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Here is another review of a Yunnan white tea that I drank back in the spring of 2020. This was the last of those teas that I drank before moving on to a whole bunch of Chinese black teas and oolongs. Interestingly enough, this was also the first loose leaf Yue Guang Bai from Yunnan Sourcing that I tried. I had tried some of their Yue Guang Bai dragon balls in the past, but never their regular loose leaf version. I found it to be a very good offering. I have no clue why I never got around to trying any of the previous productions.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a standard 10 second rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 fluid ounces of 180 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 20 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 minutes 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and 30 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of hay, wood, marshmallow, cinnamon, and eucalyptus. After the rinse, new aromas of peanut, butter, and straw emerged. The first infusion introduced aromas of cream, oats, and cucumber. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of hay, wood, straw, grass, cream, oats, wheat toast, and cucumber that were balanced by subtler impressions of peanut, malt, butter, and eucalyptus. The majority of the following infusions added aromas of malt, grass, coriander, lemon zest, basil, apple, and wheat toast to the tea’s bouquet. Stronger and more immediately detectable notes of malt, peanut, and eucalyptus emerged in the mouth with mineral, coriander, basil, watermelon rind, vanilla, honeydew, plum, marshmallow, apple, pear, almond, lemon zest, and sugarcane notes in tow. A hint of cinnamon was left on the back of the throat after each swallow. As the tea faded, the liquor continued emphasizing notes of malt, minerals, wheat toast, wood, hay, cucumber, cream, lemon zest, and sugarcane that were chased by hints of grass, almond, oats, apple, plum, pear, honeydew, and watermelon rind.

This was not the smoothest or most balanced Yue Guang Bai I have ever tried, but it was extremely aromatic and flavorful. The tea liquor displayed good body and texture in the mouth, and the tea also displayed incredible longevity in a lengthy gongfu session. This one was a winner in my book.