Yunnan Sourcing

Nice oak aroma with very nice young muscadine contrasting astringency and sweetness. There seems to be plenty of immediate numbing to the back of the tounge and warmness to the lower jaw and upper chest. This one has good strength and and the liquor is full in the mouth.

I am drinking the Autumn 2013 harvest of this tea, which I believe came to me courtesy of boychik :) :) :)

I slightly underleafed this but I can tell it is a winner. Nice and sweet and malty with cocoa notes. Heck yeah! Next time I will use a lot more leaf. Big leafed teas are hard to measure and I need to get in the habit of weighing them.

So, I used this beautiful tea in my tea photo project but I’ve never written a note on it? WTF? https://www.etsy.com/listing/192822968/beautiful-tea-poster-photography-collage

This tea came to me from boychik. THANKS! I love exploring these gorgeous yunnans. This one is not as sugary sweet as I expected based on its appearance. There are haylike flavors that remind me of a white tea, with malty and mushroomy notes asserting that this is indeed a black. It is also pretty mellow like a silver needle white. Thick and creamy too. Really interesting beast this one. And of course the dry leaf is just gorgeous.

I bought a sample of this ages ago and just discovered it again in the big box of samples as I was looking for a sheng to drink. It immediately told me that I should open the sample bag and set to. When I say a sample, I mean a 100g bag. It is a very generous sample bag. The size of the sample is massively impressive. I had wanted to buy a whole basket, because, I mean, basket of tea. Who wouldn’t? Anyway, I did not because of the additional cost and what if I did not like it? I guess I should have bought the basket then. I like this tea.

I started with a rinse and a 25 second steep. Then I added 10 seconds for each subsequent steep. This seemed to work well and I am now half a dozen steeps into the tea with it only beginning to lose its potency now. It produces a thick dark brew that has woody, cedar and leather notes to it. It’s mellow and sweet, and you can tell that it is produced in similar fashion to shou puerh. The liquor is an almost black dark brown. There is a residual sweetness and a slight mintiness that cools the breath as the aftertaste emerges. Yes, this tea and I are getting along quite well together.

This tea reminds me a little of pain au chocolate, or at least a pâte sucrée dusted with hot chocolate powder. It has really has good notes of chocolate and honeyed butter pastry for at least the first two steeps, which it manages to present despite being rather dry on the tongue.

The tea is comprised of flat, folded downy copper gold buds.

I got 4 good steeps out of this, but I think this may be a tea I might prefer western style brewing for as the last two steeps had increasing floral and artichoke notes instead of butter croissant.

The first 2 steeps, at 1 & 2 minutes, had fragrance notes of honey, cocoa, butter, cinnamon, ovaltine, and developing citrus notes, with faint malt.

The flavour contained these notes, as well as oatmeal, chocolate orchid, plum, and cream. As it cools the pastry and malt tones become more apparent.

The last two steeps (3 & 4 min) had increasing floral notes, as well as artichoke mixed with dark honey all mixed in with the fading previously discovered notes.

All together the pastry notes were really delicious in this tea and I would like to try it western style. Thanks boychik for this lovely sample!

This is my last black Yunnan from boychik’s generosity. :)

This smells fruity and dark. Initial steep at 1:30 was fruity and golden tasting with a bit of sharpness. At 3 min it was sharper and the scent reminds me sooo much of Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black from Butiki. The flavor is raisiny like so many have mentioned with TWMB but this is not quite as sweet and the sharpness on the tongue is more noticeable.

It’s an excellent tea. Not sure I’d keep it over TWMB but that may be sentimentality speaking as that was the tea that really supercharged my interest in all of these malty, bready, deep blacks, even though it is not a Yunnan. :)

Om nom nom. This is buttery, thick and yummy. Everything I want in a Yunnan. The dry leaves didn’t hold a hint of what was to come. It wasn’t until I caught a whiff as I carried my cup back to my desk today that I got really interested. :) This one certainly goes on the wishlist for a future order! Thanks, boychik!

I drank this tea this morning, but then was pretty swamped at work and didn’t get to write about it until just now. Lots of coworkers on vacation right now, we don’t actually have more work to do, just less artists!

Anyway, thanks so much boychik for the sample. This was DELICIOUS though I do not remember details. Very very nice though!

Generous sample from Terri HarpLady – thank you so much
I love Yunnan Sourcing blacks and this one is no exception.
Gongfu method
5g 130 ml gaiwan 205F
Rinse/15/20/30/45 sec etc
Leaves like black needles with gold tips. I suggest to use scale not to underleaf it
Golden amber brew, dark chocolate, honey, malt. So rich and satisfying . It will keep me busy for numerous steeps.
Thank you so much Terri, it’s awesome tea

Enjoying a cup of this sweet & creamy tea, rich with pastry & honey tastes.

Is June already over? Really? Geez…
It’s time to update my tea list & straighten out my cupboard…tonight!
I feel like I haven’t drank enough tea this month! I’ve barely nicked my cupboard.
Oh well…whatever…
I started the day with this lovely tea. I gave it the 1min/2/5min treatment, & it was very tasty, but I prefer going with the shorter steeps.
Still, it’s like toast & honey in a cup, & it was great to walk around my garden with cup of tea, picking & eating a handful of blackberries & some red raspberries, bringing in a shallot & some asparagus to enjoy for breakfast. A wonderful start to my day!

This is a mysterious looking little wiry black tea. Quite magical when steeped! Rich and satisfying and complex enough to keep my interest. Chocolatey, malty, and fruity sweet!

Great stuff. I’m going to hoard the rest of the sample boychik sent me. Thanks!!

Edited to state that I’m REALLY loving the lingering aftertaste of this tea….mmmmm!

Revisiting this one after a few months well stored with humidity monitored.
Entirely first flush of Spring 2002. Traditional hand-processing used with these leaves. Heavy stone presses to form the cake from naturally growing (wild arbor) trees that are 100 to 200 years of age. After compression the tea was dried naturally without baking to preserve its natural state.
Nice leaves – many whole leaf/bud sets but also a number of broken pieces including stems. The dry leaves have the typical Yiwu fruity smell. The brewed tea is thick and sweet with a bronze liquor (quickly became a bit darker and more orange-like as the steepings increased which I have also found in other teas with a little age on them). The aroma is aromatic and honey sweet. Good mouth action – penetrating in the mouth and throat, bringing a bit of salivation. The sip is thick and satisfying with good texture. A broad taste profile (apricot, plum, spice, wood) and a pleasant sweet finish. The wet leaves are solid and heavy. No bitterness at all – a very clean taste. While not my favorite YiWu, overall I find this tea rather enjoyable – smooth and sweet with good character.

A truly exceptional tea! Traditionally processed; sun-dried early spring tea leaf from very old Yiwu trees; manual stone pressing. A beautiful cake to look at with nice whole leaves and light compression making it very easy to pick apart. Honey-yellow tea soup; sweet and buttery flavor; sweet aftertaste. No astringency and no bitterness at all. Resteeped seven times and it’s still going strong! A valued gem in my puerh tea cake cabinet.

This one has a creamy mouth feel. Quick rinse and then 10 sec steep. Very smooth and did not detect any bitterness. 2nd steep, Still creamy but with a bitter edge. All other steeps stayed the same as the 2nd.

This is my Terri Tea of the day.

Jin Jun Mei…not only do I like to pronounce its name, (i could drive you nuts by repeating it over and over again with my renown Asian accent ) but I also love it in my cup.

This smells like chocolate and smoke. It’s very “Keemuny” (yes, I invent words all the time, sorry linguistic purists!)

It’s malty and full bodied. It’s sweet and roasty, thick molassy texture in the mount. No astringency whatsoever.

It’s strong and smooth at the same time, totally my kind of guy ;-)

Thanks Terri Harplady for sharing such a good quality tea with me :-)

I’m a fan of lao cha tou teas for the most part, but not this one. It has a very unique taste of rose buds and red wine that I wasn’t all that into. Not to say you won’t like it, but it was not for me. This tea was still relatively young so I’ll keep it for a few years and see if it improves but I wasn’t all that impressed.

I first tried this tea as a sample on the summit of a mountain after a nice hike with a friend. I was very impressed! Soft earthy flavor, but not overpowering, with a similar scent that fills the nose as you drink, hints of chocolate with smooth finish and delightful cooling sensation left behind in the aftertaste. I liked it enough I bought a cake from a private dealer when I got home and have been enjoying it every week or two since.

Finally trying this tea boychik sent me a sample of. DANG this is good! Malty yunnan perfection. Thanks so much for sharing :)

Yesterday I played a wedding. I still have limited mobility with my right hand, I’m still wearing a splint, but I can use 3 out of 4 fingers (the broken pinky is never used for plucking harp strings anyway). The wedding was for my daughter’s sister in law, & I was scheduled to play it, but when I broke my finger I made arrangements with another harpist to play instead. The bride didn’t care what music she had, so it was just going to be your typical classical wedding at a winery about an hour out of town.

On Friday everything fell apart.
The Bride called the Harpist with a list of songs she wanted, such as One Love by Bob Marley, Stairway to Heaven, & tunes by Billy Joel, Sting, etc.
The Harpist said,“I am a Classical Harpist, I only play classical music.”
Also, the wedding had been moved outside on the patio (at sunset).
The Harpist replied, “I can only play outside if the weather is above 60 F”

The Mom called me in a panic.
I’m the only Harpist that plays stuff like that in St. Louis.
I’ve been playing a little bit this week, & so I did it, provided that I could be placed near the outdoor heaters, & my son in law had to move my equipment for me, because I still can’t lift anything. The other harpist was glad to get out of it, LOL.
I was glad to make some money, & it felt good to play.
Plus, I wanted to play this wedding, she’s a sweet kid.
So I’m back in business!

This is a wonderful cup of yum, sweet & milk chocolate, becoming maltier as it cools.

Yes, thank you, this is delicious!
:)

My preference with most of my YS blacks, including the 2013 version of this one, has been 5g + 4oz (rinse) x 15/30/45/sec etc.
OR 1/2/5 min.
Today I’m just going with simplicity: 1 heaping tsp in a mug for 3 min.
Any way you make it, this is a delicious mug of tea, toasty, malty, & rich with a creamy caramel & milk chocolate mouth.

Mmm… having a mug of this since a nice swap from tea-sipper reminded me how much I love it. Gorgeous golden curly leaves that are so soft and downy.

Thick with cocoa and butter and no smoke. Mmmm….

And continuing the Use All The Teaware theme:
http://tinyurl.com/ohbj76h

Mmm… thick and savory, sweet and malty with an unbelievable smoothness, even on the 2nd Western style steeping. Second steeping brought in some milder notes that I couldn’t identify but were still tasty.

Pulled this out of the box last night while making up a Yunnan type sample package for someone and realized there wasn’t much left. Figured I may as well take it in to work and kill it. I’ve been focusing more on Assams lately and neglecting these.

I totally forgot how UH-MAZING this tea is. There better be a lot of room in my suitcase I’m carrying when I crash on that deserted island. There need to be a lot of teas in it. :)