Yunnan Sourcing

This is a very nice sheng. At $17/ for a 250g cake, it is fairly priced for wild arbor YiWu leaf. Quite young for a sheng but amazingly smooth and sweet.

The cake has light compression making it very easy to pick off the dark dry leaf. A fairly high number of stem pieces found. The tea soup is a very light gold color and appears very clear in the cup. Sweet fruit aroma from the wet leaf. The taste is smooth with only the slightest bite of astringency. There is definitely the sweetness of raisins and stone fruit. Smooth mouth feel and a nice Qi. In later steeps there are the beginning notes of tobacco.

Frankly, if I had tasted this one blind, I would assume that it was at least five years old (not two). I’ll drink this cake now and I picked up another one for aging because I am really curious to try it in 5-7 years. I’m a big fan!!

Another Yunnan Sourcing tea! This one came from Nicole. For some reason I’m more excited to try the darker teas this time around, rather than the pure bud varieties. I’m not sure why that is! These leaves are medium to large in size and are almost entirely intact, which is nice to see. They’re rather twisty and curly and there are some spots of deep gold among the usual dark chocolate. Dry scent is sweet honey with malt and bread notes.

I’m always a bit weirded-out when a tea just doesn’t have much aroma. It makes me feel like there’s something wrong with my nose! Anyway, this is one of those – I can smell a bit of sweet potato and honey but it’s very faint. Yum, this is a nice balance between a tippier Yunnan and a more earthy one. It has those lovely sweet potato and honey notes with a touch of stonefruit, but underneath there’s a rich and somewhat intense earthy/bready/malty base that really adds a lot of depth and dimension. I’m not always a huge fan of earthy in teas, but I find it works well here, tempered by its bread and malt brethren. Om nommy! Ooh, and I just got a teeny floral hint at the end of that sip! Intriguing.

This lovely tea came from Nicole. I’m almost all the way through her first package but I have since gotten a second. Lol… The dry leaves look quite “wild” to me, meaning they’re very spindly and rough. Almost like tiny tree roots! The color is mostly dark with a few golden buds mixed in. I’m not really getting a smell from the dry leaves, there’s a little bit of sweetness maybe?

The first thing I notice from the aroma is that there are very strong raisin notes. Yum! I also get other dark flavors, like malt, tobacco, and molasses. The flavor is definitely very deep and developed. I wouldn’t call it a super strong tea, but the flavors in here are all quite “dark” and intense. There’s dark, toasted bread with some honey over the top, but then there’s also a definite syrupy dried fruit note. I’m thinking raisins and dried cherries, maybe some fig in there too. Yum!

I continue to be impressed by Yunnan Sourcing, even their “lower-grade” Yunnan teas are delicious! Must order soon! :)

Additional notes: Ah, my poor golden buds, suffering the most with age. It is a shame shame shame. What was once the most complex deliciousness, now could not be more flatter. It’s definitely a lesson to drink what I have before acquiring more teas. I think I have been drinking teas for… fifteen years now. Only fifteen? And I think I know what I like now, what favorites I should have stocked up, instead of the “try everything” phase. So hopefully the teas will sipped down, whittled down and I will have a curated collection. For example: I only have a handful of hojicha samples, but have not drank any of those in a good long while. So I wouldn’t need much hojicha around.

Edited to add: A previous note for this tea mentioned that I wish I had three pounds of this in my cupboard but that would have been a TERRIBLE idea. Even though I’m sure I knew that six years ago. I’m very glad I didn’t stock up. Little amounts of fresh at a time would be much better!

Edited again: Okay, the second steep at boiling tastes much better, but still. Not as complex. The first steep must have been very cooled before steeping.

MzPriss’ Unflavored Tea Box – Tea #19
Oh this is the perfecttt Yunnan. Mostly golden twisty leaves here, but enough hints of darker leaves to give it some character. I know teas like Verdant’s Golden Fleece are all gold. And most Yunnan is mostly dark with hints of gold. The flavors: honeyed squash, sweet potatoes, yams with drizzles of dark chocolate… with some hints of tomato soup. The color of the cup is an orangeish amber. SO so so good. The second cup might have been steeped a little long (three min would be better), but no astringency just tangy for some reason, but it is deeper with more character. It seems all the flavors I previously mentioned have combined instead of being able to pick them out. The first cup is GOLD though… the second needed less steep time. I’d love three pounds of this in my cupboard!
Steep #1 // 2 tsps. // few minutes after boiling // 2 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min

A beautiful woman awakes from slumber
Slowly rubbing her eyes she looks up
She smiled, stretched out her legs and thought
Starting over again is enough

I kept this tea overnight and drank it again this morning. Still good!

August TTB

Steam rises fragrant
I sip a full cup of joy
Warm hug down my throat

(inspired by shreapops tea haikus! :)

Honestly I don’t have much to say about this tea. I actually thought it smelled really good, and I think it’s my favorite puerh so far. I wish I could elaborate on specific flavors and “notes” but my palate is not very sophisticated :P

This is a real keeper. Very smooth, just a touch of astringency, medium fermentation. Not earthy, more dark coffee. Delicious!

Quite pleased with this tea. The leaf brews a smooth soup and returns a thick mouth-feel with a quick sweet, earthy aftertaste. Overall, this tea offers a tasty, sweet, dark brew with a little spiciness and is a solid choice for everyday enjoyment.

The Tuocha of the week!
Not much to say, and I’m pretty sure I reviewed this one before.
It’s a toasty bread kind of Shou, with a hint of rose, which is enough for me.
A decent afternoon tea, a little leather, a little lace ;)

I brought several shu Tuocha with me to FL, so this is the Daily Tuocha, * its not bad!
It features a decent tasting shu, tasting of whole wheat bread crust, leather, & wood. The rose is noticeable in the dry aroma, but very light in the flavor.

I’m really liking this one a lot, so good :)

It’s rather hot here today, so sheng is called for and this was the sample that came first out of the tin. This is the last of the samples I bought from Yunnan Sourcing, so I can move on to my remaining Zhi Zheng and White2tea samples next.

This tea has not been heavily compressed and is easily pulled apart by hand. The leaves are large and have a lovely silvery furriness to them.

The dry leaf has a light hay and tropical garden aroma. It is heavy without being excessively floral. By way of contrast, the wet leaf smells more of grapes or something vegetal. The liquor surprises with its caramel and chocolate aroma.

The tea carries the chocolate notes through to the tasting and adds nuttiness and some grassy notes. There is a hint of bitterness that develops at the end of the tasting and into the aftertaste which adds a small amount of astringency that develops slowly while the tea pops on the tongue like space dust. The mouthfeel is rounded like a boiled sweet. There seems to be a lot going on with this tea and it becomes smoother with less bitterness developing as the steeps go on. I’m on my 8th steep now and am very happy with this one. I am glad that I have tried it, but I do have to query the price. I am not certain that it provides value for money, but perhaps the tea will age in interesting ways that justify that price tag.

Another Nicole (and possibly boychik) tea! This looks quite similar to the Yi Mei Ren I had earlier today, but the leaves are thinner. Same jet black spindly texture though. Spider legs! Their dry scent is very mild, I think it’s probably because the tea has been in a clear resealable bag for a while, so most of the scent is gone. Smells lightly of honey, malt, and raisin. I brewed for 3 minutes.

The aroma is very chocolaty, which I was not expecting! There’s also quite a bit of malt along with honey, molasses, and raisin notes. As soon as I taste this, I notice that it has that fennel seed-like spice note, and quite a bit of it. It’s interesting because the other two teas I’ve had with a similar flavor are both Yunnan, while this is a Fujian tea. I wonder why that is… Anyway, the flavor is very malty and deep with molasses adding a background richness, but not sweetness. This tea is definitely quite savory. I don’t get as much cocoa as I would expect from the aroma, but it’s there a little bit. I would describe it as roasted cacao nibs.

Definitely an interesting and enjoyable tea. I find myself wanting to go eat some spices until I find out exactly what that herbaceous spice note is!

Also, no one else mentioned the spice in their notes… But I found it extremely obvious. Is that weird or what?

Sipdown (112)!

- Oversteeped
- I am shocked, but I’m actually picking up the cinnamon notes in this!
- I also get a weird vegetal note; my gut says Squash but my head says no
- Cream/Hay
- Thick mouthfeel
- Weird, but ultimately really good

Thanks again 221Tea and Brian!

Kinda wasted my extra time this morning just doing stupid shit on Tumblr when really I wanted to be watching GOT; oh well. At least I got in a few cups of tea including this sample from 221Tea and her hubby Brian!

I’ve been wanting to try it for a while now but couldn’t while I was sick because I was really worried I’d miss out on the subtleties in it. But I feel totally clear and healthy today (it’s a miracle!) so bring it!

This is really nice; it’s gentle and really serene but still has some pretty distinct flavour notes to it. Specifically I picked up cream notes and sweet hay. The tea’s description says “Sweet Cinnamon Spice Aroma” but I really didn’t get that from it. Then again, I brewed it actually using Stacy’s recommended steeping parameters for Doke Silver Needle instead of in short 15 sec. or so infusions so maybe that was the difference. I still have one more cup left. I guess I can save that last cup to try out that way; I don’t typically want seven cups of one tea (and this is supposed to be good for like eight infusions), but maybe it’s worth trying it out just to see the difference in flavour.

Tasted good my way though.

Description also says “very lubricating mouthfeel” which seemed really weird to me, but after drinking it I totally get what they meant. It is weird, but very accurate.

Good morning! Another lovely Yunnan Sourcing tea for me today, I actually got two samples of this one! One was from cookies and one was from my anonymous tea friend. This tea has beautiful leaves. They’re rather large and twisty, almost Taiwanese-looking, and the color is jet black. The dry leaves smell very sweet with fruity and honey notes.

The steeped cup has a sweet smell, but I also detect a sort of caraway/dill aroma along with some roastiness. Yum! This tea definitely has a unique flavor, with a mild rye bread sort of flavor along with caraway and dill seeds. However, there’s also a sweet note present, possibly honey? And there’s a distinct floral note here, though thankfully it doesn’t overpower the other flavors. I wish I were better at identifying floral notes, I’ll just say it’s not overly heady, and it’s somewhat sweet, but not quite as sweet as jasmine. Slightly perfumey but not in an entirely unpleasant way.

Overall, this is definitely a unique tea! Starts out slightly roasty with rye bread and nutty notes, but ends up quite floral with some honey accents. Very yummy! :)

Edit: As it cools, there’s more honey! Om nom nom…

SIPDOWN! (114)

Taking a short break from TTB teas to settle my stomach a bit. So I figured I’d work on some sipdowns in the process! :P

This tea is quite different from what I would consider the “typical” Yunnan tea at this point. I wonder if it’s because this is apparently grown on a mountain? And it’s wilted/fermented longer according to Yunnan Sourcing’s website. Very interesting! This tea has an interesting herbaceous flavor that definitely reminds me of dill. It has some of the malt and breadiness that I would associate with other Yunnan teas as well. There’s also something there that I can’t quite place, maybe a floral? If so, it’s definitely a heady floral like rose or something similar.

This tea is quite tasty and I may consider getting some when I (finally) make a YS order!

This sample is from Nicole. I’m still working on your box, I promise! :P The leaves are very dark and spindly, a look that I associate with Taiwanese blacks. The leaves themselves are very large, and there are a lot of broken pieces too, which I can see being unavoidable with a tea this fragile. There are also some stems included. The dry scent is all honey and pastry with some dried fruits. I steeped for 2 minutes, but I think I could’ve gone for 3.

The brewed tea smells very dark and malty, with cocoa and sweet raisin notes. Very different from the dry leaf! The taste is not super heavy, most likely because of the shorter steep. It is definitely malty, and there’s a nice dark grain note that isn’t quite like bread. There’s something roasty and toasty about it. I definitely get a bit of bittersweet cocoa, and there’s a lovely rich molasses flavor combined with slightly sweet dark dried fruits (cherries, raisins). I definitely taste an herbaceous spice note, and it reminds me of fennel seed. I notice as this tea cools, I get less of the fruitiness and more of the spice.

A very lovely tea! It reminds me in some ways of Full Steam by Hugo, mostly because of that savory spice. I think next time I’ll try 3 minutes and see how it changes.

I bought a sample of this from Yunnansourcing some time back and have been trying to work through my backlog of samples this past week or so. I was quite excited to try an 11 year old sheng. The dry leaf promised much with its hot hay aroma. It smelt good and promised a robust and pleasing experience. Sadly the liquor failed to deliver. It has a nice bitterness at the back of the mouth and in the throat and is quite smooth, but in the end it left me feeling that something was missing. There is a slight smokiness, perhaps a hint of grape, a soupçon of sweetness but really not much more. Perhaps someone with a subtler tongue could plumb the depths of this tea but I found it rather shallow and my feet remained firmly on the bottom of the pool while my head and body remained above water. It is bland and underwhelming, and failed to enthrall me. If I wished to damn it with faint praise, I would describe it as nice. That is all it is.

Another aesthetically pleasing tea from Yunnan Sourcing, this Jasmine Silver Needles White Tea smells and tastes just like fresh jasmine—and well it should! The dried needles are very lightweight and shimmery pale greenish yellow in color. Upon infusion they become more smooth and green and look a bit like stalagmites and stalactites, as some point up from the bottom of the glass pot, while others float at the top pointing down.

A truly beautiful infusion: visually, gustatorially, and olfactorily!