Yunnan Sourcing

I have almost finished this cake, it is so good! To me this tastes very “medicinal herbs” with that strong bitterness and almost a smoked sausages quality to it. Also a slight touch of an incense thing going on that makes it intriguing and intoxicating. The cha qi is potent with this one!

I absolutely loved this tea. It was the first cake of pu’erh I ever finished. Beautiful medium compression so the leaves I broke off were always intact…lovely leather/woody/floral flavor with straight honey smell in the cup. Very mellow qi – great for chilling on a Sunday afternoon. I am on the hunt for a similar tea to this one. Yiwu has become my favorite terroir in Yunnan <3

I get notes of chocolate and honey. I like this tea a lot.

I have had this cake for a few years, but I only opened it today for the first time. Until now I would always go for the 2018 vintage. At some point, I should also do a side-by-side comparison.

The tea is really well-balanced and flavourful, and has a supple and smooth texture. At this price, one could hardly ask for more. The taste is quite sweet, but with many undertones – malt, wood, bitter, floral, citrus zest. The aftertaste has strong honey and apricot notes. A pleasant experience overall.

One that I have had in storage for a while and drank before but have not reviewed yet. Drinking the last of what I have this morning. Dark like cacao, mildly smoky, it reminds me of a summer campfire. Pleasant mouthfeel that is not super thick but not too “watery” thin. Will probably need to buy this again in the future if possible.

This has been a wonderful experience to have the past couple mornings. Starts off well, almost like a red tea, but then becomes thicker and more woody the more I drink it. In the end, it leaves me satisfied like I ate a hearty meal. Would actually be a good daily drinker.

This was a fine tea to enjoy for my morning, but nothing to crow about. I recommend it because it is a good quality tea, but not a super favorite by any means. Gets nice and dark in color, average mouthfeel, but not very aromatic at all and does not have a super distinct or bold flavor.

Rested this one for several months after opening to see if the smoke would relinquish its iron grip on the base material:

3-stage filtered L.A. water just off the boil into my white/brown “turned” Jingdezhen gaiwan, then into a Pyrex measuring cup, then a small porcelain cup.

Woven/slightly compressed material, long leaves and plenty of stems.

Sandy brown liquor. Wood fire, cassava, and forest floor in the nose.

Potently smokey but no longer aggressively so if you keep the infusions brief (15 – 20 seconds at first, ramping up slowly). Clay, loam, and nutty flavors dance around the edges. Rich and warming body. Smooth with little astringency (despite the smoke), and no musty notes.

A rustic yet satisfying smoked tea, perhaps lacking the nuance/character of the better aged examples of Liu Bao (though I have limited experience to compare to).

Sipdown

Aroma: Woody & earthy

Texture: Oily & thick

Tasting Notes: Woody, bitter, & grains (rice, wheat, & dried oats)

Additional Notes: 18 infusions!

I brewed this tea grandpa style. It tastes much more like a “typical” Yunnan black tea than the other golden needle Yunnan teas that I have tried. Definitely more astringent than other Tunnan golden needles. A nice middle ground.

I brewed this tea grandpa style, starting with 3 grams and adding a pinch with each infusion.

What a lovely tea! So fragrant straight out of the package, not to mention when the leaves are hydrated. Smooth, not astringent at all, nice thick mouthfeel.

I drank this tea grandpa-style. I add ~3 grams to a 15 ounce mug for the first infusion, and typically add a pinch/a few leaves to each following infusion.

This is by far the best Jasmine Silver Needle tea I have had. It has just the right amount of jasmine and notes of sugar cane. I’ve ordered this tea at least 7 times over the past few years and plan to continue ordering it again and again.

Reminds me of dried plants such as wheat, and hay, specifically alfalfa hay. While I wouldn’t recommend it, all that means for me is I think there are much better teas to recommend if I were. It’s certainly not awful or anything.

Lovely, fresh tea. I agree with many others that it has notes similar to a fresh green field, meadow, or hay. The smell of the wet leaves especially is like fresh-cut grass.

This tea brews a nice, thick, dark color. I am a big fan of very dark pu-erhs. It definitely evokes imagery of a rich, dark soil with rotting wood and mushrooms when I sip it and think. Always love an earthy tea.

EDIT: I have had two pots now. The lingering taste feels, for lack of a better word, “dirty,” as in it coats the mouth. I love this tea! Such a bold mouthfeel and experience.

This lot of Jing Gu White Pekoe Silver Needled White Tea is dated “Spring 2022” and I received it June 1st of that year. I wasn’t impressed with it then, and today — almost 3 yr later — I am still unimpressed. Lots from several other years are listed here separately, and the notes recorded by others seem to be hit and miss. I found the dry leaf to smell of alfalfa hay. My first session used 2.5g leaf in 8 oz boiling spring water, oversteeped for 5 minutes. That was half my usual amount of leaf for western brewing, but the leaf was very bulky (long, hairy needles, as pictured) and I was hesitant. The pale tea was watery, with faint notes of malt, grass and astringency. Weakly sweet despite a nice thick mouthfeel. Resteeping was not too different. A second session was more to my usual process, with 5g leaf and a first 8 oz steeping of 30s, to result in a light blond infusion from the light-hued, olive-green leaves. The flavors were much the same, but less astringent, with weak stonefruit apparent. A resteeping of several minutes produced a golden broth with a grassy aroma, but a more substantial flavor, with malt, hay, and notes of chestnut, akin to a long jing (dragonwell) type tea. This infusion was the best of the bunch, with a nice aftertaste, but just not worth the fuss and price. I’d rather sip on true dragonwell. I’ll only rate this as a 55-point experience, and suggest you sip something else. [For example, EITHER the http://steepster.com/teas/yunnan-sourcing/103292-jinggu-sun-dried-silver-needles-white-pu-erh-tea-cake-spring-2022 , OR the http://steepster.com/teas/yunnan-sourcing/93180-2019-jinggu-yang-ta-camellia-taliensis-white-tea-cake , both of which looks to be made of identical-appearing C. taliensis material, but which were far better tasting, IMO.]

This is a wonderful, sweet raw pu-erh that really reminds me of butternut squash or pumpkin. The fragrance of the steeped and hydrated leaves is like a cozy fall evening. I did oversteep this at first, as I tend to do with raws/shengs, but lowering the steep time significantly helped a lot to make it completely non-bitter.

I bought a cake of this about 3 years ago, and it has improved since then! I love the mild briskness, and the maltiness on the tongue. Slightly floral scent, too. The cake was easy to pry apart, though the leaves were fragile and prone to shattering. Still for sale at YS, though at $30/250g it’s perhaps not the value previously reported — though it has improved, so perhaps it is actually still a value? It is surely potent. I brewed (western) 5g in 8 oz boiling spring water for a mere 15 sec each for three infusions, and 30 sec for the 4th, and the liquor has deepened from golden amber at start to golden brown on the 4th, with no drop in flavor or aroma yet. If anything, the aroma of honey has intensified, and the malty flavor is persisting. This is surprisingly good tea! I’ll rate it at 83 and have hopes that more aging will provide continued pleasure! Nice aftertaste, too!

Got a few cakes of this 2022 material a couple yr ago and found it to be underwhelming at first. Now it’s aged 2 more years (70°F, 62% RH) and I am enjoying it! Serial infusions of 5g in 8oz boiling spring water for 30s, 45s, 60s, 2-1/2 min and 5 min, using a stainless infusion basket. The light green leaves are large, fuzzy, and the cake pulled apart easily. The first steeping was very mild and smooth, pale yellow, sweet but watery, revealing olive green leaves. Third steeping was more flavorful and coated the mouth nicely, with the floral and grassy notes promised by the YS description. Last steeping was after the leaves had sat out overnight, and todays brew was wonderfully potent, golden yellow in color, with now a little bitterness — and sweetness becoming more pronounced as the tea cooled. Yes, I do feel a little guilty for drinking the threatened C. taliensis species, but hope it will stimulate increased cultivation of the plant. I look forward to finding how this tea continues to develop with more ageing. YS is now selling a 2024 harvest, so I can recommend it for tea explorers! I’ll give my 2022 cakes a rating of 80, but note that I have very limited experience with white teas.

Not a veteran Oolong drinker by any means, but this was quite an experience.

First brew: 5g + 80ml @ 203 F for 30 sec.

Heavy floral notes sweetly colored with peach and mango infused honey that dances on the tongue