Yunnan Sourcing

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. :)

Today this was so supremely cocoa-y I almost passed out from happy. The leaves are gorgeous, the tea is so delicious… Happy place. No more tea today so I can make sure to end on a great note. :)

Did this in the little glass teapot again, leaving leaves in water, small cups at about 30 sec, 3 min, 10 min, 15 min.

Lovely leaves yield a malty, thick and sweet liquid. This is super.

This one I did all in one long go as I had to deal with the window salesman. He arrived just as I was pouring the hot water over the leaves. I didn’t keep close track but I think it was probably around 3 minutes. Buying new windows is a painful-to-the-pocketbook process. :( Good thing I’m well stocked on tea so I don’t have to worry about spending my tea money on windows! :)

Bottom line: another on the list to order!

Another from the Big Box o’ Yunnan Sourcing courtesy of boychik! :)

Long, golden leaves steep up to a leathery, fruity, savory yet somewhat sweetish brew that smells like smoke but doesn’t really taste much of it.

30 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min all pretty much the same. Lighter flavors, sweeter, lighter color. 2 min, 3 min yields darker liquid with some bitterness and dryness. I think the sweet spot for me would be between 1 and 2 minutes. Enough time to get some depth but not so much that it turns more bitter than I like. Always possible I used too much leaf, as well.

Overall, while this was fine, I prefer Mandala’s Golden Strand.

yum! terri sent me more of this and i have to say 2013 was just a good year for tea harvest…at least in my little corner of “black” tea world lol. I don’t love the 2014 harvests as much so here’s hoping that 2013 will be a good year. still enjoying this one a lot! thanks terri!

SIPDOWN! i feel like i get to celebrate when it’s not a sample sipdown because man i have soooo many of those lol. Last day to try and hit my goal, which i won’t but at least my fake cupboard will be pretty close :) I have stuck myself on buying hiatus after today until i get back on track from all our house puchases (paint, couch, chair) and until my cupboard goal is met. Soooo if i’m going to splurge, today is the day hahaha.

This was from Terri, and there’s not much else to say about it that hasn’t been said already. Really like this one – the honey, malty notes in it are neat and it’s a good cup of smooth tea. :)

Terri sent this one my way in the BBB Box and i figured i’d pull it out today in an effort to work through some of my teas and not just samples :) I quite like this one – it’s not “anxi fo shu” but it is a really nice light, sweet and slightly malty tea. It’s not a thick tea though, feeling a little thin. I’d like it to be just a little more OOMPH-Y, but on the whole i quite like this one :) thanks terri!

I entered this as a new entry since I didn’t find this with a 2014 tag on it… I hope I didn’t just miss it.

Boychik sent this my way and it is another one that I really have to order. Not as pretty as the Bi Luo Chun, but every bit as tasty. I honestly don’t recall a lot of nuances to this – I pretty much gulped it down at work over the last 2 days. It was soooo good. Everything you’d expect a Yunnan to be. So far I’m very impressed with YS’s teas.

Soooo glad I caved in a recent sale and bought the YS teas on my wishlist. This is just an amazing tea. I notice this time that if I slurp and aerate the tea, I get a very light hint of smoke and dust. But if I just drink it like a heathen like I normally do, there’s no smoke, only cocoa and malt and yum.

This. Was. Amazing.

I finished the generous share from boychik today at work in 2 steepings (large cup sizes). I steeped for 45 seconds, tasted a bit, 1 1/2 minutes and slurped a bit more and then left it in for about 4 minutes. Sweet, deep, malty, cocoa, toasty… man. Second steep I just left in for about 4 minutes before tasting. It was obviously a second steep but still good.

I think I’m in lurve. This must be ordered. Must be. I have now had 3 Bi Luo Chun blacks and I loved them all. I am sensing a pattern.

Another from the endless Yunnan Sourcing box from boychik! :)

This one was a little too smoky for me to be a tea I’d order and keep on hand. However, the smoke was mild enough that I did drink it all. I couldn’t pick out any flavors other than a nice tea with a moderate woodsmoke. Glad to have had the opportunity to try it!

This is truly a wild purple pu-erh. It was hard for me to evaluate because it is so young and strong at this juncture. It is strong, smoky, untamed. It will integrate over time I believe (the 2012 version tasted side by side) while still a bit wild is much more integrated. Be prepared for a wild ride.