Imperial Pure Bud Yunnan Black Tea of Simao

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends, & I’d like to extend my gratitude to the rest of the world for putting up with us, LOL. I’m also grateful for many things, including my quiet neighborhood, in a city that is struggling with violence & craziness these days (St Louis).

I’m starting my morning with a gongfu session with this beautiful beautiful tea, so luscious & rich. It is creamy & malty, with elements of sorghum, hints of Vanilla, citrus, & pepper, & excellent Cha Qi. Thick across the palate, with a pleasant tongue tingle, & a rich bee pollen sensation, followed by a very clean finish. If I had to pick favorite black teas (which gratefully I do not), this would be on that rather long list!

Now to leap into action: I have pies to make!

(Note: I purchased the Spring 2012 varietal of this tea. The description was exactly the same, so I figured I’d post under this entry instead of making a new one.)

Whoa. This is FRESH. And these leaves just don’t stop delivering. I’m not sure I can offer anything constructive, except to say that as of steep 12, these leaves show no sign of slowing down.

Malty and sweet, absolutely beautiful. My only quibble is that they don’t seem to show much in terms of evolution, aside from the maltiness fading a bit as the steeps progress.

5g in a 5oz gaiwan, 5 sec steeps at max. I mishandled it quite a bit near the beginning, oversteeping for my taste. I’m not that good at gaiwaning, see, and the only reason I can manage it with greens and whites is the lower temperature. I burned my tiny little hands quite a bit while trying to get into the rhythm of the correct technique while making this. The result was that my first five or so steeps were overwhelmingly malty. I wonder if any of my yixings in my collection are good for black teas… Hmm.

Anyway. INTENSE tea. I drank until I was tea drunk and then I had some more. I am still vibrating with caffeine a few hours later. Not sure I should have had black tea so late in the evening. Glad I did nonetheless, this tea is gorgeous.

I bought the 2012 varietal as well. I like this tea but it took some adjusting from my part, it is pleasantly sweet and just a hint of malty. You can taste hints of peppercorn but there’s something else to it that I cant point out, it doesn’t bother me flavor wise, its just one of those times when you taste something you can’t name or describe… yet. I will come back to this one for sure.

EDIT
I had retried this one a while ago, but got lazy and never updated the notes. I really liked this one although I maintain that I feel like this one ‘Pure Bud’ vs the Imperial Mojiang has more peppery notes, in the best way possible. It feels refreshing at the end of each cup even when the broth itself starts sweet, thick, chocolatey with pine notes. It has a very satisfying body, that has a broth-like savory character with some roasted notes and very apparent maple/molasses notes of sweetness. Spring offerings are more complex in taste and offer subtle nuances while Autumn are less complex but with heavier molasses and wood notes.

I love this dian hong, it is delicate and powerful at the same time.

It is an aromatic tea with floral and fruity scent complementing ones more traditional for a black tea. Dry leaves smell of cookies and malt, while wet ones more like berries and fir.

The liquor is also flavourful and thick. It is at once, sweet, floral, and savoury. The aftertaste is also woody and quite cooling. Most intriguing notes include ones of black currants and moss, but the taste also has a lot in common with the classic dian hong.

I tried the March 2021 version, which has a nice malty flavour with some caramel taste and a bit of ash. The flavour isn’t that strong; it is very warm, and smells mostly of malt. It’s pleasant, but not especially unusual.

The leaves are whole and a warm golden colour. The wet leaves smell edible, but slightly sharp. The lid of the teapot I used to steep them smells like dark chocolate and ash.

First off, this tea is beautiful! Dry leaf is tender and fluffy, with little golden hairs and spirals of black. Seriously gorgeous leaf. I could brewed this one, and it came out a lovely pale amber.

Flavor-wise, this tea is very nice. It’s got those classic bread notes but not as much chocolate as I was hoping. It’s got a sort of weird savory or salty aftertaste to it, that I couldn’t place for the longest time. Then I realized: it tastes exactly like goldfish crackers!

All in all, a solid tea, especially cold.

Thank you Nicole! I’m not sure if I steeped these mostly gold, fuzzy twisties properly. I’ve had similar teas from YS like this one that I adored, but this one seemed to turn out a little light to my tastes. First up was a hint of tomato soup, but then it’s very light and sweet honey. Not much else in the way of flavor, even though the color of the cup looked like a milk chocolate brew, so it should have been like a medium strength black tea. I wish I could say more, but this one was too light! Only one serving left anyway.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 tsp // 12 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min

I LOVED this one. Awesome work black tea

I finally steeped this one right this time! It was delicious. Sweet, bready, sweet potato-y. Glad I gave this one a second try. So much better this time around! :D

Finally, something not green! :D This tea also came from Dexter. I’ve really enjoyed the other pure bud teas I’ve tried from Yunnan Sourcing, so I’m excited for this one as well. The leaves look like beautiful little Goldilocks curls, they’re twisty and curly but in a more haphazard way than bi luo chun. Dry scent is soft and honeyed.

The steeped tea has that lovely savory Yunnan smell, along with sweet potato, brown sugar, and stonefruits. Yum, this has a very thick, mouth-filling texture and it’s quite smooth. I can taste sweet potato puree along with wheat bread with butter and a touch of honey. There’s a deep caramelized sugar richness in the background. I don’t taste the stonefruit until the end of the sip, and even then it’s rather faint.