Yunnan Sourcing

Brewed in my roasted oolong $15 yixing pot from jk tea shop.
Coworkers loved it. they said it might even be their favorite so far.
It lasted for a good number of infusions.

This one helped me calm down and recover the lao ban zhang puer. It has a warm, calming nature that seems to be typical of da hong pao.
Nice clear broth with good flavor. Well rounded with no smoke, dry mouth, or roughness of any kind. Again very pleasant on the body and mind. I could drink this often. There is a bright crystalline quality to the brew.
Flavor is hard to describe…almost peachy.
I used a gaiwan. Will try yi xing pot next time it seems to add depth and texture for roasted oolongs.

This is obviously top quality leaf. Very impressive.
Dry tea is fragrant. moderately compressed. After rinse, a satisfyingly strong, very pleasant and elegant tangy-fruity floral aroma emerges. The elegance of the aroma is a common denominator of quality old tree material, from my limited experience.
Sweet, thick tea liquid with penetrating aroma and lots of vitality in the mouthfeel. Very satisfying. This one really hits the spot and leaves little to be wanted.
Little bitterness/astringency for a young sheng. Poweful qi. Strong caffeine kick and psychoactive effect. Pleasant at first, then a bit unsettling.
Now I understand what all the ban zhang hype is about.
Compared to other old tree premium shengsthat i’ve tried of the same vintage, this one might have the strongest flavor and aroma, second only perhpas to a sample I once received of a $300 cake from royalpuer.
Its qi reminds me of the 2011 nano mountain old tree tasting set from jk tea shop, though the flavor is much better.
The refined flavor and aroma is similar to the top quality teas you get from essence of tea.
$10 for 25 grams is a decent deal.
If you like raw powerful shengs, give this a try.
I probably wont reorder this because I like the calming effects and warmer nature of old sheng, though I might buy a newer (cheaper) vintage of this tea and age it for 12 years or so.

just did two final sessions with the remaining leaf.
first session was not remarkable.
one the second session, I brewed probably 4g intact chunk for approx 40 secs each time.
this longer infusion made a huge difference and I got really nice 1st and 2nd infusions with ethereal vanilla like qualities in there.

This time I brewed it in a gaiwan using long steep times, at night in a relaxed setting.
It does have a classic complex aged puer flavor, though you have to pay fairly close attention to notice it.
The aroma of the rinsed leaves had a deep, rich and fairly pleasant but not amazing aged aroma during the first 2-3 steeps.
This tea is much more aged tasting than just about any post- 2000 sheng that I have tried. There is a sense that the leaf material itself is of high quality, and that it was somehow dulled down and muted, overly mellowed during storage. That is just my uneducated guess.
There were some mild cooling sensations primarily in the throat, and some coating on the tongue as well.

Compared to more expensive late 90’s shengs that I have tried , this one has no significant storage smell, and while its flavor is perhaps equally interesting and complex, its faint and a bit hidden underneath a mild primary flavor somewhat akin to composted wet wood.

Yunnan sourcing order finally arrived. No free sample this time, though there were a few grams of an awesome looking shiny tightly rolled green tea just loose at the bottom of the cardboard box that I rinsed and brewed. It was nice and fresh.
Back to the yong pin hao…
I brewed it in a yixing pot fresh out of the sample packet with no acclimation time in a porous container. It might taste different once it acclimates and breathes a bit.

The dark leaves, once rinsed smell aged and a bit rancid. They look great: very shiny, mostly intact, and substantial.

brew is very mellow, perhaps too mellow. no bitterness or stringency, and not much flavor or aroma either. Sweet, a bit piney and almost aged-fruity, but again- not much flavor.
Not much caffeine (this i like) or qi sensations either.
After drinking many cups I could almost feel a cooling sensation at the back of my throat for a minute.

Stay tuned in a couple of weeks once try this one again in a gaiwan after it has revitalized from the month it spent sealed during shipping.

i think i prefer the other variation on this theme from this morning. this one is less…just “less” the cup isn’t as strong and to me it’s lacking in the flavour that the other cup was. It’s still a nice cup, and i’m glad terri shared it with me but overall, i’d reach for the other YS tea before this one :)

terriharplady my dearest tea sisiter, let me have a bit of this when i was at her house exploring her teas haha. I have to say that this is a really delicious tea from YS. It actually hit the spot a little better than LB this morning, but don’t tell LB that! I brewed this one western for ease and was left with a really delicious, slightly sweet but malty cup of tea. i didn’t get much astringency in the cup, which was nice. I’ll have to try the other teal of this variety that i picked up from terri as well and see how it compares.

This tea is super delicious! Probably now one of my favorite black teas, though a little biased as I prefer gold tipped chinese blacks.

Imperial Gold Needle has a gorgeous dry leaf – long threads of gold with slivers of black. The steeped tea comes out bronze, then reddish amber, then gold. The flavor is great – no bitterness, hint of dry later steepings. There are flavor notes of malt, chocolate, stone fruit, honey, caramel, toasted nut with a thick creamy body.

Highly recommended!

Full review – and lots of pictures of this gorgeous black tea – on my blog The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/imperial-gold-needle-yunnan-black-tea/

I had to use a hammer to break this tea into usable pieces. mrmopar, I have a nice size chunk for you.

so I had some of this tea today, and it tastes very mellow now. still its a lovely tea :D

tea of the day:

still an awesome tea, but its still hard to pry off the block

a note: before buying this tea, consider that the leaves are hard to pry off the brick. but its still an awesome tea :D