a Chao Zhou method of pre-roasting utilizing what's on hand. Paper made roasting platform/Cha He.

Use a 11"x8" clean white paper, fold as in picture blow.

Cut off the excess trim, leaving a square piece of paper.
Fold one corner of the square with seam line up with seam, then fold part of the folded corner backwards, see picture below.

Fold paper in half again along seam, hold the "tail" with thumb and index finger as in picture below.
You can now place tea on paper made Cha He, place over fire to preheat/pre-roast. Fire source can be gas stove (low fire), electric stove (medium to low), or charcoal (low flame). It only take a few minutes, when the aroma starts to show, keep roasting for another 2 minutes. Cha He should be placed 3 to 4 inches above fire. MAKE SURE THE FLAME IS NOT HIGH!!! DON'T CATCH A FIRE!!! And don't suit me if you did catch a fire! :P
Closing the top can keep the heat even and consistant within the Cha He.
Finally, when the tea is ready, you can pour tea directly into teapot as a real Cha He. Whoa La!

Have an aromatic and flavorful cup of tea!

Wild Child!

Dan Cong is such a wild child! A few reviews I have observed online mentioned the short lived aroma after 5 infusions. My first instinct was hmm, it can't be. I tried blaming it on water or what not. I then discovered a few Dan Cong behaved the same way when I made them myself which was long lasting a few months ago, it's now loosing it's strength. It's baffling to my curious mind. After hours of digging for information and phone calls to China, I found out this phenomenon is called Fan Chun (Returned Spring). It's actually quite common with oolong teas, wuyi, anxi, taiwan or Phoenix oolong. Weather play a major role in Fan3 Chun1, moisture in the air and low temperature are the keys to fluctuations in taste, for most agricultural products as mater of fact. This is rainy season in southern California, temperature is in low 60s F at high, low at low 50's even 40's for some area. Palos Verdes is humid year round with morning marine layers, this time of year is even more rainier. Fragrance of tea is "trapped", there isn't much you can do with normal brewing method. Well, the question is if this is permanent? No, it's easy to fix with a little roasting. Yes, it's an extra step, but if you are obsessed as I am, it's actually fun. I also have various types of tools to manifest the transformation, it does make it seem easy. However, I am going to show you the easiest way to roast without having to buy any additional tools.