Yunnan Golden Bud

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Not available
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by CHAroma
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec

Currently unavailable

We don't know when or if this item will be available.

From Our Community

1 Image

11 Want it Want it

3 Own it Own it

19 Tasting Notes View all

  • “I had a bad humidity/storm headache this morning, and didn’t get into the office til 1pm. I immediately fired up my kettle (excitedly!) though – because my Life in Teacup samples came! I am now on...” Read full tasting note
  • “I’m brewing by the mug rather than the pot this morning, so I’m logging teas faster than normal. This is a sample from Life in a Teacup, and it’s a pretty darn big sample, too! There’s at least...” Read full tasting note
    90
  • “These are some of the most lovely Yunnan Golden Bud-type leaves I have ever seen…almost PERFECT. It infuses to a manly-brown. The taste is smooth but sweet and a true black tea. Very pure...” Read full tasting note
    82
  • “Trying my first sample today. I had a bit of a crisis when I tried to tear open a corner of the package and ended up tearing it RIGHT IN HALF. Luckily I didn’t lose more than one or two leaves, and...” Read full tasting note
    78

From Life In Teacup

Production Year: 2010

Production Season: Spring

Production Region: Yunnan

Pack Size: 1 oz. (28g pack)

Price per unit: $7.99

Product # 4hdh

About Life In Teacup View company

Company description not available.

19 Tasting Notes

1112 tasting notes

I had a bad humidity/storm headache this morning, and didn’t get into the office til 1pm. I immediately fired up my kettle (excitedly!) though – because my Life in Teacup samples came!

I am now on my third amazingly smooth, SWEET infusion of this tea, and let me tell you – it has turned my day around!

The way I taste it, this Yunnan is sort of like a Golden Monkey with an exaggerated burnt caramel honey edge. The first steep had that kind of on the verge tarry burnt chewiness that is delightful! The second steep was a bit more mellow and SO sweet – it’s kind of like when I had my first good Oriental Beauty and I couldn’t believe how naturally sweet it was – well this is like that! SO SWEET! The end of the sip verges on the milky.

My third steep is equally sweet and delicious. If I had to describe the tea in a phrase?

“Beautiful honey sweetness”

I think I have room for one more steep :) but I think this tea could go for even more.

I feel like the luckiest person today for getting to try this tea! Gingko! THANK you – you have a new customer! :) I was very impressed with the Tie Guan Yin that I had from you, and this is also sublime and pretty much EXACTLY to my tastes! WOW!

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 1 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90
902 tasting notes

I’m brewing by the mug rather than the pot this morning, so I’m logging teas faster than normal. This is a sample from Life in a Teacup, and it’s a pretty darn big sample, too! There’s at least enough for 2-4 cups! The dry leaf looks just like the picture, and smells like honey.

Brewed 1 tsp in 8 oz of water for 2.5 minutes. Seems like that’s a long brew (most of the other people who’ve drank it only brewed for 1 minute), but I do like my teas strong.

This is some good stuff. Seriously. I’m getting a honey taste, and a baked taste. Almost like a warm rye bagel with honey smeared on it. It’s definitely more like an oolong than a traditional black tea, but seems heartier than many oolongs that I’ve had. It tastes golden, if that makes any sense. Wow, this is yummy.

Thanks, Ginkgo, for offering these samples!! I can’t wait to try the rest of them, and I’m definitely going to be getting more of this one!!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 30 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

82
6768 tasting notes

These are some of the most lovely Yunnan Golden Bud-type leaves I have ever seen…almost PERFECT. It infuses to a manly-brown. The taste is smooth but sweet and a true black tea. Very pure tasting. With a juicy after-taste. YUM!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

78
477 tasting notes

Trying my first sample today. I had a bit of a crisis when I tried to tear open a corner of the package and ended up tearing it RIGHT IN HALF. Luckily I didn’t lose more than one or two leaves, and I happened to have an empty tin to dump the sample into.

The leaves were quite soft, which I wasn’t too sure about.

SMELLS like a Yunnan. I didn’t do any pre-rinse, just sort of threw myself into 1-minute-steeps. First is very mild, but still flavourful, and actually somewhat sweet. I don’t know what to say about it right now, except that it does remind me of the Yunnan I got from Tea Desire (only in that there is some similarity, but I can’t really tell what). It’s sweet, and there’s a sort of pepperyness in with the taste as well.

Second steep, only meant to do a minute and a half but wasn’t paying attention and let it hit two minutes. Ahwell. First sip I get tea sweetness; this steep’s definitely stronger. Still getting the sort of pepper in the aftertaste as well, although I don’t really know if pepper’s the right word for it, it was just the only one I could come up with.

Third steep (three minutes) has lost the sweetness a bit. Still lovely and mild.

Preparation
Boiling 1 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

92
4843 tasting notes

Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea. I love it!

This is a wonderful black tea. So much flavor. The aroma has hints of spice, cocoa and leather. The flavor is robust with a malty tone, cocoa notes, a lightly spiced essence, and a fruit tone in the background. A beautiful complexity to this tea, with a delicious sweetness that is somewhere between honey and burnt sugar. I am loving this tea!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90
412 tasting notes

Got my free samples from Life In Teacup today – very exciting! Yunnan Gold Bud is indeed composed of lovely golden buds (the picture is quite accurate). I used 2.1g in my little 4oz pot (the whole sample was about 5g, so there’s enough for another strong serving) and I’ve steeped it twice so far for 1 minute each. Both steeps are a lovely honey-brown color. It smells sweet, and very tea-ish (unhelpful, I know, but it’s that true “black tea” scent) and a little earthy, like the hay flavor I get from pu-erh and white tea sometimes.

Oh, that just coats my mouth in a kind of savory honey flavor. Very full and smooth mouthfeel; zero bitterness with these steeping parameters. This is really reminding me of a milder sweeter pu-erh, which is funny because I haven’t liked pu-erh that much and I love this. I’ll add a rating after a couple more steeps :) I’m impressed. I’ve steeped this six times now, adding 30 seconds on each pair, and it’s still good (though it finally started to lose a little color on the 6th). This is like a cross between a sweet black and a lightly roasted oolong.

ETA: I ended up steeping this twice more this morning, for a total of eight steeps or four 8oz cups. From 2 grams of tea leaves. Seriously folks, this totally evens out the $8/oz price point. (If you’re interested, it comes out to 15¢ per 8oz cup if you include the multiple steeps, 60¢ if you don’t).

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 0 sec
Jaime

I’m so excited to try this!!

teabird

It’s pretty great – I’m on my sixth steep!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90
314 tasting notes

Yum!

Malted barley-like in flavor. Cereally with subtle sweetness. Aroma is reminiscent of cocoa or carob. Very smooth.

I’m really enjoying this tea! It is delicious. :)

Thank you, Gingko, for the generous sample!

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 30 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

98
348 tasting notes

This is the second Yunnan gold I’ve ever tried, and – man – does this type of black (or red) tea have a track record. I don’t know what sort of alchemy goes into making these, but you won’t find a tea that translates from sight, to smell, to taste with such consistency. It looks gold from leaf to liquor; it smells and tastes like creamed almonds or unroasted, buttered barley. Aside from an almost-negligible astringent note in the middle, I am hard-pressed to find a flaw.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2010/12/24/review-life-in-teacup-yunnan-golden-bud-3/

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

91
280 tasting notes

Woah! I think this is now my favorite black tea!
I’ve had a lot of Keemun, sampled one kind of Darjeeling, and had other black blends, etc, but as an unflavored, single source black tea, this was delicious!

I thought I even tasted a hint of honey and chocolate (yes, it almost tasted like it had a hint of sweetness, but no, not the bitterness of chocolate, but something about the way it smelled) It was really smooth.

It’s not exactly cheap, but not terribly expensive, either. Definitely going to have to get more of this some day.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

92
863 tasting notes

My second of the free samples I got from Life in Teacup. This one had a wonderfully pure, tea-like smell coming from the dry leaves. I brewed 2 tsp. in 500 ml of water, with the steeping parameters below.
The tea itself holds NO bitterness or astringency whatsoever. I wouldn’t call it sweet (mostly because sweet to me means actual sugar, and I’m drinking this with no additives), but there is a woodsy, honey-like note in the background, that really makes it feel like the black tea that it is.
A very nice, high quality tea.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 2 min, 30 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.