Tea: Baka Shaihong (-晒红) Type: Red Tea Harvest: April 2025 Region:Yunnan Province, Shuangjiang County, Baka Village. Producer: Liu Family Tasting Notes: Graham Cracker, Sugar Cookie, Bark, Bran.
This is a tea that is everything Dianhong usually is not. It is not a careful blend of multiple cultivars, nor has it undergone temperature-controlled piling and electric baking. This is a rougher, sun-dried tea made from a single cultivar. Like with raw puer, one is drinking this almost more for aroma, texture, and feeling than taste. There is a certain background astrigency which makes Gongfu-brewing most advisable when brewing this Shaihong.
With that in mind, one can enjoy all the pleasant dimensions that this rustic creation has to offer. The Qiaomu bushes that the Liu Family have access to in Baka Village offer sweet aromas and a woody body that are typical to sun-dred red teas in the Bingdao terroir area. While not as sweet as the Nuowu Shaihong in our sampler, this later pick from last year packs more of a punch. The vegetal edge has almost vanished in the last year of aging, and will continue to disappear with time. Over time, this tea will become darker and lose all astringency.
This is also a red tea that is caffeinating and energizing despite its lighter mouthfeel. You could easily have this in place of coffee or English Breakfast black tea in the morning, although adding milk would not be advisable.
Very fragrant tea, sweet with a hint of bitterness. Even my husband, who doesn’t like most of the teas I drink, enjoyed it a lot. It’s not particularly complex, but it brews beautifully and holds up well through many infusions.
