Yunnan Fancy

A friend of mine has a wife who works at Peet’s Coffee & Tea. And she gets a free tin of coffee or tea every week or two! And yes, I was the lucky beneficiary this time!

I am very glad to have another Yunnan black around…so far, while my black tea experience is limited, I haven’t found another kind of black tea I like better. And of course, the more golden tips, the better. If you like black tea, do yourself a favor and try one from Yunnan.

My first experience with Dian Hong was from Life in Teacup (Golden Buds) then Rishi (Golden Needle). As far as this kind of tea goes, I think I’ve been ruined by those. As smooth, floral, and enjoyable as Peet’s version is, it just doesn’t compare to the others.
It isn’t as rich, spiced, or as sweet, and has a slight edge of astringency that the others did not.

Having said that, this is an excellent every-day tea and I’ll enjoy it every time. And who can complain about getting free tea?! :-)

I wanted to pick some of this up last time I visited Peet’s. I finally did this time around.

Leaf Quality
The tea has a very high tippy concentration. Some leaves were completely golden, while others only had golden traces on them. The dry leaves smelled chocolaty, and like muscatel. The steeped leaves smelled leathery, like muscatel, and almost woody. The golden tips transformed into a dark brown.

Brewed Tea
The brewed tea was a dark coppery brown. It smelled buttery, slightly sweet, and slightly malty. It smelled very good. It tasted slightly smokey, malty, and brisk.

This tea was delicious. I wouldn’t use it as a breakfast tea, though. It was not as brisk as a breakfast tea. This tea would be good in the afternoons, or before lunch.

Sweet and moderately heavy in the mouth, It’s fruity (I taste Persimmon’s) and malty with a hint of muscatel grape, when it cools there is defiantly a woody spice. It has a little bit of an astringent end. Very good tea at only $8.45 a tin! Killer morning tea.

I like this tea. It doesn’t blow my mind, but it is a solid tasting tea.

The dry leaves are a bit on the short side, but they have a nice golden down and there are a decent number of golden tips. The wet leaves open up nicely, with a faintly sweet smell that hints at spiciness with a deep earthy quality. Actually, I would identify it as the smell of wet leaves (wonder why?). :)

The liquor is a bright reddish-brown, and is fairly transparent. Its aroma matches the wet leaves. The taste is smooth and earthy, like a light pu-erh. The first note is fairly subtle, just good water with a little bit of the tannic tea flavor. In the middle notes, I almost taste some green tea flavor, like Dragon’s Well, for 1/2 a moment, before the tannic and strong black tea flavor pulls though. It is heavy-bodied and earthy, tasting almost like dirt or, again, wet leaves after a fresh rain. The aftertaste is a bit astringent, but not too much. I might have left it steeping too long (I’m at work and I wasn’t paying attention), but the water was cooler…

No milk, no sugar; I think they would ruin this tea. Overall, I like it, and I would rank this tea for intermediates and connoisseurs.

Solid, lovely tea! Delicious brightness, smooth on tongue, pleasant dry finish. Don’t be fooled by the lower end price, this is one of the best teas you can pick up at Peet’s.

An absolutely splendid breakfast tea. Full bodied and naturally sweet, with just the slightest astringency. Smells like Autumn leaves, cedar with notes of malt and sweet dates.

Up to now, this is my benchmark Yunnan. I compare all other Yunnans to this, and they all fall short, at least an iota. I’m sure that will change as I learn from this community! This is an amazing tea. Can be steeped a long time without getting bitter. Smooth malty, molasses flavor. Holds up to 3 infusions. The second is similar in flavoring to the first; the third is lighter and fruitier. When Peet’s offered it, it was an amazing value. I’m sure I’ll be paying 4x that much to get anything comparable. This has been my favorite tea for years. I travel a lot for work, and when I get home, coming back to my morning cup of this tea has been a warm homecoming. I prepare it as I do all teas, in a Japanese side handle pot that holds about 10 oz. of water. I use a Japanese electric hot water pot that boils the water and then holds it at 208 °F. I put 3 loose teaspoons (perhaps 4 actual if I measured them) in the pot, add water, steep several (~5) minutes (increasing for the later infusions).

Sipdown…
I did not sleep that well last night and have a raging headache so I think this will be a long day. I am finally finishing off a tin of this. This is one of the teas Peet’s has discontinued with their shift to the Mighty Leaf line. It isn’t a really great yunnan so that’s not a big loss. Still it has been growing on me, lol. Good breakfast tea with milk and sugar.

You know that you have too much tea when you “discover” hermetically sealed tins of unknown age while preparing to move. This one, Peet’s Yunnan Fancy, smells as fresh as the day it was purchased (whenever that was…), so I decided to brew up a cup on this frosty afternoon.

My most recent yunnan pot was Tazo Golden Monkey, which somehow set me up to expect a tea with a similar flavor profile. In fact, Yunnan Fancy, despite bearing superficial similarities—lots of golden tips and crisp twig-like leaves—tastes completely different!

The liquor is dark amber and the flavor is really quite smoky—against all expectations. In fact, it reminds me a bit of the lapsang souchong blends which I’ve been imbibing of late! Maybe closest to Russian Caravan (which is a lot lighter on the lapsang than is Baker’s Street Blend).

Well, I happen to like smoky teas, and this seems like a solid brew to me! I took today’s strongly brewed cup (1.5 tsp—not 1tsp) with cream.