Yunnan Sourcing

Earthy, mushroomy pu-er. For the life of me I cannot detect any citrus taste to it, though the idea of aging in a mandarin peel is interesting.
Not a lot of cha-qi to this one. Maybe a good starter for introducing folks to pu-er.

Had this over the course of the last two days. It has been a good cup to come home to after the cold weather. This tea seems to be lightly fermented. It gives an oak type note with sweetness and a touch of bitterness but not in an unpleasant way. I think the high bud count in this will make it sweeter in the future. I don’t quite get the molasses in it but this has been a good tea and it re-steeps very well. A good buy for a younger shou to age. 15 grams in the Yixing started with a 10 second steep and added 5 to each from there. Pretty solid cake.

I received my Yunnan Sourcing order on Wednesday. I just couldn’t resist the sale they had at the end of December. This is the first tea I decided to try. The leaves were very thin compared to their length. The shape was more needle-like than any other Dian Hong I’ve had. The colors ranged from golden to brown with some olive-toned ones as well. I brewed this one western style to see what a strong cup of this would be like. The texture is smooth, the flavor is well-rounded. The things I don’t like so much about this tea: the tannins are drying the back of my throat a bit, and the aftertaste isn’t great. I have a strong preference for teas with long sweet finishes, and this unfortunately doesn’t quite deliver.

This is a rich & Malty cup.

I originally ordered this tea because it has the words ‘fu shou’ in its name, bringing to mind my beloved Anxi Fo Shou, but it is not that tea, & & I figured that would be the case, but a girl’s gotta try, right?

Regardless, it is still an interesting tea, rich & malty, and a little sweet. I still haven’t got my steeping parameters worked out, but I’ve only drank it a few times. The first time I used a little too much leaf, this time I could have used a bit more, as it’s a little on the thin side. Like Goldilocks, next time it will hopefully be just right :)

Today is day 2 of the fish tank redo. Yesterday we drained & cleaned the tank, moving all the fish to a smaller tank. Today we’ll set it back up. Tony leaves for KC tomorrow, which will give the water a chance to settle & then we’ll start adding fish again.

I need to take a break from gongfu steeping today, & just drink some cups of tea! This one sounded intriguing to me, so I picked up a little in my Yunnan Sourcing order, which arrived this week! I’m not sure how to describe it, other than to say that in my exhuberance, I probably overleafed a bit, so there’s a low bitterness (which I actually don’t mind), a sweet slightly burnt caramelized taste, & the mouth of it reminds me of that canned sweetened condensed milk, for some reason.
A terrible review, I’m sure, but it’s actually a tasty tea!
One more reason why I avoid the ‘rating’ button.

short steeps 5/5/10/10/15 produced light yellow green broth, no bitterness, very smooth. enjoyed it a lot. Thank you TeaExplorer for your generous sample. on my shopping list

This is very floral in aroma and wet leaves. It is soft and fruity and very easy to drink with a nice sweetness to it. This is not one of those young shengs that says Bam I am here but a whisper that says I am here to tickle those taste buds. A very nice young sheng. I think a Yunnan Sourcing order is in the near future.

Used my new 140ml yixing for this tasting and I anticipated a good tasting but alas I screwed up. I used 3 gm tea for the preparation and steeped initially for 20 seconds at 190F and got a limpid tea. I let the next steep go for 30 seconds and it was better but not quite right, still a little thin. I guess I need a little more tes say 5 gm. There was no cinnamon or robust florals as in other Rou Guis I’ve try, so back to the lab, hope its not the tea as it was a sample and I would hope you give out a sample to attract not repel.

Tiny leaf with a dry aroma of usual malt. Steeped 3gm in 110 yixing the flavors were clean and honest with the prerequisite malt and honey without its sweetness and a slight bitterness at the end. I could taste a hint of Pu Erh and wonder if this leaf is used in Pu Erh production since it is a Simao. I used very short steeps in the beginning which had good mouth feel. It lasted to about 8 brews and then petered out.

As for my taste, not bad for a sample, and it is in the Yunnan vein so it is better than most red teas but its no Qing Pin.

I like this one a lot more than I expected to! I’ve made it gong fu style style and am on something like my 5th steep and it’s still going strong. Chocolaty, sweet, malty, not hay-y like I was expecting. This is a great cup. Thanks Terri Harplady!

Ok, way cool. A super portable TGY that I can take with me on weekend trips. Don’t have to worry about it being crushed. Heck just carry it in your pocket. Go to the waffle house ask for a cup of hot water and drop my tuo cha in, voila, satisfying TGY at your waiting lips. Its not super flavorful top notch tea but definitely better than a tea bag. I let the first steep go for one minute and the second, third steeps for about 40 seconds.

Oooo… this was TAY-STEEEE!!!!

Thick, malty with a bite but still smooth. Smells yeasty and bready. Onto the shopping list this goes! Thanks, Sil!

Terri packed her teas for the BBB in tins this time and I couldn’t find my card that told me which was which. I made this one because the other one was clearly a yunnan and I wasn’t sure that’s what i wanted. So dumped some of this one in my gaiwan and hoped for the best. I was SHOCKED to find out this is a yunnan. I couldn’t place what it was, but it isn’t like most yunnans. Not that I don’t like yunnans, I just don’t love yunnans. I’m really enjoying this. Slightly chocolatey, slightly fruity, a slight pepperiness to it. Very enjoyable!

Thanks Terri!

I decided to visit the ancient tea forests of Jingmai mountain by sampling a 2009 Yunnan Sourcing Nostalgia bing. Due to the low compression, the leaves broke off intact, very pleasant sight. I used about 7 g to 100 mL of spring water.

The wet leaves produced a strong sweet, floral aroma with a touch of grassiness to it. The soup is a golden amber, remarkably clear. This is a clean tea. The soup itself has a sweet taste with some bitterness and astringency, a warming degree of astringency. The bitterness is not too overwhelming, although, many might think this tea needs a few more years.
Despite the bitterness and astringency (I personally enjoy some of this), this tea does have very nice Hui Gan and Qi!

Following up on the last note, I tried this tea with much more leaf and it does come across better. I expect it ought to improve with age too.

I’ve tried this tea a couple of times now using different steeping parameters and am totally not getting the experience that Yunnan Sourcing claims. It is quiet, delicate and not at all the intense tea promised. Perhaps I need to load the teapot with a lot more leaf or to steep it for a lot longer, but to me this tastes practically like a green tea. The dry leaf is loose and whole, pale green in colour and smells of freshly mown grass. The liquor when steeped has a lightly floral aroma. There is a little astringency but overall it is a smooth tea with a slightly floral aroma. The astringency does develop on the tongue in the aftertaste though, which is good. I should add that the tea itself despite disappointing my expectations is very pleasant. I could drink a lot of this at one sitting but I am really not sure about the ‘intense cha qi’.

Rough and tough, this sample, that came to me by Royal Mail. Thanks Roughage! It has character written all over. First time I smelled it, it made me think of that hospital odor, in my home town, long time ago, definitely, not the way to go nowadays. Second tasting was way better and I started to appreciate this robust, no nonsense Pu-erh. I can even understand, you drink it with salted yak butter, the tastes are strong enough to cope with it. Conclusion….not sure, some reminiscing will do…now, it’s time to go back to my Tibetan mushroom.

Very smooth, mild astringency, lightly floral, but no sharp edges. The leaves are very roughly, mechanically, cut in small pieces, it makes them look younger, I think. All in all, good pu erh, but, for me, it lacks a bit of character.