Yunnan Sourcing

I’ve been enjoying multiple short steeps of this all afternoon.
Delicious! Initially it’s toast, malt, sugar, & bee pollen, later giving way to savory creamy mushroom soup, lol, & a taste I can’t quite define…
something earthy…maybe a hint of burdock root…

(bowing to the ground & kissing the earth & then chanting)
“Thank you to the Steepster Gods Who walk among us. I thank you!”

Whew! I’m SO glad steepster is working again! Of course, I remember a time when freeze ups were fairly common, and I have to admit, things have been going very smoothly here for quite some time, so I’m not really complaining, but I am grateful to those who keep this running smoothly!

So the last 2 days I’ve been polishing off the various teas that Sil & TastyBrew have shared in our BBBBox. Today I’m going to work on the ones I’ve shared with them :)

I love this tea! Today I went with 5 G in my little 4oz teapot. I preheated the pot, then let the dry leaf sit in there for a minute. When I lifted the lid, the aroma was pure heaven!! Honey wheat toast spread with malt & honey! I’d almost be happy just to linger, huffing that wonderful thick yummy smell, my mouth watering, a dopey smile on my face.

But not quite!
5G + 4oz teapot (rinse) X 15/30/45secs/1min/1.25/1.5/1.75/2min/3min
My new method is to use 2 cups (sometimes 3). While I drink one, I’m steeping another. That way the leaves don’t get cold.
Delicious! Initially it’s toast, malt, sugar, & bee pollen, later giving way to savory creamy mushroom soup, lol, & a taste I can’t quite define…
something earthy…maybe a hint of burdock root…

I drank this all afternoon while I was practicing. I set up a little table next to my harp, with my new bamboo tea tray (from Mandala) & electric kettle, thus combining 2 of my 3 favorite things (Music & Tea. The third thing is food). I put 7g of leaf in my little 4oz blue lotus porcelain tea pot. The first steep was 15 sec, adding 15 sec to each subsequent steep. This went on for about 4 hours. Those leaves just kept giving, reminding me of bee pollen & cream.

You can see my setup at https://www.facebook.com/terri.langerak

I’ve been sipping on this one for awhile. I finally had time to go with short steepings, & it’s been very nice. The initial flavors were of butter & honey, gradually building in maltiness, & an earthy kind of shroominess. I steeped it in my little 4oz Blue & white lotus porcelain mini teapot (yes, Garret, I am still IN LOVE with this teapot!).
Two leaves escaped the pot & swam around in my cup, finding each other & forming into the shape of a seagull :)
According to http://www.readingtealeaves.info/symbols.html, Seagulls indicate a sign of storms, or if flying (this one was), News from Abroad.
Maybe my package from Yunnan Sourcing will finally arrive! Maybe my lost box from Sil will come :)
In the next pouring they rearranged themselves into the shape of part of one of the Reiki symbols (for those in the know, it was ‘sha’ from the long distance symbol).
Of course, the Reiki symbols aren’t listed on that tea reading website, but I’ll interpret that as meaning there are people who would benefit from having Reiki sent to them.
Of course, this wasn’t a proper tea leaf reading, as I read the leaves while the tea was still in the cup, but I’ve always been a rebel without a clue, so why not?

Yesterday was a lonnnnng day. Today I’m pampering myself. I slept 10 hours, & I’ve been drinking this lovely tea for 2 hours. I put 5 G in my blue lotus 4oz mini-teapot (which I absolutely love, Garret), & have been doing incremental steepings. The first one was for one minute, but I tasted a small sample every 15 seconds, lol, & they were all yum! I added 1 minute to each steeping, & they’ve all been delicious. Next time I’ll probably go with shorter steepings from the get go, & not add time as quickly, but that’s one of the things I love about tea drinking: the experiment.
The earliest cups were butter & honey with a little shroom.
This built to a maltier shroominess, & the cup I’m on now is an electric tongue tingler, if you know what I mean. I feel a nice energy spreading throughout my body, something I really needed this morning, & a reminder that tea is more than just flavor. This one is tasty AND has nice Chaqi!
And now I’m

I have a new friend. His name is Scott Wilson. I don’t know him, he doesn’t know me, but his name is on the box that came in the mail yesterday.
My son Leif called out, “Hey Mom, who is Scott Wilson?”
“I have no idea.”
“Well, you have a package from him. It’s from Portland, OR.”
“Hmmmm….maybe that’s the awesome garlics I ordered to plant in my garden this fall?”
Yes, I did order some amazing sounding garlics with names like Duganski & Spanish Roja. I ordered garlic bulbs like I order tea (like I do almost everything), with wild abandon. There were a few I really wanted that were already sold out for this year…dammit!
“Oh well,” I told myself, “just start with a few, & add those other ones next year.” I think I started with 5, LOL. I’ll plant them in separate areas of my already huge garden in a few weeks, along with the multiplier onions I bought. I’ll also move my shallots & egyptian walking onions to a new ‘neighborhood’ in the garden. I’m still fighting myself over whether I should order the french gray shallots…I have shallots, of course, but they are not ‘gray’ shallots…

Meanwhile, it turns out the box was from Yunnan Sourcing!!!! My first ever order from there. So Scott is my new friend, even though we may never meet, because he sent me tea! Hi Scott! I’m sending you a hug!
This is one of the teas I bought to share with my Bodacious Babes! The purple tea I drank yesterday is another. This is a really lovely tea tea, sweet with a honey essence initially, & then the flavor leans to a rich maltiness. It’s not an incredible bold cup, but if I wanted that I’d be drinking a cup of Assam! This tea reminds me of Golden Fleece a bit, both in appearance (although not as golden), & in taste (although perhaps not quite as nuanced). I’ll have to drink more, of course, & I can!

I’ve written 9 other reviews about this tea, and this will be the finale, as it is a sipdown as well. This tea is from 2014, but it’s still as awesome as ever, and it still brings to mind the same set of elements: Essence of rice congee, an oolong like incense/eucalyptus/herbaceious after aroma in the sinuses that lingers, the sweet after taste of Cherry/plum, and an incredible Sheng like Chaqi, that provides a clarity to both my allergies and my head in general, a really nice tea buzz.

It’s hard to say, but I think this one might be my favorite of the purple black teas in my cupboard…or maybe it’s one of them? One of these days maybe I’ll do a side by side comparison (or maybe I already have & I’m getting senile).

This one, which I’ve already reviewed many times, is wonderfully nuanced with plums, a little maltiness, and eucalyptus. It’s sweet. Some of the steeps are especially sweet. Some are kind of creamy textured. Anyway, it’s lovely, and also reminds me of a really nice sheng. I have a very relaxing teabuzz vibe going on right now, and I don’t mind that at all!

Oh…I almost forgot to mention that this tea creates an amazing sensation in my sinuses…it’s hard to explain…not really like eucalyptus, but I can see how some might see it that way. It’s along the lines of an oolong incense after aroma kind of thing, but sweet…kind of like a cross between eucalyptus, plums, and … hell, I dunno know…!

It looks like this week I’m drinking purple teas. Yesterday I drank 3 different Purple Black teas, all from YS, and today I’ve been enjoying this on, including sharing some of the steeping with 2 of my Harp students, who both loved it!

I’ve reviewed it many times before, and still the predominant flavors and aromas that come to mind are plums & congee rice.

I’ve had trouble getting myself to wake up this morning, & would still like to go back to bed, but I goofed off for most of tuesday (the day I usually do a lot of food prep for the rest of the week), & there is just SO MUCH that needs to be done. So I got up at 8:00, dropped my car off to get a new alternator belt & check a few things, walked home, & started watering my seriously neglected garden. I’m using the small sprinkler method, where I set up a sprinkler somewhere, do a little weeding nearby, move the sprinkler, come in & drink a steep or 2 of tea, move sprinkler, pick something like tomatoes, or graze on raspberries (that was actually one of the first things I did). I’ve been doing this for the last hour or so, during which time I sipped a cup of bone broth laced with a pinch of salt & crushed homegrown garlic, sipped a smaller cup of my Elderberry Kombucha (it’s SO good!), & sipped several steepings of this tea, which is from the spring of 2014 .

I’ve really been enjoying the wild purple varietals of tea for awhile now. I think I have 4 or maybe 5 in my collection (not counting purple puerh). They are not a tea I drink all the time, because I feel like it’s the kind of tea I want to really take my time with.
This one has a dry aroma of tart plums, & once the leaf is warmed, it becomes fruity & rich, even a little malty, like some kind of baked plum dessert. That alone is a beautiful thing, just breathing the aroma from my tiny teapot. After lingering for a few breaths, it’s time to drink some tea! The tea itself starts out reminding me of congee rice, only sweeter, with a brothy quality as well. Through multiple steepings it blooms into full flavors.It is sweet, it is tangy, plumy good, with a Eucalypus sensation, an awesome tongue tingle, & a growing strong & peaceful energy that is perfect for just putting one foot in front of another: Walk to garden, move hose, pick something, enter house, pour more tea & savor. Repeat. Don’t forget to breath deeply. This is my morning.

Welcome to day 30 of little terri’s Ultimate Sipdown Extravaganza!
Yup, my month long festival of sipdown is coming to a close! I’m actually glad, because I have new teas to drink, special teas that I miss drinking, etc. Tomorrow will be the final day of clearing my shelves of anything old, small, or just unloved.
I’ve been working on updating the database, & as I’ve said before, I’ll probably end the month with more tea than I started with, haha. I started with 401, & although I didn’t set any actual goal, I think I’ve been kind of aiming for 250.

This is a really interesting tea, & if you let it warm up in a hot cup, the aroma of plums is outstanding! I could sit around just huffing this, & I did for a few minutes. Something nice to wake up to. Going with short steeps, the tea itself build through layers of Congee rice, sweet plum, a little tartness, & an amazing chaqi. Some of the steeps make me think of Plum Sake, even though I’ve never had anything like that, LOL.
It also really reminds me of a sweeter sister to Master Han’s Wild Picked Yunnan. It has a very similar energy, & a rustic wild quality to it, but coupled with a lovely sweet aftertaste of plums.
It’s silly for me to count this as a sipdown, as I have a new shipment en route, but the newer version is from Spring 2014, so there you go. It’s legit.
277

Morning Black tea gongfu session!
The leaf is a deep redish black, with mahogany highlights, & a dry aroma that is faintly tart.
The warmed leaf brings to mind Plums.
5G + 4oz (rinse) X 15sec = Congee rice
30 sec = A rich, almost Meaty broth
45sec = A richer broth, with Plums added. A nice tongue tingle!
1min = A satisfying sensation is present, both in the mouth & in the body. A slight bitterness, but in a good tart kind of way, just around the edges. The Chaqi is soothing, I feel very peaceful.
2min = an herbaceous quality, somewhat like eucalyptus, joins in.
3min+ = I accidentally forgot to set the timer, so who knows how long this steep really went? Anyway, this is reminding me, in some ways, of Master Han’s Wild picked Black, not so much in flavor, as in savory qualities & energy.
4min = The body of the tea is gone, leaving behind a vague sweet plum essence.
5min = One final cup. I can really feel the energy of this tea, swirling around my head. My eyes have quit watering, my ears are no longer itchy. I’d like to believe that teas such as this one are my cure for allergies, the elixir of life itself, but it’s probably just my imagination…
running away with me… ;)

I’m having a great day! I just booked a wedding for May, sitting at my desk in my pajamas, eating breakfast. Contract sent, now more tea!
I love my job!
Here’s another tea from the first round of the BBBB.
5G + 4oz tiny teapot (rinse) X 15/30/45sec/1min/2min/3min
I warmed this one up in the hot but dry teapot. The aroma is very different from the Imperial Mojiang, but then it should be! Side by side, these 2 teas are like night & day!! The Mojiang is all golden & this is a deep purplish black! Night & day, indeed!

Opening the lid to my teapot, the aroma is more herbaceous, almost like a sheng, but with a hint of…cherry? Maybe sour cherry, but just a hint.
There’s something about this tea that reminds me of a Sheng. It’s a tartness, & a clean almost lemony mouth, & the Chaqi is outrageous! There is a sweet cherry, there is a little chocolate in the background, & there are savory aromatic herbs. I don’t know that eucalyptus is the herb I would pick, but maybe. Anyway, the flavors build up beautifully, complimenting one another. And now I’m wondering is YS has made any sheng from this leaf…that would also be an amazing tea, I think!

I keep planning to give this one the gongfu treatment, but once again I’m just drinking it in the mug.
1Tb + 3 min (re-steep 5min)
This is a very smooth & complex tea, with a satisfying taste & body, a sweet taste that in some ways reminds me of the sugar cane taste of a good Dian Hong, but with a clarity & vibe of a sheng.

I’m enjoying a cup of this before I load up to go play for the monthly tea at the nursing home. I just had an awesome but easy lunch that included a Cherokee purple tomato & shallots from my garden. Now I’m having a cup of purple tea for dessert.

Update: oops! I forgot to upload this before I left! Now I’m back at home. I really do like this purple tea, & just for the record, it isn’t at all like the purple teas from Kenya. I still don’t have words to describe it, but in some ways it reminds me of some other teas, such as Golden Fleece. Hopefully the next time I drink it I can really focus in on what makes the taste so unique!

I’m not really sure how to describe this tea, except to say that I really enjoyed drinking it!! I was watering my garden, carrying this cup of tea around with me. I came in for a re-steep. It was so delicious!
Next time I’m thinking I might try a gongfu session, just to see how that works out.

One of my favorite black teas. It is slightly similar to a high quality non-smoky Zhengshan xiaozhong (正山小种) or Sapsang Souchong as it is known in the local language. There are some other yunnanese teas that does so too, the difference with this one is the clear notes of chocolate and coffee. But it does have that dried fruit flavor as well. If you take two-three leaves of smoky lapsang souchong and mix with this, you will achieve a wonderful blend that is very fruity (as in dried longan, dried figs, rich and thick flavour.

DANG THIS PU’ER IS THA BOMB!

Over 13 infusions I got No smokeyness, no dryness. Great flavor notes of earthy enoki mushroom, rock sugar, creamy, apricot, green bean, buttery corn, mineral, and copper. It had a few moments that I thought I was drinking a white tea and another time a green, however with the complexity of a pu’er.

For $15 for a 250 gram cake, this pu’er is a steal, especially with the amount of resteeps I got.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2013/08/20/2012-qui-yun-wild-arbor-raw-puer-from-yunnan-sourcing-tea-review/

Leaves look very nice, bits of green and purple colour. Leaves broke apart nicely and allowed for whole breaks, very little crumbs/dust. Dry cake and leaves has a very smoky aroma, almost liquid smoke like, very overpowering. 4 gms / Yixing Pot / 200 F – Steep 1: 2 rinses / 30 sec steep – very strong and overpowering smoky aroma prevails. Tried to finish steeped liquor, just too smoky for my pallet. Will put this one away for a few months, and see if the smokiness settles.

One of the best Bi Luo Chun I had.
The tea has a strong taste with a slight hint of smokiness, without being overwhelming.
This tea is very forgiving on water temperature and brewing time, and gives good results no matter what.
My best results were with: 4g/3’, 2’, 2’, 5’, 5’.

It’s very hard to find a good winter Tie Guan Yin. This one has the same problem as the others : it doesn’t last.
The scent and taste are ok, although a bit weak.
Even with a lot of leaves and when changing the brewing time, it’s hard to have a strong taste passing the 4th infusion.

Damn I love Dan Congs, and this is a great one! It’s got that room-filling peach/apricot aroma that’s just so seductive. It’s also a bit roastier than expected too, and a hint of floral background, without getting too complex. But really it’s all about that exquisite aroma, excuse me now, my cup is empty.

Not very good, just kind of muddy and blah, get the far superior Imperial Mojiang instead.