Yunnan Colorful

This one was very nice :)

I got a free sample of this tea with my order from Yunnan Colorful. It is a very good black loose tea. I am on the second steeping and there is no bitterness.

First bought this 5 years ago at Mount Wu Yi, Fujian on a trip. It was love at first cup. This tea is strong roasty flavour that is best described as resembling japanese genmaicha.
There is a lot of thought in the packaging though. The box I bought had many smaller boxes of the tea within. Each smaller box contained 2 plastic packets of vacuum packed tea. This makes the tea convenient to carry a around on the go.

Nice delicate delicate yet bold, The aroma is like hay and honey, taste almost like the last “White Peony” that I had but much more intense with an aftertaste of flowers like honeysuckle or jasmine even and longer lasting too. I got several steeps from this over and over, Excellent Tea!

http://toadsteablog.blogspot.com/

I’M GOING TO SEE RADIOHEAD LIVE IN JUNE, WOO!!! Anyways, this is another sample provided generously by Tommy the Toad. This one really caught my attention. The tiny square wrapped in gold foil reminded me of a piece of candy, and I will admit that that probably subconsciously caused me to want to try it so much. Well, it was great. This one is more mellow and black-tea like than the Twin Elephant pu-erh I had before it. It’s still got that distinct earthy and musty taste, but it is very mellow and is more in the background. The tea is very smooth and definitely had a sweetness to it that I wasn’t expecting. I LOVE this. Thanks, Tommy.

2nd steeping: I broke the brick apart this time and it produced a much stronger brew but was still delicious, this time there are HUGE notes of chocolate. Rating is going up a notch…

Drinking my last square of this one :( It’s a sweet tasting puerh that’s perfect after a big lunch.

I was kinda expecting this one to be fishy but it wasnt it had a nice aroma to me and tasted slightly sweet, very nice :)

The Yunnans I am most familiar with are the golden ones, so this is a rather new experience for me. I may have had Dian Hong before, but I don’t think I’ve ever had it since learning the Yunnan connection, and I learned that, I expected it to be similar to all the other Yunnan’s I know. As in golden and hay-y.

But as many of you will already know, it is neither. The aroma does have that hay and spice pepper-y note that the golden Yunnans also have, but it’s not quite as grainy as they are. This has a rather more fruity nature I think, and I wonder how it would behave if one were to flavour it. Probably it couldn’t carry just any odd kind of flavouring well, but the idea strikes me as interesting.

The flavour is primarily fruity as well and somewhat astringent. I may have used a wee bit more leaf than was necessary, but it definitely has a fruity note to it. Cocoa-y as well, which isn’t a note I would normally associate with Yunnan at all. That’s more of a Fujian thing. In fact the whole thing strikes me as Yunnan-flavoured Fujian, only stronger and bolder. It has all the elements I love in Fujian black teas topped with Yunnan characteristics.

I know that this has nothing at all to do with Fujian what so ever and that it’s all in my head. But that’s the association that I get, and it gives me a sort of best of both worlds feeling about it.

I’m quite pleased with this one. I’ll have to remember to explore Dian Hong in the future.

Forgive me, I’m not in the mood for this. Just writing a note and rating down because it’s a gifted sample although I don’t know where it came from anymore.

It’s a nice dark oolong. A bit toasted, quite wood-y and with a hint of cocoa. Very nice.

Okay, that’s it. I’m going to go hibernate somewhere with my book.

AAAAhhhh, my new favorite tea from Yunnan Colorful. I am on the second steeping of a morning cup and the leaves are huge. It has a mildly sweet floral flavor like all good Dong Ding Oolong.

My long awaited third order from Yunnan Colorful was at the post office this morning. I am on the second steeping of this one and so far so good. It is not top of the line tea….some stems and broken leaves, but well worth the money and wait.

I drank several cups of this tea this afternoon at work and have switched to a green tea from Yunnan Colorful for this evening. I am on the second steeping and heating the water for a third.

I am so happy with this tea. I ordered it during Chinese Lunar New Year celebration, so it took about a month to arrive from China. The main benefit that I see from ordering directly from Yunnan Colorful on Ebay is that you get very fresh tea. When you add the water, it seems like the leaves come back to life. This one has whole leaf tips which I chew on sometimes. Also, I like that the money I spend is going directly back to China and not to a middle-man company. After getting to spend some time in China, I have a great deal of respect for the people there and understand that for the vast majority, they still live a very traditional life. Rice fields right outside the villages, vegetable gardens in the front yard….or where ever there is a little bit of land.

I am enjoying another cup of this tea. On the second steeping….no bitterness! lovely!

I just got this tea from China and am so happy with it. I am drinking it now…..afternoon at work and it is very nice. I have refilled the cup twice and it is still very good.

Somewhat bland loose shu pu. Lasts only 5-6 infusions, not very high on cha qi or hui gan. Since its not that strong in flavour it serves as a decent daily drinking tea, best enjoyed with dim sum or similar snacks.

Great looking tea streaked with shiny silvery tips. Brewed it ‘grandpa’ style, 3 gms in a 200 ml tall glass. Very delicate flavour with a hint of very pleasant bitterness in the throat. It has a lovely tropical forest fragrance. It lasted for 4 infusions.