Yunnan Sourcing

Beautiful. Sweet notes of dried fruit/raisin, chocolate/malt/rye bread with the very tiniest hint of floral earthiness. Smooth and flavorful.

Sipdown.

Ubacat gave me some of this in a swap last summer, and I’ve been slowly drinking it down. However, I’ve never noted it until now. Weird.

This definitely has a green, vegetal taste, but there’s an earthiness to it underneath that reminds me of moss. I have to admit that I’m not as big a fan of green tea as I used to be, and nutty, beany teas like this one are part of that shift.

The best part is that I was able to take the tin I stored this in and re-use it towards housing that big-ass bag of Golden Monkey Black Tea that I got from Teavivre earlier this week. :D

Backlog 16 June 2016

Well, quick thought before I dig into the review. It has been a LONG week. I’ve had forty students this week, and after spending a total amount of 120 hours with them between three weeks, I think we’ve all gone a bit daffy. I love them all, but after this week, I need tea—and a lot of it.

I wanted some tea that was stronger than Sencha, Chamomile, or an herbal/rooibos blend; therefore, I dug this tea out from the “Samples from Tea Friends” box. Yeah, I happened to start drinking it after 7:00 P.M., when I needed a full eight hours so that I could get up the following day at 5:45 A.M. to get ready for the day. However, I was so hyper/tea drunk, that I ended up saying, “The heck with it, I’ll keep drinking tea” until 12:30 A.M. And the result was a bit interesting.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGvBgTXg-6n/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGu0WmfA—g/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGvC8ZDA-9n/

A quick note on the flavor/color of the liquor before I decide to run away from the computer, to spend the day lost in the woods…..It was an enjoyable ripe pu-erh, and the chrysanthemum gave it a nice sweet floral bite. I jotted down, “malty floral flavors, with those wet wood, earthy, and sweet river nectar (?) notes.”

Overall, ‘twas a great session.

P.S. This sample was given to me by Kirkoneill1988 via tea swap. Thank you. It was quite fun.

P.P.S. This is a cheap tea that’ll blow your mind and get ya pretty tea drunk. Great for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up.

http://yunnansourcing.com/en/2013-yunnan-sourcing-pu-erh-teas/2400-2013-yunnan-sourcing-xue-ju-shu-pu-ripe-pu-erh-and-snow-chrysanthemum-tea-brick.html

This tea has a silky mouth-feel and a rich, earthy taste. The fermentation taste is a bit strong at first, but by the 3rd steeping it mellows considerably.

Not my favorite sort of tea taste, but definitely an enjoyable experience.

this tea was recommended me by James fr Teadb. its not a first try, ive had it before. yesterday it was quite powerful, i dont remember experiencing such strong qi from this tea. it was very nice, sweet, menthol cool, with quick powerful huigan. But… i think it had so much effect on me that i acted like 3yrs old and hurt my friend’s feelings. Im sorry. it must be a weather too. i have to blame it on something. it wasnt me, its them

https://instagram.com/p/BGrrOnUBwrG/

Well, I’ve never had bi luo chun before. Is it supposed to be salty? Because… it’s…. strangely salty? Not in a super overpowering way, but definitely a little salty. Huh.

The leaf itself is pretty—pale, and a little crunchy and moist, very cute in their little swirls. Smells nutty, like most of my Chinese green order. The broth is a light gold green tea liquor, deliciously sweet and creamy and nutty (quite a lot like cashews tastewise, actually), but with that saltiness to it that kind of reminds me of soy sauce a little bit. It starts off heavy on the nut and smooooth, becoming somewhat floral towards the end with an additional bit of bitter and astringency. It coats the back of your throat after sipping, leaving a strong aftertaste and lingering presence.

I liked this the best out of the three greens I ordered and it was definitely the most unique, I thought, but be sure to wash your teaware carefully after brewing this one as it gave everything else a salty tinge to it too that I poured in the same cups, ^^;

I tried this one both western-ish style and in a gaiwan. I think I preferred the western, although I probably also messed up the steep times on the gaiwan and did roughly gaiwan recommended steeps on the western so… heh.

I’ve managed to come out of this with almost no notes. I can tell you what this tea is not: It is not bitter or astringent or smokey. It doesn’t brew up very dark. It doesn’t get super earthy or really anything for that matter.

It is however very pleasant to sip one while reading. It’s subtle and I can’t decide if it’s the sort of subtle that I shouldn’t bother with or the sort that I should keep around for peaceful mornings.

A nice a floral medium-light roasted oolong. The orchid note is predominant, but theres also a butteryness like shortbread cookies and a fruity note of peach. Sweetness is moderate but not overpowering.

My overwhelming impression was of bitterness.

Beneath the bitterness, there was a flat, uncomplicated sort of vegetable taste, with a bit of earthiness.

Shortly after reviewing this tea last time I drunkenly ordered a cake remembering how much I enjoyed it. I’m glad I did as it’s just as good as I remember. Fairly cheap, smooth, has had 5 years to mellow out the strongest bitterness, but still very green and young. Basically all the qualities I like of Lincang material without the harshness that cheaper offerings contain. Because of the mellowness this is a great candidate for large steepings. I’ve been returning to 10-14 grams in roughly 250-400 ml cups which has treated me well. Having a lot of leaf, but still relatively dilute for gongfu gives me no less than 15-20 steeps per session all with a strong vegetal flavor, thick mouth feel, and distinct lack of harsh bitterness. This is a perfect tea for when I have time to return to drinking throughout the day. Strong contender for my favorite young sheng, and one that many newcomers might miss in the large volume of Yunnan Sourcing’s older offerings.

My favorite of a group of 5-6 samples of 2-5 year old shengs in the $30 to $60 range from Yunnan Sourcing. This cake had a very pleasant youngish sheng flavor with almost no bitterness. In fact I could hardly get any bitterness even when I tried with near boiling water in later steeps. Not to say that this is a boring tea at all, there’s plenty of good flavor packed in there, it’s just very mellow and relaxing. The loose compression also was a positive for short term drinking. All this considered, this is a cake I will likely purchase at some point as an excellent daily drinker.

Tickles my taste buds.

Shortest review ever: yancha cocoa puffs. mmmmmmmm

This one has grown on me. I didn’t expect to like it so much, but it’s a pleasant and palatable tea. May actually buy a brick of this one.

Ok, letting the leaves air out for a little while definitely reduces the moss aroma revealing a really pronounced plum/sweet tobacco scent.
Giving it more leaf and more time in the teapot adds body and a very nice crisp finish (sort of a light tartness perhaps). The moss flavor is now more of a background note tasted more towards the back of the throat but it doesn’t last into the aftertaste. The taste of plum and stone fruit is front and center now and very good. No bitterness detected and if there is any astringency it is more of a tartness.
I don’t know if I’ll buy this one in quantity given the size of my current tea collection and the teas yet waiting in my wishlist, but if someone were brewing up a pot, I’d be the first one to the table.

The wet leaves smell of old moss. Oddly pleasant.
Tastes of moss, plum and earth. Not very strong, but pleasant. Next time I’ll brew it a bit stronger (more leaves, more time)

Really solid Da Hong Pao. Miles better than the cheaper “Light Roast Da Hong Pao” they offer at Yunnan Sourcing.

It tastes rich, roasty and smooth. Will do a proper tasting note sometime soon.

I believe each one of these are different…

Anyways, this smelled good even before the brew which made me happy. The result came in as a nice semi sweet brew over and over. Not as delicate as CLT or even W2T Smooch (which surprised me), but it’s a solid material that has depth that comes through in the later steeps. These seems to be good as young as they are with those sweet notes and vibrancy of the raw pu’erh in there.

This is either a good wake up morning sheng or a store away for awhile. Some upfront astringent notes with a moderate color alluding to it’s stronger taste profile; in this case young bitter ball :)

Another strong malty tea. This one benefited from me leaving it open for a couple days to breathe – initially it had a strong hay/dried-grass smell, but as that dissipated I was left with a very malty, somewhat chocolaty brew.

I use half as many leaves with this tea as I do normal blacks – a little goes a long way.

Strong malty tea. One in a mug is enough for a day brewed grandpa-style.

Basically just a cone-shaped version of a premium black pearl. Tea unfolds as you brew. It’s tied internally so the leaves hold together, which makes clean-up a breeze.

Looks more like a deranged spider than a flower, but your imagination may vary.

Strong strong strong! malty flavor. A few leaves go a long way. (I use half as much tea as I would for others)

Moved this to my 300cc glass teapot just because the tou cha is so big (15g).
Same leaves from before and working in my second steeping. Still has reasonable thickness and a the lovely sweetness that has developed. May only get 2 more steeps at 300cc, but it’s a great shou pu’reh and given the number of steeps it’s given me I have no complaints

This Tou Cha REALLY should be broken in half, LOL! It’s pretty large after it expands nearly filling my 170cc teapot right up to the brim. I’m surprised that this one hasn’t been reviewed here yet.
The tea is thick and smooth and due to the amount of tea has to be steeped for very short times after the rinse and first steeping. After the rinse I did 20s, 10s, 10s, 45s (mistake, had to pour off to pitcher and cut with hot water, still damn good), 10s, 10s, 15s. I’m pretty sure I can get another 5 – 8 steeps out of this tea at the very least.
The tea is wonderfully thick and smooth. No noticeable fermentation taste or smell and no bitterness unless seriously over steeped – see above :P. The flavor is full and round tasting of damp old leaves, plums and a lingering sweetness. I usually prefer sheng over shou, but this one is really quite good!