Award Winning Yun Nan Dian Hong Black Tea – Golden Tip

Second of my samples generously provided to me by Teavivire – I am loving them so far!

I’ve had a bad experience with Yunnan’s in the past due to the fact that I found the one I tried (from Upton) to be quite smoky. I just don’t like the smoke, guys. In anything. Ever. It was suggested (by Tabby, I think) that maybe I need to just lower the temperature to reduce/avoid smokiness (despite Upton’s label saying to brew at boiling). I’d already passed the Upton tea on to someone else at that point, but when Angel at Teavivre offered this one I eagerly accepted.

Sure enough, the suggested brewing temperatures on this tea were about 20 degrees lower than my previous one. The leaves in the sample were beautiful – gnarled and golden and huge. The dry leaves were malty smelling – I picked up on a hint of sweetness, cocoa or caramel-ish but only very lightly so. I didn’t pick up on any smokiness in the scent, so I was very hopeful as I scooped about 3 heaping tsp. into my Breville.

Once steeped the liquor was that rich, mahogany dark brown I associate with black teas. No smoke in the steeped smell, either! Instead just an assam like maltiness. On the first sip the first thing I really picked up on was the full-bodied texture of the tea – it has a fabulously smooth mouthfeel. The malty scent carried over into the taste, where it blends with the taste of dark chocolate. I’m loving this without sweetener, but I could see it being strong enough to handle milk and sugar if that’s how you like your black teas.

What a wonderful morning tea – I am so glad to know that Yunnans are a tea that I can and do enjoy very much!

So I hate to admit this, but a while back I lost some of my tea samples. Yes, lost them. ;~; And I felt terrible, because included in the lost tea were many of my samples from Teavivre. I’m so sorry, Angel, but I finally found them! They were tucked in with the granola… what they were doing there is a mystery, as is who put them in such an odd location. I’m just going to blame tea-loving ghosts.

This is a gorgeous tea, little golden strands in my steeper that unfurl in to large, fat leaves of the most beautiful gold-brown shade. They’re so fluffy, reminds me of sheep wool for some reason. Actually what they really remind me of is fairy tales, Rumplestiltskin spinning thread into gold—I imagine this is what the result looked like.

The smell is heavenly, like raisin bread baking in the oven. Yeasty, warm and soothing. One sip of the golden brew and I’m transported to a bakery! Sweet potato rolls, fresh bread, warm honey, those are the notes I’m picking up from this. It reminds me of Bailin Gongfu, but lighter and less malty. There are some soft cocoa notes at the end of the sip, not really chocolatey but like the smell of cocoa powder when you’re mixing it into a dough. Scrumptious!

EDIT: As this cools, a strong orange citrus note comes out, like candied orange rind. The second steep is lighter and more golden, with a stronger bread note and a brief maltiness in the background.

Thanks to Alphakitty I have been craving this tea all day. I placed an order for 100g from Teavivre a couple of weeks ago and I’m still waiting for them to arrive. Thankfully I remembered to put a sampler aside for times like these.

It’s my birthday tomorrow and I hate getting older. Tomorrow I will be 25..me..an adult….I’m married to a man whose almost 30. I mean 30…seems so old.I don’t feel a day over 14. Maybe that’s the problem. Oh look I’ve gone and given myself a sour puss, grump face.

Oh well…tea time. Yun Nan Dian Hong Black Tea – Golden Tip Gongfu style. :)

oh, this is nice! Like others I have noticed the sweet smell of the leaves when you open up the bag, it is quite lovely!

I did steep this in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, it is delicious this way but I should have paid attention to the instructions that said 185… A nice lingering flavor of sweet potatoes and raisins. It’s malty and delicious. I could not not resist adding some soymilk to mine. I am still not used to drinking a lot of black teas plain aside form pu-erh. So I will try this gong fu style again some other time, I think that will be an endeavor well worth my time. Definitely a cuppa worth having around!

Another huge thank you to Teavivre for this sample. I’ve already ordered more, that’s how good this was. When I opened the inside packaging (I love the way they package their tea) I really like how malty yet sweet this tea smelled. The color of the leaves was really pretty too. It smelled sweet as it was steeping too. Almost like it had been infused with honey.

I love the hint of malty flavor (almost like an Assam, yet different) I’m getting while I sip this. Again there is also a little sweetness to this tea too (I didn’t add anything – it doesn’t need it). This is my second cup with fresh leaves (someone threw out my first batch :cough: husband :cough:. So I hope this one re-steeps as well as some have noted. I can’t wait to get my order. This is one I have to have in my tea cabinet!

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea. It is astounding!

What a deliciously complex cup of tea. I will probably be echoing some of the other tasting notes here, because I do taste the sweet-potato/yam-like flavors, as well as the caramel-y undertones. I also taste a bit of spice to this, like a hint of nutmeg and pepper.

A remarkably good set of flavors to this tea… I’m so enjoying it! YUM!

Backlogging…I first tried this tea a few days ago and never posted my notes on it. So, here it is now!

Work has been r…e…a…l…l…y……s…l…o…w. But when I come home, there’s no time left in the day after cooking, eating, and dishes. I’m currently surrounded by mountains of laundry and an incessantly crying, very needy, high maintenance kitty. If I’m not petting him, he’s crying. So irritating.

But anyway, I’ve been drinking so much green, oolong, and white tea that this is a very refreshing change. I cut open the interior package and took a big whiff of the dry leaves. I immediately said, “Ooh wow!” It smells amazing! I know I’m going to like this one.

I was surprised to see a recommended brewing temperature of only 185 degrees. I only looked at the instructions to double check that it said boiling. But I think this tea does benefit from the lower temperature. And the leaves are sooo colorful! Thin, curly, rainbow leaves!

It’s a very light black tea as black teas go. I can see the bottom of my cup. Of course, that could be attributed to the amount of leaf and steeping time. It tastes incredible! Nutty and slightly sweet. Yum! It’s a very light but complex black tea. Great mouthfeel and taste. Nice umami. No bitterness. Maybe a hint of bitterness at the beginning of the sip, but it quickly dissipates and is nowhere to be found in the aftertaste.

It also has an underlying taste of clean spring water. Really strange but good at the same time. I think I’m also detecting something peppery going on here. There’s just a slightly sweet nuttiness and then a hint of pepper. I discover something new in every sip. This is really great! Another wonderful Teavivre experience!

So I am reviewing this one after my second tasting because sometimes with my palette I have to try it a second time before accurately reviewing a tea. First of all I have to say that I am very impressed with the ATD of this company. In the broadcast industry we call that attention to detail. Never on tea packaging have I seen the origin, factory it was produced in, date it was produced and shelf life. Now about the tea. So as I have matured in my coffee tasting and can pinpoint beans from different regions…so it goes with teas. There is a certain taste quality that you get from Yunnan blacks….slightly smokey…a little peppery…hint of leather…maybe even pumpkin. None the less this is a quality tea and I am quite glad to try it.

Additional notes: A sad sample sipdown. This one is lovely and I’d certainly consider ordering it. One of the best from Teavivre, but there aren’t many bad teas. I remember this being lighter for some reason… the cup is very dark red with two teaspoons 20 minutes after boiling. I guess the Tan Yang is a lot more sweet potato.

2/10 sipdowns to go until 1,500 tasting notes!
http://www.teavivre.com/black-friday-sales/

This is a sipdown and I am sad about it. This is probably on my RESTOCK FOREVER list, but I have too much tea right now so it’ll have to wait.

This tea is two years old, according to the label. It was produced 4/2012, though I don’t think I’ve had it that long. Surprisingly, it has aged really well. At least in taste.

When I was scooping the last of the tea out of my container (which is one of those Teavana with the fabric on them that are so pretty but so expensive), there was a lot of golden fuzz at the bottom. I was like ‘what is that?’ but it didn’t smell like mold at all, though it sort of had that appearance. Cameron on the tea chat referred to it as ‘Golden Yunnan fairy dust’ and I think she might be right because it hasn’t made the taste bad at all.

This is possibly sweeter than it was when I first tasted it, I think. This is an incredibly sweet and malty infusion. I didn’t measure all that well for how much went into the Breville because there was obviously only room for one more pot and then I shook most of the fairy dust over the trash out of the infuser but wow, this is a tasty pot of tea.

In other news, Alestorm is now my favourite band. Scottish Pirate Metal is awesome.