Yunnan Sourcing

Okay, if I am a Sheng Yiwu snob, this tea makes me a Shou Menghai snob. Another excellent Shou from Yunnan Sourcing!!!!!! This tea is a joy to drink. The soup is a very deep mahogany. The taste is mind blowing. There are so many layers of depth to this tea that I have no idea how to describe them. The consistency is incredible. I am on steeping seven and it tastes like it did on steeping one. “Jin Hai Lang” means “Gold Hai Lang” and in my opinion, this tea is truly golden!!!!!!

Sheng Yiwu snob alert!!!! This Sheng is from Yunnan Sourcing and the tea comes from wild arbor trees between 200 and 300 years old. As for the tea, Yunnan Sourcing’s website says it much better than I can: “…the tea soup is a bright yellow-gold and clear, the aroma is penetrating and the tea is full in the mouth. The flavor is textured and thick with a strong and vegetal taste . This is one of the more smooth and aromatic of the Yi Wu area teas, but its still got a fair amount of bitterness and long-lasting huigan that stimulates the mouth and throat long afterwards.” The kuwei and huigan are perfectly balanced and there is just a slight hint of astringency that is the perfect compliment to the two. This an excellent Sheng!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dry leaf – all golden colored fuzzy large buds with malt scent.
Method – Western style at 190F for 3 minutes.
Wet Leaf – very large buds, all uniform, very nice, smell like caramelized sweet potato with brown sugar.
Liquor – deep amber jewel with caramel scent.
Flavor – lots of sweet potato. Caramelized sweet potato with a bit of malt in the aftertaste.

6/14/14
Brought these pure buds down to 175F Western Style today for 3 minutes. Liquor was a more golden yellow color with prominent malt scent.
The flavor was more refined and there was not a dominance of sweet potato. I think a lower temp for these pure buds treats them with respect. This has a lovely flavor and I think I could have even steeped it longer with such a low temp. This temp brings malt, sweetness, honey, and a subtle sweet potato note.
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6/30/14
Brewed Western style at 175F with 1 tsp per 8 oz water. Brewed two cups at a time in a classic oval teapot and steeped for 4 minutes this time.
The liquor is very golden colored and smells like sweet malt. The flavor is sweet malt as well. Next time I’m gonna try 185F. This one is very good but I want to find that sweet spot with brewing it this way.
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7/11/14
Brewed this one Gong Fu style today at 185F in a 5 oz ceramic pot.
-immediate rinse
-6"-4"-6"-8" Delicious!! I found the sweet spot,,it is 185F. Liquor is golden & clear.
Flavor is sweet, malt, and not as much sweet potato,,,which I like.
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7/30/14
Brewed a cup Western style today,,,,190F for 3 minutes. Delicious honey, malt, and sweet potatoes!! It’s best brewed Gong Fu at 185F but I was in a hurry today :)
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8/20/14
Western style at 185F for 3 minutes. Heaven!!!!!

Powerful nose smells like molasses with hints of cocoa. Powerful flavor is complex and earthy. Molasses is also a strong element of flavor. Excellent, long finish. The taste is somewhat unusual. I think I’m going to need to get used to it. Second steep is more normal. Still fairly strong, but less distinctive.

(Note: I have the Spring 2014 version)

Morning session . Trying to sip down my enormous amount of hongcha.
Love this tea.
7g in 150ml pot. I always rinse it.
It was delicious and lasted me all morning into afternoon

https://instagram.com/p/3WdHKUhwgH/

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I drank a cup of this earlier this morning. Thanks Terri!

I feel bad because I wasn’t paying attention enough to write a good note while I drank it. I wasn’t blown away but luckily I have a couple more servings to work with it…

I won’t be drinking any tea this afternoon because I got peer pressured into a fancy iced coffee beverage on my lunch break. They were buy one get one FREE and my friend wanted one…also they offered to make it for me with soy :)

Happy Friday folks!

Oh yum. Thank you Terri HarpLady!

This is super rich and fruity! Very complex. This is something I would totally drink again. Sweet stuff. There are notes that remind me of a Dancong oolong. I loves me some Dancong. It is like a cross between a Dancong and a Yunnan black! I love the lingering stone fruit taste it leaves in the back of my throat.

This is generous sample i got from Terri HarpLady- thank you.
I made it western style 1tsp, 205F 8oz 3min
This tea is soo good. its sweet, malty, multigrain bread. it has Fijian dark chocolate notes as well. this type of tea i’ll never be tired of drinking. it goes on my every day growing shopping list for Yunnan Sourcing. 100% order.
Once i get more of it i will try gongfu style.
Thank you so much Terri for including this sample. i really enjoyed this tea

Sipdown!!

Thank you Roswell Strange for sending this my way to help me with my new project of trying straight blacks. So far, Yunnan Sourcing has been a success as I have enjoyed this and the other I have tried. This one is malty and smooth with notes of rich chocolate and sweet vanilla. There is also a bit of smoke and some earthiness for a complex but very pleasant cup. Very, very nice :)

Another beautiful tea from the generous Terri HarpLady :D

I love the look of the dry leaf on these fancy yunnans. So shiny and fuzzy and golden. I love tea I want to pet!

The taste is all malty and sweet. Bold and full bodied with a nice kick, too. Everything a good black tea should be :)

I can see why everyone is enamored with these Yunnans! I’m enjoying this very much. Thanks again, Terri!

5/19/14
Dry leaves are tiny, thin, black, twisted eyebrows with scents of brown sugar and raisin. I love this shape,,,,good things are gonna happen here…….
Brewed this Western style at 190F for 4 minutes.
The wet leaves open up to be all needle buds,,smell sweet and are mud-brown clay color now.
Liquor is a deep auburn orange-brown with scent of sweet malty raisin pie.
Flavor- Oh Yeahhh,,,subtle sweet, deep malt, rich, scents of cooked raisin, cocoa. Touch of orange in the finish but very subtle.
As the liquor cools, scents of cream,,,,some whipped cream on the raisin pie,,,,,good stuff.

5/22/14
Tried this on Gong FU style this morning with more great results!
190F 2tsp – 4oz pot
15" rinse
30" golden sunflower colored liquor – creamy, malty, very very subtle notes of orange but no bitter or astringency
45" this is a delicious Yunnan black tea,,,the quintessence of this type of tea,,,so great!!!

6/2/14
Brewed Western style this morning and overleafed a bit. Should have used my scale but I just eyeballed it. This tea needs to be precisely measured bc it is easy to overleaf such tiny twisty threads lol. Still delicious though, I just brewed it strong :)

6/8/14
Took this one down to 160F for 3 minutes. Brewed 8 oz in a Pyrex cup. I have been brewing this too hot as these are very very young and delicate leaves. Even though it is a black tea, I learned to treat these first flush of pure bud leaves and other teas like them with a very low temperature.
Very malty but not super sweet until the tea starts to cool off a bit and then there is a sweet aftertaste. Very delicate tea and maltalicious!!

6/13/14
Had this after lunch, Western style. Low temp of 160 again for 3 minutes. Heavenly ,,, sweet and malty. So good.
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7/3/14
My morning tea, gong fu style!! 190F, immediate rinse, then 15" each time. I love this tea and tea type,,it is one of my absolute favorites !!! Malty, creamy, naturally sweet. Pretty dark golden color. Excellent!!
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7/13/14
Gong Fu this morning!! immediate rinse, 6"-4"- 6" -8" YUMMM!!
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7/25/14
Western style today with a 1 cup style glass teapot with huge infuser that spans the same size as the teapot (my new favorite method). This stuff is smoky, sweet, and malty. Love it. Since it is fired with muscovado sugar, the second steeping is always more smoky than the first and less sweet.
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7/30/14
Western Style today,,,,190F for 4 minutes ,,,,1 tsp tea per 8 oz water. The liquor is deeper red and smells so rich, sweet, malty, and good!! Flavor is also rich, sweet, malty, and good!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love this tea and I’m running low now :(

Fu Shou Mei (Fortune/Longevity Eyebrow)
feng qing (Feng4 Qing4) = (凤庆 or 鳳慶) factory, established in 1939, in the Lin Cang region, that was the first factory to make Dian Hong, now also making pu’ercha; also a Da Ye cultivar suited to hongcha and lücha; also a county in western Lincang bordering Baoshan

heaping 1TBSP 185F 150ml gaiwan
1st steep 5sec. So pale, almost colorless. Smells of chorizo (i must be hungry). not strong, but so delicious. i find nuts, sugar snap peas, hay. its very smooth. nice mouth feel, some tongue numbing ( maybe I need it,cause i talk too much)
it is delicate but flavorful.
2 steep 10sec Whoa! this is too much.its like Longjing overbrewed. very strong vegetable notes and bitter. my mouth more numb.
3rd steep 5 sec its like young sheng. bitter. i dont like it.

Western style (Lee style)
1tsp 165F 8oz 7 min
Nice white tea, not much interesting notes . just tea. How abt leaving it steeping for 30min. Its nice more Longjing not overbrewed,almost no bitterness,but some interesting cool mint showed up.

To conclude, my favorite brew was 1st gongfu style, but its kinda wasteful, because i liked only one steep. Any suggestions on how to brew successfully white tea are welcomed. maybe i should start a thread.

Sipdown!! (171)

Wow. This one is really, really good. My first sip I was blown away by the smooth malt and caramel flavor but as I continue to drink, I am detecting a creaminess that is really amazing in this cup. There is even notes of orange and chocolate to round everything out and make this complex and delicious. Thank you so much Roswell Strange for sharing this awesome tea!

The twisted black leaves of this tea smell like raisins and plums when dry, and the promise of stone fruit and sweetness is fully fulfilled when brewing. Surprisingly, this tea brews rather light, and doesn’t take on the bitterness that purple tea takes on when brewed carelessly. This is a free spirited and gentle tea, that allows for mistakes, and rewards with a juicy fruitiness that, while not mind-blowing, is very comforting. A good mid-morning brew to share with work colleagues, or while relaxing and reading the newspaper.
A great introduction to purple tea, and great value for the price.

5/14/14
I had fun and tried a little bit of this today. The leaves are very tightly compressed into the cake so I was very gentle in chiseling some off with my pick.
Used about a teaspoon and a half in my little 4 ounce gong fu pot. Using 205F water.
1. 15" rinse
2. 15" smells very good, a light malt, bit of orange cream,,,liquor is a golden sun-orange color.
3. 30" tastes like nice black tea. no bitterness or astringency,,,very tasty.
4. 30" light orange cream flavor, bit of malt,,not so much layered flavor yet but very mild and delish. Leaves have completely opened up now and are a muddy brown color.
Very good and I like mini cakes,,,they are cute ;) lol
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7/11/14
Chiseled off some tea from this cake this morning. I rinsed the chunks and leaves that I was going to brew with room temp purified water. Then brewed Western style with about 2 heaping tsp tea in a 2 cup pot. 195F water for 3 minutes.
Liquor is a nice deep auburn red color and smells malty. I like this tea, has no bitter or astringency and just good old cream, malt, and a touch of orange flavor. Well-balanced easy drinking tea in a fun little cake.
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8/2/14
Chiseled off a bit of this today for a couple of cups. Brewed Western style in 8oz cup size pots. Did an immediate rinse with room temp water then brewed in 190F water for 3 minutes. The tea is so tightly compressed that the leaves come off in some chunks and some dust so the tea changes flavors because of this. I brewed one cup with more chunk pieces and one cup with smaller pieces and flakes. Right now I am drinking the cup that was more chunky and it is good with flavors of orange zest and subtle malt and cream. The cup with smaller pieces actually has more depth and gives off more cream notes on the nose. Both examples are good black tea with no astringency or bitterness, only a note of orange zest with a nice balance.

I’ve been more interested in shu’s as of late, so I ordered a bunch of samples from Yunnan Souring. The first one I tried from this batch was the Man Tang Hong Te Ji. It is a perfectly nice everyday drinker. It’s got medium body and a well fermented dark flavor, definitely no off (fishy) taste, kind of the typical middle-range roasty bitter chocolate shu. Because of the bitterness, it’s not super smooth, and one wonders whether that will change with age or not. But it’s an OK type of astringency. At just $22, I think this one is quite a bargain, so for those of you looking for shus in this price range, I think it is a good one.

5/13/14
Tried a bit of this today gong fu style,,,it is brand new,,I will let the rest age a bit to develop more goodness :)
You open the package on this and it is OH Yeah,,,malty, creamy, sweet- smelling yumminess. The snails are perfectly rolled golden and brown cuties.
1. Rinse 30" creamy, malt scents and liquor is a reddish gold color.
2. 30" Leaves starting to really puff up,,,layered flavors, a citrus note is playing with the cream and malt.
3. 30" Leaves really open and big. They are a brown terra cotta mud color and they are all perfectly the same size and you can’t believe they were the little snail shapes :)
4. 30" Still full bodied, rich, citrus, malt, and cream.
5. 30" Starting to lose creamy notes now,,still malt and citrus.
6. 30" Leaves are saying farewell to me now.

Yummm great quality tea from Yunnan Sourcing :)
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6/29/14
Tried this Western style today,,,190F , 1 tsp per 8 oz H20, brewed in a classic oval teapot 2 cups at a time. Steeped 3 minutes.
Also, coming off of a little travel cold so I can smell the deliciousness of this tea but my taste buds probably need one more day so keeping that in mind,,,,,the dry leaf is smelling so malty and good.
Brewed, the liquor is deep amber with scents of a sweet molasses. Oh yumm smelling!
Wet leaves are sooooo cute. They were cute tightly rolled little snails as dry leaves and when they unfurl, they turn into lazy chocolate colored snails. Still curly, but hang in’ out curly.
Flavor is creamy, hint of orange, and malt. I wish my taste buds were back to full capacity because this tea is good stuff. I am getting all the notes that I got last time so Western style brewing is cool as long as you don’t overleaf. I’m getting to where I just use 1 tsp per 8oz water and that’s usually what you need for a good cup. This is definitely good tea!!!
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7/14/14
Had some more Gaiwan style today. Do not overleaf this one,,,it will become way to strong and develop a smokey paste flavor. Had put too many leaves into my gaiwan and had to start over bc of overleafing lol.
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7/24/14
Finally found a way to bring out the best in this tea. I got a few cup size Western glass teapots with super large “same size as the pot” infusers. I brewed this 1 tsp per cup of water at 190F for 3 minutes. I watched the snails unfurl properly and the flavor does not have any bitterness or zest quality that stands out. I am really liking this brew the very best out of all the ones I have tried. (I am loving these “cup-size” teapots) There is still a pasty mouthfeel or flavor to this tea that is different for sure. There is almost a nutmeg flavor as well. The flavors are pasty, nutmeg, a bit of orange but very subtle.
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7/29/14
Had a cup Western style this morning and put it up against a cup of Jin Die from Camellia Sinensis. The Jin Die snails are smaller than these snails so I wanted to see which I liked best.
This tea is brisk and full of flavor. I brewed it at 190F for 3 minutes. I think these Bi Luo teas are better suited to Gong Fu but Western is good too, it is definitely a stronger brew Western style. The flavors are smoky malt, orange zest, a touch of cream in the back of the tongue and throat. I am looking for my nutmeg note today and not catching it as much but it is a spicy hint so nutmeg is very subtle today this way.
In comparison to CS Jin Die, this one is deeper and more smoky malt, where the Jin Die is brighter and more citrus.
I found that the two size snails have completely different flavors which of course they would. It is cool to see how the different size in leaves and rolling can bring out such different flavors!
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8/6/14
Still waiting on my Gong Fu tray but did this one Gong Fu style today. 190F immediate rinse then 30-30-30-30-30. It really is a beautiful amber orange color and has cream, malt, spice-nutmeg, and a touch of orange. The snails all open up to be double buds that are fairly large. Always a great red tea.

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.