Yunnan Sourcing

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.

Lewis & Clarke TTB

Ah, silver needles, always so lovely. :D This is the first white tea I’ve tried from Yunnan Sourcing, though I love their blacks. The buds are a beautiful combination of white and green with bits of grey in there, and they’re super fuzzy. Dry, they smell strongly of honey with a little bit of fruitiness and a touch of grass, also some grain. I did 2 minutes at 185 degrees.

Mm, the aroma is lovely! Creamy and grainy with just a touch of grassy freshness, along with some cucumber. Oh my goodness, this is delicious! There’s a light fruitiness that reminds me of apricots along with a lovely malty flavor combined with the ubiquitous grain of white tea. I also seem to pick up on a little touch of floral (honeysuckle?), but it’s not the heady variety and it goes nicely with the lightness of this tea. There’s also maybe a hint of spice, cinnamon perhaps? Along with all of this is a lovely fresh note that’s some combination of cucumber and a sweet grassy note. Definitely the best silver needle I’ve had so far! :D

Edit: I am finding this one to be quite astringent as I continue to drink. It doesn’t bother me, as it causes me to recall apricots more clearly. :P

http://yunnansourcing.com/en/whitetea/2887-silver-needles-white-tea-of-feng-qing-spring-2014.html

Marco Lewis TTB

This is either my first or second unflavored white tea to try. I’ve always read that it has a very light, subtle taste and that’s very true. I think white tea’s just not my thing. But you can tell, however that the leaves themselves are very high quality. So cute and fuzzy! And most of them are whole leaves. How do they keep them from breaking?!

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

Another new sample to try! YAY!

I drank this one all day. It is a solid shu. I found the first couple of steeps to be quite sweet, but also had a lot of camphor notes. Apparently I like camphor notes in sheng but not shu… After that the steeps were more balanced, and quite nice. I will definitely finish the rest of my sample but this is not one I would seek out to purchase. I love trying new teas though, it’s my favorite! :D

This is an interesting tea. If you like Special Dark, you should give this one a try. It’s the same style. To me it tastes like a cross between a shu and a yunnan black. It’s got that golden bud shu flavor, coupled with some sweet notes typically found in yunnan black teas. Pretty smooth, though it is definitely somewhat bitter.

This is a very affordable (currently $17.50 for a 357g cake) flavorful everyday ripe puerh. Moderately compressed cake making it quite easy to pick off leaves to brew. Chocolate brown leaf interspersed with many golden tea buds. Good woody flavor with decent energy. The dark tea soup presents a low level of sweetness with definite cocoa and berry undertones. No real bitterness. Enjoyed six dark infusions and I think I could have probably used the leaves a few more times

Yay, I’m back on Steepster. For some reason Chrome seems to hate it these days and it is causing me problems. Hey ho! So, for today’s tea I am drinking this 2012 Qiu Yun. It’s good. The leaf smells of sweet, fresh hay and the leaves are big. I had to jam them into my pot! The taste is fruity, rounded and sweet. The aftertaste is tingly with apricot or peach notes. It leaves me salivating and citrussy for ages afterwards. Yes, this tea literally makes me drool! ;) I certainly recommend it.

This is some good stuff, nice floral roast with minerally fullness that opens up on the tongue and lingers. Some pepper very late. got a sample of this from a friend and will keep it in mind for a purchase.

I brewed this tea quite differently. I added organic cacao nibs to it. It came out somewhat sweet from the puerh and very bitter from the cacao nibs as well as spicy and smoky. This needed sweetener so I added sugar to the first steep. It was good but I wanted to add more depth of flavor. I then added maple syrup to the remaining steeps. The maple nicely cut the bitter flavor of the cacao nibs. This did not taste like milk chocolate puerh.

I steeped this five times in a 180ml teapot with boiling water. I used 6g leaf and 4g cacao nibs. I steeped it for 15 sec, 15 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, and 1 min. I suspect I would give this tea a lower rating by itself.

This was a sample from my dearest MzPriss! Thanks, pookie pie!

I like this one. It’s putting some pep in my morning. It’s pretty smooth, though it does have a little bite at the end.

I think it’s a pretty decent price for the quality and the age, too!

Got a sample of this at the urging of one of our fellow sheng peers here on Steepster. It is a great choice if you are looking for a safe to drink young sheng. Kind of like YS Wu Liang. Very floral, kind of tasted like honey and pollen. I know, you are saying to yourself ’he’s never tasted pollen’ but it probably tastes like this. Sweet with no bitterness. The first couple infusions had a nice huigan, but that faded quickly. Pretty high kick factor if that is something you desire in your sheng. Also very reasonably priced at $34 currently.

This is a lovely sample from my TeaFF, MzPriss! Thanks, honeybelle!

Method: 8 g, 6 oz, 200 degrees, rinse-10-15, sheng yixing, Goldie

Aroma: sweet and fruity

Flavor: Well the first two steeps are kicking my ass a bit. This is an interesting mix of very pleasant flavors with a sharp bitterness. It has a nice astringent finish. Some sips taste quite mild, and some are like a kick in the shin.

Steeps 3 and 4 are calmer. I have a little sheng glow going and the apricot notes are coming through nicely. I’m starting to feel a little tea woozy. Yay!

This one is definitely a keeper and I think it will age nicely and the initial bitterness will soften up.