81

I have no clue what the issue has been for the past several days, but I have had no energy to do anything. I have been meaning to post a review of this tea this whole time, yet every time I sat down to do so, I simply never bothered to do it for whatever reason. Now I’m forcing myself to get it over with so I can move on to something else. That being said, please do not make the mistake of assuming that my unwillingness to review this tea in a timely fashion had anything to do with the quality of the tea because, well, it didn’t. This was a very solid Yunnan white tea. It was neither the best nor the most appealing Yunnan white tea I have tried, but it was very respectable.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea buds in 4 ounces of 176 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 16 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea buds emitted aromas of hay, straw, sugarcane, and smoke. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of cream, butter, corn husk, and spinach. The first infusion introduced scents of malt and apricot. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cream, butter, corn husk, malt, hay, straw, and apricot that were backed by herbal impressions and hints of sugarcane. The subsequent infusions introduced fennel, cucumber, grass, and eucalyptus aromas. Stronger and more immediate sugarcane notes came out in the mouth along with belatedly emerging smoke and spinach notes. New mineral, grass, fennel, almond, lettuce, cucumber, parsley, honeydew, lemon zest, orange zest, and watermelon rind notes came out along with hints of eucalyptus. The final few infusions offered notes of minerals, cucumber, hay, corn husk, straw, malt, and butter that were balanced by fleeting impressions of cream, grass, fennel, lemon zest, and apricot.

In terms of aroma and flavor, this was a pretty standard Yunnan white tea. At this point, I have had so many other Yunnan white teas with similar attributes that this one did not stand out all that much to me. It did, however, still qualify as a more or less sterling example of a quality Yunnan white tea since there was nothing off about it. I did have to take a little more care in brewing this tea compared to other teas of this type as it was very easy to coax unwelcome amounts of bitterness and astringency out of it. In the end, I suppose that fans of traditional Yunnan white teas who do not mind a more advanced tea requiring a little more finesse and attention to get the most out of will be those most taken with this tea. I enjoyed it and could see why some people would absolutely love it, but honestly, I think I prefer some of Yunnan Sourcing’s other Yunnan white teas to this one.

Flavors: Almond, Apricot, Butter, Corn Husk, Cream, Cucumber, Eucalyptus, Fennel, Grass, Hay, Honeydew, Lemon Zest, Lettuce, Malt, Melon, Orange Zest, Parsley, Smoke, Spinach, Straw, Sugarcane

Preparation
6 g 4 OZ / 118 ML

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My grading criteria for tea is as follows:

90-100: Exceptional. I love this stuff. If I can get it, I will drink it pretty much every day.

80-89: Very good. I really like this stuff and wouldn’t mind keeping it around for regular consumption.

70-79: Good. I like this stuff, but may or may not reach for it regularly.

60-69: Solid. I rather like this stuff and think it’s a little bit better-than-average. I’ll drink it with no complaints, but am more likely to reach for something I find more enjoyable than revisit it with regularity.

50-59: Average. I find this stuff to be more or less okay, but it is highly doubtful that I will revisit it in the near future if at all.

40-49: A little below average. I don’t really care for this tea and likely won’t have it again.

39 and lower: Varying degrees of yucky.

Don’t be surprised if my average scores are a bit on the high side because I tend to know what I like and what I dislike and will steer clear of teas I am likely to find unappealing.

Location

KY

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