Qi Dan vs Bei Dou
Almost all authentic single-cultivar Da Hong Pao is one of these two, propagated from the surviving mother bushes rather than picked from them. Knowing that resolves most of the confusion around Da Hong Pao pricing.
cultivar
What is being compared
Why these get confused
‘Da Hong Pao’ names a tea, a legend and two cultivars at once. Nothing sold today comes from the mother bushes, and a seller implying otherwise is selling the legend.
Point by point
| Aspect | Qi Dan | Bei Dou |
|---|---|---|
| Relationship to the mother bushes | Propagated from them. | Also propagated from Da Hong Pao stock, selected in the twentieth century. |
| Cup | More mineral. | Slightly sweeter and less mineral. |
| Under heavy roast | Less forgiving. | The more forgiving of the two. |
| Why it is planted | Lineage. It is the cultivar buyers ask for by name. | Reliability. It crops better and tolerates a wider range of roasting. |
| How widely planted | Widely, in Wuyi. | Widely, in Wuyi. |
| What the mother bushes supply | Nothing commercially — they have not been harvested for decades. | The same. |
The short answer
The pricing ladder for Da Hong Pao makes sense once this is clear: the cheap version is usually a blend, the expensive single-cultivar version is usually Qi Dan, and neither is leaf from the original trees.
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