China Yunnan Pure Bud Golden Snail Black Tea

I was inspired by beerandbeancurd’s tasting note to try this tea with pineapple upside down cake tonight but got so excited to brew the tea, I couldn’t wait until cake time!

I brewed it about 5g to 5 oz. Water at 194 degrees. 5 sec. Rinse.
The dry leaves smelled like cinnamon and dark chocolate. Wet leaves netted stronger cinnamon and vanilla.
Steeped at 30 second intervals for 4 steeps then 45 seconds, 1 minute, 1:30, 2 minutes.
Dark chocolate was prominent throughout followed by sugarcane, hay, malt, and spice. Did I mention the dark chocolate? A lovely light, slightly sweet finish ended each cup.

I kept my leftovers to cool and threw it over ice and yes, you guessed it, dark chocolate with a crystal clear, slightly sweet, finish.

This is a delicious tea that I have no hesitation recommending.

Bowled this morning. Delicious, but my least favorite preparation method for these little snails. Trades the soft and luxurious cocoa intensity for a more delicate spread.

Leaves were beautiful.

Sipdown.
A light cup today, but full of flavor. Creamy and thick. The aroma is very sweet potato. Tastes of dark chocolate and cocoa with full bodied mouthfeel. It’s better with cooler water. A good choice for after lunch.
I’ll re-order this once I’ve made some progress with my cupboard numbers.

Tl/dr

So, I have been in the habit of ending the year with a weeklong meditation retreat.

And then, as Omicron starts making a name for itself, another retreat is announced, both live and virtual.

Despite various precautions, I don’t feel comfortable spending half a day in a room full of distanced others breathing. Even with masks on. Even with the windows open. Nope.

So I am zooming in to be present. Hehe, excuse the pun. Sorry, not sorry.

Normally, the retreats are full days with heavily ritualized silent mindful breakfasts and lunches and clean-ups and individualized communal chores. Of course, now, none of this is on. Just the half-day meditations and talks and feedback/discussion.

So I am making an effort to insert a bit of streamlining into my home life to mimic the full retreat.

It hasn’t been all that effective yet. For one thing, I have been online, distracting myself with social media and films and such.

However, I have been waking up early, whether my neighbours have allowed me to sleep much or not. I have been reading dharmic texts. I have been more aware of my habitual patterns and thoughts, positive and not so much.

Also, I have been choosing to drink straight teas over my froufrou choices or over the top eggnog additions.

I don’t know whether I will continue with straight teas. After all, eggnog season is brief and I am weak. But for today…

This tea, of course, is not at all any kind of sacrifice, what with luscious scents and flavours of bittersweet chocolate and freshly baked bread. Occasional peek a boos of sweet potato and prune.

After the second steep, there’s a bit of raspy throat kind of harshness, but other than that, this tea is a great delight and I am grateful to have some in my cup.

Harvest—Spring 2020

Another tea from Shae, I’ve gotten way behind on my tasting notes, it’s been a busy summer!
This is yummy, yeasty, chocolate malt, and very smooth. The first steep had a bready, caramel aftertaste. The second steep brought in a dark chocolate note. The third steep is weaker, but the malty, chocolate taste is still there. I certainly don’t need any more tea this year, but I’ll keep this in mind for a next order. Thanks for sharing, Shae!

I’ve really been enjoying this tea (2021 harvest) as an afternoon pick-me-up for the past couple of weeks. Spicy, chocolatey, reminiscent of baked goods and mildly fruity, with a strong yet balanced base of malt. It’s a pleasure to watch the tightly rolled buds unfurl further from infusion to infusion, with the liquor easily keeping its golden-auburn color and punchy flavors to their full extent for six or more infusions. Full-bodied and pleasant texture with a sweet, enjoyable finish that hardly wavers as infusions progress.

Harvest: Spring, March 2020

Brewing leaves aroma notes: savoury, stewing vegetables
Brewed leaves aroma notes: smokey, campfire, milk chocolate, fig
Brewed tea aroma notes: barley, malt, caramel, raisin
Brewed tea notes: strong flavour of milk chocolate

Maybe the batch I received was bad but this tea was a big disappointment. The leaves have little fragrance and the steep is overwhelmingly bitter with no fruit notes. Have tried several different time/temperature combinations to no avail. Tried contacting the owner of Watch-Cha Tea, also to no avail. He had this tea on sale when I purchased it and I can see why. Never again from Watch-Cha. I wouldn’t even gift this – it’s going straight in the garbage unfortunately.

Here is another review from the backlog. I think this one was either from late May or early June. Like many of the other Chinese black teas sourced by What-Cha, this was an extremely likable, high quality offering. I think it compared favorably to similar offerings from other vendors. As a matter of fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that this tea came from the same producer that supplies the golden snail black teas offered by Whispering Pines Tea Company and/or Yunnan Sourcing.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea buds in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 15 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea buds emitted aromas of chocolate, malt, honey, and sweet potato. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of baked bread and molasses. The first infusion brought out a stronger malt aroma with some subtle cream and vanilla accents. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of malt, cream, honey, chocolate, and butter while hints of sweet potato and baked bread lingered in the background. Subsequent infusions saw aromas of butter and pine emerge on the nose. Molasses and vanilla belatedly appeared in the mouth along with new flavors of orange zest, date, minerals, raisin, and pine. I also noted some hints of smoke and brown sugar along with some spicy, herbal impressions reminiscent of a combination of fennel, black pepper, and camphor. The final few infusions offered lingering notes of minerals, cream, butter, malt, and chocolate backed by subtle honey and herbal impressions.

I tend to be a big fan of many Yunnan black teas and strongly believe them to represent some of the best of contemporary Chinese tea craft. That being said, this was a particularly appealing tea with a wonderful texture in the mouth and a complex, harmonious combination of aromas and flavors. Nothing was out of place here, and the tea yielded consistently strong results over the course of a fairly lengthy gongfu session (well, fairly lengthy by my standards anyway). I could see fans of Yunnan black teas being into this one. Give it a shot if you enjoy such teas.