TeaSource

This tea at first glance looks like a golden Yunnan. It’s got a similar aroma and flavor as well but its unique enough to be its own variety. It’s a very good flavor with the honey and spicey notes. The brew is a deep amber color and offers a bold cup.

Warm and smooth with a good balance between tea, fruit, and floral flavors.

I normally don’t like fruit flavored green teas, because the tea can’t stand up to the fruit, but this tea has a nice balance of strong sencha and cherry flavors.

Clean, bright, and yes, a bit buttery with that special something good green oolongs have.

This morning’s work tea is this nice golden tea from Hunan province of China. It’s slightly twisted leaf is on the longer side and is colored mustard yellow, dark green and black. It is like a golden yunnan tea, and has the hint of smokiness in the aroma of the dry leaf and in the taste of the brew. The malty caramel-ish brew is very good. This is highly recommended for those liking this variety of tea.

This wonderful China tea has a flavor similar to a golden Yunnan black tea. It has that great caramel-y taste that is smooth and bold. I enjoy golden Yunnans so this one is an excellent contender and highly recommended.

I bought it because it is organic. I still prefer Welsh Morning over this, but W.M. doesn’t come in an organic version.

Different from other Silver Needle teas I’ve had. This one was ever so slightly grassy and not as sweet as others. Enjoyed two steeping with the 2nd one bringing out a surprising similarity to gunpowder green without the the green taste.

If a tea can be adorable, this is it. I love it!

Lovely afternoon tea.

Enhancing my work morning with this nice assam black tea.

A good assam, not quite as good IMHO as the Satrupa Estate or Special Reserve from TeaSource.com.

This is my tea of choice for breakfast right now, until I get some German Breakfast or Abbot’s Blend.

One of my two favorite morning blends.

Did a taste test today with this tea plus 4 other assam teas. This one came out #1 ahead of TeaSource’s Ramanugger, InfusionOfTeas Halmari, SpecialTeas Rembeng and Adagio’s Melody. This is an excellent assam tea, with malty and caramel notes and smooth flavor without the astringency. I drink it black but with sweetener. I haven’t seen this one on the TeaSource.com web site in some time so I’m not sure if they will ever get it back in. A great Assam if they ever get it in again!

New package of this tea arrived the other day. This is a great assam at 2 min steep. No noticeable astringency, yet a bold and smooth malty taste. For a cold but clear sunny day this is a great wakeup tea! What a great start!

Had this tea this morning. A nice malty strong assam. Steeped for 2 minutes to prevent bitterness.

The leaves of this tea are a beautiful small twisted leaf. A 2nd flush full leaf, this provides a nice malty flavor… which I like about Assams. Steeped at 208 degrees for 2 minutes to avoid the astringency. Mmmm.

Tried the new bag again this morning. Yukk! I don’t think it even has Satrupa in the bag. I will inquire of the source on this bag as it’s nasty tea. Maybe that is the nature of this year’s crop which I hear resulted in some very strong assam teas. But I had two bags of this in the same order and the first bag was wonderful. This bag is like a different tea or a different crop at least.

Opened a new bag today and found it (based on the first sampling of it) to be disappointing. If I were blindfolded I’d say it wasn’t the same tea. I’m not sure what happened but it wasn’t a great taste, the maltiness I’m used to in this tea wasn’t there. I’ll hope for better results next steeping.