Rare and Precious: the Mother Plants of All Da Hong Pao Chinese Tea
Oct, 2007, an unusual donation was given to the National Museum of China. This time, it wasn’t antique chinaware, or calligraphies, or artifacts. It was a small batch of 20 grams of Da Hong Pao – the finest oolong Chinese tea.
For the first time, China’s most admired museum included tea into its treasured collections.
That’s because the sample is no ordinary tea. The tea came from 6 sacred tea trees believed to be the mother of all Da Hong Pao Chinese tea. The trees are all over 500 years old, and live half way up some stiff cliffs that men can barely reach.
It is no coincidence that the tea trees grow here, above a secret basin at the heart of the famous Wu Yi Mountain.
There around the basin the tea trees enjoy foggy days throughout the year thanks to the surrounding ridges that stop the cold air coming from the north. That is exactly the recipe for high quality Da Hong Pao, for the fogs allow tea nutrients to built up in the tea leaves, and eventually make the tea a good health booster.
The porous, acidic red sandstone soil is perfect for the growth of the tea trees, giving it the signature deep and crisp flavor. Clear streams trickle by, nurturing the juicy, large tea leaves.
No wonder that in the Wu Yi Mountain, there grow up to 300 sub-varieties of oolong Chinese teas!
Yet, only 500 grams of oolong tea leaves can be produced each year by the six Da Hong Pao oolong teas. They are so highly sought after in the market that in 2005, a small batch of 20 grams from the harvest fetched nearly ,000 US dollars.
Yet, despite all the financial benefits, the local authorities decided to stop harvesting the ‘mother’ tea trees so they can be better protected. In other words, the 20 grams given to China National Museum was the very last batch picked from the mother tea trees.
Today, the sacred ‘mother’ trees grow without disturbance like it had once been for hundreds of years. Each year, fans of Da Hong Pao come from around the world to venerate the six ‘mother’ trees that give life to the Da Hong Pao tea we enjoy today.
