Yunnan Gold

After reading Soccermom’s review of this tea, I thought I would revisit my Yunnan Gold sample. Yep, I agree w/Soccermom- this tea is OK. On the plus side, this tea is smooth, not astringent, mellow. However, I do not detect any peppery notes or maltiness. In fact, hmmm, I do not detect any flavor at all…oh well…

The first scent I got of this was kind of earthy and mellow. Again, it kind of reminded me of stables.
The leaves were so pretty and golden brown!
I did a shorter steep than the package recommends because I’m finding that Adagio’s suggestions make a brew that is more bitter than I would like.
I tried the liquor black first and it was very smooth – not metallic like Keemun. I did add milk, but it really didn’t need it. With the milk it had smokey vanilla flavours. This would be a really great morning cup of coffee (but I’m enjoying it now too, at 8:00PM. It’s my “I have tons more work to do and I’m taking a short tea break” time).

After my last tea experience which was a BAD one I decided to try to block the experience out with another tea immediately. So here I sit with a cup of Yunnan Gold I’ve never had a Yunnan Gold tea before (I don’t remember if I have) anyway so all of the steepster reviews of Yunnan Gold had me anxious to try it.

This one has a dark amber brown liquor and I don’t get much on smell other than tea. Taste wise it doesn’t have a whole mouth feel it’s easy to sip slight hints of maltiness but still not as good as Adagio’s Golden Monkey if what your looking for is maltiness. It is a decent cup or as Doulton would say “this is a serviceable cuppa tea”. Definitely nothing I would reorder.

This is a great tea, thank you Joe Cook!
Sooo much flavour, I get the peppery note. I made 2 cups straight and resteeped 2 tablespoons for milk and sugar. It holds up very well to additions, and I would have it either way. I’m not sure which way I prefer.

Anyways, this is a bold but very smooth tea (no astringency that I can find), I think I would stick to having it in the morning, as there is something about it that reminds me of a breakfast tea. The cocoa note is almost smoky. Very delicious. Thank you!

Had this while my husband was having a medical thing done this afternoon. I sat in the waiting room and drank tea. I love Yunnan Gold…

Since I really like black teas, I went on ahead and finally ordered Adagio’s Black Savant Sampler. This is the first one that I’m going to try out.

This tastes really earthy and dark, like a good black should. It’s deep and rich. When I read that it has a peppery taste, I was confused. Do they mean peppers, like bell peppers, or do they mean pepper, as in paired with salt? I was nervous about either one. Turns out it’s the 2nd kind of pepper (paired with salt) and it’s nothing to be scared of. I hate pepper and never put it on anything, but I can hardly taste it here. It’s more of an aftertaste, and a very light one at that.

So this is good. I’ll drink it until my sample is gone, but it’s not a top favorite. I’m still glad I ordered it though, because I need other teas to drink so that I don’t drink up all my Dawn in a few days!

Stashdown #4! This tea is wonderful lukewarm. I bet it would be even better hot. I made my to-go mug of tea only to leave it sitting on the counter when I left for work. Its been one of those days. Everything is just sort of off kilter and not-quite-right.

Anyway, back to the tea. Ah, yes, this is a lovely black tea. It has a smooth body, and a somewhat indescribable taste. Not like a typical black tea that I’ve had recently. Less bold, but more sophisticated. It doesn’t need to whack you on your head to make you take notice. I don’t get the peppery notes that the tea description talks about, nor the cocoa notes that Caligatia mentioned today at lunch. I think my lack of descriptability stems from being very full from a very delicious lunch and wanting very badly to take a nap. Or it could be that I’m bummed that I accidentally left a mug of a tea that I very much wanted to enjoy sitting on the counter at home this morning. Tea just isn’t the same reheated.

This is a decent black tea, though not spectacular to my tasting buds. I didn’t really pick up much of the boldness or peppery taste…it’s like the tea was weak, but not weak like I didn’t steep it long enough. I’ll probably try to steep it a little longer to see if I can eke some more flavor out of it, but I’m worried that too much longer is going to take me straight to “bitter town.” In any event, it’s certainly not bad, and I’ll bump my rating if I can bump the taste.

Wow the description of this tea having a unique peppery taste was right on. The first time I had this brewed with a mug infuser I wondered if I had forgot to wash my infuser basket after having the Thai Chai I last used it for. So I brewed it again with a gaiwan to ensure a clean brew and the taste was still there. I’ve never encountered a black tea that is naturally spicy like this one before which was a nice change for something different although quite honestly while it is a good tea I am glad that I only bought a sample as I don’t think I will be ordering any more of it.

So…. I’m in love with yunnan style tea. Something about the peppery sweetness and the rich liquor is amazing. This was definitely a passion buy and the logic was fairly sound..(ah…why not?). So i picked it up and was waiting for it the day ups said it would be there… they waited till almost 6 to deliver it and i was so pumped. The dry leaves smelled like honey and cocoa