Yunnan Sourcing US

I’ve developed a sweet tooth for many of the YS wild arbor black teas (which often hail from the same villages and mountains as their raw pu-erhs), so I thought I would check out a different kind of black tea. I was rewarded with a really nice cup, albeit one that is a little tough to characterize. In one sense it reminds me of a red robe oolong, a tea that I’m not particularly fond of, but wedded to a creamy, cannabis-scented maltiness and you get a delicious and forgiving tea that can handle a longish steep and extra leaf. It’s very nice to drink in the evening on the cusp of autumn, when the perfume and dried fruit seem to presage the coming season.

Here’s Hoping TTB (round 5)

For such a tiny, twisted , black leaf this produces one strong cup of tea. While the flavor is intact with this tea, it is surprisingly a thin liquid. The malty/choco notes run across the taste buds with a vanishing mouth feel. While the flavor is quite nice, I want some sort of mouth feel and/or aftertaste to accompany the brewed liquid’s flavor. This would be a nice morning cup though to be drank along with breakfast food as it would not leave a taste in the mouth which would change the taste of the food.

I’ve never considered myself a big fan of green oolongs, but if I keep on tasting teas like this, I may be a convert.

And it turns out this has to have been one of the best teas I’ve had in ages! The dry leaf of this tea looks exquisite: beautiful, dark emerald green nuggets. It smells exquisite, too: lovely, floral, creamy, and fresh. You can really tell that this tea was harvested only a few months ago. Normally the floralness of green oolongs turn me off because they have a weird sort of astringency to them, but this tea is mild and light.

Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2015/08/tea-reviews-yunnan-sourcing-july-2015-jade-tea-box/

Good morning Steepster,

So same brewing parameter as yesterday, but even tho, I brewed this heavily, WARRIOR STYLE… this tea is ‘all about that bass’ :) It’s a very nice bassey Yunnan black tea, not any off taste nor fancy flavors, it just taste like yunnan black and has the texture of heavy cream.

Good tea all around,
Enjoy!

I must confess I bought this tea b/c I absolutely love how it looks. I’m a sucker for the bi luo chun rolled tea but last year I had the green version of this tea and it was way too green for me :) Who would have guessed. So, I brewed this ‘warrior’ style, ~5-6g in 95ml of water with short steeps. Like I would brew a puerh! The resulting liquor is POTENT, BRUTAL and Tasty, it reminds me vaguely of coffee, as it has a weight to it.

Proper review time:
Dry Leaves: Smell of milk chocolate
Wet Leaves: Cacao and Dian Hong smell.

Taste: Oh my, the first infusion have a really clear cacao after-taste, after a couple of infusion that aftertaste become dominant in the taste too. The texture is basically the same as heavy cream or jam :) As state earlier, it’s a tea to be drunk really slowly, I feel it going down into my system very clearely, and like coffee, I feel a ‘returning flavor/weight’.

Anyway, a very good tea. Drink it slowly, BREW IT HARD
WARRIOR STYLE :)

ps: Is there anything I don’t brew hard!! :)

This tea is the first one of my big hongcha order I review.

This is a really simple yet delightful hong cha. It taste everything like a hong cha should
taste. There is a bit of a cacao’ey taste and aroma comming through in the later steeps.

A good tea but nothing stellar. Cheap daily drinker…

Bought this a while ago and finally giving it a go. I mostly drink oolong but have been somewhat hesitant to buy them from Yunnan Sourcing as I think they are really average teas and not much definition. That said I do like all they offer in greens and pu erh, that’s where they shine. This tea is from the US website and must of been sourced prior to the Taiwan Sourcing site going live.
Dry leaf has usual floral hay scents, the liquor is deep golden with a definite creaminess, floral bouquet and mild char from the roasting. You can get a hint of chocolate from the first couple brews as the website suggests. After the first 6 steeps flavors drop off but still the structure is there in the viscosity and color. I played it out for a total of 12 steeps.
Now I have to re-examine my purchasing to include more oolongs from USUS.

This is by far perfection in a cup. The leaf consists of small vibrant emerald curled to resemble claws. These delectable treats smell of spring in full swing. The scent was like a deep vegetal garden with flowers blooming all over. I placed these sweet smelling herbs in my yixing and shook em up. The scent deepened to an oceanic seaweed that was mixed with forest moss covered it dew. I brewed up and prepared for my mind to be blown. The taste of this brew brings the phrase “nectar of the gods” to mind. I really can’t describe it. The flavor is rich, creamy, vegetal, floral, and transcending. With each sip, my mouth is left with a thick warm coating of milky goodness, hahah. This is by far the best TGY I’ve ever had, and I highly recommend it to anyone. The aroma, taste, and leaf quality was completely on point. This will definitely be something worth showing off.

https://instagram.com/p/3t2cRzzGTB/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

https://instagram.com/p/3t3OJUTGUj/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Bought a 25g sample of this with my last order to Yunnan Sourcing US. IT is described as having a licorice flavor. That is one interpretation but I feel it has more of a grape note to me, like a muscatel darjeeling tea. In any case its quite good, if expensive. It was $12 for the 25g sample although they were running a sale at the time. I only brewed this western style and it deserves gongfu but I’m on my way to work so no time.

I steeped this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 min.

This tea has just become one of my favorite black teas! Very aromatic, very potent. And a really good value from Yunnan Sourcing at only 6$ / 50g. At the time I got it it was still fresh that there’s a green tint to the leafs once brewed. It has this kind of unique, complex, sweet taste, that stays with you long after the cup is done.

A tea from Dexter. Thank you!

(I have a LOT of teas from Dexter. A lot I haven’t even tried yet!)

This one is roasty/carby/verging on chocolate-dirt for me. It’s totally drinkable, but I think that perhaps it’s just not my “thing”.

Thank you for sharing, Dexter.

Hmm, this sounds like something I would like but somehow I am not loving this particular tea. It is flavorful but also on the tobacco/bitter side of things, at least when you steep it for 2 minutes. So maybe the answer is to gong fu it. I hope I find some way to enjoy it as I now have 50g. Not leaving a rating for now…

Bought this with my recent Yunnan Sourcing USA order. This review is based on a single western style steep so I am sure there are more nuances to the tea. There is a lot of fermentation flavor to this tea, it is think with it. It also has a nice natural sweetness to it. There is one other note too, it has a spicy aftertaste to it, not entirely unpleasant, just spicy.

I brewed this once in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 9g leaf and boiling water for 30 sec.

This is a malty ans somewhat sweet tea. When I brewed it I was for some reason thinking it a black tea so I brewed it at the wrong temperature. It is listed on the Yunnan Sourcing USA website under black teas. It is tasty and a good tea but I am not feeling any effect from the GABA. I find GABA to be hit or miss and that usually means miss.

I brewed this twice in a 8oz teapot with 3.7g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for three minutes each infusion.

This is a fairly tasty ripe puerh with a nice amount of sweetness, very little bitterness, and a moderate amount of fermentation flavor left. I was also experimenting with my new tea toy, the autobrewer from Yunnan Sourcing USA. The first two steeps came out pretty tasty, the third steep was a little weak. The autobrewer is big at 12oz so I didn’t try for a fourth. It does work pretty well, just like in the video on the Yunnan Sourcing Facebook page. You use a small amount of tea but the autobrewer takes about two and a half minutes to brew so it is more like western brewing. It called for 5 to 7 grams of tea and I used about 5.2g or so. Next time I would try the seven gram amount. I wouldn’t want to load the thing with tea like people frequently do for gongfu brewing because you can’t control the brewing time. You could easily fit 15g of tea in it or 20g but I think you would get ridiculously strong tea as it would still brew for 2 1/2 minutes. The autobrewer is a nifty device but it is not gongfu.

First person to review… Well I’ll jump right in! I just recieved this today with my order from scott @ Yunnan Sourcing and it was beautiful. It has filled my cupboard with a sweet cacao aroma. The disk is mostly black with golden “zebra” stripes. It smells of dark cacao and a red grapes. I picked off a generous amount to flash steep in my gaiwan. It can apart easily and smoothly which I enjoyed. Upon brewing, the scent became scrumptious. It smelled of dark fudge and maple syrup. I rinsed the leaves and prepared to consume. I poured out a cup with excitement to taste the delectable brew. The flavor was somewhat disappointing. This is a very decent Dian hong and especially good for the price, but the aroma is misleading. It tastes very bold and robust. The initial flavor is almost identical to Assam. Its a very rustic wood smoke flavor. Its almost difficult to get down with the expectation of a desert flavor. I still enjoyed it thoroughly. Its has a sweetened coffee like flavor. The sweetness does present itself but only until after a few steepings. The flavor of maple sugar and currant fill your senses as a an aftertaste. The liquor is a crimson ruby color and continues this way well into steeping. This is a great value Dian Hong, and its interesting to get black tea in cake form. Yunnan Sourcing never disappoints.

so i already have my beloved ceramic Pristine 2-4 cup English teapot/teaball combo and my equally-beloved Teavana easy tea thingy, but i realized i really wanted to try this gong fu brewing style, what with my continued obsession with all things oolong (and interest in exploring puerhs, raw and ripe!). Enter the Glass “Easy Gaiwan” made for Gong Fu Tea Brewing * 200ml.

This thing is AWESOME! now, i have no way to compare it to other gaiwans, not having used/owned one ever before, but this one surely is a fun and delicious way to enjoy an afternoon (or few days’ worth) of tea. the glassness allows you to watch as your tea unfurls during steeps, the little “handles” plus the knob on the lid keep your fingers lovely and cool while you’re pouring the tea. my favorite bit is that the spout pours PERFECTLY, this is coming from someone who manages to spill any liquid that comes within 30 feet of me, so that’s saying something.

at any rate, this was an inexpensive little item, worth every penny, and even my little boy, who normally ignores mommy’s tea habit, watched me brewing with this and told me this little teapot is really cool. LOL!

get one, i totally recommend.

This tea is mildly astringent with a fairly strong roasted barley taste. At least that is the closest to an accurate description I can give it. Its not bad and not great in my book. I am sure however that some people would absolutely love it.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 3 min.

Bought more of this not remembering I already had it. It tastes pretty good this morning. It has a fair amount of fermentation taste to it. It also has a sweet note. Yunnan Sourcing USA is apparently now out of stock as they no longer list it on their website. I was lazy this morning and this got brewed western style.

I brewed this one time in a 160z Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 30 seconds after a 10 second rinse.

Brewed this one this morning. I won’t change the rating even though it doesn’t taste as good today. My taste buds are off today. I somehow have a cut in my mouth. It hits the spot though.

I brewed this once in an 18 oz teapot with 9g leaf and boiling water for 3 min.