Yunnan Sourcing

Is this tea really only $5 for a 100g cake??? It is so good, especially for that price! I’m very glad I got a sample of this one from a friend :)

I am getting hints of smoke, and hints of fruit and flowers. Nice mouthfeel, too. Wow, I am going to have to place a YS order sometime soon. YUM!

Lewis & Clarke TTB

This is it, folks! This is the very last sample I took from the TTB before sending it on its merry way. I’m not sure why I haven’t tried this one sooner, it’s been hanging out next to the dreaded Da Yu Ling Oolong sample that is finally gone. Anyway, on to the good bits! The leaves are long and fairly thin, and tightly twisted. Color is a lighter shade of grey/green. The outside bag smells like Hot Lips, oops! Luckily the tea inside didn’t seem to be contaminated, and smells lightly sweet with mild vegetal notes. I steeped mine for 1.5 minutes because I felt like it (seriously).

I think I may have underleafed or understeeped this one, as I’m not getting a ton of aroma. What I do smell is a bit of mineral quality combined with mild and sweet vegetal notes.

Confession: I totally let this tea cool a ton, mostly because I was looking through boychik’s cupboard with my mouth wide open… Seriously tempting things in there! Ahem! Anyway, yeah this is definitely underleafed. I do like the flavor that’s there, and it reminds me of the Bi Luo Chun that I got from Han Xiang on AliExpress. It has an interesting mineral/smoke note to it that I enjoy, along with strong apricot notes near the beginning. Overall, very nice, even underleafed! :D

Trying this after 5 years of home storage. It’s color now matches it’s apricot flavor. It’s fruity and sharp, relatively light body, with heavy Cha qi. Very tasty.

What a fruity tea. Think apricots, the most apricoty pu that I’ve tasted. It’s a nice tea that has very little bitterness, fairly strong cha qi, and medium body. Seems like high quality leaves. I like this one quite a bit.

I had a little time to kill between weddings, so I came home to relax for half an hour, & made myself a cup of this, which I got in my last YS order. I do enjoy chrysanthemum, & of course, I actually have some here, so I guess I didn’t really need to buy a 100 G brick, but it is beautiful to look at, & I am always & forever curious, so I bought it.

I probably should be doing this gongfu, but I don’t want to take in TOO many liquids before the 2nd wedding, so I went with a western steeping of it for 3 min.
And…I don’t really know what to say…lol. It isn’t knocking my socks off, but it also isn’t gross in any way either. Very smooth, very drinkable, I’m getting a bit of a head rush, along with a nice tongue tingle. My sinuses are opening, & that’s a good thing. As I’ve said before, I think Sheng pure helps allergies, & now I guess some Shou Puerhs also are helpful, or maybe its the chrysanthemum flowers? Anyway, flavor wise, I’m having trouble pinning it down…
roasted hominy…a rich soil…a slight bitterness like hops…
my cup is empty, time to go play the 2nd wedding. I’ll try to return for a resteep or 2 later.

So this was a nice little surprise!

It needed 2 rinses because it does still have some fermentation flavor, but once those are done, it’s very mild and pleasant. I don’t get a ton of distinguishable flavors, but I enjoyed this tea very much. For $7 per cake, I can’t really find anything bad to say. I would consider this to be a good daily drinker!

This cake has a deeply satisfying quality about it. I can see it becoming a favourite among those who like a rich-tasting pu’er with lots of sweetness, without the off-tastes. Sometimes, it takes a while for a ripe cake to air out before being ready for consumption. This is hardly the case with this 1938, though just to be on the safe side, you may want – See more at: http://universotea.com/content/2005-cnnp-lucky-brand-1938-prime-grade?ovr=1#sthash.BDTd6KB0.dpuf

i love this tea. its so good.
Its fruity and sweet with some savory smoky meat notes. Smoke is not overpowering, i quite like it.
Gongfu method
5g 100ml gaiwan 200F
rinse/pause/5/3/5/5/10/15/15 sec etc
some bitterness shows up at 3rd steep but nothing major. in fact i like it, makes it more interesting.
This tea was a sample from very generous Steepster fellow. Im so glad to be able to try. Thank you so much.
I’d like to pick up couple cakes, the price is $5.50 on US site

Experimenting with this one again tonight. This time I used one tsp less tea but gave it a longer steep. I think it was improved. Still has a nice sweet flavor to it and an earthy character to it. I really don’t know how to properly describe the flavor notes in this tea.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 5 minutes.

This is a very good tea. It has a nice sweetness to it and an earthy character is how I describe the natural flavor innate to chrysanthemum teas in general. This is one of those teas that just has to be experienced to understand the description of it. I like this tea. I’m not sure, but I think I like it better than the one from Berylleb King Tea which seemed stronger. This one seems more mild.

I brewed this once in a 16oz teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker with 4 tsp leaf and boiling water for 3 minutes.

This is my first foray into Chrysanthemum Tea so I’m not sure where to start. It was very strong, a little too strong but not bitter. It was in a way earthy, but nothing like the way ripe puerh is earthy. I was only guessing on the correct amount of Chrysanthemum flowers to use. Next time I try this I will use half as much in the way of Chrysanthemum. It was very flavorful, I will say that. I don’t think I would want to drink this everyday although a friend of mine at work loves the stuff, he is Chinese. I added a small amount of sugar to cut the flavor down a notch or two. I will go through the flavor list and see if any other than the obvious fit.

I brewed this once in a 1.5 liter teapot with 7.5g Chrysanthemum Flower and boiling water for 3 min.

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