Yunnan Noir

So I am in the “happy” position of having the course schedule of dumb. Specifically, on Tuesdays, I currently have class from 9-10 am and then 3-9pm. THREE TO NINE WTF.

I may drop one of the courses, but it will, sadly, not be the one that ends at nine.

Anyway, a day like that requires LOTS of tea, currently I am carrying Yunnan Noir with me (little known fact: just hot water from the coffee carts costs 5 cents, and bringing your own container gives a 5 cent discount, and therefore…—A WITCH—, I mean FREE TEA while I’m on campus!) It is serving well, so far, but it is a little…dry. Not to mention there is the whole finicky about steeping time thing. Not the ideal tea for a busy day, really. Oh well!

Sipdown. Infusion number one before I head off to work.

(Edit several hours later)

So I did like 2.5? teaspoons of this in ~2 cups of boiling water. Didn’t let it steep quite as long this time, maybe 4 to 5 minutes.

PER. FEC. TION.

It was so good, when I drank it at work I had to stop and close my eyes for a moment, even though I was drinking it out of the traveling cup that tends to taste like dishwasher detergent. All of the right amount of malty and none of the wrong amount of mushroomy. This is how it’s done. Having a second infusion tonight as I practice my bass. A great way to finish off this sample I’ve had kicking around for a few months.

Tea of the morning (my that seems so long ago) shared with the husband, thanks to Michelle! A decent black tea, not astringent, nothing offensive, held up to three infusions but no shining qualities either, except perhaps the cute comma shaped leaves. Husband said it mostly tasted like tea, but he could tell it was a Yunnan, that may be progress, or he might have just been saying that. It didn’t have strong sunshine and buttery toast qualities that I associate with the better Yunnan blacks, but then again I was drinking it with toast and butter so perhaps it got lost ;)

Okay, I’m pretty sure I’m in the minority here, but I love Adagio’s new bags. They are cute and I like the feel of them and even the samples are resealable. I don’t know about everyone else, but I have a big box filled with empty tea tins – I don’t need more of them to clutter up my pantry. Yay for bags!

And yay for cute little leaves! These are little black and gold not-quite-pellets and smell malty and fruity sweet and possibly a little cocoa-y. The leaves unfurl easily while steeping and brew into a pretty dark liquid. Mmm, that smells very rich, sweet, smooth and malty.

Maybe my taste buds are wonky because everything is tasting sweet to me. Or maybe I’m just gravitating towards sweeter teas… Anyway, this one definitely tastes sweet. Sweet with a hint of grain (barley-ish?), smooth, a little bright fruity (plum? fig? blackberry?) on the front, a tiny hint of toasty on the end. It’s a very smooth tea that is surprisingly mild. The aftertaste really seems to stick around which makes the mildness of the next sip surprising. As it cools, a little astringency builds up but only to the ‘refreshing’ level, not the ‘uncomfortable’ or ‘unpleasant’ and makes the toasty want to turn into smoky (though it doesn’t quite make it there). And my empty cup is giving me whiffs of hot chocolate, which is interesting since I didn’t really pick up any cocoa notes in the taste.

This is actually very pleasant. Definitely recommended to anyone that likes the smoother Panyang or Fuijian type teas. (Yes, I know, Yunnan Noir is the name, but it’s so fruity sweet and smooth that I can’t help but associate it mentally with Panyang or Fuijian teas, just a slightly stouter version of them.)

This was my first cup of the day, and it’s actually pretty good!
It’s got that deep dark bready chocolatey maltiness that I love first thing in the morning (and really anytime of day). A drank it in bed with the Love of my life. A perfect start to a perfect goof off day.

This one couldn’t brew fast enough. It is 2 degrees here in Chicago with -15 degree wind chills, so as soon as I got to work I pretty much ran to the water dispenser. This is definitely one of my all-time favorite teas. I love all Yunnan blacks for their peppery taste, but I love the red wine and sweet cocoa qualities in this one. I could drink it everyday.

squiggle ropes. ANOTHER very very pretty tea.
hand-rolled and elegant. i need to buy a small glass globe necklace or something. so i can wear a little tea around my neck sometimes.
for me, this tea is mellow upfront. even the scent is just slightly malty. then it turns into a warmer flavor, maybe that’s the chocolate notes? ending with a little dry aftertaste, which i like.
gentle and dark. that’s my short hand.

i’m really glad i have a lot more to try of this sample from TastyBrew. i’m gonna try to wrangle my ADHD boyfriend’s attention for long enough to have him notice the leaves as they steep. cuz this is another one of the teas i’ll have to keep an eye on before he drinks it all up in a blink.

This tea is good. It’s one of my first experiences with a Yunnan, and I really like it. I poured it out of the sample package, and the leaves are tightly rolled, shiny and almost snail-shaped. I steeped a few pinches in a paper tea filter. It’s the first time I’ve used a paper filter, and the first time I’ve tried this tea, so I suppose I wouldn’t be able to tell if I was getting paper flavor in my tea, but I don’t think I do.

This is a black I really like. It’s almost a heavy sort of mouthfeel, like it’s solid. There’s a bit of noticible astringency, but it’s not too strong. At the beginning, it almost reminded me of coffee, and as it cooled I’m starting to get some more cocoa notes in here. It’s very smooth.

I loved it! I steeped it a bit long the first time because i walked away from it, so it was steeped for about 6 minutes which made it too strong for me, but on the second steeping it still held a rich smooth flavour. It’s kind of like Black Dragon pearls but more rich. This is the perfect morning tea. If people like English Breakfast, they’ll likely love this! I have to add milk to it, but it’s a great new tea for me!

So good news… GOT MY ADAGIO SHIPMENT IN TODAY!!!!!! I was so pumped i bout dove into the box. This is one of the five i picked, basically, at random from the black tea list and was entirely to happy to have picked a Yunnan… funny thing though, i ended up picking 3 Yunnan and was ok with it.

I brewed at 3 minutes and 15 seconds at 195F. i added a small bit of honey and its really all it needed. First sip without sweetener, i picked up on a bold dark cocoa and maybe a little pepper, as well the aroma of the tea was strangely fruity and very sweet.

After the first couple small sips, i added honey and a smig of milk. This tea works very well with others, becoming very creamy and charming, building with the honey for a wonderful medley of flavors. As the tea cooled a bit, the tea flavor subsided a little and a natural fruitiness broke through. A perfect end to a damn near perfect tea.

I am a Yunnan fan and it just hit the spot for me. Thank you all for your suggestions and i’ll will talk to you all in the morning.