Yunnan Sourcing

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends, & I’d like to extend my gratitude to the rest of the world for putting up with us, LOL. I’m also grateful for many things, including my quiet neighborhood, in a city that is struggling with violence & craziness these days (St Louis).

I’m starting my morning with a gongfu session with this beautiful beautiful tea, so luscious & rich. It is creamy & malty, with elements of sorghum, hints of Vanilla, citrus, & pepper, & excellent Cha Qi. Thick across the palate, with a pleasant tongue tingle, & a rich bee pollen sensation, followed by a very clean finish. If I had to pick favorite black teas (which gratefully I do not), this would be on that rather long list!

Now to leap into action: I have pies to make!

I’m enjoying the quiet of the morning
yes, Sil, I know it’s almost 10:00 here, but Tony’s still sleeping :) he needs his rest!
This is a pleasant tea for a relaxed wake up, & although I do prefer it in a gongfu session, it’s good western style as well.
I know my finger is healing, because as of yesterday it is starting to itch like crazy, on the in side!

The awesome mouth-feel continues…
Having a cup of the 2014 version of this tea. It’s malt & honey, & a hint of orange peel. It’s delicious. The only thing that would make it better would be gongfu steepings, but I’m at Tony’s, so it’s western steeping for now.

It’s silly to remove this from my cupboard, even though it is a sipdown, because I just placed an insane Yunnan Sourcing order, which includes this tea, but it will take awhile to get here, so I’m counting it!

This is a comforting cup of warmth, with a honey wheat toast quality to it, a creamy feel across the palate, a graininess, & a sense of bee pollen. There is also a tiny hint of orange peel lingering. This is one of the teas I featured this month in the BBBBox, & although it’s not as glamorous as the Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong or the really awesome Gold Needle, it’s still a lovely tea & I’m sure my BBB sisters will enjoy it.
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Another morning of drinking a quality black tea gongfu session!

5G + 4oz (rinse) X 15/35/45/sec 1/2/3/4/5 min

This is a lovely malty & sweet cup! The earliest steepings featured a creamy vanilla sensation, which quickly transformed into a rich toasty flavor & a thick mouth. This one shares some qualities with the Jinggu Golden strand that I drank yesterday, as if they were brothers, but of course, it has a personality of it’s own. My favorite steeps were by far the during the first 2 minutes, as the unfolding of a tea & it’s flavors & sensations excites me, but even the last cup had value, with a creamy kind of flavor.

I hope nobody will be offended, but I updated this tea’s page, which originally had “Spring 2011” on it, because there were only 2 other posts, both for the 2012 version, & I’m posting on the Spring 2013 version.

For those familiar with Golden Fleece, the leaf of this tea has that sturdy texture. The leaves are the opposite of fluffy, a much hardier type of material, that reminds me of grasshopper legs or something. The colors are rich caramel, gold, & streaks of charcoal.
The dry aroma is rich & malty, and for this first experiment I did 2 western style steepings at 3 min with resteep at 5 min. It was a nice cup, malty, a little sweet, & a little pepper, but honestly, I don’t think my steeping parameters did the tea justice, so next time it will be gongfu sessions for sure.

After my folks picked me up at the airport, we went to lunch at a place called TooJays.
Now I’m chillin’ out with my Parental Units, & having my first cup of tea here.
Halleluia! They got a new water purifier on the kitchen sink! Yay!!
No sulphur, no horrible water. I’ll enjoy drinking teas during my visit, Yay!
And it’s a good thing, because I brought a bunch of teas. I thought about bringing my fancy teas, but instead I brought teas that I need to polish off, so my visit with my folks might be a mini ship down extravaganza.

This one is not a sip down, at least not yet, but I’m getting close. It’s not one of my favorites from YS, but it’s not bad. The main flavor features, at least today, are leather & malt.

This was the free sample that Yunnan Sourcing sent me with my last order: an entire cake of this tea! It is very densely packed, but I managed to chisel some off, going with short steeps in my tiny porcelain teapot.
I don’t really have much to say about it yet, it was a little bitter, but drinkable. I probably over-leafed. I’m gonna experiment with it further, and then get back to you.

Welcome to day 29 of little terri’s Ultimate Sipdown Extravaganza!

I want to call this a sipdown, & in a sense it is one, in that this is the end of the tin.
The truth is, I already have a refill for it, somewhere in my bedroom/tea hoarding place.
This is like a rich & chewy molasses sweetened old world rye bread today, both sweet & savory, AND delicious!

Good morning, my tea drinking friends!
As my supply of this tea dwindles, I find that I have just enough for 2 sessions: 1 with 5 Gs of tea & 4 oz of water for mulitiple steeps, & one as a western Brew.
I’m having the western style this morning with an amount of tea that I actually didn’t measure, but is probably around a heaping tsp + 8oz or so of hot water for 3min, resteeped for 5 min.

This tea is rich & toasty, with a growing bass note, a slightly tangy buttermilk richness, a little graham cracker, & a nice thick sensation. Very satisfying.

Now it’s out to the garden for awhile.

Today this cup is honey sweet, malty, & delicious. I love the way it tastes, like a slice of honey wheat toast, spread with honey & bee pollen.

First cup of the day, hours ago. The mugs at Tony’s house are huge, & it seems like I always either under leaf, which is what I did today, or over leaf in an effort to compensate. Add to that, in spite of the fact that I soaked my steeper basket over night, it still enhanced the cup with essence of campfire blend, which wasn’t necessarily bad, lol.

This morning I’ve been enjoying 2 different Jin Jun Mei’s from Yunnan Sourcing. I used the same steeping parameters for both:
1 heaping tsp of tea + 10oz X 3 min/re-steep in 8oz @ 5 min.

The leaf size on this one is slightly larger, with a much higher golden tippiness. The flavor is immediately butterier, with a thicker feel, & a richer maltiness. The resteep is sweeter, with a lingering fruit pastry kind of taste. I’ve enjoyed both of these teas, with this one being a little more favored, & it will be fun in the future to line up all of my Jin Jun Mei’s in gaiwans, for back to back steepings!

Today this tea is bringing to mind brown toast with sorghum molasses on it. This is a tea that requires care, as too much leaf or too high of a heat will make it bitter.

Welcome to day 27 of little terri’s Ultimate Sipdown Extravaganza!
I haven’t really been quite as productive this past week as I had hoped to be, however I’m now at 301 teas, which is 100 teas less than where I started from on the 1st of May (not counting all the teas that have arrived in the last few weeks, which will be added into my database over this coming week, heh)

There are about 36 teas that I’d like to finish off this week: remnants of tea trades, small samples, remnants of TOMC, etc. I’m only trying to finish off teas that are just one serving left, but I’m still also committed to enjoying every cup! No point rushing through things, right?

With that in mind, I’ve started the day with this wonderful Jin Jun Mei, & although it is the last of the tin, it’s not really a sipdown because I have more. It’s one of those teas who’s warmed leaf aroma alone can make me feel cozy & comforted. It’s rich toasted bread with honey & bee pollen, & I can drink it on an empty stomach!

Started the day with a 3 minute steep of this one, with it’s notes of Boston Brown Bread, which I guess really translates to Molasses. I was gonna return for a 5 minute steep, but my son drew, who has really been getting into tea more lately, had dumped it (what???), & was the steep basket for something else. Teas he’s been enjoying a lot:
Spring Cherry – R of T
Jasmine Pearl – Art of Tea
Bolder Breakfast – Tea Spot
My other son Leif went to Teavana & bought himself a few teas, his current favorite is Strawberry Rose Peach Tranquility (blend of 2 blends). I took a sip, & although it’s not something I’d be into stocking, it’s actually not bad.

This morning’s black tea gongfu session was with this one.
5G + 4oz X 15/30/45 sec/1min/2min/1min…

This started out lovely – a warm crusty bread, honey, malt, bee pollen…
But I increased the steeping time to quickly & it became bitter. When I backed it off, it was more enjoyable. In previous gongfu sessions with this tea I went with shorter steeps of 15 second intervals, & I’ll hopefully remember to keep it that way in the future, with this one!
A lesson learned :)

I’ve been sitting at my desk for the last hour or so, paying bills, reading emails, balancing bank accounts, & sipping this tea. The warmed aroma of toast drenched with honey is so enticing, and the cup of tea reminds me of boston brown bread.

I love a good Jin Jun Mei, & this one qualifies, as far as I’m concerned.
It really reminds me of a nice grainy toast, & also of boston brown bread. It’s very re-steepable to!

Off topic, but if you’d like to see the annual New Year’s Day photo of me & my kids, along with photos of my mini-fruit trees in my sunroom, drop by my FB. https://www.facebook.com/terri.langerak

I shared a pot of this with a student. I love it. Today it is reminding me of Boston Brown Bread. Or a really dense whole grain toast. Very lovely, very malty, very delicious!

I love Jin Jun Mei. I’d like to drink all of the Jin Jun Mei’s in my collection, together, comparing their colors, fragrance, taste, nuance, etc. Maybe during the HoliDaze I’ll set aside a day for that, but for today, I’m drinking 2, from the order I received yesterday from Yunnan Sourcing.

I started with this one. The leaf is small & thin, having the characteristic ‘eyebrow’ shape, with spots of gold, but mostly a dark almost black color. I steeped a heaping tsp in my mug for 3 minutes, followed with a 5 minute re-steep in a smaller mug. The resulting cups were sweet, with a feel that I get from Jin Jun Mei that always reminds me of Bee Pollen. A little malt, a little fruit (not sure what kind, but with a slightly bright tanginess), & a floral sense as well.

A tasty sweet yet savory cup! Next time, Gongfu!

mmmm thanks for sharing this one terri! I think that i’ll have to look into placing an order with yunnan sourcing in the new year. I’ve enjoyed the few that terri has shared with me so i think a few more samples are likely in order :)

thanks for sharing this one terri! In keeping with my attempt to get through my BBB Box teas and my verdant reserve teas, I took this one shopping with me. It was pretty tasty even in a travel mug! Looking forward to being able to try this one out with my gaiwan, maybe next weekend.

Last time I had this tea was 7 months ago. I was feeling like some rough ripe pu’er before my meal and after and what a meal! BBQ beef tritip, roasted potatoes and homemade new york cheesecake with my home canned strawberry preserves ontop!

Felt this pu’er changed a bit in flavor – it was much less fermentation, clay and abrasive notes. Actually sipped in with a bit of smoothness, which was a change from the woodsy, campy, charred charizard earth notes from before.
My original review – http://oolongowl.com/2012-dragon-jing-mai-puer-yunnan-sourcing-oolong-owl-tea-review/

The tea went really well with the meal, but majority of it I drank with and after dessert. Pu’er with cheesecake? Why not. Pretty happy with this little shu pu’er cake, especially since I paid like $6 for it.