Award Winning Yun Nan Dian Hong Black Tea – Golden Tip

So we had another tea face off. This is my favorite. It’s pretty much what I was hoping to get but just a tad bit better. I wanted some thing to replace tarantula tea since it was discontinued.

This is malty and velvety smooth. The depth of character here calls up the word earthy in my mind. This tea ends so nicely with chocolate and honey like sweet notes. This is truly and enjoyable cup.

Giving this another go-around and finishing up the sample packet I have at work. After 3 minutes of steeping I am at least getting a hint of fruitiness, but the flavor is still lacking.

I decided to keep the strainer in and steep this for a ridiculously long amount of time to see if I could coax out some more flavor. 6 minutes in and there are some slight green bean and chocolate notes. At least it does not get astringent.

9 minutes in and this tea actually gets a flavor! The chocolate becomes a stronger and the green beans last into the aftertaste. Still pretty smooth in the mouth and only a teensy bit of astringency.

November

First of all, I have to say that JacquelineM put it the best with her tasting note of this same tea. It’s just spot-on, and I think everyone should read it and then go buy this awesome tea. It seems like everyone who’s added a tasting note to this one Steepster can at least agree that it’s a 4-5 star Chinese black.

That said, one thing that seems to be missing from some of the other tasting notes about this tea are the floral aspects. On the forefront, you get the tea (a nice black with maybe a little oiliness?). Then, you get the crusty sweet potatoes baked with a touch of orange juice (mentioned by JacquelineM). Finally, you get a mouth full of flowers (not over-the-top, but just right). It’s beautiful, and I’m really enjoying my last 4 cups of it with these spicy noodles right now. :o)

1 tsp even for 5 oz

OK, trying this side by side with Adagio Yunnan Gold.

It’s obvious which is the better quality. The dry leaves have the same colors, but the Teavivre is slightly more neatly rolled. The Teavivre has more aroma, and the Teavivre liquor is clear and coppery red while the Adagio liquor is cloudy and orange.

Teavivre is more flavorful and smoother. Enough said.

I really enjoy all of Teavivre’s teas. Especially the black teas and pu erhs. This one is lovely. Kind of malty and bold but with a sweetness to it. Light hints of cocoa and sweet potato. Mmm :)

I feel like I wasted half my sample – I didn’t realize that I was supposed to steep this at 85C and so I dumped my poor leaves into boiling water as I would most black teas.

/0\ Ok. Never assume anything. Let’s move on.

This tastes fine by the way, but I’m not rating/reviewing until I do it “properly”.

I’m still new to unflavored black tea and I have to say that there’s a lot more too it than I expected. I wasn’t aware that so many different flavors and layers of complexity could be present in black teas. I guess the reason for that is just the fact that whenever I thought of black tea, some kind of bagged English breakfast was always what popped into my mind. And because of my expectations, when I first opened my sample bag of Teavivre’s bailin gongfu black I was blown away. I actually felt a rush of adrenaline from the excitement in knowing that I was in for a treat and a surprise. I was shocked. Upon opening this sample bag provided for me in my second round of Teavivre samples, I experienced a flashback to that moment of awakening. The leaves are beautiful. Part rich cocoa color, but mostly a rustic gold composing the beautiful twists of leaf. The golden color of the leaves is much like the amber glow pouring in through my windows just before sunset this evening. Before I got into loose-leaf tea, I NEVER would have thought that “black” tea could look this way, and to be honest I still don’t understand what causes this to happen, but it sure is cool. Now on to the taste. All of what I taste in this tea has been said before. Mostly cocoa, a little malty, with little hints of sweet potato and honey intermingled. Also, there is a definite genuine sweetness to it when I allow it to sit in my mouth for a bit and let it touch different parts of my tongue (as strange as that may sound). It is delicious, and it’s a perfect end to a not-so-good day.

Today I lowered the steep time to 3 minutes and used a lower water temperature that yielded a beautiful, smooth and flavorful brew. Truly one of the finest teas I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy. I am getting that fresh baked flavor with a lovely good morning tea buzz that is not over the top with caffeine. Teavivre should be very proud of this one….

Interesting how my first logging of this tea was on a day that I awoke with a headache and congestion, and now today, this is the tea that I have selected for the very same reasons. I opted not to take conventional medicine and have this as one of the ingredients in the otc medication for my headaches is caffeine, and I thought this would be a better tasting way to treat my head issues.

I was reminded of this tea, and the sweet potato and raisin flavour notes that another reviewer noted, and I reread the reviews which all pretty consistently and conclusively list sweet potato or orange and sweet potato notes…and well, that all sounds good, though I’ve never thought of comparing tea tastes to that of sweet potatoes or raisins.

Dry leaves…in the package they are beautiful and golden, and as some have said, fuzzy. I took in as deep a breath as I could muster with the congestion and sniffed as much as I could. They smelled sweet and fragrant, and rich but delicate.

Brewed…I did my best to try to taste the sweet potato notes in this tea, and I think that having that expectation to look for, I found it, at the back of my mouth, as I finished my sip, but I wouldn’t have had the foggiest idea what that was otherwise. There is a bit of tartness, which could be what some are saying is orange or citrus.

The overall flavor is light and delicate, but earthy and warm, and a bit complex. I can sense a roasty/toasty essence which may be malty on the tongue, with a sweet-ish aftertaste.

I have raised my rating on this tea. I used water just before it was at a full boil, with one scoop of leaves in my bamboo spoon, and about 4/5 full of water in my steeper…I did not measure out specifically, I just poured it in over the leaves.

I have one last serving of this. For a straight black tea, I like it. I may have to explore more yunnans.