Award Winning Yun Nan Dian Hong Black Tea – Golden Tip

This morning I jumped on Steepster and was so moved by Cwyn’s review of 2012 White2tea Giant Steps that I did the unthinkable. I reached way in the back of my tea cabinet and pulled out my beloved Golden Tips that I was saving. It has a 3 year shelf life and I have a number of boxes of samples yet to be reviewed. Getting through all of them will take a long time. I don’t care. I am going to drink that which was too valuable to open.

As I opened the bag it was heaven – cocoa, sweet potato, malt. I used a healthy pinch of leaf, then reached in and got more. No scrimping. No saving. Not today. I am going to enjoy my tea. I used my clear glass teapot. I’ve never used it before with a black tea. I was rewarded with one of the most spectacular ballets I have had the pleasure of watching in ages.

When I went to pour, things took a nasty turn. I wasn’t paying attention. The lid slipped off the pot (normally I have a finger on it) and smacked the spout knocking it cleanly off. As upset as I am that my favorite teapot is broke, I am more concerned about the cup I was about to enjoy and the leaf that is in the bottom of the pot that would resteep the rest of the day. But you know what, I have more and I’m not afraid to use it!

I am now looking for a replacement clear glass teapot. I had this one http://www.enjoyingtea.com/caseafiglte.html Previously I accidentally bumped it while cleaning and it had a hairline crack along the top of the spout. Today’s mishap broke cleanly across the spout in the other direction, so the two are unrelated. Much as I loved this one I am thinking I might try one with more of a kettle spout.

Now go grab something you are saving and drink it! Just keep your finger on the lid.

Tea of the morning…..

I am down to the dregs of my first 50 grams of this tea. (Luckily, my pack rat tendencies had me purchase 100 grams from the outset!) It is wonderfully caramelly, sweet potatoey, with a bit of maltiness. I love this one. And I am enjoying my crisp, nearly-summer morning before the wheels get rolling.

Usual teapot method.

I waited to pick the third tea for my guest until I had seen her try shu puerh and jasmine silver needle. I used her opinions to pick the final tea, and was leaning toward black tea since she loved the puerh but it had to be just the right one since she had been scared off by a bitter black tea someone else gave her. I called in youngest to help with suggestions. She said, “What about the one we had last week that was so good?”

I turned to my friend and asked, “Do you like sweet potatoes?” “I LOVE SWEET POTATOES!” It was almost a roar! I laughed and pulled this pouch of tea.

This time I got out my tray and tiny teapot with a fair cup. We’d had two teas western style, now she could see gong fu style!

She smelled the liquor and was astonished at the remarkable scent of sweet potatoes, so distinctive. She sipped and said, “This is it! This is my favorite. I liked the others a lot, but this one is perfect. I could drink this all the time.”

She is right. It is a remarkably good tea and I am getting a little low. So I guess that is one more to add to my next order.

It’s been a busy day, so no real tasting notes on this, but I’ve reviewed it plenty of times. It’s a lovely buttery rich brew, no astringency, smooth & sweet, & I can drink it on an empty stomach whilst contemplating what to have for breakfast, & that’s what I did this morning.

Tea of the morning. I was getting more caramel notes today than usual. Maybe it’s because I used close to 3 tsp of leaf. I still have a little bit of this sample left, so I will have to try over leafing again to see if I can re-create the delicious caramel notes
Resteep was just about as good

Many thanks to Teavivre for this generous sample!

Oh, this one is fantastic! Gentle, golden, BRIGHT sweet potatoes! I’ve had only one other of this type of tea, and in comparison, this has a bit of…orange? to it. Sort of like you put a touch of orange juice in your baked sweet potatoes? And let me also emphasize the word baked. There is definitely some sort of delicious crust to this ;) This is one special unflavored, delicious exactly as nature produced it tea!!!!

I have to also add that the leaves are so fluffy and gorgeous! They smell so wonderful, too.

Rumor has it that this is an excellent resteeper, and what good timing – I am in the mood for steep after steep today! Off to make some more water :) This is GREAT!

Sample sip down! One of the teas I brought with me that arrived before I left for the cottage that I took so that I wouldn’t have to add them to my cupboard ha! This is a really nice black that I. Happy to have tried. Theres a smoothness to it that I quite like.

I got a new round of tea samples from the wonderful Angel at Teavivre. This is the first one from the new set and I decided to actually write down the steeps in my journal before logging them into Steepster. It was fun actually writing down a tea tasting in my neon pink ink.

Steep 1: Brewed for two minutes. The tea smells dark and the liquor is a deep warm brown. The first taste is more earth and then a slightly sweet taste creeps in along the sides of your tongue. I looked at the tea packet and saw that it suggested a lower water temperature than I used so I am going to try a lower water temperature with the next steep and see if that changes things.

Steep 2: Brewed for 2.5 minutes. The liquor is slightly paler, but not by that much. It looks more like a dark topaz. It smells slightly like a sweet potato that has been taken out of the dirt and then quickly sprayed off so that it is clean but bits of earth are still clinging to the skin.

The taste is amazing. A very faint cocoa note that mixes with the previous taste to make an amazing slightly sweet rye bread. The kind that is just out of the oven. The crust is crisp and the crumb (the soft part of the bread) is so soft that it deflates in your mouth and releases a burst of flavor. So delicious.

Steep 3: Brewed for 3.5 minutes. The liquor is a light bronze. The flavor of rye bread is still there but it has a slight sweet potato taste to it now. This steep is a little watery, but I think if I had brewed it for another minute it would have been better. This is the last steep for the night.

Overall, this tastes very different from the full leaf version, but I love that it is so different. It just tastes good and makes me think of a warm kitchen when I was little. My mom doesn’t like rye bread so she never made it, but she did make bread. I can let my imagination fill in that it tasted like this tea and I would be content wherever I was at the moment. Delicious.

Okay, something crazy has happened to me. Ever since I had that extraordinary cup of Laoshan Black, I’ve been craving a cup of black tea every morning. It’s crazy! I’ve never been a huge fan of black teas! Especially not unflavored and unsweetened black teas. The world has gone insane! Insaaaane!

So because I’ve never had this fondness for black teas, I have no black teas in my collection. None! I wake up this morning with a craving for a black tea knowing that I probably have none. With I sigh, I rummage through my samples to find a puerh or dark oolong or something else that might be like black tea. Then I come upon this sample from Teavivre! I’ve sampled this tea before and couldn’t find anything special about it. At the time, it just tasted like black tea. Whatevs.

But today! Today was different! The leaves smell so sweet and pastry like! Like a biscuit! And the flavor! I definitely am finding that baked sweet potato everyone is talking about! Tasty! Sweet potatoes baked with a touch of honey and and dash of spice! What a lovely fall tea! Now I have a whole category of tea to be obsessed about! And I will need more tea to add to my stash! Halp!

Gotta move this rating up from 70. 70! What was I thinking?!

Edit: Might I just add this this tea is perfect with a holiday morning breakfast of amaretto matcha brownies. Yes, brownies can be for breakfast because I’m an adult now! Sorry Mom!

Has anyone else tried this in a gaiwan? I forgot I had it, and so I got it out for some gaiwan steeping.

I also paid no attention to how long it was going. I’m gonna guess 10 seconds for the first steep, because I counted to 15 for the second.

It’s so sweet! I don’t really taste anything other than sweetness in this, but it’s soooo good. Like sparkling sugar.

I ended up steeping this a total of 7 times in the gaiwan. None of the steeps were as good as the first two. I am not sure I like gaiwan steeping for this tea because it loses out on that baked sweet potato taste. I could smell it in the 4th steep at least, although it was very citrusy/orange. But it didn’t translate into the taste at all.

Oh well. I also got a sample of more of this in my last Teavivre order because I wasn’t paying attention at all. But I’ve had this one for a long time so maybe I’ll try that one out with this style of steeping.