Da Hu Sai Village Wild Arbor Black Autumn 2014

Sipdown 201/398 – it’s gone up by one because I finally created an entry for a tea my brother and his girlfriend brought back for me when they went on holiday to Crete.

I steeped the leaf at boiling hoping to get more from this tea, and though there’s a little bit of astringency I think it definitely helped with adding more flavour to the liquor. It’s much more malty than it was the last time I had it, and there’s some woody notes present which I didn’t notice last time, but it’s still lacking the rich cocoa and honey notes which I (maybe unfairly) expected from this based on the scent of the leaf steeping. It’s less disjointed this time, but still not my favourite from the YS samples I’ve tried. Bumping the rating up from 52 because it’s definitely better this way.

Guess what? I quit my job at the school yesterday! YEAH! I was really trying to hold out for the last 6 weeks of the school year, but yesterday I realized I was done. The constant disrespect & lack of interest from the students, the stress of all the noise, lack of sleep…It finally got to me, so I calmly packed my stuff up at the end of the day (I’ve already been packing things up, so there wasn’t much left anyway), and resigned. I’m so happy to be home, returning to my pajama lifestyle of students, gigs, gardening, food, & tea! Now I’ll have time to really enjoy my tea drinking & reviewing again too!
And here’s a tea I haven’t reviewed!
I have a ton of this in my cupboard, both from my own purchase of some, & from Sil sending me a baggy full. I guess I’m just going to have to say that although I adore most of the black teas from YS, this is probably among my least favorites, which is why I haven’t reviewed it before now. I just haven’t found the best way to steep it. I’ve tried several, & today I’m trying it gongfu: 5G + 4oz tiny teapot X 15/30/45/60 sec etc
The resulting tea is tart & tangy, kind of like under ripe apricot. There are also bready notes & herbaceous notes, & although it’s drinkable, it’s not really something that appeals to me this morning. I also have tea from Da Hu Sai Village 2013 that has been processed as a Sheng Puer, & I have a feeling that is a much better use of these leaves, although I haven’t tried that one yet. I think the tangy qualities will translate wonderfully.
Anyway, I’m going to keep trying this black version in a variety of ways, starting with turning the rest of what Sil sent me into a cold brew. Hopefully one day this week I’ll also try the Sheng to compare them :)

Addendum: SO it turns out that this makes an excellent cold brewed ice tea! Just thought you guys would like to know!

Thank you Sil for including this one.

This is a bready Yunnan Black. I’m not getting the interesting notes that others have mentioned. A little malt, a little yeast, a little grain – for me this is just an average Yunnan black, but always happy to spend the day with black teas from friends. :))

Slight honey-suckle sweetness. A tad leathery astringency. Dark cacao notes. Slight creamy mouthfeel.

Thanks to Sil for sharing with me!

Hello tea friends! I haven’t been posting notes lately because I’ve been working on sipdowns of teas that I’ve already logged, and I’m not the type of person who feels the need to log a tea every time I drink it. This sample is from Sil. The leaves definitely look quite wild, they’re long and gnarled and their color is a combination of gold and dark grey/brown. I didn’t get much of a dry scent from them.

The steeped tea smells quite fruity in a wine-like way. The aroma almost reminds me of Darjeeling a bit. Wow, this is a unique one! It has a strong herbaceous note at the beginning of the sip that reminds me of thyme and perhaps oregano? There’s also malt and a touch of hay. The end of the sip has strong and fuzzy stonefruit notes, mostly apricot or peach. Underneath it all there’s a thickness and a smooth bread-like flavor, though I would describe it as more of a flatbread than a yeast variety. Very interesting and tasty!

i can’t get excited about this tea. It’s not “bad” persay, but i don’t love it and there’s something in the taste that makes me not ever want to pick it. I tried it gonfu today to see if that made it a better option for me and while it smoothed some of the taste out, it’s still not what i want.

Open to adding this to swaps or sending it on to someone who will love it.