Yunnan Sourcing

6g/90ml celadon gaiwan.
wash/wash/15/15/20/20/30/30 @ 100C

Ah, this is good. Last sheng was a dissapointment so this one cheered me up! Powerful astringance, slightly bitter. But well balanced so its not unpleasnt. Did longer infusions this time around and it payed of! Since it late i stopped at 6. The taste lingers long in the mouth, a bit of a tail on this one. Good stuff!

5g / 90ml celadon gaiwan.
wash/5s/10s/10s/10s/15s for a few more steepings @ 100C

I rather enjoyed this one. A more mature flavour then other 2012 shengs ivé tasted.
First infusion was a bit weak but still full in the mouth almost creamy. The following infusions was slightly more powerful with a bit of smoky sweetnes mixed with a slight astringency and dryness on the tounge. Surprisingly well balanced.

A nice interesting sheng, it’s smokey, but not too smokey, minty (or something similar), strong and punchy, a little dry, and a bit rough from being the last crumbs from bottom of the sample bag. Also, really awesome iced. The price seems a little on the high side, but it’s certainly got personality, the worst thing a young sheng can be is bland and boring.

Edit: the interesting flavors faded way too quickly, leaving behind just an unpleasant strange sticky astringency, i think this one needs at least a few more years on it for that to age out.

Revisiting this one for the first time in a while. The leaves have turned to a light brown with golden colored tips. Brews a fairly light gold-ish color with a twinge of orange. Smells slightly smoky and camphorous, but I think it may have picked this up from a tea it was stored with.

It’s a very mild brew with little bitterness or astringency. Nice olive oil flavor and texture in the mouth. Good lingering sweetness in the mouth and back of throat. It’s still slightly floral, but no longer green; more like dried flowers. Also has a spring water minerality and sort of a dried wood/autumn leaf pile note. I gave my dad (who is more of a wine drinker) a cup and he said it reminded him of a very mild but oaky chardonnay. It definitely has a “qi” to it; I started to feel it after just a few infusions.

Overall it’s changed a little bit over the past few years, but not a lot. It’s very light and mild, and I don’t think it will benefit much from further aging, so I’ll move it to the top of the “to drink now” box.

I dropped (and broke) my gaiwan in the sink the other night while cleaning it out, so I’m brewing this in a glass measuring cup with a gaiwan saucer over it. Sad to lose my gaiwan, but it served me well over the past two years.

I’m really enjoying this tea tonight. It’s very tasty, but has a different flavor profile than most. No “peach and tobacco”, but softer flavors like olive oil, grain, bamboo, and white wine. It’s not super sweet, but the sweetness lingers in the throat for a long time. It makes a good many brews, a bit more than average, and has one of the strongest cha qi’s of pu’erh I’ve tasted.

Soo, since I’m in desperate need of a new gaiwan I’ll be pushing up the Yunnan Sourcing order I had been planing (they also have some celadon cups I’ve been eying). I’ll probably just stick to the tea wares, some black tea ,and some pu’erh samples since I need to keep this fairly cheap. Any favorites you think I should try?

Back home in Orlando and getting re-settled into a normal routine. I really enjoyed my vacation and escape from the heat, but it was stressful at times with so many people, semi-planned activities, etc. Basically I loved it, but the introvert in me is happy to be back in my own bed :P

Dry leaves: Medium-large cool brown leaves with plump white tips and a velvety shine. Aroma has gotten a bit mixed up in my sheng box, but the aroma is slight tobacco, peach, grass, and old book with a little spice. The cake is loosely packed, but nowhere near falling apart on it’s own.

Brewing: Melow greyish-yellow orange liquer, fairly clear. The wet leaves are long and plump with thick veins. Olive green coloration with a slight purple-red twinge here and there.

1st steep: Slightly brothy, but clean mouth feel. Very sweet and has a fairly ballanced flavor. Peachy with slight tobacco and mushroom notes and greenness. Mild pine resin astringency, little bitterness. Sweet aftertaste lingers a bit after the initial flavor.

3rd: Still peachy and sweet, but bolder with more tobacco flavor and woodyness. Slight charcoal touch, but no smoke. I start to get the qi sensations on the back of my head and I feel focused and steady.

5th: The bolder flavors die down and reveal crisp freshness. Flower bulb, walnut, oak wood, and fresh rain.

7th: Continued freshness, but mellower with heart of palm and red grape notes. Flavor slowly weakens, but I go on to ten steeps.

Really nice sheng! I think this is the best of the YS brand cakes I’ve tried, though the Yiwu Qui Yun is a close second.

This has become one of my prefered green teas. 5 g. per 10 cl gaiwan, 75 C water, start with 15 second, and increase slowly to 30-40 seconds. One can step the tea up to 8-10 times, and possibly more. Restepping later with lukewarm water it has become very sweet.

Substantially, a kind of mao feng, but with a bitterness note leaning towards raw puer, that can become a bit overwhelming with warmer water or longer stepping times. And developing nicely with many infusions, like the best maocha. My first attempts at 80-85 C were too bitter, I found my perfect balance experimenting lower temperatures and shorter times.

I am curious how this would evolve with time.

Chocolatey, fruity, slightly roasty, and incredibly sweet, this is one of my favorite black teas. For me it doesn’t ever really get the bright orange color pictured, but that doesn’t matter. I’m still floored by how incredible Yunnan Sourcing’s black teas are for their stupidly low prices, this is really a unique and top tier tea. Oh, and it’s just indescribably delicious and aromatic cold brewed, I cold brewed a pitcher of it in the fridge for ~36 hours and the fruity chocolate smell is so strong, and the sweetness is even more pronounced, best iced tea i’ve ever had.

My mind keeps chanting ‘Bi Luo Chun, Bi Luo Chun, Bi Luo Chun’ and it’s driving me insane! I have to give in to my urges and drink it’s delicious nectar.

This tea is has a sweet and floral (peony, jasmine combo) scent. The leaves are small and very curly with green and shiny silver colours.

First steep – 1 minute – Tea is pale yellow in colour and has a light but sweet vegetal/cabbage aroma. Flavour is subtle but matches the cabbage smell. Very delicious. Smooth, green, cabbage, sweet and buttery.

Second steep – 2 minutes – Flavour is thicker and more vegetal but still fairly smooth and very fresh. Also still very sweet and a little astringent.

Third steep – 3 minutes – Back to light again but still deliciously cabbagey and with a touch of dry, floral perfume.

As far as Bi Luo Chun goes I’m really digging this white version over the green. It’s much lighter but still has the same characteristics and flavours with a lot less astringency.

Thank you Dag Wedin for this sample.

Dian Hong will always be one of my favourite teas and it’s hands down the tea that I have the most of in stock in various forms.

I also know I have been a little quiet this weekend but truth be told I have been feeling a little under the weather and a lot of my depression has re-surfaced but I hope to be more active. Perhaps the next day or two will lighten my emotions and get me back on form.

This tea has some wonderful, long and super golden leaves that feel a little hairy and very soft. The beautiful golden leaves have a sweet malted and gentle floral scent that’s very fresh and darkly fruited.

Brewing this in my Gongfu teapot – roughly 6g of loose tea and for three steeps.

Steep One – 1 minute – Tea is golden brown in colour with a thick and sweet malted aroma with a hint of dried prune.

Flavour is smooth, silken and sweet with elements of malt, fruit, flowers and honey. Very refreshing and it leaves a delicious fermented fruit after taste.

Steep Two – Two Minutes – This time it’s a little more earthern and wooden than it is fruity or sweet. A little astringent but soft enough to still be on the smooth side.

Steep Three – Three Minutes – Light golden brown in colour now. Very subtle and still with hints of malt and wood.

Overall this is a very tasty Dian Hong that is on the gentle side as far as strength is concerned. A definite recommendation to those interested in this one. :)

The only thing I would change would be to increase the steeping leaves to roughly 7g to improve the strength. This is purely down to personal taste.

I enjoyed another session with this delicious tea that starts out light and sweet and emerges in the middle steeps with a strong honey/rock candy sweetness, excellent throat feel and powerful chi. Lemon and apple linger throughout and there’s just the tiniest hint of orchid woven through the profile. Alas, my sample of this benchmark tea is kaput.

On a side note, I find it odd that I have a high tolerance for chi but a low tolerance for caffeine, so my capacity for drinking sheng is much higher than black tea, for example. Are there any other caffeine-sensitive folks that experience this?

I steeped this for four minutes ( I know, sacrilege), but it yields such a full robust taste I couldn’t resist. Very light smoke, no bitterness, with apricot, black licorice and scotch flavors. This is the best sheng I’ve ever had and truly a benchmark for all future tastings.

Thanks to Charles Thomas Draper for mentioning this sheng. I bought a sample (cakes are very expensive) and immediately fired up my little pot and steeped it three times: at 30 seconds, 1 minute, and 2 minutes. The first steep was exquisitely smooth, with a light camphor taste and a more pronounced mandarin orange flavor. Things got pretty wild on the next two steeps; the orange remained, and was joined with chestnut and what reminded me of a perfect black bean sauce. This is a high energy tea that had me buzzing along way into the night, right through an excellent set by the Futurebirds at the Press Room in Portsmouth, NH. I’m going to try and conserve this tea; as good as it is now, it will be even better when some of the bitterness fades away over time.

Wow, best Sheng ivé tried so far.
I did a comparisonbrewing in hopes of finding a suitable tea that works well with Zini yixingpot.
Shu seems to work well, and is the only type of tea that ive tried sofar that taste better in a Zinipot (brownish purple) then a neutral vessel. (darjeeling, yunnan, japanese, green, white, young sheng)
But however.
5g / 90ml celeadon gaiwan @ 100C
5g / 100ml Zini Yixingpot @ 100C

wash/5s/5s/10/10s/15s/20s added 5-10s per following steeping to about 12 :)
First steeping was bland, this tea obviously needs to be washed twice.

Second steeping surprised me. It was kind of intense, very little of the earthy tones i expected. More ripe fruit and a very noticable charred taste. Probably from the panfrying.
This subsided after a few infusions. But it kept it´s vigor to the end. 12 infusions is quite enough with dual brewing….

This older sheng worked somewhat better in the Zini but it didn´t improve the taste, more like it was equal to the gaiwan. Perhaps abit stronger aftertaste.

Will order a few samples from older sheng to try them out. I must say i miss that dry astringency from younger sheng, but the intensity was very nice! When i find that combination i will get a cake right away :)

Since im relatively new to pu-erh, i´d welcome some pointers.

Free sample from my last YS order.

Today I woke myself up at six in the morning, packed my gear into the car, and drove out about fourty five minutes northwest to Clermont, which is sort of the Mecca of longboarders and cyclists in Central/South Florida. While most of Florida south of Gainesville is pretty darn flat, Clermont and the surrounding areas have big, rolling hills a bit like Kentucky, but well… bigger. The fastest I’d ever gone before was about 30 mph, today I made it up to 45, and man that felt great.

I spent most of the day riding down said hills and then walking back up them, which is, as far as I’m concerned, what they do up in heaven (When they’re not drinking tea, of course.) By noon I was completely exhausted and pretty much swimming in my own sweat. So, I headed back towards Orlando and (after a nice cold shower) decided to wind down with a nice session of tea, and was especially craving some sheng :)

This is just the second “fairly old” sheng that I’ve tried, and I really enjoyed both. Even with two quick rinses, the taste started out pretty mulchy and musty, but by the third steep it was much cleaner and delicious. Raisin, clove, and walnut were the main flavors I picked up on. A bit of bitter, but not enough to be off-putting. Despite it’s flavors not really being “fresh” ones, it still has the refreshing qualities of younger sheng. I got lot’s of relaxing, stimulating feelings drinking this, and by the time the leaves puttered out I was about as tea drunk as I’ve ever been.

Between the endorphins from exercise and the qi from this tea I’m feeling pretty darn good right now. I’ll probably make something for dinner and then head to bed early. Today was a pretty great day (albeit slightly hermitic), and exactly what I needed in a weekend.

5g / 90ml celadon gaiwan.
wash/5s/10s/15s/20s kept ca 20s infusions
Typical Sheng taste with pleaseant astringency.

5g / 90ml celadon gaiwan.
5s/5s/10s Kept at ca 10s as the tea seems to stay potent.

And to go with the tea, i watched some big bang theory :)

Tonight i was in the mood for raw pu-ehr and The big bang theory :)
I did a comparisonbrewing.
1: 90ml celadon gaiwan
2: 100ml ZiNi yixingpot.

5g / 100C
Quick wash/5s/10s/15s/10s….
15s infusion resulted in heavy astringency, enough to dry the tounge, so I went with 10sec infusions.

Both vessels produced good tea, however the yixing was more mellow with a slightly fuller flavour.

Astringency, slightly earthy with undertones of something.. cant really describe it but a tiny bit sweet and fresh. vegetable or ripe fruit perhaps..

Found it to be quite pleasant!

2 heaping tsps in 12 oz

Have had this a few more times since my last note. It is soooo good. I’ve decided that the texture reminds me of miso soup. It is so rich and comforting.

2 heaping tsps in 12 oz

Wow, now I don’t know if I prefer this one or the Imperial Mojiang. The leaves are gorgeous. Perfectly straight needles. Not a single one broken. It has a very rich, heavy mouthfeel. And perhaps for the first time, I am finding a tea pleasantly astringent. Usually when I find a tea astringent, I consider it a negative, but this one has a very slight astringency which balances well with its “thickness”. Hope that makes some sense.

BTW, this note is for the Spring 2013 plucking.

Next up will have to be a side by side taste test of these two marvelous teas.

First time trying ripe Pu-erh.
Infuses very well, washed a few seconds and water was already brown.

I did aprox 15 infusions in 100ml Yixing Zini Pu-erhpot.
The 12th infusion started to get lighter in color. And im certain i could have gone on for quite awhile. However since i was drinking by myself… :)

The taste was earthy, thick. Since i dont have anything to compare to i really cant say much other than it had a very complex taste.
I do prefer raw pu-erh to this, by far.

Ziniclay went rather well with ripe Pu-erh.