Another Jillian tea!
The leaves are pretty! They’re golden yellow, large and twisted. The smell mildly smokey. Long ago I had a Golden Yunnan that I thought was rather smokey in flavour, but since then whenever I’ve mentioned that I have been met with disbelief, until I finally began to think I was remembering it wrong since I seemed to be the only person in the world ever to have thought it was smokey. I’m also picking up a note of honey, a really flavourful kind of honey so strong that when you eat it you almost have to cough.
That note goes quite well with the honey-golden colour of the brew. The aroma after steeping is the same kind of honey, but not so much on the smoke. It’s just to throw you off, really. You almost expect to get a mouthful of liquid honey and instead you get a prickly mouthful of smoke. I still agree with myself that it’s a very smoky tea. I am getting a small note of honey, but not nearly to the extent that I would have thought from the aroma.
I’m trying to find the peppery note that people have been talking about and so far I’m failing. I get some pricklyness, but that’s from the smoke I think. I can’t find any pepper.
Back in ancient prehistoric times when I last had a plain yunnan, I remember not liking it much. I believe my tastes have changed. I think it’s a type I’ll have to stock up on again next year. It’s not one that I think is OMG fantastic! But it’s a nice one to have in the cupboard.
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See, now I wouldn’t call Yunnan Jig smoky, but instead peppery. Maybe it’s just semantics?
I think it’s probably the same flavour but recognise it differently. It was the same thing with the white cucumber I got from Ricky a few days ago. Others had found a cinnamon like flavour, but to me it was like a mouthful of dill.
I don’t know…I found some smoke flavor in the weaksauce yunnan I ordered the other day. It was on the tail end of the sip, and showed up primarily after the cup had cooled down. Now I’m going to have to make a cup of this and see if I can find the pepper in it.
Glad you’re enjoying this one! _
If you want to have a completely different Yunnan experience and really get a taste of how diverse Yunnan teas can be, try an all-bud Yunnan, such as Itoen’s Yunnan Gold Tips (which I currently can’t find on its website) or Rishi’s Organic Ancient Tree Golden Needle http://www.rishi-tea.com/store/golden-needle-organic-fair-trade-black-tea.html.
East Side Rob, due to shipping issues and fees and customs and whatnot those aren’t really available to me :(
I love tea from the Yuannan region. I was actually building an order from Rishi. 25% off! If only there was free shipping as well. I won’t cave! You could always get steepster members to send some tea your way.
Surely, there are Yunnan bud teas available over there — it’s Europe, the cradle of fine food and drink. Try Le Palais des Thes at www.palaisdesthes.com. They have a Bourgeons de Yunnan that’s an all-bud Yunnan. They’re French and they ship to the United States (and the French are so ambivalent about us Americans), so surely they’ll ship to Denmark. (You guys are such an uncontroversial lot, except of course when the local newspaper publishes a cartoon of Mohammed, but, hey, I digress.)
Anyway, Le Palais Des Thes, I think, even has a store in Oslo, so surely they can hurl a sample across the Skagerrak or the Kattegat, or whatever body of water it is that separates you guys.
I haven’t tried their Yunnan bud tea myself, but I bet it’s pretty good. I found a link, but it’s to the American version of their site.
http://www.palaisdesthes.com/us/tea-shop/yunnan-tips-2424.html
Let me know if you have any luck.
Ricky, I do have some secret plans in that regard, but it’ll have to wait a while.
East Side Rob, oh I can get the type, no problem. Those particular vendors you mentioned would be a problem though. I’ve only ordered from Adagio once, and it was pretty extravagant experience. About $20 for the tea, about $20 for shipping and about $20 for customs…
I’ve always considered drinking a fine tea an affordable luxury, something that can be enjoyed for a fraction of the cost of a good wine. But at $40 for a shipment, I can see why you’d want to avoid American-based tea purveyors. And how’s the Euro against the dollar these days?
No clue, we haven’t got the Euro in Denmark. Yet. It’s a question of time before they send that to a vote again. The majority for no was tiny the last time. But I think $1 = about 6 danish kroner.
Ouch, couldn’t you just list it as a gift? Would you still have to pay customs for that? When I order stuff outside of the US that’s what companies usually list on the customs form.
I can’t, so far as I can see, control how they send it. And I’m not sure there wouldn’t still be VAT on it. On the other hand, I’m not particularly comfortable about the customs labels being fiddled with like that. I haven’t bought from Teaspring (who otherwise have very reasonable shipping!) since the time I ordered for some $75 tea, and when I got the package the customs label read ‘Contents: Card. Value $10’. I was lucky the customs people didn’t decide to try and open that one! O.o
Haha, usually the items are listed properly, but the pricing is a bit fudged when it’s sent to me.
Yeah, I’ve only had something like that happen the one time, but it did still make me a little uncomfortable with shopping there. I think in the new year I’ll have to place an order with Chaplon. They’re based in Denmark and I haven’t shopped with them in AGES. Don’t know why actually, I’ve always been happy with their quality. They just sort of slipped off my radar, I guess.
See, now I wouldn’t call Yunnan Jig smoky, but instead peppery. Maybe it’s just semantics?
I think it’s probably the same flavour but recognise it differently. It was the same thing with the white cucumber I got from Ricky a few days ago. Others had found a cinnamon like flavour, but to me it was like a mouthful of dill.
I don’t know…I found some smoke flavor in the weaksauce yunnan I ordered the other day. It was on the tail end of the sip, and showed up primarily after the cup had cooled down. Now I’m going to have to make a cup of this and see if I can find the pepper in it.
Glad you’re enjoying this one! _
If you want to have a completely different Yunnan experience and really get a taste of how diverse Yunnan teas can be, try an all-bud Yunnan, such as Itoen’s Yunnan Gold Tips (which I currently can’t find on its website) or Rishi’s Organic Ancient Tree Golden Needle http://www.rishi-tea.com/store/golden-needle-organic-fair-trade-black-tea.html.
East Side Rob, due to shipping issues and fees and customs and whatnot those aren’t really available to me :(
I love tea from the Yuannan region. I was actually building an order from Rishi. 25% off! If only there was free shipping as well. I won’t cave! You could always get steepster members to send some tea your way.
Surely, there are Yunnan bud teas available over there — it’s Europe, the cradle of fine food and drink. Try Le Palais des Thes at www.palaisdesthes.com. They have a Bourgeons de Yunnan that’s an all-bud Yunnan. They’re French and they ship to the United States (and the French are so ambivalent about us Americans), so surely they’ll ship to Denmark. (You guys are such an uncontroversial lot, except of course when the local newspaper publishes a cartoon of Mohammed, but, hey, I digress.)
Anyway, Le Palais Des Thes, I think, even has a store in Oslo, so surely they can hurl a sample across the Skagerrak or the Kattegat, or whatever body of water it is that separates you guys.
I haven’t tried their Yunnan bud tea myself, but I bet it’s pretty good. I found a link, but it’s to the American version of their site.
http://www.palaisdesthes.com/us/tea-shop/yunnan-tips-2424.html
Let me know if you have any luck.
Ricky, I do have some secret plans in that regard, but it’ll have to wait a while.
East Side Rob, oh I can get the type, no problem. Those particular vendors you mentioned would be a problem though. I’ve only ordered from Adagio once, and it was pretty extravagant experience. About $20 for the tea, about $20 for shipping and about $20 for customs…
I’ve always considered drinking a fine tea an affordable luxury, something that can be enjoyed for a fraction of the cost of a good wine. But at $40 for a shipment, I can see why you’d want to avoid American-based tea purveyors. And how’s the Euro against the dollar these days?
No clue, we haven’t got the Euro in Denmark. Yet. It’s a question of time before they send that to a vote again. The majority for no was tiny the last time. But I think $1 = about 6 danish kroner.
Ouch, couldn’t you just list it as a gift? Would you still have to pay customs for that? When I order stuff outside of the US that’s what companies usually list on the customs form.
I can’t, so far as I can see, control how they send it. And I’m not sure there wouldn’t still be VAT on it. On the other hand, I’m not particularly comfortable about the customs labels being fiddled with like that. I haven’t bought from Teaspring (who otherwise have very reasonable shipping!) since the time I ordered for some $75 tea, and when I got the package the customs label read ‘Contents: Card. Value $10’. I was lucky the customs people didn’t decide to try and open that one! O.o
Haha, usually the items are listed properly, but the pricing is a bit fudged when it’s sent to me.
Yeah, I’ve only had something like that happen the one time, but it did still make me a little uncomfortable with shopping there. I think in the new year I’ll have to place an order with Chaplon. They’re based in Denmark and I haven’t shopped with them in AGES. Don’t know why actually, I’ve always been happy with their quality. They just sort of slipped off my radar, I guess.