Jin Si Dian Hong

additional notes:  I’m very sad I gave this an OKAY rating in the past.  I must be sorely missing quality black teas because steeping this one I didn’t really like before was quite delicious today.  I think the trick was majorly overleafing this ancient tea.  I mean, I just dumped the leaves into the infuser.  But with such a light colored, golden leaf, I always forget this brews quite dark, with a lot of depth.  Last time I learned two teaspoons is necessary for a good session and this time it was even more leaf.  I agree with my past note:  mildly smoky, peppery hot chocolate.  This time I would say it was bittersweet chocolate.  I went with three steeps to make up for how much of this pricey leaf I dumped in the infuser… I REALLY miss plain black teas I love (especially fresh ones).  I guess I’m realizing I don’t have too many plain black teas around anymore.  I’m behind on my sipdown goal for the past few days!  Oh no!  Steeping this one up was worth it though.  Raising the rating from 76.   This shop is still around if anyone was wondering!   https://us.nannuoshan.org

edited to add: Note to self: remember to try more leaf with middling golden leaf teas.

I liked this tea…malty and smoky, but smooth at the same time. I steeped it for 2 minutes, and it seemed to work out well. This tea also had more of an earthy flavor than the other Dian Hong’s I’ve tried. Thanks for the sample, Nicole!

No suspense, I say it right now: I love this black Yunnan tea.

It smells very good : dried fruit and it looks beautiful with its golden tips.
Let’s go for 5 minutes into a boiling water.

The taste is very malty with very present earthy notes, really strong. The nice points with this Dian Hong is its soft, mellow texture and its fruity peach and apricot notes, which downplay the earthy and rocky side.

The fruit soften all the beverage and make this tea almost greedy.

The first steep was a very pleasant one but the second was much lambda without real interest imo and with a lack of body compared to the first one.

I really enjoyed the first steep, this is the main information. I’ll probably buy some of this one.

Pic are available here : https://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/jin-si-dian-hong-nannuoshan/

This sample came from my holiday package from cookies. I love Dian Hongs, and I’ve definitely tried my share between Yunnan Sourcing and AliExpress. Yunnan teas were really the first straight black teas I got into when I joined Steepster a few months ago, and I still really love them, especially now that I’ve discovered that a lot of other black teas have astringency. Anyway! This appears to be a pure bud tea, though the buds are smaller and less puffy than other similar teas I’ve tried. Dry scent is slightly earthy with apricot notes.

This is pretty good. It doesn’t quite compare to the pure bud Yunnan teas I’ve had from Yunnan Sourcing, but I think the overall taste here is somewhere between pure bud and regular leaf, so it’s not necessarily comparable. There’s a nice earthy base, on top of which are malt and slightly savory notes. I can also taste some of that Yunnan-y stonefruit flavor, especially near the end. It does have a rather strong mineral taste, which is not my favorite here.

This was a gift from the dear cookies and a complete surprise.

I found it sweet and smooth. I didn’t get peppery, though.

Delicious. Thanks so much, cookies!!!

I get the wild peppery taste and the tobacco. It’s not bitter but there is a distinct mineral-y tang to it as it steeps for longer periods (And wow, does it get dark when you let it go for more than about 3 minutes! It’s almost black!). The scent is lightly smoky and heavily malty, especially when dry.

I don’t get any subtle notes from this. It’s fine but I have had other Dian Hongs that I prefer. This was part of a group order though and it was super nice of them to include bags for the tea we were splitting so that each of us would have a labeled bag and instructions! So high marks to the company, even if this particular tea is not my favorite. :)

And I think the instructions as printed are somewhat off. The English translation may not be quite right. 6 grams is not the same as 4 teaspoons. I think that 5 grams = 1 teaspoon. The instructions say 6 grams (4 teaspoons) to 1/2 liter of water. That would be either 4 teaspoons per 16 ounces (which is pretty close to how I would normally steep my teas) or 1 teaspoon per 16 ounces (which would be very light for me), depending on which is correct. :) So I may not have hit the recommended parameters. I used 1 teaspoon for 6 ounces. Maybe I overpowered the more delicate notes by overleafing.

I did this by little glass teapot method. :) 30 seconds, 60 seconds, much more seconds. :) Overall, I preferred the 60 sec steep to the others. 30 was far too light and more than a minute was too strong for me.