Yunnan Sourcing

I used this tea to refill my Kombucha crock yesterday evening, & it smelled so good that I decided to drink a cup this morning.

This tea starts out with what I would call a robust flavor that builds & thickens in layers on the tongue with each sip, developing an Old World Sourdough Rye kind of savory chewiness to it. There is some astringency, but not unpleasantly so, & there’s a gentle floral in the aftertaste that initially brought to mind honeysuckle, but as the cup cooled a bit it reminded me more of geranium. This tea feels especially wonderful in my throat, with a sweet & rich umami brothiness, & the chaqi is very lively in my head & throat.

When the spring Black teas were unveiled on the YS website, I have to admit I went a little nuts, LOL. In part it was the unending urge to try all the black teas, & also the desire to have teas on hand to share with my BBBB sisters. I still haven’t sampled all of them yet.

I just added this one to the steepster database, which required me to visit the YS website, a dangerous activity!

I’m drinking a cup of it now. It definitely has a floral edge, which kind of makes me think of geraniums, along with a little bitterness, & a touch of astringency. It also brings to mind a really dense chewy natural rise German bread I used to buy, back when I could eat things like that. It was kind of dry & chewy, with a hoppy kind of taste, & especially tasty with avocado… I’m not sure if this is the brand, but this is the type http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/asda-compare-prices/Bread/Schneider_Brot_Organic_And_Wheat_Free_Rye_Bread_with_Sunflower_Seeds_500g.html

Happy Saturday!
The London Tea Room, a tea room is St. Louis that is run by a gal from England who wanted to provide a place for an English style tea, is having their annual Christmas Tea today, with all the glorious tiny sandwiches, scones, devonshire cream, preserves, etc (all the lovely things I can only dream about eating, because I can’t eat any of them).

http://www.thelondontearoom.com/index.html

Guess who is providing the live music today…Me, Myself, & I :)
I’ll be playing a mix of Classical pieces, along with music from my Christmas CD, Midwinter’s Canon , which is available at http://www.harpsinger.net/Terri_Langerak/Midwinters_Canon.html

So, although I won’t be partaking of the beautiful foods, I will be sipping pots of tea, & helping to create an atmosphere through music, which is really my favorite thing to do anyway. Plus I get money, can market my CDs there, & a generous gift card, just in time to provide Tony with a supply of Jubilee (his favorite tea from LTR) for his birthday, which is tomorrow. And some other things for my tea drinking pleasure, because I did say generous, right?

Meanwhile, I’ve started the day with breakfast & this one, which is wonderful, & which I have reviewed before. Today it is tasting malty, sweet, a hint of bitter, & a little more floral than I remember, but very very good!

ahhhh…nothing like a cup of deliciousness & the time to enjoy it.
I made one of my awesome breakfasts, & drank a couple of steeps of this one, with it’s rich malty & sweet taste, nice thick & kind of shiny mouth, hint of florals & tantalizing bitter edge. I’m sure it would be even better gongfu, but we do what we can.

The 2 yixings I ordered came this week. I started seasoning one of them for smokey zheng shan xiao zhong types, & my plans for the other one was for either yunnan or fujian, but I’m having a hard time making up my mind which.
Now I’m having 2nd thoughts about the smokey tea, & thinking I might reboil that one & start over…or maybe I’ll order another tiny teapot…LOL

Heading out to my youngest Grandchild’s birthday party (he’s 8 now), but I plan to spend the rest of the weekend in my PJs, sipping teas & getting caught up on all my favorite steepster friend’s reviews (there are so many of you!)

Dry – Sweet, caramel, chocolate, spice(cinnamon), cream, tart fruity, some mineral oolong notes.
Wet – Very sweet, caramel, floral, cinnamon, creamy, tart fruity, hints of chocolate, more apparent mineral notes.
Liquor – Light-golden to copper – Very aromatic, cinnamon, fruits, caramel, hints of chocolate.

Early steeps are honeyed sweet and tart fruity that resembles caramel, but develops a richer chocolatey character up front. As it goes down, it feels thick and creamy with chocolate and cinnamon notes over a tart and fruity background. A complex and satisfying finish.

Once the tea starts to open it wears the same notes as the initial steeps, but the floral notes take a front seat. The thickness, chocolate and cinnamon notes are still apparent and very pleasant, more mineral/oolong character appears.

Later steeps are mostly tart fruity and floral with mineral oolong notes. The thick/creamy, chocolate and cinnamon notes take a backseat here; they seem muted, but are still present if you pay attention.

Final Notes
This is a very satisfying Oolong, I feel like this outshines the ’Classic Rou Gui" in over all taste and quality and funny enough in the cinnamon aspect.

This tea is amazing.
gongfu
6g 100ml gaiwan 212F
rinse/5/5/10/10/15sec etc
Its a sample . i have it for some time. But i was stupid enough to try only today. YS sold out those cakes. i can only pick up sample size 25g on US site. thats what i will probably do.
Its very smooth. sweet, bitter(nothing major)
Sweetness is lingering in a mouth for a long time
I enjoyed it a lot

Nice shou. Clear burgundy soup, clean sweet taste. Some coffee notes. I wonder if it will be good as breakfast tea. Long lingering sweet and sour taste. Maybe like citrus. Smells like when you soak dried fruits with boil water.
Gongfu
6g 100ml 212F
rinse/ pause/15/15/20/30/45secs etc
The more I drink it, the more i appreciated quality of this tea.

Dry – A ‘dark’ / roasted sweetness, mineral oolong notes, some wood-spice (Cinnamon? not getting clear Cinnamon notes), Caramel.
Wet – Oolong mineral/rock notes, very floral, wood-spice notes, sweetness that comes from a roasted/dark source not so much line honey.
Liquor – Copper — very aromatic of Wood-spice(Cinnamon), Honey, mineral, floral and roasted sweetness.

This tea is very aromatic, it has very apparent floral-bitter/tart notes that emanate from the cup, sweet mesquite honey notes and finally get an apparent Cinnamon/wood-spice scent followed by the hallmark mineral/rock/hay Oolong notes.

The liquor is fairly smooth but pieces are not uncommon, filter if you don’t want residual astringency, however I feel like this is very pleasant. It wears all of its floral notes well, the Cinnamon character is lacking in my opinion; mostly caramel sweetness with floral and mineral. As it goes down some more of the wood-spice notes come forward and after a while the Cinnamon is more clear. This is definitely a tea to keep at work, I’ve done very short steeps and some a bit longer and the taste barely changes. It doesn’t endure much in western cup style, I’d stick to using portable Gong Fu methods, and enjoy 3-5 good cups.

Nothing too special. A great cup of work, the aroma is VERY enjoyable, definitely its best trait.

I picked this tea randomly this morning from amongst my morning teas. It is very good. It is slightly sweet without any hint of bitterness. There is a little fermentation flavor left but not much. It has notes of dates or plums, not sure which. This would have more notes if I was brewing gongfu style.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with boiling water and 10g leaf for 25 sec. It is hard to brew this tea wrong.

This is an excellent ripe puerh that has lost some but not all of its fermentation flavor. I brewed this once in an 18 oz teapot with 12g leaves and boiling water. It yields a pleasantly sweet brew with no bitterness or astringency. It has a very nice mouthfeel and is quite tasty.

From the (Mostly) UTTB

Oh my.

The dry tea is really pretty. It’s little buds. I wanted to try it when I saw it through the packaging, before I flipped it over to see what it was.

I went looking for directions and only found suggestions here on steepster, nothing on the Yunnan Sourcing page. Since I’m trying to get through as many teas as possible today, I went with the more western approach, 180° for 2 minutes to start.

My first sip: sweet. Very sweet. Delicious. Amazing.

I am blown away.

I keep sipping. It’s still sweet. It reminds me of cream, the flavor not the feel. It’s like sweet cream. It’s a touch floral, but not really flowery at all. It’s really light.

I offered a taste of this to my husband and he said, “It doesn’t suck.” That’s how he says something is good. And then he actually said, “I like that one. It’s good. I’d drink it.”

It’s so good.

I was going to only do one steeping of each tea, but this one is getting another one.

I’m keeping some of this one so that I can try a true gongfu style with this tea.

And I’m adding it to my wish list. If I were buying tea, I think I’d order this one right away.

This sample came from Nicole. Thanks to her and to everyone else who has been willing to send me these Yunnan Sourcing samples. I really appreciate it! I know I have tried this tea before, and I remember enjoying it, so I’m excited to give it a second try. The leaves are medium-sized and they’re rather thin and twisty/curly. Color is jet black. They have a very mild dry scent, just a bit of malt and some sweetness and hay.

The steeped tea smells rich and caramel-y with fruit and floral tones. Mmm delicious. The texture is thick and silky smooth. I can taste a bit of baked bread, but the main flavors for me are honey and caramel, thick and rich. Even though it’s such a rich and sweet tea, it doesn’t seem all that heavy. Perhaps it’s the airy floral notes that start to pop up midway through and linger to the end. It’s a very light and inoffensive floral. Aftertaste is all honey and flowers, yummmm.

Side-by-side comparison with Ailaoshan Black by Whispering Pines

This sample came from Nicole, I think this is the last tea from the first box she sent me. I remembered that at one point, boychik had mentioned that she’d like to see a side-by-side comparison of this tea and Ailaoshan Black, so I thought why not? This was a single-serving sample, so I figured it’s now or never!

Visually, these two are nearly identical. The leaves are nearly black and they remind me of a smaller version of the “spider leg” Taiwanese Assam leaves. Same size leaves in both of these teas. I can’t comment on the dry scent, because my Ai Lao Mountain was in a zipper baggie and therefore lost most of its smell. Oh well! I brewed both teas in identical cups with identical infuser baskets. It was a 3 minute steep at 200 degrees with 3 grams of each tea (my sample of Ai Lao was 3 grams so I used the whole thing and matched the weight for Ailaoshan).

First, the smell-off! I found that both teas had strong dried fruit notes, but Ailaoshan’s were dark, syrupy fruits such as raisin, prune, and cherry, while Ai Lao had a lighter dried fruit profile (raisin still maybe, but paired with fig or golden raisin). Both teas had a strong molasses aroma, and an interesting herbal or spice hint that I couldn’t quite place. The biggest differences I noticed between the two: Ai Lao had a little wisp of floral dancing around which was absent from Ailaoshan. In contrast, Ailaoshan had an obvious dark caramelized sugar scent that was divine! So far, pretty similar but each with its own flair.

On to the taste-off! There is also similarity here: both teas have a nice bready quality, although I would say it’s stronger in Ailaoshan. Also, both teas have strong molasses-ish rich flavor and that same dastardly unidentified herb/spice note! Does it bother anyone else when they can’t identify a flavor? Harumph! Both are fruity teas, but in quite different ways. The Ai Lao has a tangier dried fruit flavor – think prunes, maybe with a bit of something tangier, like tamarind maybe? Meanwhile, Ailaoshan has a much sweeter, almost jammy cherry and blackberry flavor, which was a surprise to me considering the aroma! Just like the aroma, the Ai Lao has a (fairly strong) floral element, which unfortunately translates into a slightly soapy aftertaste for me. Ailaoshan retains that lovely dark caramelized sugar that I noticed in scent form, and it goes very nicely with the dark bread notes and the fruit. I noticed as Ailaoshan cooled, it developed a woody taste that was not at all unpleasant. The Ai Lao tastes almost the same cool as it did hot, maybe with a bit more of that soapiness at the end.

In conclusion… These two teas are far more different in flavor than I would expect. Yes, they have several similar notes, but the ones that are different affect those similar notes in a way that makes them taste dissimilar in the end. I would almost describe these as being the corporeal and the ethereal form of the same tea. The Ailaoshan Black would be the corporeal version, with its earthier dark sugar, wood, and dark bread flavors. Therefore, the Ai Lao Mountain becomes its ethereal counterpart, with its lighter and whimsical floral element combined with the mild tang of the fruits.

Hah, that probably makes no sense, but I’m sticking with it! Overall, my preference is for the Ailaoshan Black, but considering I’m not a fan of floral, I consider myself to be biased in that regard. :P

Yay, I got my first package of Yunnan Sourcing samples from fellow Steepsterites! This package is from Nicole and she sent me six lovely black teas. Thanks, dear! I’ve tried this tea before and apparently I loved it. The leaves are very small and thin, almost wiry in shape. Dry scent is sweet and almost fruity.

The steeped tea smells rich and savory and sweet, all at the same time. It’s quite dark brown in color. First of all, I’m pretty sure I overleafed this a bit, as the sample didn’t look like quite enough for two cups, so I used the whole thing and filled my cup about as full as the steeper basket would allow. But it’s a Chinese tea, it can take it! The flavor is rich and somewhat sweet potato-y. This tea has the most amazing dark caramelized brown sugar and molasses notes, I assume because of the way it’s processed. So rich and dark and delish! There’s a wee touch of dark dried fruit as well, but that brown sugar and molasses flavor is definitely the star here. Om nom!

Sipdown! (149)

Aww, I’ll miss this tea! But it’s more important right now for me to reduce the number of teas in my cupboard instead of hoarding tiny samples. I can always order this one later, especially considering that Yunnan Sourcing is absolutely at the top of my list once my hiatus is over. This tea is so good! Rich and fruity, grainy and with a touch of herb or spice flavor. Definitely on my list for purchase!

On a side note, I would like to give a shout-out to Mandala for their Smart Soak. I got an ounce of it with my ripe puerh sampler, and it works very well! One of my poor little noble cups had a stubborn brown ring stain from tea sitting in it too long, and I wasn’t having any luck with trying to wash it out. So I mixed two cups of water with a teaspoon of the Smart Soak and filled the cup, then let it soak for probably about fifteen minutes or so. Stain gone! No scrubbing required! I was so happy. :D A question though, the package just says to rinse the teaware afterward, but should I be washing with soap and water? I’m not sure what’s in the Smart Soak, but I guess it must be safe for consumption if they’re only recommending a rinse. Just wondering! :D

This is an older sample, I think it’s from my first box from Nicole… Oopsies! The name of this one confuses me, hah! I thought Shou Mei was a white tea? But apparently Fu Shou Mei is the name for this specific tea processed with red cane sugar. The only other Feng Qing tea I’ve had is the dragon pearl variety from TeaVivre, and I wasn’t terribly impressed with it. Good but not great!

Anyway, long story short, I didn’t really know what to expect from this tea! The leaves are black and spindly, and quite long for how thin they are. I didn’t get much of a dry scent from them, maybe a little touch of sweet and malt. Did my usual 3 minute steep.

Ooh, aroma! The brewed tea smells strongly of raisins or prunes, with an obvious caramelized brown sugar scent. There’s malt there too, of course. I confess, on my first sip, it was totally an eyes-rolling-back-into-my-head moment. I love the strength of the dried fruit flavor in this tea! It’s dark and rich, with lots of raisin/prune and maybe a touch of fig. There’s a dark grainy flavor, not quite bready, more like raw grain but in a rich sense. I wouldn’t describe this tea as “sweet”, but it has a lot of molasses flavor along with dark caramelized sugar. It’s weird to describe a sugar flavor as not being sweet, I guess it adds more of a richness and almost toasty flavor.

This tea is so delicious, I’m now sad that I waited so long to try it. I’m sorry, little baggie that got lost at the bottom of my sample pile! This is the tea I would reach for when I want something dark, rich, and comforting. Definitely a reorder, and I would love to try the autumn harvest too!

This tea has wonderful and unusual tones of blue fruits (Loganberry, blackcurrants and concord grapes), tempered by honey, cocoa and an unusual tone of musk. I was attracted to this tea by its description promissing tones of rum and chocolate along with the fruit. The chocolate and fruit are definitely there. The rum is mildly apparent in a kind of boozy sugar cane tone that I found in one steep.

This was my first purple tea, so at first I was careful with temperature because I’ve been told they can be astringent but I have found that this tea is fairly forgiving so I have used water in the upper 90°C on it before. What you do need to be careful of is the amount of leaf you use. This is one of those teas that has long, wiry loosely folded leaves and it is easy to under leaf it. I made sure to cover the bottom of my Gaiwan with it. The leaves themselves are almost black and smell of chocolate and fruit, but mainly fruit.

I brewed this tea 6 times this time. The first four ( 30,50,90,&120s) had a pretty consistent flavour profile of blue fruits, honey, cocoa, musk, and cream, with sugar cane and fruit in the aftertaste and an occasional deeper tone to the honey. Starchy notes appeared in these steeps that ranged from faint grain notes to white potato. The tea has a light walnut colour and a creamy texture in the mouth.

The later steeps (170, & 240s) were still fairly rich in flavour but the musk notes were fading and the other tones mellowed and mixed with an artichoke note.

Altogether I have grown quite fond of this tea when I want something with a complex, creamy and fruity nature.

I brewed this in a 10oz mug with 12.5g of leaf and boiling water for 15 sec. It is good. It is slightly more bitter than sweet but has a lingering aftertaste. It has notes of plums or something similar, hard to describe. It is a worthwhile tea for the price.

I love this tea. I know it’s officially “aged” at 1 year old, but it has stood it’s test of time, and when I poured the hot water over these little golden curls of tea, it gave that aroma that I love so well. Autumn 2013 Bi Luo Chun has the expected notes of apricot and cocoa, but the mid-note isn’t just earth….it’s a loamy earth, very much like the delicate loaminess of a fabulous keemun. This gentle nudge toward a keemun gives Pure Bud Autumn 2013 a bit more of a refined flavor profile, making me sad that I’m getting to the bottom of this tin. It will be missed.

This tea is beautiful. Gorgeous golden leaves, wrapped tightly, promise something wonderful in the cup. Steeped, the leaves unfurl into long lovely light brown leaves and tips that smell of apricot, bittersweet cocoa and …well… tea!! Whenever I have this tea, I am delighted. The combination of cocoa, apricot and a subtle keemun note of light earthiness gives this tea a beautiful round mouthfeel with just the right amount of complexity to deliver a great cup of tea. There is no astringency in this tea, which makes the finish true to the lovely notes of this tea. Highly Recommended.

From Marco Polo TTB.

This was really delicious. I got a lot of honey from it, some dried fruits, raisins perhaps. It brewed up strong but not knock me down strong. Just nicely balanced. And the price is great on it – $6 for 50g. http://yunnansourcing.com/en/yunnan-black-teas/2850-spring-2014-high-mountain-red-ai-lao-mountain-black-tea.html

Definitely recommend this one!

Thank Stephanie for the sample! Have I ever mentioned that you have really nice handwriting?

I pulled this out of the sample bag this morning, and really enjoyed it. I had more than enough for one steep (I steep 11 oz at a time) but not quite enough for two, so I put it all in there and steeped for less time. Really delicious. I think I can get a third steep out of it as well.

I drink so many similar black teas that I’m running out of unique things to say about them, but I really liked this and would reorder if I saw it on sale. I have too much tea otherwise, especially since I just bought 400g of tea from Teavivre’s sale this morning.

Steph we will be at that same place tomorrow if you want me to bring samples of anything for you.

Method: 3.7 g, 3 oz, 205 degrees, rinse-2nd rinse-10-15-20-25 (blended in one mug), filigree gaiwan

Aroma: My little apricots. You’re just everywhere, aren’t you?

Flavor: Now this is interesting. This sheng is much less sweet than others I have tried. It’s also less fruity and has a strong bite on the end chomp. It also has a slightly more brothy feel.

It leaves a little burn in the throat and I think my heart is beating a little faster. Must be love?

http://instagram.com/p/rMe2DUPkS_/