Wuyi Rock Tea Oolong: History, Legend, & How to Brew

Wuyi rock tea is wildly popular with tea enthusiasts in-the-know, but it is not widely available in the US. How can a beginner rock tea enthusiast get started with these confusing and intriguing oolongs? And why in the world is it called “rock tea?!”

Don’t worry, CC Fine Tea is here to help! Read on to learn about rock tea, and be sure to check out the brewing tips at the end.

What is Rock Tea?

Rock tea is a category of Chinese oolongs, treasured by tea lovers around the world. It is known for its richly complex flavor and fragrance, filled with fruity, floral, and mineral notes.

Rock teas can be re-steeped over and over again, becoming sweeter over time, with a long and lingering flavor. When you taste rock teas, you can feel the spirit of the land where they were grown.

The traditional home of rock tea is a small region of only about 60 kilometers (37 miles) in the Wuyi Mountains of Fujian Province. Authentic rock tea is grown and made only inside this small, historic area. Due to high demand, there are now many rock tea imitations on the market, most of which are grown in the area surrounding the authentic region.

Big Red Robe vs Rou Gui

Big Red Robe and Rou Gui are both made through the same oolong tea processing method. So why are they called by two different names?

The difference is the plants they are made from. Big Red Robe and Rou Gui are different cultivars of the tea plant Camellia sinensis, which produce subtle differences in flavor and fragrance. Big Red Robe is fruity and floral, while Rou Gui is rich and sharp, with a spicy floral fragrance note resembling cinnamon.

There are dozens of varieties of rock tea, many with strange names, all of which have slight differences in flavor and aroma. Their names may come from the fragrance of the brewed tea, the appearance of the tea plant, or other qualities such as the timing of the cultivar’s harvest.

Rou Gui, meaning cinnamon in Chinese, is a straightforward name based on the tea’s fragrance. Big Red Robe, on the other hand, was named after a legend (which may well be true) about the tea’s early history.

History of Rock Tea Oolong

The Legend of Big Red Robe

Once upon a time, there was a young man, studying hard to take the imperial examination in Beijing. The national exam was required to become a public official.

The scholar fell sick while studying at the Tian Xin Yong Le temple in the Wuyi Mountains. The monks took care of him, serving him tea that was made in that region.

Thanks to the special tea and the monks’ kind care, the young man made a miraculous recovery. After traveling to Beijing, he earned top marks in the imperial examination.

The triumphant scholar soon became a high-ranking government official, and returned to Wuyi to thank the monks and the tea plant that saved him. He took off his big red scholar’s robe and laid it over the tea plant to show his respect, giving Big Red Robe its name.

Rock Tea’s Ancient Legacy

Long ago, rock tea plants developed naturally in the wild. Over time, people in the Wuyi Mountains learned to harvest and use the tea leaves. They have been making tea in Wuyi since at least the 7th century, in the early Tang Dynasty.

CC Fine Tea’s founder, Jason, learned about rock tea from his teacher, a tea master named Wang Shunming. Wang Shunming is famous in the Chinese tea community. For 20 years, he served as caretaker for six historic Big Red Robe tea plants in the Wuyishan Nature Reserve.

These wild tea plants are known as “mother trees.” Only six of the original mother trees remain, some of which are over 700 years old and are invaluable cultural resources. Perhaps the legendary scholar laid his red robe over one of these very tea plants.

The mother trees only produce a small quantity of leaves each year, making less than a pound of processed tea. After 2006, the Wuyi city government ruled that no more leaves would be harvested from the mother trees.

While studying rock tea with Wang Shunming, Jason was lucky enough to taste tea made from the Big Red Robe mother trees. The precious tea was closely guarded, and stored in a locked safe.

Today, Big Red Robe tea available on the market is made either from clones of the mother trees, or from blended tea cultivars of Big Red Robe combined with other rock tea varieties, such as Rou Gui.

Wuyi Mountain Tea Gardens

Rock tea gardens are also called Bonsai-Style Tea Gardens, because the tea plants look like bonsais, growing between huge rocks. The fantastically-shaped, sheer cliff sides are made even more beautiful by the river twisting at the base of the peaks and the delicate clouds of mist rising in the air. You may recognize the distinctive landscape, which has been immortalized in Chinese classical landscape paintings.

The unique atmosphere of the Wuyi Mountains is a special environment for tea. The large rocks (which give the tea its Chinese name, yancha, which translates as “rock tea”) shelter the tea plants in their crevices, sometimes overhanging the plants from multiple sides. Water runs gently down the sides of the cliffs, slowly dripping and becoming absorbed by the soil to nourish the tea.

Other factors affecting the terroir are sunlight and soil. Large rocks block sunlight to the tea plants in the morning and afternoon, so strong sun only hits the plants from about 10am to 3pm. The soil in Wuyi is reddish due to a high mineral content; these minerals also contribute to the distinctive flavor of rock tea.

Rock tea plants themselves are tree-style, as opposed to bush-style tea plants. Each plant can live for hundreds of years. The tea trees are pruned regularly, resulting in a low height with a thick, main trunk.

Processing Rock Tea

Wuyi rock teas are harvested in springtime, which creates a problem for tea makers in that region. In the Wuyi Mountains, spring is a rainy season, with rain falling 50% of the days. It’s not possible to do the first step of oolong processing, outdoor withering, when it rains.

Tea makers in Wuyi make up for lost outdoor withering time by roasting rock tea for a long time at low temperatures, bringing out fruity and mineral notes in the tea.

The final drying and roasting step for rock tea can last between 48 and 72 hours. Lower quality rock tea is sometimes over-roasted; at the extreme end, over-roasted rock tea tastes like charcoal and smoke, and is dried out like seasoned firewood. Those teas are not good representations of rock tea.

CC Fine Tea’s High Quality Rock Tea

At CC Fine Tea we pride ourselves on selling real, authentic tea. Jason travelled to Wuyi and tasted many different types of rock tea, selecting two favorites of above average quality to share with our customers: Big Red Robe and Rou Gui.

Both of our Wuyi rock teas are grown inside the authentic Wuyi Mountain tea region, not from the surrounding areas. They are processed as closely to the traditional processing methods as possible. We source the teas directly from tea-makers in Wuyi, with no middle man involved.

Our rock teas are fragrant and fruity, not overly roasted, with a sweet, lingering flavor.

How to Brew Rock Tea

After learning about Wuyi rock tea, the next question is, of course: how do you brew it?

Please refer to our article on How To Brew Oolong Tea for detailed instructions. Here are some particular tips for Wuyi rock tea:

Teaware for Rock Tea

In the Wuyi Mountains, the most common teaware used for rock tea is a small porcelain gaiwan. Yixing clay also works well. You may enjoy sipping from small porcelain cups, which help to carry rock tea’s beautiful fragrance.

Water Temperature

It is best to use hot water, at 200°F (93°C) or above.

Remember to Rinse!

Before brewing, make sure to quickly rinse the tea leaves with a little hot water to wake them up. Discard the rinse water.

Re-Brewing

Rock tea can re-brewed many times. Settle in for a long brewing session to take advantage!

How to Store Rock Tea

Wuyi Mountain rock teas like Big Red Robe and Rou Gui age well. Keep your rock tea stored in a sealed container, in a place that doesn’t get very hot or very cold. The flavor will develop and change over time, remaining smooth and rich. With good storage, you can keep rock tea for 10 or even 20 years.

Thank you for reading! Which is your favorite, Big Red Robe or Rou Gui? Let us know by tagging us in an Instagram or Facebook post. Happy sipping!

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Teaware for Rock Tea