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The eagerly awaited A&D DFT Yunnan arrived today!

The husband brought it up. We didn’t wait until I’d rescheduled his eye dr appointment tomorrow. We didn’t wait for the husband to take a shower. We didn’t wait until we were ready to drink it. We opened it up within moments of it entering the apartment.

The tin was wrapped in brown paper instead of in a bed of shredded zig-zags. I liked the art better on this tin than tins from Series 1. This tin opens like a mini paint can lid. I had to open it with a flat screw driver and bang it closed with it. I do not like that about it but am hoping it becomes easier to open and close with time. In the meantime, I’m keeping a screwdriver over the stove in the misc. cabinet. Oh, and we got two Series 4 stickers in our box. Anyone else get two?

The tea leaves were dark brown with golden yellow brown and ash gray mixed in. They smelled smokey and like something else that I can quite put my finger on right now but am hoping will come to mind when I’ve smelt the tea more. It smelled strong, bold, and good but not what I was expecting.

After putting a huge pot of chilli on to cook, the husband pushed to try the new tea tonight even though it was after 7pm at the time and it’s a black tea. So we steeped up a pot. The wet leaves were a dark brown of two shades and smelled smokey, like burning paper in a good way if that is possible. The tea was deep brown in color. It smelled smokey, rich, and full.

Sip sip. Sip sip.

It tastes smokey, no surprise there. But yummy smokey. I thought I wouldn’t like a smokey tasting tea. It also tasted ashy, non-cigarette ashy though, unctuous, and bold. The surprise was no bitterness or dryness. More notes on taste will comes as I drink more of this tea I’m sure. It’s unlike any other tea I’ve had. The husband also liked it but wasn’t as surprise he liked it or as into it as I was.

We steeped a second pot for 5 min. I was expecting it to be watery and need a pinch of fresh leaves to keep the taste strong enough. It was not at all. It was as full of flavor as the first steep but muted, less smokey. I think I liked this steep better. I also drank the end of this steep as I started to eat my chilli and was surprised that it held up to the chilli and complimented it well.

I decided to steep the leaves a third time to see what happen since the second steep went well. I steeped for 6 min this time. It was watery with nearly no tea taste. I threw it down the drain.

In conclusion, A&D’s Yunnan is a damn fine tea, I look forward to drinking it again quite soon, and it’s possibly better than Series 1’s black teas.