Yunnan Gold Tips (Limited Edition, Chinese New Year 2014)

Queued post, written June 18th 2014

A random grab in the box this time. Here’s one that Auggy sent me this year. Yunnan is the type where our tastes part company a little bit. She seems to appreciate them a little more than I do, but it’s still close enough I think. It depends on how hay-like they are.

This one doesn’t strike me as very hay-like. I think it’s the sweetness in them that sometimes comes across as a haystack to me. In this one it’s more just sort of sweet-sweet with a bit of hay on the side.

I don’t really know what else to say about it… I try to analyse it a bit, but the words aren’t coming. It won’t show me its secrets. Maybe there’s a little honey note in there? I think so. Perhaps with a bit of grain? Yes, maybe. Only when I try to think about it more, all that comes to mind is that it’s a very long time since I baked a honey bread…

I think what I’m trying to get at is that this tea reminds me of my honey bread recipe.

Difficult to decipher as it may be for me, it’s still a quite good tea, even with the hay-y notes. They could have been worse, a LOT worse. I don’t really like them stronger than this, but at this level it’s nice. It’s a bit like herbs and spices in food. Too much is awful, too little is meh and bland, but just right is lovely.

Sample from hapatite! Thanks hun!

This is the second time I’ve tried this tea. The first time I was too busy to write any notes and I wanted to give it a proper review. So! I brewed some of this up tonight. I was craving a bready, malty Yunnan. When I set my mug aside to cool, an ant somehow found its way into my cup. I deliberated for a moment…and then just picked him out. I’m gross. ): But I didn’t want to sacrifice the entire cup when I only had a few teaspoons of leaf left.

Usual method for blacks without instruction: 1.5tsp/10oz, pre-boil, 2 min. Subsequent steep times vary, but this time it was 3min.

It’s a little brisk at the beginning of each sip—especially when it’s hot. Notes of citrus, cocoa, bread, and a maltiness that coats the tongue. It has a smooth texture and it’s surprisingly light-bodied. Maybe medium. Towards the end of each sip you get stone fruits. Red fruits. It has me thinking of plums, then it has me thinking of raisins. There are notes of sweet potato: rich and thick, with a lingering sweetness. There is a bit of honey there as well. The sweet potato, grain, and fruit notes are more prominent as the liquid cools.

Well, this is a decent tea. It doesn’t wow my pants off like I hoped it would. It’s not overly complex. It stays consistent through steeps and it could probably hold up to milk and sugar. No muss, no fuss. For those reasons I would make it an everyday tea…maybe an everyday morning tea. The cost makes it less desirable, though. There are other teas with similar flavor profiles that are of higher quality and more affordable. Plus I think they just sold their last tin!

This smooth and pleasant tea accompanied my morning yesterday. These dark medium large leaves mixed with around 25% golden tip yielded 3 good steeps using my usual method of 1 TSP/225ml/94°C/1 min+1 for next steep, which is slightly less resilient than some of the Yunnan’s I’ve been drinking. The last steep was weakening and I will probably extend the steep time the next time I drink it.

The first steep smelled of malt, cocoa, a musky, grainy scent, and red fruit. The taste was sweeter than the scent with with a strong barley note mixed with cocoa and caramel. There was a faint leather spice mixed in with light malt and a touch of fruit. The tea had a slightly metallic, mineral note that leant a certain coolness to the flavour of the tea. The tea was very smooth on the tongue.

Future steeps introduced a light bright floral note, plum mixed with red fruit and a light hay note. The caramel evolved to cane sugar.

Altogether this was a smooth, pleasant, and uncomplicated accompaniment to my day.

Thanks boychik for the sample!

Another one from Nicole! And I’ve been really wanting to try this one too, mostly because of the adorable horse tin (hangs head in shame). I’m such a sucker for cute packages! The leaves are quite lovely – they’re somewhat long and curly and “fluffy”. About half golden and half brown. I ended up using closer to two teaspoons because of the fluffiness. I didn’t want to underleaf! The dry aroma is what I’m coming to expect from a very tippy Yunnan – bread and malt with honey and lovely stonefruit notes. Yummy.

At first, the tea smelled of just bread and honey. And I was okay with that! However, I noticed that as it started to cool to a more drinkable temperature, those stonefruit notes started poking their lovely little heads out. The taste is surprisingly light in texture. It’s predominantly bready malt with a bit of dried autumn leaves mixed in. And then there’s that little bit of honey sweetness too. I maybe get a little bit of a fruity aftertaste if I really look for it.

Overall, this tea is tasty. It’s uncomplicated, but done well and would make an excellent lighter everyday black tea.

So, a separate issue. I’ve made all three of my black teas today with bottled water instead of my usual tap. And they all three seemed to have the same mild bitterness. I don’t find that bitterness is usually an issue for me, since I generally do shortish steeps and use cooler water (200 degrees usually). So is it possible that my bottled water is making my teas taste more bitter…?

Thanks to Stephanie for this sample. I was glad to have it tonight so I could make a decision about ordering it or not. I liked it well enough, but at $30 shipped for 4 oz, I have to consider that I can get 4 oz of Malty Irish Breakfast for much less ($17 plus shipping) and I like it more.

Finally reviewing this tea.

This one is delicious, as with all other A&D blends I have tried.

It is a beautifully thick and malty Yunnan. I laughed when I read some of the descriptors that steepsterites had given this tea. Now I totally do not get the cannabis flavour. But I do get the autumn leaf pile. Not in a bad way but the smell of the tea is kind of like the sweet scent of drying leaves in the autumn. There is a very slight dry vegetal flavour to this tea which I would attribute with dry and crumbly leaves. I also feel like a get a hint of sweet potatoe flavour, more potatoe than sweet though.

I feel like I should hoard and savour this tea but not sure if it will last that long now that I have started drinking it.

Yum, I knew this would be fab. Thanks boychik!

Can’t really go wrong with a bold Yunnan black, or anything Damn Fine teas has to offer. So good. Seriously, think you want to order something from them? Just go for it.

After yesterday’s weak steep (made more ironic by the fact that this tea came with a badge that says “No Weak Tea” on it), I had another go. I have a .8 finum TeaControl that holds 16 oz. I used 3 hefty teaspoons. There the flavor is!!! This tea is smooth. Michael Bublé smooth. Notes of yam, grain, cocoa and malt blend smoothly like brilliant dance partners, to the point where you almost can’t separate the notes. Is that good? I think that for a morning when I’m not at work and all I want is no dramatics for a change, this tea fills the bill. On an extra note, I truly got a second steep from this tea, which is rare for me. Because I drink only black teas, if it’s watery, I’ll chuck it down the drain. This tea held it’s water for the second steep. Very impressive.

Side note: tin #138 out of 150. If you’re thinking about ordering this tea, might want to consider soon…

1.5 tsp for 300mL water @100C, steeped six minutes and fifteen seconds.

Honey, bread, roses, earth. No astringency. A soft and downy mouthfeel from those gorgeous leaves. Mineral sparkle on the finish. I love this tea.

Fantastic – even more drinkable without additives than the Red-Tailed Hawk. After having this tin for half the time I’ve had the Red-Tailed Hawk, there’s already less of this left than remains in the other tin. That’s a testament to how often I reach for it during my most uncaffeinated bleariness.