Award Winning Yun Nan Dian Hong Black Tea – Golden Tip

I received a generous sample of this from boychik. Thank you!

This was my second time with this tea and the words to describe it still escape me. I enjoy this tea, but it is not one that I crave. It has a quality about it that I just can’t describe. It is sweet, but more ice tea sweet than, potato/bread sweet. I am not sure if that makes sense at all. I guess to try another angle it is a lighter bodied tea that has more hints of honey and hay than bread and sweet potatoes. I have enough for one more session and I hope to be able to describe what I am tasting a little better next time.

I currently LOVE this tea. As I drink it, there is a free “mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm….” with every sip. Smooth…. Earthy, yammy, chocolatey, raisiny, malty, grainy, stonefruity without any astringency at all. My current favorite accoutrement for this tea. Nilla Wafers. Happy me.

This tea was quite a journey for me. I took me several steeps to get it right, so to speak. I experimented with western, gaiwan, amount of tea, temperature, steep time. I almost gave up on it, but given so many high ratings, I knew I was doing something wrong.

Long story short, I finally got it to the point of perfection for me. What I found was gaiwan style, about 4 grams in a 100ml cup. First infusions are on the cooler side, like 180-185. Then I get hotter with every 5. I’ve gotten a solid 15 out of this tea no problem.

The tea itself is just gorgeous. The leaves (buds really) have a spring to them. They’re not brittle at all. Once wet, they release a beautiful scent of yams or sweet potato.

The liquor is sweet, reddish/black, and is just delicious. The leaves keep giving. My wife prefers to drink a mug of tea, so I’ll give her the first 4 or 5 infusions, longer time, into a single mug. And then I’ll continue to drink shorter 2-3 oz cups through out the day. Just a high quality, forever giving tea.

Yummmm.
This was today’s breakfast tea.

Malty and bready and so juicy and flavorful!

Similar to the Golden Monkey but not quite as delicious.

I know I keep talking about Golden Monkey. Don’t worry, I will buy some eventually! Then I won’t talk about it as much!

It’s just the standard up to which I will hold all other teas with the word “golden” in their title :)

Thank you to Teavivre for this sample.

It does not take much guessing to realise that this is a Yunnan tea. It immediately reminds me of the Fengqing Dragon Pearl and Golden Monkey teas. The dry twisty leaves are a lovely mix of dark chocolate brown and gold. They give off a malty, chocolate aroma when dry. Upon steeping the aroma changes to floral, cocoa and honey aromas. The tea itself is sweet with caramel and honey notes, and the chocolate carries through from the liquor into the aftertaste. Underneath it all is the promised sweet potato, beefing the flavour up and giving the tea body and a creamy mouthfeel. The aftertaste endures nicely, with the aforementioned chocolate notes and more sweet potato as the tea cools. It has good depth to it and brings on a pleasing though light cooling sensation to the body. Overall, this is yet another great tea from Teavivre. Actually, I don’t think they have sent me a dud tea yet. May that record long continue.

Brewed in the “Chinese Gongfu Way” from the product website. The leather flavor is less intense than the few other black teas I’ve had from Teavivre, but it was still the dominant flavor for me, and not something I am looking for in a tea.

Lately, I’ve found that when fresh my Yunnan teas have been one of my most diversely flavoured tea types. They pretty well all have cocoa, honey and grainy/malt note which are the last notes to dissipate as they age, but diversify with fruity, herbaceous floral, leather, licorice, sweet potato, and mineral notes.

This tea may not have as complex a flavour profile or as thick a mouth feel as some of my others but what it does uyave is rich, pleasant, and comforting. It makes a nice, comforting everyday tea, especially for those who love distinct cocoa notes.

The dry leaves are longer thinner and more tightly wound than most of my current Yunnan’s. There is about 75-80% golden tips with short downy trichomes. The dry leaves smell comfortingly of malt, grain, cocoa, and a hint of alfalfa.

I got 5 steeps using a little over one TSP in 200ml at 90°C (1, 1.2, 1.4, 2 & 3 min)

The initial steeps brewed to a dark almost coffee coloured or dark oak tinged with gold colour. The scent was of malt, honey, cocoa and hay with butter and longan notes mixing in with these notes in later steeps.

Flavour notes appearing were top notes of longan, malt, clover, blended with dissolved cocoa powder, honey( sweetest in the middle steeps), sweet potato, cream, butter, berry, grapish note, alfalfa and minerals.

I found the tea to be only slightly sweet but well balanced. It is neither sour, sweet or overly savoury. It has a moderate density with little to no astringency with a nice kick of caffeine. The cocoa notes deepen as it cools.

Although it is not as complex or distinct as some of my Yunnan’s, it does what it does well and makes a nice cocoa rich everyday tea!

Thanks Angel and TeaVivre for this lovely tea.

Thanks so much to Angel of Teavivre for sending me this lovely sample.

It seems that Yun Nan is a best seller here on Steepster and I at the very first sip I can know precisely why : it is so mellow, so sweet, so good.
I am really impressed especially because main teas with golden tips are not among my favourite for various reasons. This black tea is really different, it acts really like a black tea.
It has absolutely no bitterness. I get lovely notes of sweet patatoes. It’s a rich tea, almost creamy without cream :)
It is so good ! What an excellent tea I am really seduced.

Sipdown! I love this one…when I place an order with Teavivre next, this will definitely be on my list. It’ll probably be a little while, because I’ve just received my sampler of 2014 spring harvest green teas from them, but no doubt missing it will make it all the more desirable once it does make a return to my cupboard.

It’s deliciously malty, with grain and sweet potato notes…maybe a touch of honey at the very end of the sip. And soooo smooth! I’m on my third cup today, and I’ve loved every mouthful. Gorgeous!

MMMMMMM this tea! Apparently my love for golden tips is deep and meaningful. I STILL haven’t gotten around to doing a proper review of Golden Fleece (although the song for it played in my head immediately), possibly because I just can’t find words for it. But this one is delightful. It’s far too early in the morning for me to be awake and normally I would be pouty about being awake at this ridiculous time on a Saturday morning. Instead I’m purring and mmmmm-ing and happily indulging myself in the smooooth, caramely, buttery, malty deliciousness that is this tea. The song that came to me for this one surprises me just a little – because while Smokey Robinson is ALWAYS appropriate – I would have thought this tea would make me hear a baritone. But nope, I hear this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlzY6cWpoMQ&feature=kp

I immediately heard “we’re gonna fly away, glad you’re goin’ my way…”