Yunnan Sourcing

This is a tasty and interesting tea. It has a very hard to describe but sweet taste from the sticky rice herb. They don’t use actual sticky rice in this one but a herb that mimics it somehow. There was also a a fair amount of fermentation flavor to this tea. I’d say I noticed the fermentation for the first four or five steeps. It had muted a little since the was fermented last year. There was little bitterness to this tea. There were also no chocolate notes to this tea if anyone is looking for them. The sticky rice flavor pretty much takes over this tea. All the natural flavors of the puerh take a backseat to the sticky rice flavor. That flavor is quite nice actually. I think it is well done in this tea.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 120ml gaiwan with 11.4g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. The tea was not done at twelve steeps. I could have gotten a few more steeps out of it but I had had enough caffeine for one day.

goodbye average tea. Enjoyable to have but not one that i’ll be crying over. had fun trying it out and now it’s on to bigger better teas! :)

nice cup of this today. Smooth brew but nothing out of this world.

Finally back with my tea…too busy doing nothing to drink much today but i did have a cup of this one. haha hopefully i’ll be more inclined to drink tea tomorrow and the rest of the week.

tea from this morning. I am struggling today. can’t focus at work, slept in, no idea what i’m doing lol. I need a redo on today haha still enjoying this tea though there are others i prefer from YS. however, not problems finishing the rest of this up.

moar tea! gotta keep drinking to keep my throat wet haha. Having fun today drinking some of my older teas :)

not as malty as previous years but still a really nice, smooth tea.

spring 2015 version – more to come later but not too shabby. Going to enjoy having this one around

This tea is fairly good. It’s somewhat fruity. It’s not chocolaty. It’s not malty. Perhaps plums or even peaches is a good description of the main note.

I steeped this tea two times in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 3 and 4 minutes. Put the second steeping into a thermos.

Given to me in a tea swap by Kirkoneill1988.

Man, I love this tea. I’m currently on my 16th pot. It has nearly lost every bit of the tobacco flavors in which it started out with, until the past two steeps, but it’s still going. There’re some astringent notes to the tea, but overall, not too overpowering. I like a little bite to my Sheng pu-erhs, though. I will be adding this to my wishlist. I’m glad that I was able to get this much (Thank you again, Kirkoneill1988).

Drinking this again and noticing a fruity note to it again. This time I would say I could pin the note down to citrus of some sort. Strong enough of a note that I’d think they added something if I didn’t know better. It’s a nice tea overall.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 3 min.

This is a fairly nice tea. It has a fruity note to it. Not at all sure what fruit. It’s not a chocolaty tea at all though.

I brewed this two times in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 3 and 4 minutes. The second steeping I put in a thermos for work.

Ok, I’m still very new to tea. This is my first whole compressed cake. I used about 5 grams with boiling water, so it was a bit strong in my 7oz teapot. Ok, I noticed some astringency and fruity notes on the citrus side. I think I brewed it too strong so as taboo as it is I added a splash of light agave nectar and it was yummy. this tea reminded me of the typical teas you get in a Chinese restaurant. I like it but again I don’t have much to compare it to, I’m still a tea newb. I will try again in a few months and since I have two cakes think I will try making it iced. I think it would be good iced. It’s a good tea but not uber fantastic. Smoke notes and fruit with high tannins for the most part. Brewed 30seconds then added more time with each infusion, lost it’s umph around infusion 5

i just noticed i have the 2013 version… but anyhow, this tea has aged well in a few months. quite smooth and mellow

i’ve had enough of this tea to say that it is yummy, however, its not something ill order again. though i suggest you try it.

new pic of wrapper: https://www.instagram.com/p/BGkvqkoJ47x/

2013 nan Jian aromatic cake 702 raw puerh review

Gongfucha ru Yao dragon teapot.

Dry leaf: musty, green
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFUnvFcp4-i/

Wet leaf: green, fruit (unknown)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFUncWwJ495/

Light steep: I taste/smell; slight cream. Light —→ honey, spices.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFUnm0NJ4-U/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFUnhPwp4-I/

Medium steep: I taste/smell; light
—→ cream, honey, spices, smokiness.

Heavy steep: I taste/smell; medium cream. Light to medium —→ honey, spices, smokiness.

maybe i should have used hotter water

All in all a nice tea. A little too plain so I rate it a 90.

http://yunnansourcing.com/en/nan-jian-tea-factory/2709-2013-nan-jian-aromatic-cake-702-raw-pu-erh-tea-cake-380-grams.html

When buying this I thought it was actually made with rice, not noticing that it was in fact a sort of herb. After tasting it, I’m glad it wasn’t because the taste is better than I could imagine coming from rice. The sweetness of the herb works well with the earthy background of the puer and it somewhat reminded me of the taste of buttered popcorn. I don’t count my steeps, but I was still getting some pleasant taste while the brew was starting to become close to clear. I look forward to try the other teas in this set, because this one made a great impression.

Grassy with nutty sweetness. The grass taste is a bit stronger than I would prefer, but not so dominating that it becomes distasteful. I think this will make a good daily drinker green, and I’m just about out of the sencha I’ve been drinking.

I’ve been drinking through my current stash of teas and have really missed drinking a good straight black as its seems I hoard flavors not straights… I should really take this into consideration when I order teas, it’s good insight into my preferred drinking habits… This is a touch savory and a touch sweet. A little bit of chocolate, malt and sweet potato, its darn delicious with milk! I’m glad I picked up a bit of this in my last order from Yunnan Sourcing and may have to consider another quick and sneaky order so I don’t run out.

Not a full review just some notes. I brewed 7 grams of this in my 100ml gaiwan. There is a lot of smoke on the first few brews, with a strong cooling woody/floral note. good balance of sweet and bitterness. Still quite green, with some deeper tobacco and vegetal tones lingering in the shadows of the smoky notes.

This is one of the first puerhs I drank when I first got into puerh in 2010. Back then it was also one of my favorites. Now I can see that it’s not quite the quality I thought it was, but is still very in line with my tastes (smoky/woody).

Sample generously given/swapped by Kirkoneill1988. Thank you again!

Slowly but surely, I’m working through this tea. I have one more assignment to do, and then I’ll graduate with my Early Ed. certification on May 22nd. However, I have to add an extra year to become an “official” Middle Grades Ed. English/Social Studies educator, so I won’t be completely done, yet (but the school with still hand me the certificate so that I can get a teaching job). It is exciting to be nearly finished, and closer to teaching the grade level that I want…It has been a long journey, that has had plenty of unexpected turns and twists, and led to some pretty heavy bank loan debt; however, it has worked out O.K. thus far!

Now, for the tea. It is pretty unique. I enjoy unique teas. In fact, I often go out of the way to acquire them….Or swap for them….

Anyway, the first steep offered a nice sweet honey, slight tobacco, and mineral flavor. The second steep changed a lot—the honey seemed to have left the tea—there was a loose cut pipe tobacco (English Luxury) flavor instead (which was my tobacco of choice when I was 21). Fortunately, I’ve given that up.

I digress.

The fourth steep offered an astringency that I often enjoy in Raw pu-erh, still had a touch of tobacco on the tongue, and the honey flavor had returned. Very dry mouth-feel, but pleasant. Overall, a great cup. Maybe not the cup I’d choose often, but still pleasing.