Yunnan Sourcing

a nice and mellow tea :) maybe too mellow for me with little to no spice just honey and sweetness. I’m sure others will like this tea though

thanks scott Wilson and Yunnan sourcing for this sweet tea

a nice tea with a strong honey taste and mild spice and smoke taste

so I tried brewing for less time and it tastes great with no bitterness

many thanks to scot Wilson and Yunnan sourcing for this nice tea :)

Lewis and Clark TTB #14

I didn’t know what to expect from this tea. YS is famous for pu-erh, and this dry tea looked a bit like a young sheng. However, it tastes pretty much like mao feng, with rich vegetive flavors. Unfortunately for me, I’m not particularly wild about this style of tea. For those who are, this is well-made, smooth and flavorful, with a long finish.

I’ll withhold a score, since I don’t like the style.

Lewis & Clark TTB #12.

I’m a big fan of “Golden” Yunnan teas, and still have 2014 YS Simao and Mojiang Golden in my cupboard. This is similar in style, though perhaps not as good as the Siamao (my favorite).

The tasting starts with a nice sweet potato aroma, with cocoa underneath. The taste continues those flavors. It isn’t as strong as I might like, though not weak. Good finish. As the tea cools, the chocolate comes to the fore, along with a hint of smoke, while the sweet potato recedes. The finish also becomes slightly bitter.

so I had some banana bread with butter so I cannot exactly taste specific flavors. but since this tea was in the kitchen near cooking fumes I thought this tea would taste bad. but it tastes really good, just don’t over steep this tea

so I found out I was making a mistake just like on my last review….. im steeping it too long . some pu-ehr tea tastes good when steeped for a long time some don’t. but like the last time I steeped it lightly at first and it was mellow and smooth :D

some bitterness, however it tastes different :P this time like wet earth and wet wood lol though sweet when steeped lightly :P not much to say about this tea

Lewis and Clark TTB #8

This is a bit lighter than many Yunnans, but I really love the flavor. Wood and leather and a touch of earth. Rich and deep and complex. Smooth and round, with a long, deep finish. Another review mentioned bitterness; I am very sensitive to bitterness and didn’t detect more than a trace.

The taste corresponds perfectly with the price point on YS: between an ordinary Yunnan and one of the top (or should I say tip) “golden” teas. Fair value.

I got this one from boychik. She told me to have it first out of the huge box of tea she sent me, so I did.

I’m glad I did. My taste isn’t quite all the way back, but it’s getting a lot better.

This one is quite nice. It has that sort of weird not quite minerally flavor that I get from a lot of sheng. I like it. It also developed some nice fruitiness. Really nice texture.

I still have enough for another try of this when I’m back to healthy, too.

http://instagram.com/p/tvvcW9Ayf3/
http://instagram.com/p/tvtyf8Ayc6/

(Also the first time using my freshly seasoned sheng pot!)

Not stellar, but good quality overall. Smooth sweet flavor with mild honey, fruit, and floral notes. Personally I’ve been unable to really get into white tea: “decent”, “good”, and “great” ones all taste about the same to me. I’m not sure which one of those this one would be categorized as, but I can’t imagine anyone thinking it was less than decent.

i don’t like this tea much anymore, it’s hard to steep without rinsing till soft then breaking up. but my dear friend Thomas Edward(toad) would love to try it :D so I’m sending it to him as a trade :D

a nice and tasty tea! :D i taste earth and sweetness. although it smelled a little shrimpy, it did not taste like shrimp :) even if it did i don’t mind at all. the only issue which keeps this tea from scoring a perfect 100% is the fact that i had to break it up a little to get a nice dark color after the rinse because even in hot water it did not steep well. (some might not care but i do)

many thanks to Scott Wilson and Yunnan sourcing for this lovely tea :)

mmmmm this was one of the teas i snuck from terri when i was visiting her. I’m trying to get through some of my samples so that i can get back to focusing on my larger quantities of teas. This is a really smooth tasting tea. Now, granted i’m a little sick so i’m not sure i’m catching all the nuances today but it’s a rather pleasant cup of tea today. Not overly malty, but still has some maltiness to it. It’s smooth, and there’s no astringency to this. The description mentions floral notes, but i’m not getting any of those, and that makes me a happy camper. Is this better than my favourites from Yunnan? Nope. But i wouldn’t turn a cup of this down for sure. :)

Lewis & Clark #3

I’m really looking forward to this tea; I almost added it to my order last Month, but fiscal reality prevailed. The nose is surprisingly light; almost green in nature. The first sip started slowly but built inside my mouth until it was just huge. Big long finish.

I’m at a loss for words to describe the flavor. It is sweet, definitely smoky, but with an almost medicinal, herbal undertone. (after writing this review I read other reviews, and realize that “smoked meat” is fairly close. It sounds weird, but tastes good.)

The most interesting feature for me was that drinking this tea put me into a powerful meditative state, similar to a pu-erh with a lot of cha qi. I don’t recall seeing this in a black tea before. My rating is based upon this aspect of the tea. Were I judging on taste alone, it would be about an 85.

Phoenix Dan Cong is a style of oolong tea originating in Phoenix Mountain in China’s southern Guangdong province that dates back to the Song dynasty.
Coming from New Zealand, where Peter Jackson is a local legend, one could be mistaken for assuming the word “dan cong” is in fact, “king kong”. And there may be a connection as the term dan cong, or “single-trunk,” refers to the cultivation method whereby the tea trees are allowed to grow wild until they reach full height (up to 5-metres) and form their own tree trunk, as opposed to terraced tea gardens where the tea bushes are pruned into low rows. They are, therefore, the giants in the tea plant world.
The teas produced from this area are categorized according to their distinct tea tree cultivars, which are named after the fruits and flowers that they are associated with in terms of their flavour profile. In the past, naming of these teas was unsystematic and complicated. However, in the last 50 or so years, the Chinese government has developed a system of registration (predominantly for commercial teas). The top 10 fragrances are: Yu Lan Xiang (magnolia flower fragrance); Huang Zhi Xiang (orange flower fragrance); Xing Ren Xiang (almond flavour); Zhi Lan Xiang (orchid fragrance); Mi Lan Xiang (honey orchid fragrance); Gui Hua Xiang (osmanthus fragrance); You Hua Xiang 9pomelo/grapefruit flower fragrance); Jiang Hua Xiang (ginger flower fragrance); Rou Gui Xiang (cinnamon flavour); and Mi Lan Xiang (milan flower fragrance).
This particular tea is made with the ‘Mi Lan Xiang’ cultivar. During harvesting, tall ladders are used to hand pluck the leaves (bud with 2-3 leaves). Harvesting strictly follows the three “Don’ts”: don’t pick in strong sunlight, don’t pick early in the morning and don’t pick in the rain. The leaves are then hand-roasted to stop oxidisation, thus imparting their unique flavour.
On inspection, the leaf looks similar to Wuyi Rock Oolong from Fujian Province. However, the aroma is vastly different. While Wuyi oolongs have a smoky/earthy/roasted scent, this Dan Cong is heavily fragrant with floral (orchid) and stone fruit (peach/nectarines) notes.
The first sip of the liquor is intoxicating: it has a smooth thick depth of flavour beginning with a flowery orchid and nectar sweetness, accompanied by a roasted note. This is followed up by lingering notes of honey, ginseng and stone fruits. The wildly aromatic aftertaste lingers for some time (which means I am in no hurry to do a second infusion).
For the second infusion, the flavour starts out sweet and smooth, with its heady floral notes but the honey has gained dominance. There is no astringency or bitterness at all.
Much like Gui Hua Xiang (Osmanthus), this tea is reasonably strong in flavour. A characteristic of a good dan cong (according to U.S. tea educator, Jason Walker). However, the New Zealand tea palate is unlikely to be accustomed to this character profile.
To wrap up: This tea is no doubt a mid-grade tea, grown around 1,000 metres. Dan congs grown higher (above 1,200 metres) tend to be sold for exorbitantly high prices before the tea even reaches the market. That said, this tea is wonderfully fragrant and produces numerous infusions. And, at a price of US$8 for 50g, that’s a decent deal.
Basic Brewing Guidelines: Water- 90 degrees; Leaf to Water Ratio – 3g per 150ml; Brewing Time – 1.5 minutes to start.

very solidly compressed. 2 20-sec rinses, then (15s): Clean aroma; no earthiness. Woody with a hint of fruit; bitter at the finish. 2nd (15s): more fruit, hint of caramel in nose. Taste is mostly just woody, with a bit of earth, but less bitter than before. 3-6th steeps similar. OK but not much character.

this tea is quite bitter sweet with a honey, spicy and slight smoky taste even though me and grandma forgot to rinse it first.

thank you Scott Wilson and Yunnan sourcing for this interesting tea. :)

Continuing my gongfu sessions, my ‘purple black tea’ yixing is getting a real workout today!
https://instagram.com/p/7DI2HqD8i0/?taken-by=terriharplady
The predominant tastes of this one are an herby eucalyptus, a sweet sugarcane, with hints of chocolate & rose, if that all makes sense.

This tea was good overall. It was sweet and smooth. It had notes of apricots or plums. I added a small amount of sugar, don’t know if this intensified the apricot flavor. There was also a very slight, slight note of sourness that appeared around steep four and persisted. Even with this it was good. I would still rate this quite highly and would try it next time at 175 degrees and see if the sour note goes away.

I brewed this six times in a 150ml gaiwan with 7g leaf and 200 degree water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, and 45 sec. The spent leaves had a distinct burnt aroma to them.

so i had this tea today, and it is still an awesome tea!

i haven’t had this in a while :) so it still tastes a little chocolate like and earthy

so i tried this earlier but i guess its somewhat true that eating food can mask the taste. then i got bad heart burn which at first i thought was the ginseng but then i remembered i had these little energy drinks with ginseng and nothing bad ever happened. so i know it was the Mr. noodles i had for lunch that did it. so later in the evening i have tried this tea and the tea is very sweet and tasty with hints of white chocolate. i would like to thank Scott Wilson and Yunnan sourcing for this nice tea :)

Tea of the (late) morning! Another lovely black tea sample from boychik. I’ve had one other purple tea from Yunnan Sourcing, and I’m curious to try the others they offer. The leaves of this tea remind me of Taiwanese black teas – they’re long and spindly and twisty. The definitely have the creepy tree branch vibe, and they’re jet black in color. Dry scent is very mild but there are some sweet, malt, and fruit notes. I steeped about two teaspoons of leaf (roughly) for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

Hmm… I’m finding the aroma kind of hard to describe. There are some obvious elements, like malt, sweet, fruity, but there’s something there that’s a combination of tangy and herby and I have no idea what it is… I hate that! It’s definitely there in the taste as well. There’s a nice dark grape flavor here, as well as other dried fruit, along with a touch of smoke and mineral and an interesting fuzzy mouth feel, like eating a peach skin. Then there’s that odd tangy/herbal note that I can’t identify. I see that yyz mentioned musk in her note, so maybe that’s it? I can’t help that think that maybe it’s that elusive cannabis that others seem to find so often in teas?

Anyway, this tea is tasty, and definitely complex. I can’t really compare it to any other black tea I’ve had except say that perhaps it’s closest to a Darjeeling? :P