Yunnan Sourcing

Huh, kind of surprised by this one. The reviews speak of it so highly, but I found it kind of middle-of-the-road as far as Yunnans go. Of course I have yet to meet a Yunnan I don’t enjoy, but this one is just kind of ‘meh’. There’s a bit of malt, and some spicy orange notes. But overall it’s weak and forgettable. I’ll happily drink the rest of what I have, but certainly won’t pick up more whenever I get around to placing another YS order.

Brewing this in the Gaiwan, 10 grams with a short rinse and about a minute rest period for the tea to open up. This is nice thick and pungent tea. It starts slightly sweet very full in the mouth with a hint of tobacco and bitter melon with a good bit of bitter at the end. Mang Fei teas of good quality always seem to carry this well into the brew. Very nice for now for those with the strong upfront qualities. I will look forward to see how this progresses in the years to come. A very upfront tea for sure.

Brilliantly clean and brisk, this young sheng displays a light golden color and notes of apricot and citrus. Bold flavors of dried apricot and fresh tobacco dominate the palate with hints of tangerine and a brisk astringency that seems to bounce flavors around your mouth playfully creatings an uncommonly long finish that highlights the “raisin” aspect of the tobacco notes. Multiple steepings are possible and the astringency tapers off along with this. I was most pleased with this sample from Yunnan Sourcing.

I’m starting to think that I need to start using two numbers to rate pu-erh tea. The first would be the flavor rating that I use for all other teas, and the second would be the psycho-active rating, or cha qi.

This tea is a great example. I don’t really like the taste, which is still pretty bitter at the 6th steep. However, halfway through this 6th cup (first cup this morning) I have this relaxing “buzz” going on that is probably what people talk about as “tea drunk”. I’m not going to provide a rating on steepster (or seriously propose a two-point system) but my internal rating system for pu-erh become based upon a combination of flavor with qi, but it would be better to use two numbers. This is not the only tea that I enjoyed for qi but didn’t care for in flavor. Of course, a few special teas have both.

So, on to this tea: It starts with a grassy flavor, which is my preference in a green-style tea, but with a little more veggie than I like to see. Very soon into a sip, a very powerful bitterness starts to build and it dominates the taste to the point where very little else is noticeable. I steeped at 185, which I would think would produce less bitterness than at boiling, or my ususal black tea temperature of 200. I’ll try at 175 degrees next time just to see if that makes a difference.

All of my tiny teapots have been staring at me for months, showing their feelings of neglect for lack of use. I’m sorry little teapots, I longed to drink from you, but my life was crazy.
Now that I’m back to being self-employed again, life is so much better. (My next CD should be called, “Doesn’t work well with others”.
Anyway, I spent most of yesterday & today drinking wonderful gongfu sessions with this one, using my lovely little yixing that I dedicated to Dian Hongs, & working on the re-release of one of my CDs, Zen Breakfast. I had to redesign the cover, because the original cover art files were corrupt, so I used photos of my beautiful blue lotus pot & cup (Which I got from Mandala), and I’m pretty pleased with the results! Check it out on Instagram https://instagram.com/p/2obOjAD8lJ/ OR my FB https://www.facebook.com/terri.langerak

First tea of the day, a lovely session while I was fixing breakfast.
Now, to try to get a few things done around here!

I’m sitting here with an ice pack on my hand, wishing I could drink more tea.
My surgery is scheduled for 4:00 this afternoon. No food or beverages after 7am, so I got up extra early to have breakfast & tea, & plenty of water.

My first tea of the day was a gongfu session with this one, which is gentle & sweet, a real pleasure to drink.

Fantastic tea. Deep red color, clear, thick. Smells boozy, dried fruit and wood aroma. For some reason reminded me Port wine
The price is great: $12 for 357g is excellent every day choice. As I’m drinking it has some drying qualities but nothing major.
Gongfu
6 g 100 ml gaiwan 212F
Rinse/pause/5/5/7/10/15sec etc

Thank you tea friend for helping me discover amazing and affordable teas.

Ha ha. I have reviewed this tea so many times. It is my go to non-caffeinated tea for a cold winter evening. It’s getting awfully close to the end of the bag (YS Sourcing order is calling me…) Finally got my Steepster cupboard up to date this evening. The last few evenings I have gone through my excel tea file and rechecked all my teas. I thought I would remove some I hadn’t taken off. I didn’t find too many of those but found a few I hadn’t logged. Wouldn’t you know it? Okay so I can’t find my Golden Snail Tea from Whispering Pines. I logged it on my excel sheet when I got the order. I remember seeing it and I put it with my black teas. I’ve been through ALL my teas and I can’t find it. Little gremlins must have hocked my Golden Snail! Where oh where can it be?

I am enjoying this buckwheat tea. It’s roasty toasty buckwheat that’s got a nice sweetness too. A wonderful cup of non-caffeinated tea for late afternoon. It does kind of give you that warm cosy feeling on a cool day.

So quick note!
This one is delicious also! Tastes strongly of sweet potatoes. Lovely tea.
Can’t write too much more since I’m super exhausted. But going to enjoy the rest of this sample.
Thanks, Boychik! :D

A really lovely ripe pu-erh. Nothing is out of place, the flavors are deep and clean, and the impression for me is of a cake that was well made from good materials. Very pleasant tea.

I took some of this from the Lewis & Clark tea box before it went on its way. I love the other gold tea I tried from MzPriss’ Unflavored tea box so much that I HAD to buy some (the Imperial Mojiang Spring 2014). There you go tea companies: a sale from a traveling tea box.

The leaves here are somewhat curly but also somewhat sickle shaped. I definitely did NOT steep this the right way somehow, as there was a plastic-like scent. I’ll have to work with it. I took a few teaspoons out of the tea box as there was SO MUCH there! The steeped tea actually has a muddied gray color. The flavor at the top of the mug is like tomato soup, then there is some sweet potato. There is a lot of starchiness. Maybe that somehow reminds me and other tea drinkers of sweet potato on its own? Or the starchiness is the sweet potato flavor? The second steep tasted exactly the same, so I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. But it seems like this cup should be so much better than how I steeped it.
Steep #1 // 2 tsps.// 9 min after boiling // 3 min steep
Steep #2 // 8 min after boiling // 2 1/2 min

Dry the little black needles smell almost like a green tea (They don’t look quite like the picture. They are very tiny and very black.). I’d say a Bi Luo Chun but with a hint of molasses scent to it. I brewed Gong Fu. 195F -15 sec and added 15 sec to the second. For the third I kept it at 30 sec because the 2nd cup seemed a bit strong to me.

This is a yummy malty tea. I’m picking up molasses sweet taste in it and also cocoa notes (which was more pronounced in the first two infusions). There’s something about this black tea that reminds me of a green- again I think of Bi Luo Chun. Perhaps it’s something in the aroma of it brewed. It works for me anyway since I love greens. This black tea is an excellent tea!

It’s a cool , damp, & drizzly day, & it seemed like shu would be the perfect fit, & it is, although it I’d though it through I probably would have gone with sichuan caravan, or maybe some chai, but this is a really nice rich cup of sweet earth.

This has been a rough week for me. I broke a finger on wednesday & am having surgery to repair it on monday. There will be no harp playing for 4 – 6 weeks! I’ve been able to set up replacement harpists for the weddings I was supposed to do tomorrow & next saturday, but the other 3 performances had to be cancelled, because I’m the only jazz harpist around.
Financial losses for the next 10 days alone is abut $1000. I haven’t done the math for november yet, in part because I’m hoping for a miraculous healing, LOL.
Denial runs deep!
I’ve been through the 5 stages of grief several times in the last few days: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, & acceptance.
Life goes on.

ok tasting again cause i had to prepare couple samples. So good. im so happy i picked the whole brick.

http://instagram.com/p/uqCPYuhwic/

http://instagram.com/p/uqYqyFBwlE/

I love wild teas of Dehong. i tried Light Roast, regular roast, Feng Qing Ye Sheng Hong Cha Wild Tree Purple Black tea Yunnan Sourcing offerings. i tried 2005 Wild Tree brick of Dehong (humid storage).
This puerh has some notes not found in other sheng. its sweet,nutty, herbal, smooth and delicious. Not bitter. Soup is bright yellow . it was a pleasure to drink for 2 days.

I got this sample from Mandala along with others because YS US site currently carry only sample size. they sold out on bricks. But Mandala still has them. I have to have this tea. its a must in my cupboard!

http://instagram.com/p/t3YwsZBwlF/

OMG this tea is so good. Chocolate & sweet. Smooth not bitter or astringent. Yum! Been brewing this gongfu this morning and on my 3rd tiny cup. I would put this on my list to reorder but I have plenty for now. What more can I say? Big slurp Mmmmmmm

Rinsed leaves smell fantastic. Deep creamy Vanilla orchid aroma, and a hint of ‘cookies and cream’ of all things.
Taste is vegetal-orchid.
Nice dark large leaves take a while to expand.

brewed probably 5-6 grams in Gawain.
It was much better this time.
During first several infusions leaves have a nice aged aroma of wet earth and raisins, with a faint hint of camphorous complex aged puerh aroma and much much less storage smell than before.

First few brews did have a bit of of that eukalyptus/camphor that boychich mentioned.
The tea is thick, almost coffee like, which is nice though its also somewhat muddy/murky.

From the three recently sampled aged shengs, this would take second place, after the yong ping hao. Both have some notable qualities, but I would rather pay more for a sheng with stronger, more obvious flavor and aroma, and with notable enhancement of well being and state of mind.

This morning I transferred the samples to small mugs with puer-paper & rubber band seals at the top. Will see how they fare in a couple of weeks or months.

Dry leaf smells dusty and musty, a bit like mold spores actually. Since its from a reputable site I am not worried about sampling it.

I rinsed twice. All the infusions are dominated by a strong storage flavor. The brew itself is a bit sweet, faintly aged-fruity and lacking vitality.

Well, 3 out of 3 semi-aged sheng samples that I ordered are all rather disappointing to be honest. I see good review here so perhaps I am doing something wrong. Again, lets see what happens after they breathe for a few months.

After rinse there is a somewhat pleasant aged aroma. there are some hints of rubber in there.
I found some decent aged notes in some of the brews, though by and large, its not something that I feel like drinking much of, and has this cooked artichoke water somewhat bitter flavor that is not too exiting. Maybe its my (filtered) tap water, who knows.

Dry leaf aroma has fruity tangy notes. After rinse the aroma is not that pleasant, perhaps a bit like aged rubber but not quite. The tea itself has a dulled-out aged barely fruity taste with some storage notes. Not much vitality in this one.
Perhaps it needs to acclimate for a few months.

After my experience with the ‘ancient spirit’ cake from YS, which seemed dull wen I first received it and is now an excellent tea, I can’t really judge a tea from an initial tasting right out of the sample bag.