TeaHQ

Qi Dan

The cultivar propagated from the surviving Da Hong Pao mother bushes on Wuyi Mountain. Almost all authentic single-cultivar Da Hong Pao sold today is Qi Dan or Bei Dou rather than leaf from the original trees, which have not been commercially harvested for decades.

奇丹Camellia sinensis var. sinensisChinaAlso called Da Hong Pao cultivar

Where it sits in the botany

Qi Dan is recorded under Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, the variety group one level above cultivar. It is associated with China, which is where it was selected or is most widely planted rather than the only place it grows.

Also transliterated as: qi dan, qidan.

What the plant is like

Knowing this resolves most of the confusion around Da Hong Pao pricing: the cheap version is usually a blend, the expensive single-cultivar version is usually Qi Dan, and neither is from the mother bushes.

Why a grower plants it

Yield, hardiness, when it buds, what it resists and whether a machine can cut it. This is the half of a cultivar’s identity that decides what is actually in the ground, and it is usually left out of writing aimed at drinkers.

A ming cong propagated by cutting from a cliff-face bush, with everything that implies: low yield, a small planted area, ground that is difficult to work, and a plant kept in production because of what it is rather than because of what it returns per hectare. Wuyi's rock-tea economics run on Rou Gui and Shui Xian, and the ming cong survive alongside them on a price premium that has to cover the difference.

What it does in the cup

Reported as thick, mineral and firmly structured, taking a traditional charcoal roast well and needing time after roasting before it drinks properly. It is generally described as the more austere and more mineral of the two Da Hong Pao lines.

How much of this is really the cultivar?

Qi Dan is where a cultivar record does its most useful work, because the confusion it resolves is a pricing confusion rather than a sensory one. Cheap Da Hong Pao is normally a blend of Wuyi cultivars assembled to a house style and legitimately sold as such; expensive single-cultivar Da Hong Pao is normally Qi Dan or Bei Dou; and neither is leaf from the mother bushes, which have not been commercially harvested for a long time. A drinker who knows those three things has most of what the name can tell them, and none of it is available from the cup.

Cultivar, growing site and processing all shape a cup, and the cultivar is very often the smallest of the three. It is also the one that fits on a label, so almost every commercial incentive runs toward overstating it. This section is on every cultivar page that has been reviewed for it, including the ones where the honest answer is “less than you would think”.

What it is usually made into

The categories this cultivar is typically processed into. It is a statement about common practice, not a limit — processing decides the category, and a cultivar can be taken down more than one route.

  • Oolong — Partially oxidised teas, bruised deliberately and often roasted — the widest-ranging category in tea.

Teas in the catalogue made from Qi Dan

Other cultivars in Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

Guides covering this cultivar

Sources

  • TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ

This page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis throughout. No breeding register or institutional record stands behind the account above, which is why the origin note carries its confidence in the open rather than reading as a citation.

How TeaHQ handles sources

Written comparisons

Where TeaHQ has set this cultivar against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.

  • 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.
  • The four famous bushes as cultivars — Si Da Ming Cong is a list of four named Wuyi bushes, and it is repeated constantly as though it were a ranking of teas. It is a list of plants, and the four are so unlike each other in leaf, vigour and roast tolerance that no single processing regime suits all of them.