Yi Fu Chun Black Tea

So, apparently I was the first person to make an order to Yezi on BF. I thanked them for their sale on their thread on here, and while my order didn’t qualify for free tea, the person who runs their account told me that since I was the first person, they’d send me an extra gift. I had forgotten about that until I got my package and found an ounce of this tea! :D That was so unbelievably sweet of them! I can’t get over the generosity of some people-it’s just amazing to me!
And honestly, when I looked this tea up I wasn’t sure I’d really like it. But after trying it, I was pleasantly surprised!
It’s kinda earthy, which I don’t like. But it also is creamy and tastes strongly of sweet potatoes at the same time.
I feel like so many of their teas are creamy. It really adds a lot of depth to the black teas. I really am enjoying them! And this was a fantastic free tea that I will enjoy finishing off eventually! :D Thank you, Yezi!! :D :D

This is a sample I received with my Yezi order. Thank you!

I am kicking myself for not using this sample to brew this tea GongFu. Oh well I guess that means I might just have to order an ounce of it down the road. I am drinking this as my morning cup this morning. The last cup I had was a tad weak so I made sure to let this puppy brew for a decent amount of time this morning.

This cup is malty, sweet, with a finish of fruit. I am really digging this up this morning. I read in a few tasting notes about molasses. I am definitely picking up on that. I think I have one more Yezi black tea to try, Ming Hong Black Black Tea. I will have to add this to my wishlist so I remember to pick up a sample next time.

I am so worn out! I spent the day redoing my room to make room for my newest treasure. Ben’s parents wanted to get rid of an antique writing desk that had been in their family for at least three generations, possibly four. In a near spastic fit I claimed that thing in a heartbeat, I have a real weakness for antiques and desks, so it was the double treasure. Now I just need to get another tea kettle so I can have tea in the bedroom and in the tea lair!

Today’s tea is from Yezi Tea, Yi Fu Chun, a tippy golden tea from the Nanhu Mountains in Fujian, China. Apparently these mountains are covered in a dense fog 200 days a year, meaning the tea that grows there is more or less kissed by clouds, it seems to make it a bit whimsical to me. Add the fog to my intense love of fuzzy golden teas (they are just so cute!) and that makes me a happy tea sipper, or at the very least an interested one. Oh my that is a pleasant and heavy aroma, it seems the leaves collected the dense and heavy feeling of fog rather than the wispy one. There are notes of oak wood, molasses, cocoa, and a touch of smoke. It is intense, not sweet, but more like a rich molasses cookie and cocoa powder.

After the golden leaves have been steeped (and have left their delicate fuzzies behind) the aroma is still strong in the real of molasses and chocolate, though this time it has a sweetness the dry leaves lacked, also a tiny hint of loam. The liquid is even sweeter, retaining the chocolate notes but adding in some delicious stewed plums and cherries.

I decided to do something a little different with this tea, I brewed it Western Style! The first steep is incredibly sweet, like a bit of peaches and honey mixed with my tea! There are also notes of molasses and oak wood with a slight hint of smoke at the finish. The tea manages to be very rich while maintaining an air of lightness about it.

For the second steep the aroma is sweet, with notes of stewed fruit and roasted peanuts, there is a delicate hint of smoke at the finish. The taste is much richer with notes of oak wood and roasted peanuts, this fades to molasses, and lastly a delicate hint of smoke and peaches. Kind of like the way peaches cooked on a grill tastes, this lingers as an aftertaste. This tea is delicious and very smooth, I like it!

For blog and photos (including my cat pretending to be a secretary) : http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/07/yezi-tea-yi-fu-chun-black-tea-tea-review.html

Yi Fu Chun is described on Yezi’s website as a smoky black tea…I have an aversion to smokiness in tea, as I’ve been chased out of my home twice by wildfire. I don’t exactly associate smokiness with relaxing around a campfire, more like frantically trying to find pets and belongings to evacuate. SO, I was hesitant to approach this sample.

In the packet, the dry leaf smelled sweet and slightly cocoa-y…hmmm….no smoke! Okay then, steep time!

I am wonderfully surprised by this tea. Yi Fu Chun has similar notes to Fujian blacks that I have had before, but the notes are much more restrained. The bottom note is certainly a deep cocoa flavor that sits on the tongue a bit longer than the sip lasts in your mouth. Then comes mid notes of slight malt/grain/cannabis. The top note is a touch of floral, though I can’t quite place it through my allergies today. It is a similar profile to LB by Verdant and Bailin Gongfu by TeaVivre, but dialed in for a warm summer day. I am appreciating the delicateness of these sometimes cloying notes in the humid (yes, today it is humid. Global weather patterns are weirder and weirder these days) summer day in the Southern California arid heat.

MzPriss commented yesterday that she liked this better than the Jin Jun Mei. BETTER than Jin Jun Mei? Ok – that’s all I needed to hear for this to become my “inspired by my dashboard” tea of the day.
OMG she’s RIGHT. This is amazing, fantastic, everything I LOVE about Fujian Black tea.
I was at work and I drank about 7 mugs of it through out the day. I don’t measure or time at work – some had long steeps, some had short steeps, some more leaf, some less. Every steep was different, and yet every steep was wonderful in it’s own way. Less steep time, lighter, brighter more fruity. Longer steep times, deep, dark, bitter chocolate. It reacted exactly as it should have. You can pretty much do anything to this tea and it will handle it. If you don’t like it, play with the steep parameters, it changes greatly with steep time. This is very close to being my perfect black tea. Thank you MzPriss for the inspiration.

This tea is full of warm sweet fruit notes of canned peaches and a hint of mandarin, all mixed in with buttered grains and cocoa. Really tasty and surprisingly rich considering it’s short steep time. Thanks to Dexter for a chance to sample this tea!

1tsp/150ml/90°C

Pretty sepia tinged copper brown broth

20s first scent very fruity like canned peaches, cashew butter, roasted notes, cocoa
Taste. Cocoa, peaches, butter, a sweet grain note in between polenta and oatmeal, honey, if you hold the tea in your mouth and breathe in the peach notes are very distinct and their are also hints of canned mandarins, otherwise the flavours blend into each other. the tea tastes very rich even after only 20s, it is thick and slightly buttery on the tongue.

25s fruit notes slightly brighter and stronger, more honey, cocoa, butter, a little cinnamon, less grain notes, a touch of citrus tinged floral.

40s. Cocoa, grain, malt, sharper more citrus toned fruit, honey, butter, sweet fruit lingering in background with a light floral tone.

70s. Similar to previous steep but maltier.

Early morning tea nook party with my Teaplets. I still really love this cup of malty sweetness.

http://instagram.com/p/xrB5Aywx6R/?modal=true

I originally had the review for this tea under Yezi’s Jin Jun Mei, which is obviously incorrect. I am putting it in its proper place, as well as making an update.

Round 1: This tea has a lovely malty flavor. I wish I could pick out some additional aromas or flavors, but alas, I cannot.

I steeped this at 205 degrees for 5 minutes. I also did a 2nd steeping for 6 min. I wish this tea was a little sweeter, but it was good. The second steeping had less maltiness and tasted more like plain tea.

Next time, I may add a teensy bit of sugar, just to see how that goes.

Round 2: I brewed 1 tsp in 3 oz of 202 degree water using very short steepings. The first was 30 then another 30, then 40.

I could barely smell or taste the maltiness from the first round. Instead, the tea smelled more grassy, and I was also picking up the scent of popcorn.

The flavor was good, but I actually preferred the stronger malty flavors from the first round.

Wow!!!! I picked a good one for Earth Day!!!!
This is from Nanhu Mountain, Fuqing City; Fujian Province, China.
Dry leaves smell sweet like molasses and they are black and gold, tiny and twisted.
I brewed this Western style.
The liquor literally smells like hot chocolate and is a deep auburn red.
The flavor is strong chocolate and cacao notes with subtle molasses. Naturally subtly sweet.
The wet leaves smell like hot chocolate too,,,is this hot chocolate? Super Good!!!!!

Happy Earth Day!!!!!!!!! Earth Day EVERYDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Think of her, and help her everyday. This is our only home.

5/23/14
Tried this on Gong Fu style today
190F 1.5 tsp 4oz water/pot
15" rinse
30" golden light liquor, cocoa notes, open wet leaves smell so cocoa chocolatey.
Taste is chocolate, subtle honey sweet.
1 minute Delicious!!! Cocoa, not malt, just subtle sweet cocoa. Rich, and good with no bitter or astringency even when I brew Western style with more leaf.
This is my very favorite tea!!
___________________________________________________________________
6/12/14
Enjoying my favorite chocolatey morning tea!!!!!!!!!!! So good. Went with less leaf per cup today, 1 tsp per 8 oz and it is still chocolately good. I think 1 1/2 tsp might just be perfect. The suggested amount is a little more leaf per cup —but I’m running low and I can’t re-order until summer in the desert is over lol.
___________________________________________________________________________
6/20/14
YUMM YUMMM my favorite tea!! Had a little sample size that I brewed Western style. The sample size is 5 grams of tea so I put the whole bit into my infuser basket for 2 cups water. Smoky, chocolatey, subtly sweet and good!
___________________________________________________________________________
7/8/14
Western style this morning with the recommended 3 tsp tea per 8oz. This creates the chocolatey effect. You can re-steep these leaves lots too since it is so much leaf. I make iced tea after I enjoy my hot tea to get good use out of them!! YUmm this tea!!!
_________________________________________________________________________
7/21/14
Brewed Western style today. I got a huge “bowl-like” infuser basket to allow tea leaves to be really free and to swim and evenly brew the teas I have when I brew Western style. Now with Yi Fu Chun, changing this brew basket did bring out more smokiness than I have tasted in the past but still has my yummy cocoa and subtle sweet notes.
__________________________________________________________________________
7/26/14
Yep,,,drinking it again bc it’s so good!!!!!!!!!

chun (Chun) = Springtime (春) 1; or Rich or Winey (醇) 2; or precious (see Zhen)
Yi – ?
Fu – in the context of heicha, short for Fu Zhuan, but this syllable has dozens of meanings in Chinese

I didn’t know what to pick out to sip this morning, and was looking through my giant box of Dexter3657 tea’s and saw this one. Black tea? Yes please.

I thought I had under-leafed because the colour seemed a little light, but the aroma was strongly sweet. The taste was light, but naturally sweet. I didn’t pick up any fruit or peach notes, but I’m in the process of brewing cup 2, so hopefully this time I’ll find it. Despite that, I still think this is a delicious tea, but something that I would save for later in the day.

Thank you Dexter3657 for a sample of this yummy tea!