Yunnan Sourcing

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.

Looking through the cupboard while at a loss for a tea I particularly wished to drink, I put my hand into a pie and pulled out a plum. Well, actually I pulled this tea at random out of my pu samples tin, but that is a less vivid image so let’s ignore it.

The dry leaf in the sample was loose and chunky with an earthy smell. The liquor was thick and black, almost like coffee and the mouthfeel was the same, being full-bodied, smooth and thick. Taste-wise, it is earthy with a slight iron tang, some plum notes and a hint of honey. It is a no-nonsense enjoyable tea that feels nicely cooling and has a relaxing, friendly cha qi. For the price I think it is really good value, and I shall probably add a couple of beengs to my next Yunnan Sourcing order.

Autumn 2013
This was an excellent tea which I enjoyed over six steepings. Upon opening the package, I could immediately smell the vibrant floral qualities of the tea. The tea was very fragrant, and smelled wonderful- a scent matching the beautiful leaves.

The dried leaves were a rich golden color, and were very straight and pointed. The brewed leaves retained the wonderful qualities of the dried tea, and produced a very refreshing brew- a bit of maltiness, floral notes, and a sweet aftertaste with hints of chocolate in the finish. Each steeping changed only slightly, increasing in floral notes.

Purchased this late summer and now that there is 4 inches on the ground it makes perfect sense to imbibe. This is my first foray into Jin Jun Mei. The funny thing is I bought a whole mess of tea without knowing much about them except the price and descriptions from the sellers websites. I knew I liked flavorful oolongs and reds but no finesse in my choices. So it was with this tea, buy first research second. Then comes the big day, will I be disappointed, is this just another tea look-a-like, how can I be so impulsive? Spent an hour googling all things Jin Jun Mei yesterday, and this offering from Yunnan Sourcing seems to be their medium grade offering. I’m surprised I didn’t buy the premium because if it costs more, surely it will taste better (as in a good bottle of wine…….not!).

Dry leaves are all uniform, small golden black threads with an inviting bouquet, saying brew me you will not be dissatisfied. Used a 150 teapot with 3.5 grams tea, quick rinse off the boil and then the first steep for 5 seconds.

OK now I can understand the bigger picture. I suffer from tea anxiety. I want every cup to be better than my last. I go willy-nilly on buying binges and hate to be unfulfilled. Thank goodness I bought the middle road Jin Jun Mei. The flavor was great, caramel, malty stout, and dried cherry sweetness. The liquor is of good body and carries the same fragrance if not more pronounced than the dried leaves. It steeped out to 7 brews and never really lost that much of its flavor or aroma.

Now I know why people seek out that special Jin Jun Mei to call their own. The tea is certainly worthy. In league with Qing Pin from Yezi tea. Alas I have wiggle room to try Yunnan Sourcing’s Premium grade next year in my search for the penultimate JJM.

:-) I like it even more than I expected to.

Wonderfully smooth and sweet. No bitterness. I added the extra steeping time because I am using a new yixing teapot.

Yay, I’m the first to write a note on this one! :)

After discovering a Dragonwell at the back of the cupboard and drinking that, I suddenly had a craving for raw pu so I thought I would start one of the sample packs I have been buying recently. For some reason, I bought a sample pack of this one, even though I have a whole untouched beeng in the stash. I guess that was an oversight at the time, but it does not feel so now.

The dry leaf is grassy and sweet, and the initial steepings were the same. About the third steeping, the tea developed a spicy sparkle on top of the grassiness that lasted ages in the aftertaste, even developing further on the tip my tongue. There’s a slight smokiness to my breath that develops further on into the aftertaste and I can feel the tea waking me up gently. The mouthfeel is creamy and full, double cream, perhaps. It’s very pleasant drinking this and I think I have a ways to go yet. The leaf feels like it has legs to it after half a dozen steepings and I should get a fair few more out of it. Nice.

Drinking this one to wake myself up and found it to be totally soporific instead! It’s smoky, peppery and still pretty darn good.