Yunnan Noir

I tried out this tea this morning while eating breakfast with friends. I brought my tea tumbler (totally just spelled that tumblr at first) with me that I had already put tea leaves into. I’ll be really honest, so far I’ve loved all of my yunnan tea samples from Adagio. Sooo much so that I want to drink them all the time and all day long. They’re more expensive than what I normally drink so I was hoping that I’d hate this tea. I didn’t. I love it so much!!! It’s dark and fruit y and sweet and mellow. I love that I can brew yunnans for a super long amount of time and they still taste delicious. This tea re-brews extremely well. The appearance of the dry leaves is so pretty but I love watching the unfurled leaves as they float around in my tea. Flavor wise- spectacular. Sorry for the randomness and the jumping back and forth on topic, but I get pretty excited when I find a tea that I fall head over heels for. Its a modern day love story. (lol)

On a side note, does anyone have a good recommendation for yunnan black teas? I like to keep it affordable though I really want to try Whispering Pines golden snail.

Tea from early this morning. I enjoyed it. There was a great malty flavor to it that I loved. There was also a general all around richness to it. Shame I only bought the sample size!

I made the mistake of picking this one up as a generic black in an attempt to wean my co-workers off Lipton. The mistake was not in picking it up, but rather in identifying it as a generic black. Anyone who is introduced to Yunnan Noir and switches to a more generic darjeeling or assam will be sorely disappointed. This is not a flavored tea, but nonetheless, hints of honey and chocolate are distinctive in the aroma; nearly as strongly as in Harney & Sons’ Elyse’s Blend. I would imagine that left long enough it could get bitter, but it seems reasonably tolerant of time and temperature, reliably giving a full-bodied brew with no objectionable spikes in the flavor profile. I debated rating this one up in the 90s, holding off only because I haven’t yet settled into what the bounds of my rating spectrum properly are yet, and how I’ll account for my mood and comparison across individual teas, blends, herbals, etc. But within the category of undoctored blacks, this is definitely near the top.

Gaaaaaah! This is not my cup of tea. It might be yours though. This Yunnan offering from Adagio is a darker leaf than the usual Yunnan, and rolled into wee balls. The smell of the dry leaf is musty and tealike. I missed the yam and apricot smell of my usual cup of Yunnan. First sip was Gaaaaaaah! I wasn’t expecting smoke and oak in my cup of Yunnan, but there it was. There is also more astringency than I like.

Hooray, another Yunnan to try! :D I picked this up in my recent Adagio order because I had a $5 coupon and the sample was $5, so I figured that makes it free! ;) Do not question it! The leaves are very cute. They’re all curled up into little loose balls, bi luo chun style. Mostly dark with some golden tips in there too. The dry scent is strong malt with honey and a hay accent – pretty much what I expect at this point. I brewed this twice, first at 4 minutes and then at 3 (not a resteep, with separate leaves each time).

I did 4 minutes first, because it’s the average time for this tea on Steepster. The leaves get pretty big when they unfurl! :D Smells mostly malty with some bread and honey notes mixed in. The taste seemed kind of one-note to me. It was a ton of malt with a little earthy smokiness in there. Meh. Trying again.

Then I did 3 minutes in hopes I would get some other flavors. The aroma was similar, with more honey and some hay as well. I still taste mostly malt, but now there is some honey in there and none of the earth and smoke taste. Still not a super complex flavor profile. I added a bit of sugar and I felt it helped to round out the taste for me. I found this tea pretty good but not great. Somewhere between H&S Tippy Yunnan and Yunnan Golden Tips.

On another note, I saw several reviews for this on Adagio in which people said it didn’t have the normal Yunnan taste. This confuses me a bit because in all the Yunnans I’ve tried so far, the predominant flavors have been strong malt, bread, and honey notes. And this tea definitely has some of those. So I guess I don’t get what the “typical” Yunnan taste is supposed to be. :P

This is nutty and delicious for a hot morning cup!

1 tbs tea 8oz water 1-3 min 2- 3 steepings

Not too shabby

This tea has a gorgeous velvety liquor and it always surprised when I took the first sip from each cup. I loved the way that it felt drinking. I would definitely recommend it for its delicacy and boldness as a everyday tea.

This hits the spot when its freezing cold outside and I want a woodsy, malty black tea to warm the bones. Its very complex at different temperatures. Right after steeping, it’s very earthy, almost smokey, with a malty finish. After cooling, some sweeter notes came out and they lingered on the tongue before fading to a wine-like taste. Definitely a favorite for breakfast!

I also had to extol the shape. These leaves are wrapped into little spirals and snails, making it very easy to spoon out with a baking teaspoon, unlike leafier teas that can be a pain in the butt to measure.