Yunnan Sourcing

In December 2021 this tea (one of the first cakes I ever purchased from Yunnan Sourcing) continues to relax and unfold. The hay, olive, earth, forest floor, and citrus flavors are a bit more mellow than previously. It still engenders a strong salivary response. I look forward to trying more in a few years.

This cake is progressing nicely. Color is now mid orange, the intense alfalfa like grassiness is faded a bit and replaced with a camphor like and lighter grass flavor with hints of olive, a still slightly astringent mouthfeel, and a pronounced salivary effect. Quite a nice experience overall.

This tea has really mellowed in the last two years. It brews to a light orange color, and is both gentle and flavorful. Interesting flavors of grass, oranges, and honey linger in my taste with increased salivation, and a slight touch of bitterness at the end. An altogether pleasant experience.

5/12/14
Spring 2014 Sun-Dried Purple Buds from the “ye sheng” varietal of camellia tea trees which grow wild in tropical Dehong.
The dry buds are brownish purple-green and smell like tobacco, prunes, the outdoors in the mountains.
Brewed the buds at 160F for 3 minutes Western style.
Liquor is white, clean, clear with a light tint of champagne color with scents of subtle cinnamon, prune.
Wet leaves now have turned a bit more green and revived to their natural state. I love these bud type teas,,,It’s like you picked the wild buds and brewed them over a fire in the mountains. Very natural and wild.
The flavor is fruity and layered. There is honey, subtle cinnamon notes, pruny tobacco.

Second steeping – I upped the temp to 190F for 3 minutes still Western style.
Brought out a bit more of the more dominant tobacco notes and the subtle ones stepped back. I like the lower temp for buds though this steeping is also delicious. Both temps produced delicious results.

I am aging the rest of these buds for a while so I’ll be checking back and drinking and noting the date here every once in a while :) Delicious!! Not rating any of my pu-erhs because they are ever changing and am learning and new to when their peak will be. Very yummy right now so I can only imagine this one will get sweeter and more complex :)
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7/25/14
Couldn’t resist getting a teaspoon of this out of my aging jar to try today. I brewed Western style at 175F for 3 minutes. The liquor is pearl clear color and the scent is definitely Sheng with notes of tobacco, wild herbs, and honey.
The flavor has mellowed since I’ve had it in the unglazed jar!!! Far out!!!!!! It is creamy, tobacco, peach pit, honey. Very beautiful dry purple buds too. I love this tea to look at as well as drink!!

Wow, very malty tea! It tastes very similar to that malted drink powder that you put in milk, without all the sugar. I mean that in a nice way. :) My husband just took a sniff and sip and declared it to be artichoke tea. I can see the comparison, but it still tastes malty to me. Never thought of artichokes as malty before. Huh. I don’t know if it is sacrilege to think of blending this, but I bet it would be fantastic with a strong chocolate flavor mixed in, just like a chocolate malty shake.
This tea is really quite nice!

Starting the year with this one. It’s thick, sweet and very much a good way to begin as I mean to carry on.

I started drinking this yesterday and it is still doing well. As I noted on the pu drinking thread in the discussions area, my first thought upon drinking the first cup was “Crikey, that’s smooth!” So, time to write it up properly before getting back to my revision. Only two days to go! Eek!! I’m not panicking much. Honest. Actually I am calmer that I might be but I put that down to the tea.

The beeng is loose. Not so much as to just fall apart but a far cry from the iron hard beengs and bricks I seem to get so often. This makes it easier to pick apart and means that the leaves remain whole, which is no bad thing. It smells of horses and hay, a sweet aroma that carries good memories.

The liquor is a yellowish amber in colour. It smells of hay and honey. Sniffing the empty cup, I am struck by how much it smells of honey and fresh flowers. I think it might be a magnolia aroma, but I cannot quite put my finger on it precisely.

The first sip, as noted above, was incredibly smooth. It was sweet with a creamy mouthfeel. There’s a walnut nuttiness to it and the astringency only starts to make itself felt as the liquor cools. The aftertaste is sweet, sparkles and lasts for ages.

After the first cup, the tea starts to make itself felt in my whole body, especially in my legs. I can feel it forcing me to relax and I almost immediately feel slightly tea drunk. This tea seems to have a fairly strong cha qi. It calms my mind and I almost feel like I am entering a meditative state while becoming more focused. It is quite remarkable and certainly helps with the work I am doing.

The tea seems to tail off after a dozen steepings, but I probably need to increase the duration of the next one to see where that goes. I also found that it did not respond as well with steeping at 90 degrees C, whereas 85 degrees C works beautifully. I’m off to do that now, then it’s back to work for me.

I agree with previous notes on this. it brew a nice golden hue in the cup. It has a lot of bitterness almost to the point of being smoky. It is very intense and one of the most “upfront” and strong shengs I have tasted. The aroma will remind you of an Xiaguan with smoky notes. This is a strong bitter sheng but not astringent. It will leave a good tingle from the middle of the tongue back. You will savor this one after drinking a while I think. The “dryness” on the palate along with the bitter is intense. I added a small amount of sugar and it brought ut some sweetness to the brew. Only 1 cup so far as I think it will knock my socks off tonight. A stout sheng for sure.

Very nice tea. Very little astringency and mild sweetness. Nice at the morning or the afternoon, an

I enjoyed this tea from the first moment – opening the bag and inhaling the aroma resulted in thoughts of walking through a pine forest. The tea is full of honey sweetness. It keeps on giving and giving of itself.

Very clear, pale yellow tea soup; the taste is sweet and fruity with hints of evergreen. First steep offers a pleasant evergreen flavor; the next two steeps begin to produce subtle flavors of fruit (light and subtle like apples); my last two steeps were pleasantly mellow and sweet. I plan to resteep the remaining leaves twice and chill in the fridge overnight.

Bottom line – fun to play with; very forgiving; quite flexible and versatile; potential for many resteeps.

mmmm thanks for sharing this one with us Terri! I’m trying to kick my morning off right and get in a few delicious cups of tea before i’m stuck with trying to find a few mins tonight to brew up more. I’m onsite at work from 10am to 5am so i need my good tea vibes. While i’ve enjoyed this one a bunch, i’m not sure it’s something i need to keep in stock in my cupboard. there are a few other from YS that i’ve enjoyed a lot more via my tea sister. that being said, this is still a really enjoyable cup of tea!

oopsy..had this logged under the wrong tea but luckily i found it! this was from terri in the BBB’s most recent trip and i need to keep drinking it! this one was really enjoyable today as i worked on mini things in the morning. I’ve found that teas like this, that are smooth and delicious and not quite bold and malty enough to make me focus on them, let me get lots of work done. I think i like the one from the other day just a touch more, but this was still really enjoyable! thanks terri!

backlog from yesterday as i didn’t get home until late since we went out to try and get me a little bit of the long weekend since i get to work sunday and monday. GO GO 25+ hrs of over time a week. FML. on the upside? extra money for moving, since i think we’re going to do it…and less guilt when i place tea orders hahaha. this one was terri’s addition to the BBB Box and once i’ve enjoyed, though not as intensly as some of the others from YS. Rest is off to Cavo…mostly because now i know she has to pick the box up hahahahahaha

I finally got around to being able to drink this one from the last round of the BBB! I am a fan! I’m actually really glad that Terri has Yunnan sourcing figured out since i barely have time to explore new companies lately. Of course that means i want the box to take a really long time to get to me so i have time to figure out what i’m putting in it! lol This tea is pretty tasty…there’s a little bit of maltiness with a side of chocolate, but mildly so…it’s not in your face. The brew is smooth and i love the little snail like leaves :) but that’s just me haha thanks terr!

Back log, received as a sample. Reminded me of a taiwanese hong yue(tai cha #18) but less complex and less sweetness. Basically a poorman’s red jade.

Yunnan Sourcing’s black teas are pretty terrific, and this one is no different. Apart from being an exceedingly attractive tea, of the kind you have no problem introducing to your posh great aunt Agatha, this tea is a devilishly nimble fellow. It’s really tough to ruin it by over-leafing or brewing.
I thought I’d put it through the Ice Bucket Challenge, and it took to it like a champ (donate at ALSA.ORG BTW, if you haven’t already. I’ll wait right here until you do). It nominated Fortnum and Mason’s Keemun (‘cause it’s so posh), Verdant’s Laoshan Black (‘cause it’s so popular) and any one of my Ceylons (‘cause nobody likes ’em anymore, and that’s the only thing they’re good for, right?).
They each have 24 hours….

For the first time in months I’ve had a chance to brew a tea gongfu. This tea looks like melted honey, and is a very deep, chocolatey malt black tea. The dry leaves are among the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, and are sure to impress even non-tea drinking friends. There is a very slight hint of astringency to it, which is unusual for Yunnans. But I only got the astringency when brewing gongfu.
It is really worth brewing this tea gongfu, as it brings out a depth of flavour that Western style brewing simply doesn’t.

Sirens sounded a few minutes ago, with really loud BOOMs. Cat is terrified, and I was pretty startled, even though I’m supposed to be used to it by now. :/
Tea. Just tea.

This is the first tea that I picked out from my large Yunnan Sourcing order box, and I drank it almost exclusively for about two weeks, making a large dent in my order. It is a good quality Yunnan black tea, with a strong malty and chocolatey flavor, and great depth. The shape of the leaves is fun and unique, and really justifies the black and gold in the tea’s name. A good breakfast and noon tea, with more kick than a “normal” Yunnan, and also more flavor.

Cold brewed a large helping of this tonight, and it was delicious, as to be expected. Decided that I want to read more and watch less TV, so had this while reading Cuckoo’s Calling (by J.K. Rownling aka Robert Galbraith). Enjoyed the tea, and enjoyed the book.

An excellent dian hong – chocolatey, deep and sweet. I’m still not 100% OK, so I was looking for a delicious “comfort tea”. I usually go for white teas as my “comfort teas”, but as I haven’t been getting enough sleep in the past two days, this golden bud was called for. The leaves are gorgeous and smell magnificently of dark chocolate and caramel goodness. Highly recommended, especially for the price.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had time to post or read reviews, or, which is worse, to properly drink tea. You know, without rushing it. With letting the tea leaves have time to unfold their secrets and speak to you.
But I have some time now, so best make the most of it. My latest purchase from Yunnan Sourcing, months ago (one upside of being so busy), was stunning. A real winner. And this was the second tea that I slipped out to try from the batch.
This Dian Hong costs a fraction than Verdant’s Golden Fleece, and while not as good, is nevertheless very good. Smooth, silky, chocolatey, with hints of maple syrup. A really wonderful afternoon treat.

Hate to say it but so far sheng has been something I drank and didn’t enjoy but kept at it because older, wiser people seem to enjoy it. A parallel of unpalatable alcohols like Jaegermeister or jamo come to mind, at first you drink them and because its almost a question of your masculinity but after repeated forced consumption you actually start to like and in some cases (jamo) start to prefer it. This has been the case with sheng for me it has been sour, bitter, dehydrating, petrol like and in worst cases draining to the point of me catching a cold, but I have forced myself to drink a new sample every sunday because worst case scenario I do not have much to do anyway.

-Review
This was the most pleasant sheng I have tasted so far, it was even better than yi wu’s that I have tried taste wise. ZERO smokiness ZERO bitterness ZERO sourness, literally the first sheng I haven’t forced myself to drink.

Dry leaf
Smelled similar to the 006 I tasted last sunday a grapey, slightly sour almost robotussin like scent(bare with me).

Liqueur
DEEP orange like I have seen in pu erh blogs but first time I have seen it(still not sure if it translates anything to taste, chemical components, age, leaf composition, etc). The tea tasted slightly milky/vanilla/creamy, not to the degree of a jin xuan (milk oolong) but just a texture/sweetness combination. Later infusions brought a sweet fruitiness and by the 10th steeping it got to be “leafy” in taste where I could tell it was starting to fade but continued to go for another few infusions. The last infusion I left for probably a good 20-30 mins (forgot about it) and drank it cool expecting a sour, astringent, insipid cup but to my surprise it was actually the best cup of the session, it was creamy/fruity but like the first few steepings.

Qi
Was not the strongest energy wise a steady, calm, contemplative state but I am starting to realize just like other green teas if they posses stimulating alkaloids and you throw boiling water on them they probably will not taste the greatest. Then again it was hydrating instead of drying like other shengs I have tasted.

Long story short this will be my first cake purchase as a result of tasting a sample. (added bonus it is in stock at yunnan sourcing U.S. site so only $2 shipping and wont have to wait a month)

Similar to Taiwanese black tea, this tea is smooth and sweet with no astringency. A bit of fruit comes through in the sip (but it is rather subtle). Very nice small dark leaves and all seem to be whole without tears. Brewed western style and I was able to enjoy two nice cups but the second was definitely weaker in both color and flavor. Good as an everyday tea staple but I think I prefer a bolder morning tea. Nonetheless, I enjoy it enough to feel that I’ll definitely pick up the 2014 harvest which is now available.