Yunnan Gold Tips (Limited Edition, Chinese New Year 2014)

1000th tasting note! It only took me six years to get here. :-)

I wanted to steep something really special for this occasion. I thought about one of the various wonderful French teas in my cupboard, but decided I had had enough flavored black for one day. I’ve been on a Yunnan kick for a few days now, so I thought I’d look for a highly rated Yunnan I have but hadn’t yet tried.

I have tin no. 23 of this limited edition of 150. Inside the tin, long forest green leaves predominate with some lighter blonde colored tips adding visual interest. The dry leaves smell a bit chocolate-y, a deep, dark, rich fragrance.

I decided to steep at the average preparation parameters rather than the five minutes at boiling recommended on the tin.

I got a clear, dark maple colored liquor with a warm sweet aroma — a bit less sweet than the other yunnans I’ve tried recently but still reminiscent of molasses with some chocolate notes around the edges.

The flavor is quite smooth. No back of the throat grab with this one. Medium bodied, and a bit lighter than I’d expected (might try boiling and longer steep next time). The flavor isn’t overly sweet or sugary in the sip, but has some sweetness in the finish and aftertaste. The funny thing is, I can’t really identify a flavor note in this. I can mostly define what I don’t taste. Unlike some yunnans, I’m not getting a peppery flavor, nor am I getting something I’d call malty. There is something bready about it, maybe a rye note, and while the cocoa note in the aroma gets stronger as the tea cools I only taste it a tiny bit. I’m not getting tobacco or cannabis or any of the other things folks have mentioned.

Some of the other yunnans I’ve tasted recently have had more depth and complexity, but part of that could be preparation, and a lot of it could also be that my expectations of this one were exceptionally high. I’m going to withhold final judgment until I’ve played with it more, but right now, I’m thinking this is quite good but not as spectacular as I was hoping. Ah, well.

I’ve been away from Steepster for a while ! Much on my blog and on a local website about tea where I can express myself in my mother tongue but I missed you all so here I am !

This lovely tea came from Nicole , I was looking for yunnans and she kindly sent me some including that one.

This is a very special tea : a lot of personnality ,tobacco, malt , cocoa and so mellow. For me it is maybe a little too much smocky – tobacco notes are not among my favourites in tea. But I have to recognize it has a lot of personnality and qualities.
This is for sure a great tea, maybe just not 100% for my taste.

Pics of my session with this tea are available here : https://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/yunnan-gold-tips-chinese-new-year-2014-andrews-dunham-damn-fine-tea/

sniffle
Made the last of this today. Had it hot as a latte in the morning, and made Lebanese Tea (iced tea with lemon and rosewater) for lunch. I will miss this!

Thank you Kimquat for the sale a while back! I think it’s a good idea to try for one sipdown and try one new tea in a day for a while. I thought this one would pair well with the Sherlock story I’m reading at the moment (due to the horse in the photo for the tea package – the story is ‘Silver Blaze’ about a missing race horse). The leaves look like a golden monkey though – dark, twisty, hints of gold. The color of the cup is a golden red. The fragrance is already promising before I take a sip. Maltly, molasses, honey, dried hay for those horses — very smooth and very sweet. The second and third steeps never lose flavor (even with the third steep on the next morning)… I think I steeped them perfectly that way. I never thought this one had any sort of chocolate flavor or even sweet potato like other Yunnans might, but it was still a dark enough tea that it was more than just a gold honey Yunnan. I love this one because it’s a Yunnan between the lightest golds and the most chocolate of Yunnans. It’s a shame it’s not available anymore! One serving left for me. :/
Steep #1 // 1 1/3 tsps. // 10 min after boiling // 2 min steep
Steep #2 // few min after boiling // 3 min
Steep #3 // just boiled // 4 min

Sipdown (97)!

My morning tea, which I just enjoyed the last sip of. This time around I added some milk, so I cold drink it right away on the walk to work without burning my mouth. ‘Cause that’s just no fun. It’s really good with milk.

Today I’m tasting cocoa notes, malt, and sweet potato especially, with some fainter almost fruity notes – not stonefruit but maybe something loosely citrus-y? There’s also a slight tang or acidity to this, but not like sour fruit or turned milk or anything. It took a long time to place, but eventually I landed on Sourdough as a fairly apt description of the flavour. That would fit with the faint yeasty flavour I’m also tasting.

Very tastey overall! Now I’m super curious to try more A&D teas – if nothing else, the packaging is SUPER cute.

Hosting Nursing interviews today, so I’ve got this one in my Timolino. It’s gorgeous as ever — the perfect tea for an early start!

Sooo I need to try this again because I’m pretty sure I didn’t wash my mug out enough to really write an honest review of this tea. xD
This tea tasted like bread and sweet potatoes. Which was great. But…
There was still some woodiness in the cup…that really didn’t belong. So I’ll have to try this again. xD Thanks to Boychik for giving me enough for more than one cup! Thanks again for this sample! Will try it again before rating!

On a side note: I’m super excited-They finally put the original The Producers movie on Netflix again! I love Gene Wilder in this one-he’s hilarious! If you like comedies you should definitely give it a try! It’s fantastic! :P

Backlog:

I bought this on Canada Day because they were offering free shipping for Canada and even though I’m not in Canada, I got nervous because it was down to only a very precious few tins left of the tea and I worried that if I waited until the 4th of July when they offer free shipping to us here in the US that I’d miss out on this. As it turned out, they didn’t sell out of this one until after the 4th, so I would have been safe but I didn’t want to miss it!

Anyway … it’s a lovely Yunnan!

Molasses-y and caramel-y. So beautifully sweet! A hearty, robust tea. Warm, earthy, notes of leather. A truly wonderful tea, I’m glad I go this one.

I’m reviewing this one more time to try to pick up a few notes that stand out. This is the last I have of this tea and I’m really bummed. I have a yixing pot seasoned for it and need to find a worthy replacement, so I’m going to write some pointers here to help me when I’m sampling new teas in the future. I just don’t have enough to keep on hand to try side by side with others.

The leaves in the warm pot smell heavily of cocoa, a very mild hint of dill, and a bit of a light roast coffee scent, more of a Central or South American coffee, as coffee terroir goes. The first infusion is a bold, but sweet one. It tastes heavily of brown sugar and oats, a little malty. Reminds me of brown sugar oatmeal, but definitely a more ruch and robust flavor.

The second infusion has some rich dark fruit notes like fig. The wet leaves smell of cooked raisins. The third infusion tastes still somewhat sweet, but with some darker tones like molasses coming through. On the fourth and fifth infusions, a bit of light bitterness/sourness emerges and darker flavors come through, but there is still a good amount of sweetness as well. The brown sugar sweetness continues throughout further steepings, while it continues to be dark and bold in flavor as well, with notes of cocoa, molasses and dark fruits. It gets sweeter again with further infusions.

I really love this tea. I am going to stop my notes here, and hope I can find a similar tea to replace this one with for my yixing pot soon!

I wish I had bought a second tin!

Okay, so I’m at work (10pm to 7am) and I forgot my infusers… No bags also…

So, just floated this bad boy and spooned it out. I really don’t mind doing it this way often (I feel it gives the leaves a chance to really unfurl and fully infuse) and they usually settle to the bottom anyway.

Boiling water in my hot pot in the break room.
About 1 to 1.5 tsp on a 8 oz cup.

Sit for 3 min. First sip was WOWZA! Honey notes, malty, bread, yeasty note. (I work in an ER, saying yeasty didn’t seem quite fitting, but co-workers got a good laugh.) I was apprehensive about liking yunnan. This is my first. Let’s just say I’m hooked!

After about 10 minutes now, there’s a nice bold earthy flavor, still some honey. Not as much honey undertones as golden monkey has.

Now its probably been 2 hours, and its still great cold. Its a bit bitter, but not so much that its not like a good cup of black coffee.