Wild Black Yunnan

Brewed a cup of this since I haven’t had it in a while. According to the blurb, this tea is made of “limited-edition leaves”. Marketing at its best.
It’s not a great Yunnan, and is grossly overpriced for its quality. Anything from Yunnan Sourcing that has “Yunnan” in its name will be better, and cheaper.
That being said, if this is the first and/or only Yunnan that you can get your hands on, it will give you a taste of some of what Yunnan teas have to offer. The chocolatey notes of a good Yunnan are there. It’s not astringent at all, but there is a unpleasant, almost metallic aftertaste to this tea that just shouldn’t be there.
Bottom line: save your money, buy better Yunnans elsewhere. You deserve it.

Definitely not as strong as the Coffee Pu-erh I had yesterday, but this was still a nice, mild, clean tasting cuppa. More details and rating on it later when I have it again. This was a backlog from this morning.

I made this in my thermos at work, and was in /heaven/. I’d forgotten what it was like to have a Yunnan in my cupboard.

Not a touch of bitterness at all, and I remember there being a toasted marshmallow sweetness. Not strong and peppery, this one. A better note will come when I get a chance to sit down with a cup in front of Steepster.

Innnnnteresting.

I got a small sample of this leaf from DJ Booth (thanks!) in exchange for some Black Dragon (I hope you like it!) and I’m glad for the chance to try it.

The dry leaf has almost no aroma at all.

The wet leaf has a strong earthy smell, but more like a wuyi oolong than a pu-erh. That odd kind of pong that some oolong get. I’ve mentioned it on other notes on other teas.

Oddly, the cup itself is not entirely unlike Yunnan golden, just a bit more umph and a bit less fruit. In fact, it tastes almost exactly like what you’d get if you blended wuyi oolong leaf with Yunnan golden.

I’m not 100% sure the combination works for my tastes. But this is great leaf and I’m looking forward to cycling through all the steepings for more insights. I find first steep is rarely typical.

My gaiwan is finally here. EXCITEMENT! Since I have the day off to laze around, drink tea and play video games, I want to try all the teas I currently have, gongfu style. Wild Black Yunnan come on down! You’re the next contestant on “watch Lindsay pour hot water all over the floor!”

1st infusion (post rinse):2 rounded tsp per 250 ml gaiwan, 95C water, 1 min.
This thing is tricky. I did spill about half of the first infusion, but that was to be expected. This tastes more smooth and mellow, even a bit sweet, compared to how I brew tea normally (western). I’m also not getting as many wine notes as usually, which is great because I hate wine. I’ll update this as I progress through more steeps.

2nd round, 90 sec: Just as good as the first! I like this tea much more with this brewing method.

Unfortunately, with my poor rinsing skills this tea only got to three steeps.

A full-flavored, all-round balanced tea that went well for me in the morning and something I would happily drink in the afternoon. It could work well both as a sipper and as something you’d sit down to appreciate for flavor.

There is definitely a touch of honey in smelling the cup but I could also smell hoppy notes. It tastes pleasantly bitter which translates into smooth coating bitterness in aftertaste. Again I can’t help but compare it with good ale aftertaste and hoppy lager coated glass smell. I haven’t noticed any mentioned smokiness or sweetness but there is definitely “this is what black tea should taste like” aspect to it.

In gaiwan it resteepeed graciously for about 5 times, after that keeping the color, flavor starts to diminish which I found perfect for washing off the strong taste of this tea from previous infusions. Interestingly enough the pleasant aftertaste stays for a long time. Overall I did about 10 infusions and latter ones were interesting on it’s own. Overall lightness of those brings out notes very well.

I made note to self that first infusions need to be kept to a short time in order to avoid overpowering bitterness and to appreciate delicate balance of flavor of this tea.

My favourite straight black so far. Earthy, smoky taste that reminds me of lapsang, but no bitterness and not overpowering. I can see it getting bitter if you oversteep it, and I’m not sure how it’s going to resteep. One steep wonder?

Now if only I could get my mother to switch to this from Red Rose . . .

I wasn’t sure how much I’d like this so I only bought 25g. It turned out to be a great purchase and I’ll be sure to buy more when I’m through the bag.

It’s smooth, a bit spicy and malty, and earthy. What a wonderful experience. :)

My first straight black! I bought 10g of this along with 10g each of their Nepal Black, Shikubo Sencha, and Gyokuro…. And I’m trying this one first! Making an attempt to get into straight teas c;

First thing I notice is that its ridiculously sweet! I kind of can’t believe it. Its like an earthy, caramel-honey flavour with a hint of earthy grass – no bitterness at all. Sort of simple flavour profile. Hot damn.

Edit: Getting a bit of this weird cocoa and coffee nib aftertaste now, hmm

I dunno if I’ve lost my palette for black tea, but lately anything that isn’t smokey as hell or some punch-in-the-face-plus-butter Scottish Breakfast stuff tastes kind of the same to me. Or maybe I just burned my tongue, so there’s that.

Some time tomorrow I’m going to sit down with a cup of this and not do anything else but sip and relax, because I’m mussing some of the best parts of this tea. Occasionally I get a good sweetness like everyone else mentions, and the leaf has a clear cocoa smell, but I’m just not tasting it and I really think it’s me. The first time I brewed it, I tasted something like mushrooms and something unrefined and half-vegetal that I’m tempted to call forestal that I sort of like.

I’ll give this another shot, but I’m trying a cup of any of David’s blacks before buying them from now on.

Edit: Gave it another shot. Still not a huge fan. If anyone has a comparable-quality tea or something, I probably still have 40 grams left. Just not feeling it.

Edit 2: I’ve been ignoring this one for weeks since I was kind of disappointed with it and Verdant Tea’s $5 sampler has been keeping me busy. I came back to it with pretty much no expectations, and it actually has a decent mushroomy smell and taste to it. Still kind of expensive for what you get, but I like it better than I did.