{"revision":"d54d68e3e30b04c6","item":{"id":"mother-tree-dahongpao","name":"Mother-Tree Da Hong Pao","tagline":"Tea from six 350-year-old bushes — the last harvest sold at state auction","category":"food","price":{"amount":null,"display":"priceless","note":"2005 auction: ~$10k+ for 20g; now reserved as state gifts","currency":"USD","unit":"historical_reference","scope":"unit_estimate","verified":false},"rarity":97,"img":"img/tea-photo.jpg","imageCredit":"Unsplash contributor","imageSource":"https://unsplash.com/photos/lQwzl0BGO7Y","imageNote":"Tea still life; not mother-tree Da Hong Pao.","palette":["#7a2e1d","#3d1a10","#120806"],"why":"Six original Da Hong Pao bushes cling to the Jiulongke cliff in Wuyi Shan, China — 340+ years old. In 2007 the government retired them from commercial harvest; the 2005 auction of 20g fetched over $10,000. Everything sold as 'Da Hong Pao' today is cuttings — the mother trees' leaves are state gifts.","story":"Wuyi rock tea is called 'the king of teas' — roasted, mineral, orchid-scented, it tastes like the cliff it grew on. The mother-tree version is the difference between hearing about the cliff and standing on it. Almost no living person has tasted the real thing twice.","gift":"You can't buy it — which is the point. Gift a first-generation cutting from a named Wuyi garden with the story attached, and the story is the rarity.","where":"State auctions (historical); first-generation cuttings from Wuyi Shan gardens via specialty tea houses.","hiddenReason":"99% of listings are cuttings, and the real thing has no 'buy' button. Search ranks the purchasable — the engine must understand that the unbuyable is the point.","tags":["tea","da hong pao","wuyi","china","oolong","rare tea","gift"],"availability":"not_for_sale","caveat":"A story to discover, not a purchasable gift. Commercial Da Hong Pao is not mother-tree tea; historical auction prices are not current offers.","evidenceStatus":"unverified_editorial","verifiedAt":null,"kind":"Tea","url":"/rarities/mother-tree-dahongpao"}}