Jinggu Golden Strand Pure Bud Yunnan Black tea * Spring 2014

Another one from terri that i had earlier today. This one is another good cup of tea. It doesn’t stand out as a must have , but it was a great tea to have. medium body, smooth, slightly malty.

1st tasting will be quick. I don’t think I’m tasting that well this morning, so i’ll probably update at a later time

light amber infusion
aromas of marshmallow, sweet potato and honey
medium body. very smooth and delicate with light malty tones and a lingering honey finish

highly drinkable, but don’t serve with anything too strong.

Thanks Tea Lizzy for giving me a sample of this to try, it definitely has long beautiful leaves. I decided to steep it Western Style this morning. I’m getting a very light infusion that is slightly malty, light and also has a definite sweet aftertaste. The fruity element is quite prominent here with notes of apple and apricot. This might have been a better tea to try gong fu’ing instead of steeping western style but that’s all I had time for today. This is nice and refreshing, would be a good choice for afternoon tea I think. Thanks again, TL!

Finally getting around to reviewing this one. I think it’s from the Marco Polo TTB.

Method:
~2tsp/10oz
Pre-boiling
First steep: 1min 45sec
Second steep: 2min

It’s light on the tongue and very floral on the front end. There are notes of apricot, cream, and sweet potato. The finish is honey, honey, and thick delicious honey. Serious honey-mouth. Later steeps develop a tinge of malt. There’s a buttery, bake-y quality to this tea that makes me think of lightly toasted bread or pastries. It’s a good tea, but it’s a tad on the light/floral side for my tastes. I like something a little more robust!

Second one from my YS order-this one is quite similar to the first one I tried, but a lot lighter. Tasting a lot of honey and sweet potatoes,but not as much as I did in the other one. Still sweet and delicious! Will enjoy the rest of this one. (:

Happy Christmas Eve all! It’s the first day of 6 days off work in a row! Woot! I’ve got tea and warm kitties and I’m looking forward to relaxing and visiting with family. Might go see the movie Wild later too!

I thought I would gong fu this tea today. I’m really enjoying steeping good quality black teas that way now. This one has a really odd color in the first steep. Kinda grey-brown, but the flavor is sweet and yammy. It doesn’t have the longevity of the other golden black teas I got from YS, but it’s not bad. Just don’t expect a long session with this one.

I took some of this from the Lewis & Clark tea box before it went on its way. I love the other gold tea I tried from MzPriss’ Unflavored tea box so much that I HAD to buy some (the Imperial Mojiang Spring 2014). There you go tea companies: a sale from a traveling tea box.

The leaves here are somewhat curly but also somewhat sickle shaped. I definitely did NOT steep this the right way somehow, as there was a plastic-like scent. I’ll have to work with it. I took a few teaspoons out of the tea box as there was SO MUCH there! The steeped tea actually has a muddied gray color. The flavor at the top of the mug is like tomato soup, then there is some sweet potato. There is a lot of starchiness. Maybe that somehow reminds me and other tea drinkers of sweet potato on its own? Or the starchiness is the sweet potato flavor? The second steep tasted exactly the same, so I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. But it seems like this cup should be so much better than how I steeped it.
Steep #1 // 2 tsps.// 9 min after boiling // 3 min steep
Steep #2 // 8 min after boiling // 2 1/2 min

Lewis & Clark TTB #12.

I’m a big fan of “Golden” Yunnan teas, and still have 2014 YS Simao and Mojiang Golden in my cupboard. This is similar in style, though perhaps not as good as the Siamao (my favorite).

The tasting starts with a nice sweet potato aroma, with cocoa underneath. The taste continues those flavors. It isn’t as strong as I might like, though not weak. Good finish. As the tea cools, the chocolate comes to the fore, along with a hint of smoke, while the sweet potato recedes. The finish also becomes slightly bitter.

Marco Polo TTB

Guys, I finally did it, I figured out the perfect Tea Triage for my blog! I have been stressing for a bit over posting order because I have a ton of teas to review from different companies. Since it is just good policy to review teas sent by companies rather than ones bought/gifted first, this is my usual order, but for the first time ever I got a bunch of different teas from a bunch of different companies all at once. And I thought the spring harvest was a busy time for tea bloggers, this is just awesome! My main problem really is just making sure none of the tea companies feel neglected or forgotten, so I set up a Tea Triage (tea-age, treage, this doesn’t make for good punnery) that I am happy with.

So for today we have Yunnan Sourcing’s Jinggu Golden Strand Pure Bud Yunnan Black Tea Spring 2014 a gloriously fuzzy golden tea (my biggest weakness, maybe) I just love the appearance of fuzzy teas, the gold ones in particular just fill me with happiness when looking at them. According to Yunnan Sourcing, this particular batch of Hong Cha (red tea) is the fuzziest they have sold, awesome! This particular fuzzy gold tea is from Jinggu, Yunnan, and is made with the highest grade Yunnan large leaf buds. After my usual period of staring at the tea oohing and ahhing at the adorable tea I got around to sniffing it. The aroma is…well, it is awesome, there are notes of dried cherries and apricots, with more subtle notes of sweet potatoes, roasted peanuts, and lastly a tiny hint of cream. It is very much so iconic for a Yunnan black tea, at least for me it is, it has all the notes I expect when sniffing a fuzzy gold tea, but with a cleaner and crisper edge.

And into the gaiwan the leaves go, it is always a little sad since this means the gold fuzz will go away (and by go away I mean go into my cup for me to sip, mmm fuzzies) but it is also happy because it means I am about to drink tea. The aroma of the now steeped leaves is sweet, pretty intensely sweet, blending notes of stewed apricots and cherries with a touch of molasses, malt, sweet potatoes, roasted peanuts and a finish of wood. The poured off liquid from the first steep is creamy sweet with notes of sweet potatoes and acorn squash (almost verging on pumpkin) and a finish that is almost floral, like very distant flowers.

The first steep starts out juicy and sweet, it reminds me of biting into a perfectly ripe plum and then it transitions to malt and molasses. After this there is a delicious kick of pumpkin, I had a funny moment when sipping this tea where I actually shouted out Pumpkin! and promptly handed Ben the cup to taste, where he agreed that yes, this tea had pumpkin notes and promptly went back to reading. The finish of the tea is floral, with almost a rose like touch, the mouthfeel starts out creamy and fades to a dry slightly fuzzy feel at the end.

Second steeping time, and the aroma of this steep’s aroma is rich and sweet. There are notes of sweet potatoes, stewed plums, and a touch of raw honey at the finish. The taste is quite rich, it starts off with malt and molasses this time with only a hint of fresh plum. This transitions into pumpkin and a touch of roasted peanuts with a finish of honey. The mouthfeel starts off more dry than last time, but there is still a hint of the smoothness at the beginning.

For the third steep we have a creamy pumpkin and sweet potato aroma, in fact the aroma reminds me of sweet potato patties I used to eat like crazy as a kid, (are they just a thing in the South, because I never see them anymore) so yay for nostalgia points. The mouthfeel starts out creamy and stays creamy, it is very mellow, actually everything about this steep is mellow. It starts out gently fruity and honey sweet and fades to malt and molasses, at the finish there is a bit of pumpkin and a refreshing cooling effect. So yeah, I enjoyed this tea, but have I ever met a fuzzy tea from Yunnan that I did not enjoy immensely?

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/09/yunnan-sourcing-jinggu-golden-strand.html

For the actual tea: http://yunnansourcing.com/en/yunnan-black-teas/2875-jinggu-golden-strand-pure-bud-yunnan-black-tea-spring-2014.html

Time for more Yunnan Sourcing! This same is from my swap with Tealizzy, she sent me three different giant fuzzbud teas. You just have to admire the beauty of these pure bud teas from YS – the leaves are so outrageously puffy and fuzzy and golden. These ones are just a little bit twisty in a way that looks natural, as if they were allowed to twist however they wanted to. Dry scent is sweet honey and a touch of malt.

The steeped cup smells sweet potato-y and somewhat savory. Yum, this is a delicious light and smooth cup! It has that lovely sweet potato flavor that Yunnan teas are known for, but it’s so light that it almost reminds me of pastry. There’s also a light sweetness that reminds me of honey and golden raisin. This tea actually has a strong floral presence, especially for a black tea. It’s a light and sweet floral, perhaps lilac? Overall, it’s thick and silky smooth with a light but somewhat decadent flavor. Yum!