Yunnan Sourcing US

Another of the teas I finished during my recent hong cha binge, I originally purchased this tea to make up for the fact that I missed out on a similar tea from another seller. When Whispering Pines Tea Company introduced an imperial gold needle dian hong, I kept balking at the opportunity to purchase some. I figured that it probably wouldn’t sell out quickly, so there was a good chance I could still get a pouch when the prices dropped or during a sale. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. When I finally decided to pull the trigger, I discovered that the tea was out of stock. Shortly thereafter, I discovered this tea on the Yunnan Sourcing US website. It seemed similar, so I figured I would order some and try it to make up for missing out on the other. No disrespect to the Whispering Pines tea (which I still haven’t tried, by the way), but I probably should have just opted to go with this one first.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 ounces of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 14 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of baked bread, malt, and honey. The rinse released new aromas of smoke, caramel, and baked sweet potato. The first proper infusion produced a near identical bouquet. In the mouth, the liquor offered incredibly slight, delicate notes of baked bread, honey, malt, and caramel underscored by a hint of butter. Subsequent infusions brought out the baked sweet potato impressions, while butter appeared on the nose and started to really pop in the mouth. I also noted that a slight smokiness made its way to the palate. The baked bread notes started to gradually transform into yeast roll impressions. New notes of orange zest, vanilla, brown sugar, chocolate, pine, eucalyptus, fennel, roasted peanut, roasted chestnut, marzipan, camphor, menthol, and minerals appeared as well. The later infusions mostly featured notes of minerals and malt balanced by a cooling herbal presence, a slight breadiness, and a touch of brown sugar sweetness.

A very nice and very complex dian hong, this made for a truly lovely drinking experience. I loved the way the aroma and flavor components kept shifting and changing. My experience also suggested that this tea had more than respectable longevity. I’m not sure if I would recommend this to dian hong neophytes considering that I found it to be the sort of tea that actively encourages quiet analysis and contemplation, but I would definitely recommend it highly to experienced dian hong drinkers.

Yay! It’s time for another backlogged review! I recently went through three pouches of Yunnan black teas from the autumn 2016 harvest and this was one of them. Like most of the Yunnan black teas offered by Yunnan Sourcing/Yunnan Sourcing US that I have tried, this one was a keeper. It was quite complex, yet never lost anything in the way of approachability.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 14 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of cedar, pine, malt, honey, tobacco, and sweet potato. After the rinse, I found aromas of baked bread, brown sugar, and eucalyptus accompanying a strong honey scent. The first infusion introduced sharply amplified scents of pine and cedar as well as a stronger eucalyptus aroma. In the mouth, I noted impressions of malt, pine, cedar, eucalyptus, sweet potato, and brown sugar. Subsequent infusions brought out impressions of cream, orange, vanilla, caramel, minerals, and black pepper backed by hints of menthol and smoke. Honey, tobacco, and baked bread notes also appeared in the mouth around this point. The later infusions offered notes of minerals, malt, baked bread, caramel, and sweet potato underscored by herbal, menthol-like touches.

A complex, yet balanced Yunnan assamica, this proved to be a consistently likable, adaptable tea. Even though it mellowed quickly, rendering the later infusions rather predictable after a point, it made for a very enjoyable drinking experience. If you are a fan of traditional Yunnan black teas, you may want to consider giving this one a shot.

I’m obviously still working my way through a few of last year’s black teas, but fortunately, I don’t have many more left. I actually opened this one up around the end of October and used some of it to make iced tea (which was truly great, by the way). Since I managed to rip the bag it came in, I had to immediately transfer it to a tin. I then forgot about this tea until the end of November. After a test brew, I realized that it was still viable, though it may have fallen off a touch. I then devoted my time to finishing the last of it before moving on to something else. Overall, I found this to be a very nice black tea. Despite the slightly less-than-optimal condition it was in when I conducted my review session, it still had quite a bit to offer.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 14 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of nectarine, peach, malt, and honey. After the rinse, I found scents of roasted nuts and wood backed by a hint of citrus. The first infusion brought out something of an herbal quality on the nose. In the mouth, the liquor offered notes of roasted nuts, wood, malt, and honey with indistinct stone fruit notes and some cocoa tones. Subsequent infusions brought out considerably more cocoa. I also caught notes of red apple, brown sugar, blood orange, red pear, baked bread, prune, eucalyptus, black cherry, minerals, nectarine, sugarcane, and peach underscored by fleeting impressions of nutmeg, cinnamon, and something like camphor/menthol. The roasted nut notes separated somewhat, as I began to be reminded of a mix of roasted almonds and roasted walnuts. The later infusions mostly boasted notes of minerals, malt, wood, roasted nuts, and cocoa balanced by lingering hints of fruit and herbs.

Again, I did not treat this tea as well as I should have, but there was still a lot of life left in it. I kind of wish I had gotten to it sooner and that I had not been so exhausted and stuffy when I conducted my review session, but it’s a little late to do anything about that now. This was a very enjoyable tea. Each of the 2016 Yunnan Sourcing purple black teas that I tried were very good. This one was certainly no exception.

From the Spring 2017 harvest, this rock oolong starts strong on the mineral notes, but gives way in subsequent infusions to a soft floral creaminess. Brewed gong fu style, 100C, about 15 seconds on first infusion. This must be high in theanine, because I feel so mellow now.

I’m on the fence with this one. Two things have happened that are working against this tea: 1) I’ve been blowing away my taste buds by drinking quite a bit of young raw puerh, and so need to fine-tune my palate when drinking something a bit more sophisticated, and 2) I did two comparisons this year of roasted vs. unroasted oolongs, and I noticed how the roasting, I thought, actually detracted from the overall experience. Now, I can’t get that out of my head whenever I drink a roasted oolong.

So, the first thing that happened when I drank this tea was a reaction of “Bleh, charcoal and peanut shell” followed by “This is boring.”

Then I started thinking about my first Wu Yi experience a few years ago. The dryness surprised me, but I was fascinated with how it brought me the experience of a rainy day on my palate – wet rocks, whiffs of green plants, some indefinable sweetness… As I started reminiscing, I started appreciating this tea. I stopped trying to find particular flavors and break down arrival/development/finish, and I just started enjoying my sips of a rainy day.

Dry mineral and nutty flavors arrive in an oily body. Hints of herbs, flowers, and fruit have a passing presence, and then the whole thing ends with a refreshing citrus finish. Definitely more of a mouth-feel experience than a taste-bud experience. But, I think this is the sort of tea that can have a comforting sort of nostalgia to it.

Still not really my thing, especially for the price, but I appreciate the fact that this tea has reminded me of how to approach understated and sophisticated teas.
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Dry leaf – nutty and floral: peanut shell, dried parsley and cilantro; notes of carob, dark cherry, baker’s chocolate. In preheated vessel – charcoal roast, red currant.

Smell – roast, heavily roasted nuts, hard wood. Hints of red currant and chocolate, especially when the liquor has cooled a bit.

Taste – mineral, wet rock, roasted nut, peanut shell, oily body. Development has some floral notes arrive. Finish has red currant notes pop up. Aftertaste of citrus – orange oil, orange and grapefruit essence.

After spending the better part of an hour glancing back and forth at my session notes, I came to the conclusion that I had no clue how to start a review of this tea. Where would I even start with it? Okay, before I go any further, let me explain my current circumstances in more detail. Hopefully, that will shed some light on my mindset going into the review sessions I conducted with this tea.

I did not previously make this information public, but I quit my despised job back around the start of the second week of September. At the time, I was actually working three jobs. My primary position was as a case manager for individuals with developmental disabilities that I held with a local community health agency. I also worked overnight on-call shifts as a mobile mental health crisis responder and evaluator for the same agency in addition to working part-time as a property manager for my parents’ property management company. For just shy of the past two years, my elderly grandmother has also been living with me. With my parents, who were also my bosses at one job, living right next door, an extremely willful elderly woman sharing a residence with me, and no adequate amount of time for socialization, my interactions with others were mostly limited to text messages, Facebook, and well, Steepster. This situation sucked. By the start of August, it had become apparent to me that I was not fitting in with the administration’s vision for the positions I occupied with my primary employer. I had been working at the agency just shy of two full years and had been highly praised in each position I held (I was transferred twice during my time there), but never received a raise and never really gelled with most of my coworkers. What’s worse is that I live in an area where higher paying jobs are notoriously hard to come by, and by most measures (government salary estimates based on my age, education level, training, and job experience), I was making at least $10,000-$16,000 less per year than I was worth. With no opportunities for advancement on the horizon, I abandoned my primary employer in order to work for my parents full-time. Unfortunately, that has meant more time at home, and with my grandmother’s seasonal depression suddenly kicking in hard (my grandfather died during the autumn of 2006), I have had a very unpleasant week. Tack on the facts that my bosses are right next door and I see them both on and off-the-clock multiple times every single day, and I have been dealing with a nasty inner ear infection, the medication for which apparently causes serious insomnia, and I have not been having a pleasant run of things here lately. This tea was the one that kept me company through most of this crap; I finished the last of it yesterday night when I couldn’t get any sleep to save my life. Yes, I have been up since yesterday morning. All of this being said, is it any wonder I have had more than a bit of difficulty getting my head straight with regard to rating this tea?

Anyway, enough of that for now. My review sessions were conducted on two separate evenings. The first, which is the one primarily detailed in this review, saw me steep 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 200 F water for 3 seconds following a flash rinse. This infusion was then chased by 15 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were 5 seconds, 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes. The second gongfu session differed in only a couple of small ways. The water temperature was lowered to 195 F and I started with a 5 second steep and then carried on from there. Otherwise, the two sessions were conducted in an identical manner.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted powerful, thrilling aromas of nectarine, peach, blood orange, and honey. After the rinse, I detected more subdued aromas of malt and wood balanced by a hint of cocoa. The first infusion produced a very similar bouquet, albeit one with a stronger cocoa presence and an emerging hint of cream. In the mouth, I found timid notes of cream, malt, chocolate, and wood underscored by fainter presences of fruit and honey. Subsequent infusions brought out the honey, blood orange, peach, and nectarine, though I caught them most strongly toward the finish. I also found touches of apricot, sugarcane, vanilla, earth, minerals, red apple, roasted almond, and caramel occasionally supported by traces of gentle nutmeg and camphor. The later infusions emphasized minerals, malt, wood, and caramel with touches of stone fruits, cream, and honey.

The session in which I used 195 F water differed from the session detailed above in the sense that I caught some stronger sugarcane aromas and flavors once the tea was firing on all cylinders. This session also brought more complex and pronounced herb and spice impressions. The nutmeg was still kind of there, as was the camphor, though I also was sure that I caught notes of anise, black licorice, and clove. I read the product description provided by Yunnan Sourcing US and a mention of eucalyptus was made, and while I could see that also being a possibility, I just did not get that impression myself.

Now that I have written a novel, allow me to simply state that I found this tea to be very pleasant. Ultimately, I did not feel that it was the best or most consistent Yunnan purple varietal black tea I have had to this point, but it was still very much a worthwhile tea. I could see fans of such teas or those looking for something new and unique being into this one.

Reviewing the Spring 2017 Ju Duo Zai. This tea is surprising in that in contradicts itself from beginning to end. When I opened the bag of this Ju Duo Zai, and saw that rather than being a very dark, almost black-green like in the photo on the YS website, it was brown, I was happy and looking forward to the lightly roasted flavor. The leaves were very fine and rolled lengthwise. When I smelled the dry leaves, I was surprised. It didn’t smell like roast at all. The initial dry leaf aroma was more seaweed than roast. So, now I was expecting it to lean more like a green dan cong in flavor profile once brewed.

I did a rinse with near boiling water, and then steeped for 15 seconds for the first infusion. When I removed the lid of the gaiwan, the leaves had lost practically all of their brown color, and were olive green with some nice oxidation. I’m thinking to myself, ha!, I’ve got you now. You were green all along, and that explained the seaweed aroma. The wet leaves smelled like a young sheng pu-er.

One sip, and I had to chuckle. It didn’t taste green-leaning like I was expecting. Here we have a brown dry leaf that smells green, and once steeped, a green colored leaf that smells like a sheng pu-er, but tastes like a lightly roasted tea with even some fermented black tea notes in the first infusion.

I found this tea a very fun experience because of the constant surprises throughout the session. This would be a fun tea to have at a tea tasting with friends, and not tell the guests what it is, and have them try to guess at the various stages of preparation.

Addendum: I never experienced any bitterness in the Spring 2017 edition. It was smooth, sweet, and left a wet mouth feel.

I tried this tea, and I’m not getting anything like cinnamon aroma. I did it gong fu style in a porcelain gaiwan. I’l try it again with a longer initial steep. Anyone have any ideas? I also have some ginger aroma dan cong. I’ll try that next to see if I can detect the ginger note.

The dry leaf smell of this tea is not particularly strong. It is a roasted tea, but that doesn’t come through heavily in the dry leaf aroma. Instead, the dry leaf smells more like a black tea. The wet tea leaves change dramatically in aroma. There is some definite roasted, charcoal notes present, and I smell a leafy green smell similar to stewed turnip greens. I get a touch of seaweed, as well.

I did a rinse and then a 30 second infusion at around 190F, and the flavor of the tea is initially similar to a da hong pao but with less roasted intensity and not as heavily oxidized. While the tea is held in the mouth, the roasted notes are dominate. But after swallowing, the tea has a long-lasting aftertaste, and the aftertaste is more tie guan yin with green and fruity notes. At all times, there is a sweetness in the mouth. After a minute or so, there is some mouth-drying. The liquor is the color of urine-stained underbelly of a vixen fox. HA! Sometimes the descriptions I see are so over the top with flavors I know I’ll never be able to detect, I just had to throw that one in there as a joke. That’s actually a description of the fur to use for tying a Hendrickson dry fly, and it’s not yellow as you might expect, but pink. This tea isn’t pink. It is similar to the color of maple syrup, but with a bit more yellow.

The second infusion was done at cooler water temp for 40 seconds. There is little difference other than the char notes come out a little more.

Third infusion, I went back to 190F water and did 20 seconds. Char notes subsiding on this infusion, but aftertaste is barely there. Where in the first infusion there was a definite transformation, this infusion remains consistent during drinking and in after-taste.

Fourth infusion is rather weak, and I’m getting some of the seaweed notes. I’m going to call the session here.

I almost forgot about this tea. I started working my way through a pouch of this a couple weeks ago and had yet to get around to doing a serious gongfu session with it until yesterday evening. With my allergies suddenly going crazy, I had been holding off on reviewing any new teas due to exhaustion and a less than sensitive palate (smells can still somehow work their way into my poor nose), but I could not hold off any longer. I decided to work around my limitations as best as I could. It took a lot more time than usual and I had to really push myself to identify flavor components, but I was able to get a complete session in before my evening exercise session. Even under the circumstances, I found this to be an extremely pleasant tea.

Obviously, I gongfued this one. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in a 4 ounce gaiwan filled with 200 F water for 5 seconds. At this point, I have to admit that I had no clue how to brew this tea. With most Yunnan black teas, I use a water temperature of either 195 F or 205 F, so I just split the difference with this one. The initial 5 second infusion was followed by 15 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, I picked up nice aromas of nectarine, peach, honey, and wood from the dry tea leaves. After the rinse, I picked up emerging scents of roasted nuts, leather, toast, and malt. The first infusion brought out scents of fresh baked bread and chocolate. In the mouth, the tea was dominated by well-integrated notes of chocolate, malt, baked bread, toast, leather, roasted nuts, honey, wood, nectarine, and peach before a smooth fade that really emphasized the stone fruit and honey flavors. Subsequent infusions brought out aromas and flavors of caramel, cream, butter, minerals, apricot, wild strawberry, blood orange, smoke, and rose. The later infusions were dominated by mineral, wood, and roasted nut notes, though I could still detect underlying flavors of caramel, cream, butter, and chocolate. One interesting and incredibly appealing aspect of this tea was that the stone fruit and honey notes kept popping up on the tail end of the finish long after the tea had peaked, so no matter how little the tea had left, it still kept reeling me back in again and again.

This tea was not all that deep, but it had a lot going on up front and it was extremely enjoyable. Even with my relatively impaired palate, I was still able to find a lot to like. I would definitely recommend this one to fans of traditional Yunnan black teas who are looking for something a little different.

ADDENDUM: I did another session with this tea on 08/03/2017. I increased the water temperature to 205 F this time and picked up interesting herbal aromas and flavors that I did not find before. For me, it was like a mixture of eucalyptus and menthol.

Exploring several Wu Yi oolongs this year. They have been a consistent favorite, so time to get to know them a little more. Might as well start with the Four Famous Bushes! I’ve sampled a few Da Hong Pao, and one Tie Luo Han. So, up next is Bai Ji Guan.

Overall, it was OK. When it was good, it was really good. Unfortunately, I only ever really got three good infusions. The subsequent infusions lost most of their interesting notes.

The flavor profile is sweet, floral, herbal, and savory. Very complex and nice while it lasted. The sweetness was fairly pronounced but was tempered by a wonderful savory note that brought the whole flavor into a delicious harmony.

There was also a really nice salty sweetness in the aftertaste, which I really like. Kind of liked salted cantaloupe.

All in all, it had a complex and fascinating flavor, but was fairly short-lived. I’m very glad to have tried it, as it was quite unique. Worth the experience.
*
Dry leaf: floral, pollen, dried parsley and dill, sweet and bitter fruit like kumquat. In preheated vessel – roasted corn and tomato vine.

Smell: light honey, honeysuckle, sweet floral, fresh parsley

Taste: yeast roll, honey butter, fresh parsley and cilantro, grape skin, orange flower, mineral. Light saltiness and fruit in aftertaste – salted cantaloupe, apricot, floral.

- more a MiLanXiang than a TieGuanYin.

- Baozhong qualities with a little more zesty, baked notes

The dry leaves smell very sweet with an undercurrent of sugarcane, malt, and grape juice concentrate. I know purple tea… am I making up the grape smell? I drank through 60 grams to try and prove myself wrong before writing this.

I brewed up 6g in a 120ml gaiwan using 190F water and roughly 30 second steep times ( I dont time my black tea just have a feel for starting at about 15 seconds and by steep 10 I’m at 45 seconds to a minute)

The liquor smells like one of those malt sodas with grape flavoring, quite unique. It has a deep satisfying sweetness of frozen grape concentrate mixed with malt powder. I DO NOT usually like fruity black tea, but the grape isn’t sour or overpowering, it flows smoothly with the malty sweetness. I would compare it to a good Indian breakfast assam very malt forward, exactly what I want in the morning with grape must to keep it interesting. I find that I don’t get as much traditional Jingmai character from this tea. The mouthfeel is smooth with a hint of oil and a lasting sweetness.

I always get about 10 infusions out of this tea with the last infusion at a rolling boil, and the second to last infusion at 200F. The flavor stays with the tea remarkably well, not changing too much or getting markedly weaker.

This is a very unique and delicious tea. It’s not a tea I would want every day, but I want to always have a tin in stock. It satisfies the cravings for a grape tea that I didn’t know I had before trying this. The tea makes me want to experiment with brewing a malt heavy beer with the addition of dark grapes.

Before I begin this review, allow me to state that I do not normally go out of my way to buy old tea. If I buy an older tea, I will always buy from the most recent harvest. Well, I guess I should say that’s what I almost always do. This was an impulse buy a month or two ago. I was placing an order with Yunnan Sourcing US and wanted to tack on another tea just for the sake of justifying the shipping cost a little more in my head. I couldn’t find anything else new and interesting, but then I saw this tea. It sounded interesting and I had been trying to spur myself to become more familiar with Dan Cong oolongs, so I bought it. I figured the worst case scenario would be that I wouldn’t like it or that it might be a little weak. Fortunately, neither ended up being the case and that should not have surprised me. Yunnan Sourcing always seems to do a great job maintaining and storing their teas and I found that to once again be the case here.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 7 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 185 F water for 8 seconds. This infusion was followed by 12 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes. I’m still trying to get used to that whole pack the gaiwan to the brim thing that many Dan Cong enthusiasts do. I’m also still trying to figure out a gongfu method that works for me when it comes to brewing these teas since I’m not so certain that what I do for other teas brings out the best these oolongs have to offer. I’ll keep playing around with it in my spare time.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves gave off subtle aromas of butter, cream, citrus, and honeysuckle. After the rinse, the bouquet intensified slightly. I could pick up stronger hints of butter, cream, and honeysuckle coupled with distinct impressions of pomelo and lemon. I also began to catch hints of lilac, gardenia, and vanilla. The first infusion produced a bouquet that brought everything together. At this point, I got extremely robust floral tones. I was reminded of a mixture of honeysuckle, gardenia, lilac, and magnolia. There were big aromas of vanilla, butter, and cream too. I also thought I began to catch hints of nuts, lime, and grass. In the mouth, however, the tea liquor was surprisingly flat, offering muted notes of grass, lemon rind, pomelo, cream, butter, and vanilla underscored by traces of bitter, oily nuts and fresh flowers. Fortunately, subsequent infusions upped the ante considerably. The cream, butter, vanilla, grass, pomelo, and lemon rind notes were still there, but they were considerably stronger. I was now better able to pick up that bitter nuttiness (it kind of reminded me of fresh black walnut at points, but that comparison is far from exact) and the notes of lilac, gardenia, honeysuckle, and magnolia really began to pop. On several of these middle infusions, I could detect notes of lemongrass, daylily shoots, yellow plum, bitter orange, lime, and orchid. I also began to detect a growing minerality. The later infusions were very subtle, almost to the point of being flat. Minerals, grass, and nuts were the dominant impressions available to me, though I could still detect ghostly citrus, butter, and cream tones on the swallow.

This was an enjoyable tea overall. It peaked quickly and faded just as quickly, but I think part of that may have come down to my brewing method and part of that may have come down to the tea’s age. Whatever the case, this still had more than enough life left in it to be thoroughly enjoyable on several levels. I guarantee that I’m going to keep playing around with the remainder of this tea over the next several days.

I don’t know if this sample is the Light Roast or what, but it is pretty good. I think my friend Chris might have gave me this or Andrew-I cannot remember. It’s a good black tea anyway on the plummy/cherry side of things. There some dryness and eucalyptus, but emphasis is on the fruit side with some malt and cocoa as lighter after tones. It kinda reminds me of some red wines. I would not buy this in bulk like I used to, but it is perfect for this cloudy day and it was good enough for my mood. I need a straight up quality black every now and then.

This one goes in the amazing column for me, wonderful complexity and really kept going.
Nose; peach, ginger, slight mandarin, osmanthus, round, paw paw, plantain, parsnip, baked squash, slight herbal note.
Palate; peach, mandarin, osmanthus, roasted summer squash, parsnip, mint, sweet.

Almost a black tea profile.
Nose; Honey, light cinnamon, red raspberry, toasted nori.
Palate; delicate, honey, allspice, zucchini, slight umami, light violets, blueberry.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 13 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted delicate aromas of hay, sweetgrass, roasted almond, watercress, minerals, and stone fruits. After the rinse, a floral quality reminiscent of a mixture of dandelion, chrysanthemum, and marigold emerged. I also thought I began to catch hints of burdock and mushroom. The first infusion produced a similar aroma, but I was now able to pick out a definite touch of burdock. In the mouth, I picked up on subtle mineral, burdock, watercress, roasted almond, hay, sweetgrass, and mushroom flavors underscored by hints of flowers and a touch of golden raisin. Subsequent infusions introduced more defined aromas and flavors of golden raisin, as well as longan, apricot, nectarine, lemon, mandarin orange, and Asian pear. I also caught fleeting impressions of roasted chestnut and spring honey. The later infusions were dominated by minerals, though touches of sweetgrass, hay, roasted nuts, mushroom, honey, pear, and lemon were still detectable in the background.

This was a very complex tea-it was hard for me to get a handle on at first because it was so mellow. The aroma and flavor components worked so well together that it was hard to separate them at times. Every time I began to get bogged down in the little details, however, the tea would always pull me back down to earth with its smooth body and sharply focused mineral texture. I may be overselling this one a bit due to my fascination with this particular cultivar, but I do not have much of a problem with giving it a high score. This tea has really grown on me and I expect it to continue to do so as I work toward finishing up the remaining amount.

So, it’s about time I review something from Yunnan Sourcing, right? Truthfully, I ordered this tea because I was confused by its description. If you read the description for this tea, it mentions that this is a cross between Dan Gui, itself a newer hybrid cultivar, and Qi Lan. Now, this sounded strange to me. I always thought Qi Dan was an old cultivar most famous for being processed into Da Hong Pao. Was this product description total crap or are there two cultivars known as Qi Dan? Further reading provided even more confusion. At one point, Yunnan Sourcing mentioned that the Dan Gui is sourced from the Zheng Yan area. Was that a typo? Should that not have been Qi Dan? Is this actually a traditionally processed Dan Gui that has been misrepresented? What exactly is this tea?

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was chased by 13 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were 8 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted interesting aromas of wood, char, cinnamon, dates, figs, prunes, and raisins. After the rinse, hints of clove, nutmeg, and roasted almond appeared alongside a ghostly floral impression. The first infusion emphasized spice on the nose, though I also caught hints of cream and camphor. In the mouth, I detected a rush of golden raisin, prune, date, fig, wood, and cinnamon notes backed by touches of camphor, char, roasted almond, and a somewhat sweet, almost buttery creaminess. Subsequent infusions brought out the roasted almond, clove, nutmeg, camphor, and cream notes, while also introducing the typical Wuyi minerality accompanied by wisps of osmanthus, nougat, and licorice. At one point, I even thought I caught a touch of hibiscus, but it may have just been me. The later infusions increasingly emphasized mineral, wood, roasted almond, light char, and cream impressions, but interestingly enough, I could still detect underlying impressions of camphor, spices, and a vaguely fruity sweetness. It seemed that every time the minerals faded, I was left with a cooling sensation on the back of the throat and a blend of sweetness and spiciness on the tongue. There was also that weird buttered popcorn note that I sometimes get out of Da Hong Pao.

I got more complexity out of this tea than expected, but then again, I was really pushing it hard. Since I did not have any clue how to approach this tea and had doubts about how it was represented, I wanted to dig into it. I could definitely pick up the Dan Gui influence (the telltale spice and osmanthus notes), but the Qi Lan influence seemed to be lacking aside from the smooth creaminess I sometimes associate with the cultivar. I should also point out that in the time I spent typing this review, I took a research break and stumbled upon some additional information related to Qi Dan. Apparently, Qi Dan is traditionally used to make Da Hong Pao, but not all Qi Dan is used for this purpose. There have also been multiple hybridization programs involving Qi Dan and/or a significant number of similar cultivars, so some tea designated as Qi Dan (like this one) is not necessarily even remotely the same as the Qi Dan used to make Da Hong Pao, though these new hybrids apparently can technically still be used to make Da Hong Pao or some approximation of it. Further confusing matters is the fact that some taxonomies do not make distinctions between classical Qi Dan and some of the contemporary hybrids that are derived from the original cultivar. I am now even more confused. Allow me to just state that this tea wasn’t bad. I would not want to have it every day or hold it up as a shining example of what I feel best represents the Wuyi style, but it was far from bad.

ADDENDUM: Apparently, “Qi Dan” is really just an identifier for this hybrid cultivar. It is shorthand for Qi Lan+Dan Gui and is not the same thing as the classical Qi Dan that is used to make and also sometimes referred to as Da Hong Pao. The quotation marks in the name should have tipped me off, but…

Nose; Roasted chestnut, bananas foster, plantain, tangerine.
Palate; roasted chestnut, baked yam, umami, slight tangerine, fullish feel, nice throat.

While my experience has been very good with tea from YS, once in a while one misses the mark for me. All of this is so subjective though YMMV.
Nose; honey, malt, freshly baked bread, plums, wet leaves.
Palate; slightly bitter, plums, slightly tannic — astringent, malt, cocoa at back of palate, was unusual and had a very dry mouth feel. I did not like that aspect.

Tastes like a moderate quality Yunnan black tea, it is very good, but not as good as the loose Yunnan blacks I have had. Sweet and smooth with chocolate overtones, gets easily astringent with higher temperatures.

Very good tea, but I would 100% order loose leaf Yunnan black tea over this, the highly compressed cake is a real pain to break apart and I end up turning a lot of it into tea dust.

Another tea I put off reviewing. Kind of mediocre. It’s fairly smooth with some light astrigency and bitter notes. Not much complexity here, and a touch on the bland side, but I won’t hold that against it as I prefer my ‘staple’ teas to be smooth and basic. I agree with another reviewer in that it tastes like a black (basic assam) tea….and actually reminds me of lipton tea but with a tad more complexity and some sweet honey notes that finish up at the end. Honestly, this tea isn’t all that memorable or enchanting (no cha qi) so I won’t order again because there are too many teas out there which have more to offer. What could be expected for the price? ….. the economical price might make it good for Kombucha or as a basic staple. It held many steeps.