Yunnan Gold

As a homebrewer of beer, I can’t get over how much this tea tastes almost exactly like steeped malted barley (basically, Grape Nuts cereal), to the point that it’s almost a negative; when I want tea I want tea, not unfermented unhopped beer! This makes a great addition to other dark/black teas to sweeten them up.

Another sample from Teasenz! I adore these types of teas with their golden leaves and their honey sweetness. The leaves here aren’t entirely golden, there are a few dark spots. Somehow that doesn’t always show in the flavor. This is very much honey and light. The color of the brew is golden like the leaves. I don’t think I properly steeped this the first cup around though – I waited too long to steep and the time was too short. The flavor was nice but I think it could have been deeper with a proper steep. The second cup was slightly deeper, the flavors melded together but it’s tough to describe this one as it is all sweetness & light… no chocolate or sweet potato or squash notes at all. Mostly honey. It’s a nice change of flavor to all the deep black teas I’ve been drinking!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 tsp // 10 min after boiling // 2 min
Steep #2 // few min after boiling // 3 min
http://www.teasenz.com/yunnan-gold-tea#.U_k2dcjD9lY

This is the first of five free samples that I requested from teasenz. If you haven’t received samples from them yet, it’s a great value. No cost to you and the sample sizes are huge! Here’s the link: http://www.teasenz.com/free-tea-samples-with-free-shipping

Anyway, I was looking through my straight black teas this morning for something to try (I recently organized my teas by type, hooray!) and saw this pouch. Now, as anyone who has tried a few Yunnan teas knows, the descriptor “gold” doesn’t generally tell you anything. It can mean any amount of golden tips, from the very few to the many. I must say, I was shocked when I opened this pouch! When teasenz says “gold”, they mean it! This tea is a fuzzbud™ variety, meaning it consists purely of giant, fuzzy golden buds. I was expecting at most a large amount of buds mixed with leaves, so this was a very pleasant surprise! The inside of the pouch is covered with lovely golden Yunnan fairy dust. Dry scent is sweet and honeyed with stonefruit and light malt notes. I didn’t look up the recommended parameters, but did my usual straight black tea method of 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

The brewed aroma has surprisingly strong cocoa notes! And then there’s also the expected honey, malt, and stonefruit loveliness. This tea is rather simple, but delicious. It’s a lovely melange of creamy and grainy flavors. There’s nice crusty toasted bread along with light and airy puff pastry flavor. Then I also taste a bit of raw grains, along with hot baked sweet potato. I also get a sweet hay-like note near the end and into the aftertaste. Of course, there’s honey over the top of everything, and the whole result is quite creamy and delicious. I wish there was a little bit of that nice stonefruit flavor in here, but this tea is very tasty even without it.

Overall, this tea is quite light and a lovely mix of grainy, creamy flavors!

(I don’t generally add links to the product, but it was mentioned on the free sample page so I figured I should comply since they sent me such lovely samples. I hope this is okay/allowed!)
http://www.teasenz.com/yunnan-gold-tea#.U-ZwU_ldXX8

I was looking forward to this sample. It smells awesome! Like sweet potato crisps and honey. The honey comes out a bit more in the flavour, and I get a little roast yam too.
Any tea that can taste like my fave tuber is a hit for me.

The Aroma of the dry leafe is really sweet and honeylike, most pleasant.
The leafe appearance is beautiful golden yellow buds with very small visible hairs, very pretty to look at, they look a little different from most of the other yunnan golds I’ve had.

I steeped this one first as directed on the website 3-5 minutes at about 203degrees, I went for 5 minutes.
The taste is delicious with very nice yet slightly subtle flavors, sweet fruit notes and malt a little peppery on the end, very slight astringency on the aftertaste.
The taste is really good tho it is a little weak to me just not quite as bold as some yunnan golds and dian hongs that I’ve had.

The second steeping is a little better than the first the flavors are a little stronger but still sligthly “weak” I hate to call a tea weak like that maybe it’s just not bold enough for my personal preference, I think perhaps a rinse would have made the first steep even tastier so i’ll do that next time.
Overall this is a pretty good tea to me, the fact that it is a little weak to me means not much really because it is still very tasty and enjoyable, perhaps this would be perfect for some folks.

I think I’ll get some photos of the leafe and rewrite this as a blog post tonight, the leafe is really pretty to me I want to show it off :)