Yunnan Sourcing

Sipdown! Another tasty offering from YS courtesy of Nicole. now if my black tea order could just get here…i’m dying with no options! haha

AAAH! just as i finish up the last of my straight black teas, Nicole to the rescue with a surprise box of teas for me! This one was in it so of course i pulled it out to have some. Thank you so much for the treats!!! So happy to have a little more straight tea to tie me over until i can get some more in!

Another visit down memory lane from terri :) this one is particularly tasty today so maybe it’s just aged well heh.

Enjoyed a cup of this earlier in the morning. Not my favourite of the teas from Yunnan sourcing that i’ve tried thanks for the generosity of people, but still a tasty cup. thanks for continuing to share thsee with us terri!

Since the BBB Box is soon to be on it’s way back to me, I need to get cracking on the teas that were sent to me during the last round. This is one of three teas that Terri included as her offerings.

I forgot to make notes on this one today and it’s from eaaarly this morning. I vaguely remember this been a fairly smooth tasting tea with a slight..fruity note? Not taiwanese black fruity, but there was a hint there. I’ll take better notes next time! i did enjoy it though terri :)

Quick Notes
I ordered this one such a long time ago, that I thought I had already posted my notes on it. I had written down notes twice and twice forgot to put them up! I tried this one in a porcelain coated Yixing Gaiwan and in a 150ml Yixing Pot. I’d recommend using a Yixing Pot for this one since it mellows down some of the stronger wood notes(If you have a pot for wetter stored cakes).

Dry – Woody, faint sweetness with some floral bitterness.
Wet- Wood, Dried roots, tart fruity notes and some honey sweetness.
Liquor – Bronze

1st 15secs – It has a robust, somewhat pungent woody/dried roots taste with some hints of bitter floral hints. As it goes down it is a bit smoother with some faint sweetness appearing, but maintains its woody bitterness and later develops camphor that linger a bit.

2nd 10secs – Robust woody and dried root taste with now bittersweet floral notes up front. As it goes down it is smoother but again maintains its stronger wood notes that to me somewhat resemble dried Shiitake mushrooms in a clear soup. The aftertaste develops with some camphor and much later a weak floral sweetness.

3rd 12secs – Robust woody and dried root taste with bittersweet floral notes up front. As it goes down it is smoother but maintains its woody and dried root notes. The broth is slowly cleaning with each steep but it still feels somewhat harsh. The after taste has some camphor and very slowly develops a weak sweet floral taste.

4th 14secs – Slightly cleaner than before but still robust wood and dried roots taste with bittersweet floral notes. As is goes down it feels smoother and the wood notes are not as harsh but still very apparent. The aftertaste has some camphor and slowly develops a sweet floral finish but again is somewhat weak.

Final Notes
I was able to get around 8-9 steeps from this one. The wood/dried root notes seem to come from the wetter storage but are not unpleasant, in fact to me the initial taste resembles older dried stored Puerh, but I feel like the wetter storage takes a toll on its Hui Gan. The aftertaste gives good camphor but lacks in the sweetness. It almost teases me into thinking it will continue to develop but stays weak.

It is a great wetter stored Puerh (I’d give it 90/100 in terms of Puerh in wetter storage), but compared to most Puerh its and OK one.

If you have some time check my blog
http://thetinmycup.blogspot.com/

sipdown on this one! I’ve been drinking it most of the morning. this is a smooth tasting puerh that is slightly hoppy but mostly just really tasty haha. It reminds me a little of the puerh from manadal i really love – not so much in how it tastes but in how it feels. yeah…feels lol this doesn’t leave my mouth dry and for those who are just starting to enjoy puerhs, this isn’t earthy or muchroomy (at least to me…) and it’s lighter tasting that some of my favourites.

I believe this one was from Terri (or possibly Dexter) and since i am starting to amass puerh samples, i really need to take some time to focus on drinking them up. I had this one several times over the course of this morning and over all this is a really nice puerh. I sadly, have since not only spilled water on my notes that i was taking on the steepings but have to get running to work… soooo there will be a better tasting note in future. promise. I have enough to play with again :)

This one is pretty good, very dark liquid, very smooth slight earthy sweet taste, with some woody notes maybe even hints of cinnamon. This one is just full of flavor, good for everyday drinking.
This one would be for someone new to puerhs, it is very enjoyable with offensive flavors.
The aroma is decent too, only a slight fish scent at the beginning, not too bad, i like it :)

Gong-fu in a celadon gaiwan.

Took up an old habit of brewing sheng whenever i watch The big bang theory. :)
wash/wash/15/15/20/20/30/30 etc

First infusions were light and lemony. @ 30s the infusions started showing their strenght. Some astringancy and a fuller body. This is a mediocre quality sheng, good for every day use. Must do longer steepings to get good strong flavours that i like.

I have about 2 more brewings left of the generous 25g sample from YS, will give it another try next week :)

This young sheng has a nicely balanced demeanor, gives strong astringency and a tannic impression with aromas of oat straw, and chlorophyll. It has a strong character to my taste, one which says it will age well. I agree that it has slight smoky notes on its lengthy finish, but do not get the honey notes mentioned. It would be nice to see where this tea goes with time. Right now, I say not outstanding but good.

Enjoying this cup of tea & a sweet slow morning :)
It’s been a while since I’ve done a taste comparison, but I have several black bi luos in my collection now, maybe 4 of them.
Funny, but without even lining them up, I can tell you that this one would most likely rank # 4, simply because the other 3 are more golden, sweeter, creamier, with an aroma of honey. Comparing those other 3 ( from WP, YS, & Tribute) would probably not be easy, on the other hand!

That is not to say that this isn’t tasty, because it is! Like other black gold teas, it features malty chocolatey goodness, along with qualities of earth, leather, & a dark crusted bread.
This is the sipdown of my Autumn 2013 supply, but I believe I have a small bag of the Spring 2014 waiting in the wings :)
Happy Sunday Everyone!

I’m enjoying this one in bed, first cup of the day. Nothing fancy, but a good yunnan black, & I’m a sucker for novel shapes, as long as the tea tastes good.
It feels good to just relax a bit, as I’ve been on the go all week, & starting Monday life as I have known it for the last several years (we’re talking laid back pajama wearing tea drinking gardening cooking eating harp playing & teaching bliss) will suddenly change.
I’ve done it before…I can do this…a little extra $$$ will be nice!
The hardest part will be leaving the house at 6:00am.
I’ll need tea
Lots of tea!

This is only the 2nd tea I’ve had all day! It’s never good to drink too much tea (or other liquids) before playing a wedding, & once the wedding was over I took my harp home, changed out of my fancy pants, & came to Tony’s. I don’t have a scale here, so I went with 1 Tb of tea to a 10oz or so mug (I honestly have no idea how big these mugs are). The first steep was 1 minute & it was creamy & nice. The 2nd steep, which I’m on now, is 2 minutes, & it is even nicer :)
I’m going for one more steep, at 5 minutes, to enjoy while we watch the baseball game, which is just starting!

Another tea I enjoyed this morning, a little malt & a hint of chocolate. I’ve drank a lot of tea since then, so that’s all I got, this time.

I brewed a pot of this last night. It was very good. Pretty much what you expect a good Dian Hong to be. I’ll have to get to know this one better with a gong fu session…

This is a very good pu’er. The Yunnan Sourcing site states something about an “off” taste, but that must have been at the time it came into his possession.

Anyway, we consider this our house brew, at least I do. It has a very strong, black tea like quality, hints of astringency, sweetness, and “wildness.” The cha-qi is very high and though this can be brewed for a long time, it is probably most enjoyable Chinese style, something like 30s/1m/1m/1m/2m.

I’ve had this tea for over a year and a half. It hasn’t changed as much as some of the others. It has a consistent quality from cup to cup.