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This is my first tea from Yunnan Sourcing in a while and my first review in two months. An un-air-conditioned apartment during a heat wave isn’t the best place to drink tea, but fortunately, the weather has cooled down and I’m back in business! I got this spring 2019 harvest just a couple months before COVID hit and turned everything upside down at the start of 2020. I don’t know whether that says more about my tea hoarding habits or how long this pandemic has gone on. I steeped 6 g of tea in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of honey, malt, baked bread, wood, and smoke. The first steep has notes of baked bread, malt, honey, molasses, hay, smoke, pine, and wood. I’d describe this tea as bready rather than sweet. The next steep has hints of cocoa and citrus. Steeps three and four are like rye bread with chocolate chips, which is a thing that should really exist. However, the smoke is also more apparent and the tea has some astringency. Orange is slightly present in the tea and at the bottom of the cup. The next couple steeps are similar, but without the cocoa. As the session winds down, the malt, smoke, and wood become dominant, though the tea remains enjoyable. The final steeps have notes of malt, tannins, earth, wood, and smoke.

This is a nice Yunnan black tea, but it’s nothing special.