987 Tasting Notes
This…. this is a sipdown (starts to cry)
I have yet to find a tea that has this exact flavour profile, but I’m close, I think. Plus, I enjoy a lot of things and I have a huge amount of tea in my cupboard, so continuing to search for a replacement for this is not top priority right now.
But damn, I will miss this. It tastes so smooth and is so hard to fuck up when you brew. This tea takes abuse – overleafing, oversteeping, it’s all good! This was my go-to tea to bring along when visiting the in-laws because it was so forgiving.
I will miss you, Golden Yunnan. I’ll be resteeping your leaves a lot today. (bawls)
I mixed this with the last of some Dian Hong from Teavivre that I just sipped down. The leaves are long and spindly, and the first steep was giving off a nice smoke note. This mix is resteeping pretty well – multiple steeps of dark brown liquor.
Taking this to work with me so I can finish it off there.
Backlog from sometime last weekend.
I made 3 steeps of this in my brand new tiny teapot from the Salvation Army…. and wow. I rarely get the chance to luxuriate in multiple steepings, but I got notes of wood, cherry, molasses. Just great. The first steep was the strongest, but man, the right teapot changes everything!
I drank this twice, actually, but this morning it was a sipdown. Thanks to Ubacat for sharing!
I first drank this a few weeks ago after I finished reading Steles of the Sky by Elizabeth Bear – because it contains a dragon that lives in a lake, and they actually call the location in question “Lung Ching”. Hooray for second-world fantasy series that aren’t set in Europe!
I finished it off today because I finally published my review of the Eternal Sky series, of which Steles of the Sky is the conclusion. Review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2015/08/book-review-the-eternal-sky-trilogy-by-elizabeth-bear/
The tea itself is pleasant and nutty, and produced a really pale liquor despite oversteeping. No astringency, which was nice. However, dragonwell teas don’t really ring my bell – I just figured it would be the perfect tea to commemorate this book/series.
Sipdown!
I took the rest of the dry leaf that was in the canister and I’ll probably resteep this throughout the day – I’m already on my second steep.
This is decent, but I have so many other teas in the cupboard to take care of that I probably won’t restock this for a while. However, I do think that this tea’s notes of chocolate and rose are unique – I don’t have another tea that exudes that sort of aroma.
Flavors: Dark Chocolate, Rose
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/
Another result of sharing a subscription box with Ubacat.
The leaves of this tea are dark green-brown curled nuggets with a thick, vegetal scent that, in addition to the smoke/rubber note I mentioned above, smells somewhat roasted. In fact, it reminds me rather of an oolong than a green tea. Interesting.
I steeped 1.5 tsp of dry leaf in a 12oz mug with 85°C water for 2 minutes. The resulting brew was a pale orange-yellow and smelled similarly to the dry leaf — roasty, somewhat vegetal, but still smoky.
The taste was similar. However, I think this tea is better if you don’t think of it as a really green tea, but as a sort of lightly roasted oolong. Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2015/08/tea-reviews-yunnan-sourcing-july-2015-jade-tea-box/
Ubacat and I are sharing a YS monthly box now, and I’m really happy!
The dry leaf of this tea was long, spindly and dark brown, like little twigs or spider legs, and had a lovely autumnal, roasty smell like corn or barley. Unlike the other two teas in the July 2015 box, I decided to steep it multiple times in a gaiwan rather than do a single western-style steep. I did a 5-second rinse with 90°C water, then 5 steeps of increasing length, starting at 15 seconds and ending at 30 seconds.
The tea from the first steep was amber like beer and had a thick, soupy mouthfeel with a grassy aftertaste. I think I also smelled some orchid in the cup. The aftertaste was sharp, slightly bitter, and had a fresh greenness at its heart, like the inner flesh of a plant’s stem.
But what were steeps 2-5 like? Check out the full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2015/08/tea-reviews-yunnan-sourcing-july-2015-jade-tea-box/
Flavors: Green Wood, Molasses, Orchid, Roasted Barley
awe
I feel your pain. I loved the edge the smoke gave this Yunnan. Too bad we don’t know the farm this came from. Someone else must source it.