Certified Organic "Yunnan Yellow Tea" Spring 2017

Half an hour lost… because I pressed escape key. I am so sad :( it was so great tasting note!

I have received this one from Derk, I divided the package in half so 2.5 grams twice.

Anyway, I will try to rewrite it. Somehow. Anyway, it has been a while when I used gaiwan for last time. I guess I wanted easy teas. But not today, needed to calm down.

85 ml gaiwan; 2.5 grams of tea; freshly boiled water in thermos; 10 seconds rinse.

Now no tropical aromas after rinse. It was sweet somehow, with little cooling effect but I do not think it is minty as derk suggest. I think it is rather like pine or fir forest. Little malty. I wanted a black tea; but as this is so complex I think this worked well too. It was just nice to drink; nothing bad.

Aromas were wonderful. At first I do not recall anything, then it changes to be more and more fruity. Little hay, passion fruit – and of course bit of pine again. Actually those aromas are written completely random as it came to my mind I wrote them down.

A taste. Complex – haha. No, it was interesting cup. When I did not noticed any fruity notes (I noticed a forest notes instead) I took another steep and fruitiness was there. It was becaming slowly bitter, so I shortened next steeping time. And it was another again. Bit herbal; but not a bad taste though! Maybe a little of the pine/fir/another tree. It was great. Simply GREAT!

Oh I forgot about visual of tea – well; it reminds me something bit different than amber. Something I won´t write down :)

What surprised me – it was full of taste all steepings, no signs of becaming weaker; not always I use whole thermos for single tea.

Well, this second tasting note is not so nice and great I had before. But I still hope it made you happy – you have enjoyed reading it and hopefully – derk, you send me really nice teas and now I finished it really all. Thank you for this swap, where I am the debtor and hopefully I can send you something again so we can swap again. Maybe I will give a try on those Azores teas. And something else I can find for sure.

Soon my first Farmerleaf order should came, I can´t wait at all – but on the other hand in two weeks an exam period starts. So, I will drink tea, but I am honestly afraid, that I won´t have time for enjoying it completely (and writing tasting notes). Feels bad man.

I was searching through my cupboard this morning looking for a tea to complement the weather. It’s cool, overcast and humid today, making it feel a little warmer than it really is. I figured I’d dip into this yellow tea for the first time.

I prepared this gongfu, using 3g, 60mL gaiwan, 195F. Flash rinse followed by 10 steeps, though you could probably get more with attentive brewing.

The dry leaf smell was very rounded with sweet potato, sweet mango, malt and a deep umami that reminded me of soy sauce. The wet leaf scent remained surprisingly strong throughout with notes of tropical fruits like mango, passionfruit and guava, some malt, light cocoa and a faint mint which disappeared early on. The mint made its presence known as a cooling effect more than a taste. Despite the warm notes in scent and taste, this was a very cooling tea. The flavors remained unchanging and reflected the scent of the wet leaf: tropical fruit, umami, malt, sweet potato, mineral and a kind of lightly bitter alkaline taste with a building but not unpleasant astringency.

The amber-gold liquor remained thick throughout and sat heavily in my stomach, making food a requirement. I ended up finishing the session while eating some leftover Ethiopian food which overwhelmed the experience so I was sitting and wondering what kind of food would go well with this tea. Maybe a guava or pineapple cake or a red bean moon cake? Something to bring the fruity notes forward and tame the growing astringency.

I really enjoyed this tea and found it to be a great pick for today’s weather. It’s definitely Yunnan in taste and very different from the yellow tea I’ve tried from Anhui province. I’m glad my curiosity brought me to this tea.

Love this style of tea. It doesn’t seem similar to other yellow teas but love it all the same. Green black non-oolong might better describe it. The unique character of bitterness, astringency and florality is what attracts me to this tea.

I ordered this of this out of curiosity, and I’m glad I did! The leaves are interesting, looking a lot like a Yunnan gold bud black but with the gold buds being more grey. The dry leaves smell strongly of sweet potato which had me worried.

It brews a medium yellow and tastes of sweet potatoes, but also tropical fruit (mango maybe), mineral, and umami. It’s an interesting mix of sweet and savory. It lasts for many infusions, but astringency seems to build up as you go. In latter steeps it was very astringent.

Overall tasty and interesting!

In other news, I started a blog! https://themellifiedcup.wordpress.com/
It would mean a lot if you would check it out and comment or give feedback on the blog and what you would like to see on it in the future.