Yunnan Sourcing

I have no idea what I was thinking having this wild ass sheng first thing in the morning. I succumbed to peer pressure (consisting of no actual pressure) and joined Sarsy in morning sheng. I usually prefer to ease more gently into my mornings with a nice black or some Special Dark. But there you are. I shenged.

I call this bad boy Wild Child. It is a wild hollering baby and I love it. It’s punchy for sure. Very very punchy.

After borrowing a jackhammer, I put 6 gr in the weexing, used 200 water and combined numerous steeps in one mug alá Sarsy. It brews up dark orange so it kind of warns you what’s coming.

Is it a little rough around the edges? Oh yeah. But it has something that I LOVE very much in a tea. It has an intense grapey-muscatel flavor that gives me a happy. It’s fairly bitter but not off-puttingly bitter with an aftertaste that appeals to me mightily. I just really really like the way it tastes. I have a real affinity for the purple thing y’all. There is not much smoke to speak of and I have to say I prefer separate steeps for this as it does mellow out in later steeps. In the combo method you have the bitter all the way through.

Wild Child wants to make sure I’m paying paying attention so it slaps my head around a time or two and I get an immediate wave of head bang. Not much body feel for me – this is all in the head.

I really like this sheng. Lots of people won’t. It is $6 for a 100 gram brick and I think that is a screaming deal for this tea. I’m thinking after it calms down in a few years, I will will thank myself for buying 6 of them. In the meantime, I will drink it cause I like it.

Couple of songs for this bad boy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxZbOZDineQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=def3ob2h-1s

This is a sheng I bought cause i saw Scott posting pics of it on Instagram and it being a yin and yang design, well, I knew I just had to have it!

It’s like when I sometimes buy a bottle of wine just for the label, hoping To get lucky.

Well I just got lucky!

This is quite a deal. Young sheng yes, but it tastes a lot more mature than its age.

And I’m sure it will only get better with time.

I get close to zero astringency.

It’s super mellow, all sweet and honey.

I get hints of apple pie, feels like autumn tea to me.

It’s also a bit grapey. Definitely fruity.

Tonight I’m having it with the TEAplets, but I had it for the first time last night, and it gave me pinky cheeks. And a nice buzz.

Hey, I never wear much makeup, so a nice natural blush sheng glow is always welcome ;-)

The qi is kicking and I almost feel like I stole this cake, having spent a ridiculous amount of $15 on it.

People. Get this, it’s a bargain!!

Tea Party!!!!

This cake is from the lovely MzPriss who heard about it somewhere and took a chance. Good move and thanks so much, my dear! I drank this tonight with MzP and TheTeaFairy and I think I can say that we were all quite happy.

The Fairy and I cannot agree on whether this tastes more like apricot pie or apple pie, but there’s definitely fruit and pie. It has a little bitterness so very short steeps are a good idea. I did the best around 10 seconds. I may even lower the water temp slightly next time. You can’t beat the price on this. Like $15 for 357 g. I think it will smooth out a bit with age, and I’d say it’s totally worth the price!

You can trust Dr. Sheng on this one! :p

Sheng party with the Teaplets. I put 6 grams in the wee shengxing and hit it with 200 degree water with one rinse which was fairly nondescript, though with a bit of tingle (I almost always taste my rinse). After a 10 minute or so rest and hen onto 15s/20s/30s/45s/1m/130m/2min steeps.

The soup is apricot colored and the first steep gives me a nice tingle and a very, very slight bitterness, even though Sarsy made this face: O.O

Slightly more bitter on the third steep but not a bad bitter. A little fruit starting to come through here, a little bit of bread. The aroma is a really nice honeyed bread smell that I’m enjoying very much.

It’s getting a little more bitter for me, especially at the back but that might be because I forgot about that steep.

I’m getting a nice relaxation, and a little head buzz, but nothing too hard. It’s nice rather than challenging. The 30 second steep is really nice and balanced – tasty.

I’m continuing to enjoy this. I think it’s really decent to drink now and I bet in two years it will be really, really good. I think it’s a great deal for the price.

One more offering from Dag Wedin. This is a Raw Puerh, with beautiful large budsets, & a tangy spicy aroma! I went ahead & used the entire 7G sample in my yixing, combining 2 pours at a time in my favorite cups (or at least one of my favorite, there are so many).

Green beans, orange peel bitterness, fresh eucalyptus, & some kind of floral, a thick sensation, cannabis after-aroma, accompanied by a great tea buzz, the wonderful head clearing kind. I really believe teas such as this are beneficial for allergies, & this will be a pleasant head-space for my taichi class tonight.
Thanks Dag!

Another extremely smooth and drinkable young shu! Very creamy finish. I got 3 nice semi-western steeps out of it before the leaves got tired. I like that it is organic, too! This is one I would buy and definitely recommend :)

Marco Polo TTB

Guys, I finally did it, I figured out the perfect Tea Triage for my blog! I have been stressing for a bit over posting order because I have a ton of teas to review from different companies. Since it is just good policy to review teas sent by companies rather than ones bought/gifted first, this is my usual order, but for the first time ever I got a bunch of different teas from a bunch of different companies all at once. And I thought the spring harvest was a busy time for tea bloggers, this is just awesome! My main problem really is just making sure none of the tea companies feel neglected or forgotten, so I set up a Tea Triage (tea-age, treage, this doesn’t make for good punnery) that I am happy with.

So for today we have Yunnan Sourcing’s Jinggu Golden Strand Pure Bud Yunnan Black Tea Spring 2014 a gloriously fuzzy golden tea (my biggest weakness, maybe) I just love the appearance of fuzzy teas, the gold ones in particular just fill me with happiness when looking at them. According to Yunnan Sourcing, this particular batch of Hong Cha (red tea) is the fuzziest they have sold, awesome! This particular fuzzy gold tea is from Jinggu, Yunnan, and is made with the highest grade Yunnan large leaf buds. After my usual period of staring at the tea oohing and ahhing at the adorable tea I got around to sniffing it. The aroma is…well, it is awesome, there are notes of dried cherries and apricots, with more subtle notes of sweet potatoes, roasted peanuts, and lastly a tiny hint of cream. It is very much so iconic for a Yunnan black tea, at least for me it is, it has all the notes I expect when sniffing a fuzzy gold tea, but with a cleaner and crisper edge.

And into the gaiwan the leaves go, it is always a little sad since this means the gold fuzz will go away (and by go away I mean go into my cup for me to sip, mmm fuzzies) but it is also happy because it means I am about to drink tea. The aroma of the now steeped leaves is sweet, pretty intensely sweet, blending notes of stewed apricots and cherries with a touch of molasses, malt, sweet potatoes, roasted peanuts and a finish of wood. The poured off liquid from the first steep is creamy sweet with notes of sweet potatoes and acorn squash (almost verging on pumpkin) and a finish that is almost floral, like very distant flowers.

The first steep starts out juicy and sweet, it reminds me of biting into a perfectly ripe plum and then it transitions to malt and molasses. After this there is a delicious kick of pumpkin, I had a funny moment when sipping this tea where I actually shouted out Pumpkin! and promptly handed Ben the cup to taste, where he agreed that yes, this tea had pumpkin notes and promptly went back to reading. The finish of the tea is floral, with almost a rose like touch, the mouthfeel starts out creamy and fades to a dry slightly fuzzy feel at the end.

Second steeping time, and the aroma of this steep’s aroma is rich and sweet. There are notes of sweet potatoes, stewed plums, and a touch of raw honey at the finish. The taste is quite rich, it starts off with malt and molasses this time with only a hint of fresh plum. This transitions into pumpkin and a touch of roasted peanuts with a finish of honey. The mouthfeel starts off more dry than last time, but there is still a hint of the smoothness at the beginning.

For the third steep we have a creamy pumpkin and sweet potato aroma, in fact the aroma reminds me of sweet potato patties I used to eat like crazy as a kid, (are they just a thing in the South, because I never see them anymore) so yay for nostalgia points. The mouthfeel starts out creamy and stays creamy, it is very mellow, actually everything about this steep is mellow. It starts out gently fruity and honey sweet and fades to malt and molasses, at the finish there is a bit of pumpkin and a refreshing cooling effect. So yeah, I enjoyed this tea, but have I ever met a fuzzy tea from Yunnan that I did not enjoy immensely?

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/09/yunnan-sourcing-jinggu-golden-strand.html

For the actual tea: http://yunnansourcing.com/en/yunnan-black-teas/2875-jinggu-golden-strand-pure-bud-yunnan-black-tea-spring-2014.html

I bought 25g sample of this some time ago.
I think its first time im tasting wet stored aged sheng.
its sweet and herb spicy. Also menthol pretty pronounced in the beginning. i pick up some earthiness, like dump soil, but its not much,some trace. its not unpleasant to me. had more than 6 steeps, color is orange tinted. Again, my steeps were very short, maybe if you steep longer color would be brighter. Long lasting sweetness. Coolness in my mouth remained for a long time.
I think i like it a lot.

Gongfu method
5g 100ml 200F
rinse/pause/5/5/10/10/10/15sec etc

so i broke off a small corner off and rinsed it for 30 seconds and then broke the wet leaves further. then i rinsed again for 30 seconds, and let sit out of water for 30 minutes.

grandpa style in little glass pitchure:

and thus was a great outcome!

im glad it still had the metallic coppery taste (and earth too). one thing new to me is, a mouth numbing effect that was quite pleasant. this tea has aged well over 8 months.

my dear followers and tea fans, i suggest you give it a try as i now rate this a 90 up from 80

so i have not had this in a while and it has been sitting in grandma’s living room.

it some how must have aged like 5 years because it tastes smooth and less coppery

I have not had this tea for at least two weeks now. this time it tastes a little better :) although I prefer raw pu-ehr, ripe is great too :)

changing score 75 —→ 80

ill do a full review right up front:

when i smell the brick, it has a musty earthy smell

when i smell the brewed leaves, it smells the same as it is dry

when i smell the brewed tea, it smells like heavy earth.

when i taste it it tastes like heavy earth taste and little notes of copper taste :)

IMHO, this is a good tea, but i have had better, i will let my second box I’m waiting for age a bit :)

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

Good morning, Steepster! This is my Yunnan Sourcing black tea of choice for this morning, and it was sent to me by a lovely tea friend. The leaves of this tea are quite beautiful – they’re long and thin and very straight, similar to pine needles. Color is mostly dark grey/brown with about 30% golden tips. Dry scent is sweet honey and malt, om nom nom.

The steeped cup smells malty and somewhat sweet with mild dark fruity notes. Wow, this tastes completely different than I expected. It’s dominated by dark notes of earth, wood, and mineral with a tiny touch of smoke. Definitely not a sweet tea! There is a bit of molasses-like, dark richness but it doesn’t add sweetness here. In the aftertaste I pick up on a hint of dark fruitiness, such as raisin or date. Overall, this is a very manly tea. :P

Lewis & Clarke TTB

Hooray, more Yunnan Sourcing! I wish every company had been this generous with their sample sizes, because then I don’t feel bad about trying every tea they included! :D The leaves of this tea and thin and very straight, almost like pine needles or twigs. They appear to be mostly dark with some spots of gold. The dry leaves smell very sweet and malty with honey notes. I did my general “black tea” parameters of 200 degree water for 3 minutes.

Once brewed, it smells strong and malty with a little bit of an earthy note. I can also smell raisins and honey/molasses. Just as an aside, I don’t generally enjoy this style of Yunnan as much just because they tend to get into the earthy/mineral side of things. This one, however, barely touches those notes. It’s mostly lovely malty bread with a bit of sweet potato and dark fruit flavors. There’s a little hint of earth in the background, but it doesn’t bother me here. I am pleasantly surprised by this one! :)

http://yunnansourcing.com/en/yunnan-black-teas/2885-feng-qing-classic-58-dian-hong-premium-yunnan-black-tea-spring-2014.html

A nice fairly easy to drink young sheng. It brews a pale gold, the liquor is very nice, thick and hearty through numerous infusions. The flavor is good, basic, a little floral and sweet, but some sourness is pervasive. This is a nice quality tea, good but not great, and is priced fairly at $28.

Lewis & Clarke TTB

Another tea from Yunnan Sourcing that I’ve been wanting to try! The leaves are very long and tightly twisted, and very dark chocolate brown in color. The dry scent is actually kind of hard for me to place… It’s definitely roasty and a bit smoky, but there’s also an interesting dried fruit note along with a fairy amount of sweetness. Pipe tobacco, maybe? I steeped mine for 3 minutes.

Brewed aroma is very roasty with some smoke with an interesting herbaceous note. I’m actually surprised that there’s not a ton of smoke in the taste. There’s definitely roasty flavor that reminds me of roasted coffee beans, and there’s a little bit of mineral flavor and smoke alongside it. There’s something a little bit herbaceous about it, although I’m not sure I can place which herb (sage maybe?). I also get a mushroom-like flavor.

Overall, this tea is tasty and it seems quite unique compared to other black teas I’ve tried! :)

http://yunnansourcing.com/en/yunnan-black-teas/2908-light-roast-wild-tree-purple-varietal-black-tea-of-dehong-spring-2014.html

Lewis & Clarke TTB

More from Yunnan Sourcing! I was quite impressed with the other white tea I tried, so I figured I’d try this one as well. I love that they provided huge samples so everyone could try every tea, so nice! This tea is a mixture of fuzzy silver buds and medium to dark green leaves in rather large pieces. Dry scent actually kind of reminds me of a black full bud Yunnan tea! It’s honey sweet and has that slight stonefruit scent to it, but this tea smells a bit more grainy and haylike while the black smells malty. When I brew white teas, I generally use a lot of leaf (a tablespoon usually) and steep it for just 1-2 minutes. I find the flavor to be stronger that way, and since this sample is so huge I was happy that I got to do just that!

Mm, the brewed aroma has a very strong honey note along with some grain that’s almost pastrylike. I also smell a little bit of fruit, though I can’t place what kind. Taste-wise I get mostly honey and sweet hay, and then the grain pops out near the end of the sip and lingers for the aftertaste. There’s the teensiest bit of fruity flavor if I really think about it, something mild like a dried fig or golden raisin. Overall, this tea is very simple but tasty.

http://yunnansourcing.com/en/whitetea/2913-yunnan-yue-guang-bai-air-dried-white-tea-spring-2014.html

Lewis & Clarke TTB

I think this is the first green I’ve had from Yunnan Sourcing, but I have loved all of their other teas so far, so I have high expectations. :) The leaves are slender and formed into slight curls and loops, and they’re grey/green/blue in color. Dry scent is sweet and somewhat vegetal with some oats. I did a 2 minute steep because I felt like it. :D

Once brewed, it smells vegetal in the squash/spinach sense and also somewhat creamy and nutty/grainy. This is a mild and sweet green, similar to the last one I tried. The vegetal component of it reminds me of butternut squash or zucchini and is very creamy. I also get a little bit of a nutty component to this one, perhaps cashew? Overall, sweet and mild and a nice tea for relaxing while watching a movie. :)

http://yunnansourcing.com/en/greentea/2927-teng-chong-hui-long-zhai-yunnan-green-tea-spring-2014.html

Time for more Yunnan Sourcing! This same is from my swap with Tealizzy, she sent me three different giant fuzzbud teas. You just have to admire the beauty of these pure bud teas from YS – the leaves are so outrageously puffy and fuzzy and golden. These ones are just a little bit twisty in a way that looks natural, as if they were allowed to twist however they wanted to. Dry scent is sweet honey and a touch of malt.

The steeped cup smells sweet potato-y and somewhat savory. Yum, this is a delicious light and smooth cup! It has that lovely sweet potato flavor that Yunnan teas are known for, but it’s so light that it almost reminds me of pastry. There’s also a light sweetness that reminds me of honey and golden raisin. This tea actually has a strong floral presence, especially for a black tea. It’s a light and sweet floral, perhaps lilac? Overall, it’s thick and silky smooth with a light but somewhat decadent flavor. Yum!

Lewis & Clarke TTB

This is one of the Yunnan Sourcing teas that I was curious about! Funny how that happens. :P I’ve tried two of their other pure bud Yunnan teas and loved them, and I was wondering how the ones I haven’t tried compare. This tea is gorgeous – big fat fuzzy golden buds that are lazily twisted. The inside of the pouch is covered in a thick layer of magical golden fairy dust! Dry scent is (mm…) very honeyed and sweet with malt and stonefruit notes. I brewed for 3 minutes at 200 degrees (I always forget that I should probably lower it to 190 for pure bud teas like this one… oops.).

Mm, it smells amazing! A lovely combination of sweet, honey, malty, fruity, bready – all of the good Yunnan things! The taste certainly doesn’t disappoint. The most prominent flavor is lovely bread and pastry combined with luscious and creamy sweet potato. It’s complimented nicely by sweet and somewhat floral honey and a very light fruitiness that reminds me of golden raisins. There’s also plenty of malt to be had! Because I steeped mine on the longer side, there’s a wee hint of something that’s approaching bitterness, but I actually love it this way, it adds a nice, deep bottom flavor to balance the middle and top. Delicious!

http://yunnansourcing.com/en/yunnan-black-teas/2875-jinggu-golden-strand-pure-bud-yunnan-black-tea-spring-2014.html

Another puerh from my mystery sample box :D

Oh wow, this sheng is SUPER smooth! I would not have guessed it is so young! I am REALLY digging on this one. It has fruity notes that I always appreciate in a sheng, as well as a brisk energy. I’m really glad I randomly chose this one this morning, it is a winner!

Lewis & Clarke TTB

Continuing with my morning black tea spree! I’m actually very happy with the teas that Yunnan Sourcing provided for this box, three of them are blacks that I specifically wanted to try, so it works out well for me! The leaves of this tea are about medium-sized, and they’re got that creepy tree branch vibe going on, long and twisty and very dark in color. Dry scent is sweet and somewhat malty.

The brewed tea smells strongly of honeysuckle, which I was not expecting! :P There’s also strong malt and a little bit of fruit. I also get that honeysuckle note in the taste, and it’s very lovely! There’s a slight touch of earthiness at the beginning of the sip, but towards the middle and end it transforms more into a heavy grain flavor that I definitely prefer. I get a little bit of fruitiness at the end and in the aftertaste, and I would classify it as stonefruit. It goes nicely with the honeysuckle, which stays strong throughout the entire sip and blossoms in the aftertaste. Now, I’m not a huge fan of florals, but I’m okay with honeysuckle since it’s quite sweet and very light on the floral side. However, the floral in the aftertaste here does get a little bit soapy for me, probably because the other flavors supporting it have dissipated. Still a delightful tea! :)

http://yunnansourcing.com/en/yunnan-black-teas/2934-wild-arbor-feng-qing-black-tea-pure-assamica-spring-2014.html

I got this from a friend to try. I have found it hard to post anything much with all the site issues but this I will.
I used 10 grams in the Gaiwan for this one with a 5 second rinse and about 10 second steeps. This isn’t as dark golden as some other shengs but that wasn’t a problem. This one brews very nice. Smoke is present in the wet leaf and the brew but not to an overly strong note in my opinion. It has a bit of astringency to it but in a nice way. It give a floral and semi-sweet note in the cup. It is a rather “meaty” tea that gives a bit of tingle and a nice mouth filling taste. not thin and weak but with some punch in there.
I looked on the site and price for experience this would be a good tea for the money in my taste profile. Thanks to the generous one that sent it and I think it will be on a future order.