Yunnan Sourcing

I received this tea in the mail recently and opened it just today.

Age of leaf: Early February, 2014.

Brewing guidelines:
Ceramic 150 ml gaiwan, sweetener (on second steeping), a small handful of tea buds, 5 OZ water.
……….1st: 175, 2’
……….2nd: 180. 3’

Appearance and Aroma of dry tea leaves: Right away, I could tell this tea was a very different type of tea than I have ever had: largish green and white cluster-like buds. There were a few stems (as in, small pieces of brown twigs). Still, there were NO little bits of broken tea leaves/buds in the bottom for the bag, as is usually the case with most any other tea I have bought. Little twigs aside, Impressive (the presence of little twigs actually doesn’t bother me, I simply mentioned it here because I aim to be thorough as possible in my descriptions).

Color of tea: Very light yellowish-green, and incredibly clear.

Aroma of tea liquor: fresh, mildly pleasant forest aroma.

Flavor of tea liquor: clean, light and incredibly fresh, and as the description says (otherwise I don’t think I would have come to this my own) a hint of fresh pine needles.

Overall: So far, I’ve only done two steepings (I plan to do at least on more). Still, …, I love this tea! I brewed it up in my new gaiwan (I LOVE my new gaiwan). It is a tea with an appearance I’ve never seen before, the tea liquor has a beautiful clarity that practically glows in my clear glass 8 OZ teacup, and has one of the freshest flavors of any tea I’ve had. When I drink fresh spring teas like this one, it’s hard to explain, but it’s like, up, uP, UP all the way into the clear blue sky!

I always enjoy trying something new, and I knew I was taking a risk with this tea. Not all risks pay off, yet I’ve found some of the best things in life come from taking risks.

A nice little shu. It has good thick body, and a nice basic ripe pu-erh flavor. Not a very complicated flavor profile, but a very respectable everyday tea.

Read a couple of taste notes before trying this one. It seems to be a little “finicky” to brew as others seem to have experienced. I used a little more leaf than usual to brew with. It brews a light yellow with a mineral floral aroma. It has some astringency with a punchy flowery type of hit. It has a little thickness to as you drink it. I think in terms of some other ones this is not a bruiser tea but a little note that lets you know it’s a sheng.

Trying this tea after six years of home storage. Interestingly it had absolutely no bitterness. Very surprising given my initial review. It was thick but kind of bland. But good. Maybe it is in that awkward phase.

I really enjoyed this tea. It has a lot of power in it. A good amount of bitterness and moderate complexity. Not terribly thick, but strong and tasty. I’m going to try the 2013 version next.

An ok tea, kind of light.

Finally came around to trying out this cake. Been sitting i my cupboard for over a year ^^
But my tradition of sipping sheng whenver i watch the big bang theory is going strong!

I used 5.5grams in a 90ml celadon gaiwan.
wash/10s/15s/25s/30s/30s

Mild smoth start. This is a young sheng, still the flavour is very clean and has some complexity to it. Yet i found i have to steep it for 25-30s to get that small bite of bitter i enjoy with shengs. I might have to purchase an older sheng in the near future. I do love the insanely powerful shengs that just explodes with flavour! The ones where you can do multiple 10s steepings and no longer unless you want it very bitter.

Got my eyes on the 2002 Yong Pin Hao yiwu sheng. Tried a sample a while back and was impressed!

Another thought just struck me. Why dont i drink more sheng and good mao-cha. Everytime i do i think “wow this is good tea” I think the world of sheng will be my next project since i feel just about done exploring yunnan tea.
More assams, taiwan black tea, korean green and Sheng will be this years main attractions. Perhaps i will manage to get a hold of some japanese white as well!

I hope 2014 will be a good year for tea!

I’ve decided to revisit the beautiful Bulang mountain range this morning with a 2010 Gu Ming Xiang Ban Pen sheng. The wet leaves, which are of an impressive size and produce a delightful amber liquor, radiate an aroma that I can only describe as smoky vegetal (I believe this aroma is similar to the aroma found in the Lao Man E sheng I described not too long ago). Frankly, the aroma isn’t as impressive as say a Jingmai ,but I suppose this is expected from a Bulang. What is impressive is this teas profile and kou gan. The tea exhibits a pleasant transformation from a light bitterness to a subtle sweetness. It only takes a few sips of this tea to bring out a well balanced astringency and Hui Gan in the mouth. IMO, this tea is a fine tea. It has a lot of character. I look foward to drinking it a few months down the road! Perhaps an 84/100 is fair assessment.

Parameters : 4.5 g / 100 mL of water @ ~200 F

I received my first Lao Man E beeng (2009 Hai Lang Hao “Lao Man’E Wild Arbor”). I’ve read several articles describing the regions intense bitterness, but have never experienced it. I began by breaking off 4.5 grams of dry leaf. The dry leaves seem medium in size with a fair share of buds. I suppose its fair to say it looks like your typical arbor beeng. The wet leaves have a brownish green colour to them and are indeed intact. Very nice to look at. This tea produces a nose that I have yet to come across. Its aroma hints at the forthcoming bitterness, an aroma which I can best describe as a vegetal smokiness (I want to say that the wet leaves have an intense bitter aroma, so intense that it seems smoky. However, I dont feel comfortable using the term bitter to describe a scent. Perhaps someone trying this tea can comment on this?). A brief 10 second steep yields an amber coloured liquor with intense bitterness, much more so than any LBZ I’ve had. In fact, I think this is the most bitter tea I’ve had (not including accidental oversteeps). Accompanied with the bitterness is a pleasant floral sweetness, albeit, it is rather subtle. The body is thick and coats the inner mouth with a subtle sweetness. The most impressive aspect of this tea, as Scott mentions in the YS description, is its qi. Its cha qi is incredibly strong and I’d echo his comments on it. There is also a pleasing hui gan and hui tian. I am happy with this purchase and I will definitely be picking up another beeng as I can see this material aging very well. 85/100

Needed a shou hit this morning. Searched for something I had tasted before since I did not feel like any surprises -2007 Gu Ming Nan Nuo mountain tea. The tea is comfortably woody and robust with an undertone of honey. All in all a very easy ripe tea to enjoy. I picked this cake up at Angelina’s Teas for a mere $21 and I think it is still available. If you are looking for real Nan Nuo mountain leaf at a very reasonable price, I would highly recommend it.

A pleasant cup of earthy warmth. I enjoyed its very smooth deep oak flavor with a rich dark brown clear liquor and I detected a touch of dark chocolate and honey. Double 3 second rinse and then I combined (4) six second gaiwan infusions into one sixteen ounce travel mug and hit the road. This was part of a very generous sample which accompanied the 357g cake I recently purchased. The cake is for aging a year or two but I look forward to continuing with the sample very soon.

This has been a lovely lovely tea drinking day!
I started with a gongfu session of this one. IMO any other way of preparing it just wouldn’t do it justice. A friend came over for breakfast, & I shared cups of this one while I was cooking. This tea has a refreshing quality to it, the taste is sweet like a plum sake (I’ve never had that, but it is as I imagine it would be), also savory in an herbal kind of way. There is also great energy, somewhat like a sheng.

I have quite a few teas here that I’ve never tried, and this is one of them. It was included as a free sample in my most recent Yunnan Sourcing order, which was back around black friday, I think.

Sometimes I get caught up in just going with easy teas, you know, steep 1 tsp for 3 min, or whatever. I forget how much better these full leaf teas are in a gongfu session. So today I went with 5G + 4oz (rinse) X 15sec/30/45/1min…etc

OH, the Chaqi, oh the lovely mellow feeling, oh the delicious tea.
Herbaceous & sweet, love in a cup.

Pulling this out after some time in the pumidor.
I remember some about this from the last time. The color seems to be about the same. The tea itself is coming along. It seems to have some more oomph in there. You can get the light notes of the camphor floating around in there along with some evergreen and the punch of the bitter is a bit more pronounced. The bitter hangs on the tip and sides of the tongue and subsides to a savory almost herbal note with just hints of sweetness to it. I have done 2 different sessions in the last 2 days of this one. It seemed I couldn’t put it down or maybe I was too full of turkey to get another out.
Good drinking none the less.

Looking over this tea when breaking it. The cake seems to have some “white” tips in it. the first brew was very pale considering the age of the maocha the tea was made with. It brews clean and bright with a pale yellow color. The notes I get right away are musky and floral with a touch of smoke and bitter. it causes a slight numbing on the tongue that stimulates the saliva glands. A little “piney” note also shows up. it is deep and complex with the darker “aged” color coming after the second steep. This is a really nice tea with a mix of heavy hitting and soft notes rolled into one. The dryer and fruity notes seem to come after the first infusion. I would suggest a “double” rinse to allow this one to show its true nature. a real deal for what I paid and i can’t wait to see how it matures down the road. Very hot gongfu method short steeps on this one.

Definitely wanted to try this one! Thanks so much CharlotteZero! I went with two teaspoons (I tried to follow Teavivre’s Dian Hong instructions!)

Steep #1 // few minutes after boiling // 2 min
The fragrance is lovely! The flavor seems to be between Teavivre’s Golden & Full Leaf Dian Hong’s. It’s neither sweet potato or chocolate… somewhere in the middle! This is very nice, but I feel like both of Teavivre’s are better because they aren’t in the middle. One is super chocolate, one is a ton of sweet potato. This blend also has some fuzzies that are usually on white tea that likes to bother my throat.

Steep #2 // just boiled // 4-5 mins
I might have let this one steep too long, but the flavor isn’t bad. This cup is very similar to the last cup. Very nice, just not as nice as Teavivre! They don’t have tiny fuzzies. The flavor isn’t as full as I’d love it to be. I will gladly drink the rest of my sample though!

This is a nice loose compressed cake that broke apart easily. It has a slight mineral taste with a touch of bitterness on the tongue. It has a very thick mouthfeel to it that is followed by tongue tingling after drinking it. I have done 9 infusions so far and it is carrying on well. A pretty nice young sheng with a nice floral aroma.

A full flavored sheng pu-erh this sample features robust leaves with a light orange soup, pronounced, long lasting flavors (my wife says “spicy”) which I think are a bit intense at the moment, but will be interesting to follow over time. A good, interesting treat.

Second sipdown of the year and another tea that is welcome back in my cupboard anytime. :)