113 Tasting Notes

95

Spring 2023: Love this. A very delicate green tea. Sweet and nutty with soft florals and notes of juniper. Nice complexity with some lingering aftertaste.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML
Keemunlover

I think maybe lavender would be the best description of the florals I find in this. Not too floral, but there as a nice background note.

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90

Spring 2023: A nice cup of flowers! Very floral oolong tea. Sweet. Another great find from Yunnan Sourcing. I think the processing of this tea is somewhat unusual for “duck shit” varietal Dan Cong oolong, but I am not very knowledgeable about this tea. IMO, not a bad idea to use this processing method.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML

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75

Spring 2023: Some green chestnut, some apricot, some grassy florals (maybe dandelion?). Nothing really pops on this one, though. An enjoyable, but not great, tea. I suspect this would make a decent iced tea.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML

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85

Spring 2023: The dry leaves don’t have much aroma but look very nice. The tea does smell like stewed fruit once brewed, but not a lot of fruit in the taste. This tea leans more vegetal/herbal. Strong notes of celery and herbs like parsley and oregano. Nuttiness in the background, with a good amount of sweetness which is kind of masked by the herbal notes. Maybe some lemongrass. I can agree with previous reviewer that there are flavors of grilled vegetables, green pepper, and a whisper of smoke.

This is a very interesting tea overall, as I haven’t had too many with this kind of flavor profile. I can see why maybe puerh drinkers would enjoy this, and I would venture to guess that the parsley/oregano herbal notes in this tea are the same kind of notes which translate into the “medicinal” notes commonly found in puerh teas. I think I see a similarity there.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML
Keemunlover

Definitely possesses some of the “green chestnut” qualities and I get some sauteed onions with hints of sweet caramelization, and some celery notes as well.

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95

Spring 2023: Incredible tea. Much smaller leaves than I was expecting, as I am accustomed to seeing the larger-leaf style Yunnan teas. This one might still be large by comparison to many other teas, but definitely on the finer side for Yunnan tea. Also much more golden than I was expecting – There is less black than shown in the vendor’s picture.

Smell is amazing, with a nice honey sweetness, chocolatey notes, and sweet potato fragrance. These notes translate very much into the taste, with milk chocolate, sweet potato, and honey at the forefront. You also get other typical Yunnan flavors which creep in at times, with occasional notes of hay, spice, grapes, and the faintest whispers of smoke.

The sweet potato seems most prominent in this one. I can taste the milk chocolate notes, but shared with a couple of family members who couldn’t agree on the chocolate but were definitely feeling the sweet potato.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML

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90

Spring 2023 harvest: I also purchased what I believe is lower grade of this tea – I’m not sure, because the website doesn’t spell it out – but I believe the “Yunnan Green Spring Snail Bi Luo Chun Green Tea” is lower grade of this same tea? Anyways, these two teas are much more similar than different. I love the aroma of both teas, with a strong peanut butter-like scent unlike any other tea I have experienced. Very nutty green tea!

This higher grade seems to have more prominent vegetal notes, however, with asparagus being prominent in smell and taste, rather than the lighter “grassy” notes in the the lower grade of tea. Absolutely lovely tea! Another great one from Yunnan Sourcing!

I’m not sure whether I prefer the lower grade or the higher grade at the moment, so I am scoring both the same and will continue sipping on the two until I can decide. Probably will adjust my scores one way or another.

If only they would offer some great ginseng oolong teas, I think I could find everything I need at Yunnan Sourcing. I’m pretty certain that next time I order I will pick up a bit of puerh, because I also enjoy those teas once in a while, and it really seems to be their “main thing.” They have such a wonderful selection of almost every type of tea, though. I know I am gushing like some kind of paid shill for Yunnan Sourcing, but they really do have an awesome thing going on there, with loads of interesting teas available at reasonable prices. The only catch is the hassle and expense of shipping from China, but you can avoid that if you choose to purchase through the separate “US” website, at least if you are a US customer.

Another store I was mad-impressed with is Silk Road Teas (the San Franscisco-based company, not the Canadian one) – I think they have one of the best selections of Chinese teas, and I haven’t placed an order with them since the early days of my tea obsession. I really need to revisit them soon. Between Yunnan Sourcing and Silk Road Teas, I have my two favorites.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML
Keemunlover

I guess the website does spell it out after all – This is Yunkang #100 varietal versus the lower grade tea which is Yunkang #10, so these are different varietals. I gather they must be quite similar, though. I read that the Yunkang #100 has larger and fatter buds than #10, and perhaps that is the reason it was selected to make a pure bud tea?

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90

Love the aroma of this tea! It is so nutty that it almost smells like peanut butter, but also with some hints of spice (coriander?) and a pleasant mild grassiness. The nuttiness is prominent in the taste as well, with some sweetness and a little bit of a grassy bite to make things more interesting. This might become an “everyday” tea for me!

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 16 OZ / 473 ML
Keemunlover

Spring 2023 version of this tea.

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I love tea. Mainly Chinese teas, such as Keemuns, Shui Xian oolongs when I can find them, Yunnan golden buds, and delicate spring greens. With so many options, though, I keep trying new teas.

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Las Vegas, NV

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