Essence of Tea - Beyond The Clouds Dian Hong Red Tea Review
I recently got a bunch of teas from The Essence of Tea –
A vendor that specializes (mainly) in Pu Er, Wu Yi Wulong, and some red teas.
One of the teas that arrived was their Beyond the Clouds Dian Hong red tea.
I was pretty excited about it, as I had had a previous version of it a few years back and I'd remembered enjoying it.
While sitting there drinking this tea, I was reminded of the profound importance and enjoyment that comes from well-made teas that are affordable enough to drink daily –
Teas like these are well worth the money –
They're incredibly tasty, you get to know them well because they're affordable enough to brew quite often, and they're teas that are easily shareable with friends – either in person or as a gift, but more on that in a bit.
But before we get into the details about my session, and my thoughts on the simple pleasures of these kinds of daily drinkers, let's quickly go over some red tea info...
What is Red Tea?
Red tea is one of the 6 main categories of Chinese tea –
Interestingly enough it's often referred to as “Black tea” in the West.
There's a long history that explains why this misnaming has happened, which you can read about here, but the thing to remember is that black tea is technically a whole separate category of tea that's processed a lot differently.
So try to call it red tea if you can remember to -
But plain and simple, red tea is a fully oxidized tea.
This just means that the enzymes that help chemical reactions within the leaf have been used up.
Which results in a tea that's fruity, sweet, malty, and quite red.
What is Dian Hong?
Dian Hong is a style of red tea that's made in China's Yun Nan province, which is in the southwest region of the country.
Typically, tea leaves in Yun Nan are used to make Pu Er tea – a different kind of Chinese tea (that happens to be my favorite!)
Pu Er is often pretty bitter and full of flavor.
There are a lot of different tea mountains in Yun Nan, so some Dian Hong teas have subtle differences in flavor, depending on the local terroir (microclimate that impacts the growing and flavor of a tea plant) -
So red tea made from these leaves tends to have some of the underlying characteristics of the growing location, the robustness, and a slight bitterness.
What does Dian Hong taste like?
Dian Hong is typically sweet, floral, and honey-like–
it tends to be a bit stronger and more astringent (bitter) than other Chinese red tea.
The Essence of Tea
The Essence of Tea is an online shop that mainly specializes in puer tea, but also offers some yan cha (also know as Wuyi Oolong or cliff tea), red teas, and teaware.
I've only ordered from them a few times, but each time I'm pretty impressed with their offerings and the quality of their selections.
The teas taste full, succinct, and pure – all of the great quality.
They tend to offer puer teas from areas I like.
Clearly labeled and described – which is especially useful when trying to learn and correlate areas to specific flavors profiles.
They offer a wide selection of aged and semi-aged puer, some of which aren’t always the easiest to find in western facing tea markets.
They also offer a cool collection of teaware – from handmade pots to antique cups.
I find that their flavor preferences and aesthetic choices often match mine.
So overall, Essence of Tea is a company I trust that offers some amazing teas.
They're not as flashy or mysterious as some vendors – they're rather straightforward, flavor-focused, and reliable.
They are a vendor I suggest tasting some teas from!
Beyond the Clouds
This tea is humble but full of life.
It's balanced, well made, full of flavor and energy.
It's such a great tea to sit with, share, and get to know.
While puer is my favorite, go-to kind of tea, I can never pass up on a good dian hong.
This tea has so much of what I love in a great puer (which makes sense, as it's material grown in Yunnan and usually used for puer tea) –
the robust flavor, the bitter and tannic (drying) elements, the prolonged hui gan (returning sweetness), and the durability - this tea has a lot of brews in it!
As I mentioned, Dian Hong red tea comes from Yunnan – which is in southwest China.
But more specifically, this tea comes from the Ai Lao mountain range.
As Essence of Tea says in their description –
"These trees are bathed frequently in mist and dew and benefit from the high altitude sunshine.
The trees are old and growing untended amongst shrubs and forest trees.
The tea has been lightly oxidized, leaving a hongcha that is still vibrant and crisp, with a lot of character and vitality."
And all of this is clear and present.
This tea delivers you right to that misty space, but with crisp, succinct clarity.
Sharing the Brew
I ordered a good amount of this Beyond the Clouds Hong cha (red tea) –
about 300 grams...
Which is about 60 standard sessions.
Quick Tip: When it comes to brewing red tea, we prefer to use 5 grams of tea with a standard 110ml gaiwan. You can learn more about brewing tea with a Gaiwan here.
So I've been sitting with it a lot.
Which has allowed me to get to know it well.
Having that much tea has also allowed me to share it with others –
something I love to do with tea.
There's something so special to me about sending someone a small package containing a tea you've spent so much time with.
A tea they can sit with, brew their way - all while feeling like they're sharing it with you.
Maybe through the time spent so deeply with a tea, much can be transferred, learned, shared.
Beyond the Clouds is perfect for this.
It's easy to brew, flavorful, and plentiful.
A tea worth sharing.
Brewing
This dian hong has quickly become a go-to in many parts of my tea practice.
It's great brewed with others, as it's super approachable but of a higher than average quality that provides a pretty cool experience for all.
It's also great alone – both with a lot of focus or a softer, more casual focus.
A great tea for almost all occasions that's simple to brew, extremely flavorful, and well made.
What's cool is that EoT also offers this same material (though from a different year) processed as raw puer tea.
So it's fun to taste side by side with this red tea –
you learn a lot about growing location, tea plant varietal, and processing techniques when you sip teas this way.
It's one of my favorite ways to learn.
I'd recommend it if you're able to grab both!
Tea Recap
Tea Name: Beyond The Clouds (Dian Hong Cha)
Producer: Essence of Tea
Price: .13 cents a gram or about .65 cents per standard 5g session
Year: 2019
Growing Location: Yunnan, China
Tasting Parameters:
Gong Fu Brewing Method
5 grams of tea
100ml Teapot
Flash Steeps – 2-5 seconds
Dry Leaf Aroma:
Sweet
Floral
Deep fruit
Malty
Fresh and Bright
Wet Leaf Aroma:
Floral
Fruity
Sweet and berry-like
Tasting Notes
Early steeps 1-5:
Immediate sweet notes.
Subtle bitterness in the cheeks.
Juicy fruit notes that linger.
Middle Steeps 5-10:
Bitterness is still quite prominent
Sweetness starts to round out a bit but still lingers
The juiciness becomes a bit round, less punchy but still fairly present.
Flavor still quite full and quite malty – almost a bit nutty and raisin-like.
The astringent, drying notes begin to influence a lot of the flavor for me, but in good ways –bringing all the notes together
Later Steeps 10-On:
The tea is still drinkable, but not as strong as puer would be at this stage.
With that being said, there are still some great sweet notes lingering.
I don't typically brew this tea out this long, as I'm usually looking for some of the notes that surface earlier.
Overall Thoughts
I love this tea!
There's not much more you can ask for in a dian hong.
It's smooth, sweet, robust, packed with flavor, well balanced, easy to brew.
It's great to have teas like this that you can grab when you want something simple but super enjoyable.
It's affordable, well made, and recommended.
It hits all of the marks for me, and consistently produces a great cup of tea.
Come Brew With Us
If you found this review helpful, or if you just want to learn more about tea more generally, we'd love to connect with you!
If you want to learn more about tea and tea culture, or if you just want to connect to fellow tea lovers, leave a comment below – we'd love for you to join us.
I read and respond to every comment –
so don't hesitate to connect or ask a question.
We'll save you a seat at the tea-table...
Talk soon!
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