Yunnan Sourcing

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – April 2025 Tea #3 – April 22 – Earth Day: drink an earthy tasting tea

Of course if it’s an earthy tea I need, I’m thinking PUERH.  This one is from Michelle, quite a while ago!  Thanks very much.  I really love this one.  Such a dark, rich flavor to it.  Biscuity, bready, but also something that reminds me of marshmallow?  The treat, not the root, which is something that quite amuses me about an occasional puerh, so I love finding that.   Not even very unraveled yet.  Two more steeps are planned for tomorrow, but I wanted to get this note in! 
Steep #1 // 22 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // 15 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep

It’s ….ok, I guess. Somewhat subtle, which is actually it’s saving grace. A little different, with a taste of hay and cucumber and mild honeydew. Very light color on the liquor. The flavor combination of hay and honeydew is palatable at best, but I don’t want a lot of it, and as the hay flavor emerged by the third steep, I was wishing it was actually more subtle. Unfortunate.. The scent from the gaiwan is strong and sour/woodsy, in a non-the-most-pleasant way.

I did 5g in a 100ml gaiwan, at near boiling (I believe the vast majority of teas (but not all) generally need to be able to stand up to near boiling water). Started at 10 seconds, then did 4 steeps adding 5 seconds between steeps at first, then 10 seconds. But I’m not reaching for it, and probably won’t drink it for a long time.

I acquired this shou 3 years ago, and have had it in 63% RH storage since then. This now 9 yr old ripe Pu-erh (2019 pressing of 2016 material) brewed up to make a very nice, thick & sweet broth that was deep brown and opaque in appearance. I steeped (western style) 5g leaf in 8oz boiling water (after a 10s discarded rinse) for 30 sec the first time, then re-steeped the leaves three more times for 15s each. I’m sure the leaf would have continued for another 4+ steepings, but a quart of tea was my limit. Each infusion tasted the same, with a strong mushroomy flavor and petrichor aroma, with accents of chestnut and tobacco. Without sourness, fishiness, or bitterness, it was very pleasant and a great value. Creamier than, and almost as flavorful as, the tangerine gong ting I previously reviewed at http://steepster.com/teas/yunnan-sourcing/93201. Still available, I’ll rate this as an 85.

I have the Spring 2024 batch, and it is delicious! I like to brew this western-style. In the first cup, I get a strong note of cherry, with some honey and chocolate notes. On the second and third cups, the chocolate and honey notes move to the forefront, along with a tropical fruit blend note.

I have almost finished this cake, it is so good! To me this tastes very “medicinal herbs” with that strong bitterness and almost a smoked sausages quality to it. Also a slight touch of an incense thing going on that makes it intriguing and intoxicating. The cha qi is potent with this one!

I absolutely loved this tea. It was the first cake of pu’erh I ever finished. Beautiful medium compression so the leaves I broke off were always intact…lovely leather/woody/floral flavor with straight honey smell in the cup. Very mellow qi – great for chilling on a Sunday afternoon. I am on the hunt for a similar tea to this one. Yiwu has become my favorite terroir in Yunnan <3

I get notes of chocolate and honey. I like this tea a lot.

I have had this cake for a few years, but I only opened it today for the first time. Until now I would always go for the 2018 vintage. At some point, I should also do a side-by-side comparison.

The tea is really well-balanced and flavourful, and has a supple and smooth texture. At this price, one could hardly ask for more. The taste is quite sweet, but with many undertones – malt, wood, bitter, floral, citrus zest. The aftertaste has strong honey and apricot notes. A pleasant experience overall.

One that I have had in storage for a while and drank before but have not reviewed yet. Drinking the last of what I have this morning. Dark like cacao, mildly smoky, it reminds me of a summer campfire. Pleasant mouthfeel that is not super thick but not too “watery” thin. Will probably need to buy this again in the future if possible.

This has been a wonderful experience to have the past couple mornings. Starts off well, almost like a red tea, but then becomes thicker and more woody the more I drink it. In the end, it leaves me satisfied like I ate a hearty meal. Would actually be a good daily drinker.

This was a fine tea to enjoy for my morning, but nothing to crow about. I recommend it because it is a good quality tea, but not a super favorite by any means. Gets nice and dark in color, average mouthfeel, but not very aromatic at all and does not have a super distinct or bold flavor.

Rested this one for several months after opening to see if the smoke would relinquish its iron grip on the base material:

3-stage filtered L.A. water just off the boil into my white/brown “turned” Jingdezhen gaiwan, then into a Pyrex measuring cup, then a small porcelain cup.

Woven/slightly compressed material, long leaves and plenty of stems.

Sandy brown liquor. Wood fire, cassava, and forest floor in the nose.

Potently smokey but no longer aggressively so if you keep the infusions brief (15 – 20 seconds at first, ramping up slowly). Clay, loam, and nutty flavors dance around the edges. Rich and warming body. Smooth with little astringency (despite the smoke), and no musty notes.

A rustic yet satisfying smoked tea, perhaps lacking the nuance/character of the better aged examples of Liu Bao (though I have limited experience to compare to).

Sipdown

Aroma: Woody & earthy

Texture: Oily & thick

Tasting Notes: Woody, bitter, & grains (rice, wheat, & dried oats)

Additional Notes: 18 infusions!

I brewed this tea grandpa style. It tastes much more like a “typical” Yunnan black tea than the other golden needle Yunnan teas that I have tried. Definitely more astringent than other Tunnan golden needles. A nice middle ground.

I brewed this tea grandpa style, starting with 3 grams and adding a pinch with each infusion.

What a lovely tea! So fragrant straight out of the package, not to mention when the leaves are hydrated. Smooth, not astringent at all, nice thick mouthfeel.

I drank this tea grandpa-style. I add ~3 grams to a 15 ounce mug for the first infusion, and typically add a pinch/a few leaves to each following infusion.

This is by far the best Jasmine Silver Needle tea I have had. It has just the right amount of jasmine and notes of sugar cane. I’ve ordered this tea at least 7 times over the past few years and plan to continue ordering it again and again.

Reminds me of dried plants such as wheat, and hay, specifically alfalfa hay. While I wouldn’t recommend it, all that means for me is I think there are much better teas to recommend if I were. It’s certainly not awful or anything.

Lovely, fresh tea. I agree with many others that it has notes similar to a fresh green field, meadow, or hay. The smell of the wet leaves especially is like fresh-cut grass.

This tea brews a nice, thick, dark color. I am a big fan of very dark pu-erhs. It definitely evokes imagery of a rich, dark soil with rotting wood and mushrooms when I sip it and think. Always love an earthy tea.

EDIT: I have had two pots now. The lingering taste feels, for lack of a better word, “dirty,” as in it coats the mouth. I love this tea! Such a bold mouthfeel and experience.

This lot of Jing Gu White Pekoe Silver Needled White Tea is dated “Spring 2022” and I received it June 1st of that year. I wasn’t impressed with it then, and today — almost 3 yr later — I am still unimpressed. Lots from several other years are listed here separately, and the notes recorded by others seem to be hit and miss. I found the dry leaf to smell of alfalfa hay. My first session used 2.5g leaf in 8 oz boiling spring water, oversteeped for 5 minutes. That was half my usual amount of leaf for western brewing, but the leaf was very bulky (long, hairy needles, as pictured) and I was hesitant. The pale tea was watery, with faint notes of malt, grass and astringency. Weakly sweet despite a nice thick mouthfeel. Resteeping was not too different. A second session was more to my usual process, with 5g leaf and a first 8 oz steeping of 30s, to result in a light blond infusion from the light-hued, olive-green leaves. The flavors were much the same, but less astringent, with weak stonefruit apparent. A resteeping of several minutes produced a golden broth with a grassy aroma, but a more substantial flavor, with malt, hay, and notes of chestnut, akin to a long jing (dragonwell) type tea. This infusion was the best of the bunch, with a nice aftertaste, but just not worth the fuss and price. I’d rather sip on true dragonwell. I’ll only rate this as a 55-point experience, and suggest you sip something else. [For example, EITHER the http://steepster.com/teas/yunnan-sourcing/103292-jinggu-sun-dried-silver-needles-white-pu-erh-tea-cake-spring-2022 , OR the http://steepster.com/teas/yunnan-sourcing/93180-2019-jinggu-yang-ta-camellia-taliensis-white-tea-cake , both of which looks to be made of identical-appearing C. taliensis material, but which were far better tasting, IMO.]

This is a wonderful, sweet raw pu-erh that really reminds me of butternut squash or pumpkin. The fragrance of the steeped and hydrated leaves is like a cozy fall evening. I did oversteep this at first, as I tend to do with raws/shengs, but lowering the steep time significantly helped a lot to make it completely non-bitter.