Yunnan Sourcing

Jan-2014
7 grams in a Gaiwan this time.

Consistancy is thick; flavour is well rounded prunes. There is a sweeter flavour that goes under the tongue. The finish lingers with prunes on the back of the throat. This tea is good.

15/12/2014
7g used.
Note#1: The chlorine in later observed in later steeps may have been due to my tap water.
Note#2: This is a subtle tea; it does not have the concentrated herbyness. However; it has a good delivery and form, and I will score it highly for that. The cha qi also contributes to the score.

Dry leaf is colourful with medium compression.
Wet leaf is subdued fruit, complex herbyness and slightly mysterious with some cloudy smoke. This sounds promising.
5s – Interesting. Makes me feel a bit light headed. It’s mild, lightly plummy with no astringency. Super smooth.
10s – Liquor is dark yellow. It has raisins / apricot and they really stand out. Thick fruit with raisins, especially on the swallow. Contrasting bitterness on the swallow. The flavour arrives smoothly, lingers, then fades away; it does not drop off early. This tea is strangely commanding in a subtle way.
15s – Liquor is darkish orange. It is well balanced: the arrival to the finish and the flavour profile are very pleasing throughout. If it were music I’d say it was in the high range and sounding very good.
20s – Apricot, bright plums and raisins in one explosion, then after swallowing the flavour remains before fading away.
25s – Some chlorine, some astringency. I think this would taste better after it cools.
25s – I will have to let this one cool, as it tastes like water from a swimming pool… Still fruity, raisins, getting more astringent.

25g: $17.50 / £11.41
Score considering price = 75

7g used.
Note#1: The chlorine in later observed in later steeps may have been due to my tap water.
Note#2: This is a subtle tea; it does not have the concentrated herbyness. However; it has a good delivery and form, and I will score it highly for that. The cha qi also contributes to the score.

Dry leaf is colourful with medium compression.
Wet leaf is subdued fruit, complex herbyness and slightly mysterious with some cloudy smoke. This sounds promising.
5s – Interesting. Makes me feel a bit light headed. It’s mild, lightly plummy with no astringency. Super smooth.
10s – Liquor is dark yellow. It has raisins / apricot and they really stand out. Thick fruit with raisins, especially on the swallow. Contrasting bitterness on the swallow. The flavour arrives smoothly, lingers, then fades away; it does not drop off early. This tea is strangely commanding in a subtle way.
15s – Liquor is darkish orange. It is well balanced: the arrival to the finish and the flavour profile are very pleasing throughout. If it were music I’d say it was in the high range and sounding very good.
20s – Apricot, bright plums and raisins in one explosion, then after swallowing the flavour remains before fading away.
25s – Some chlorine, some astringency. I think this would taste better after it cools.
25s – I will have to let this one cool, as it tastes like water from a swimming pool… Still fruity, raisins, getting more astringent.

I got a sealed sample pack of this tea from a new IRL tea-friend! We met on Facebook through a mutual friend who knows us both and that we are both big into tea. She happens to teach yoga classes in the same business complex my office is in! So last week I decided to try out one of her yoga classes and she gave me this tea. I gave her some random green tea samples, too. She basically only drinks green tea and her husband only drinks shou, so when they got a sheng sample free with a recent YS order they were happy to pass it along. I can’t believe I met someone IRL who had never heard of steepster but orders from YS :-O

ANYWAY, the tea is very nice! Syrupy thick liquor, nice bold flavor which is not too sweet or too bitter but has plenty of flavor. Floral overtones round it out. Lingering taste on my tongue and real nice Monday morning boosting cha qi!

Very glad I got to try it! :D

This is an exceptionally smooth sheng in my opinion. Whereas it has a really nice balance of bitterness and sweetness it is lacking in that it doesn’t present many strong flavor notes beyond the bitter and sweet. There are light fruity and floral notes happening. I think this would be nice for someone looking for a lighter sheng.

Passing the last little bit of this off to tea friends to try. I don’t think i’ve shared this one with them but if i have…well oopsy. lol Sometimes with all the swapping over time, it’s hard to remember which i’ve shared. This one is enjoyable but is fussy…sometimes it’s SPOT on…other times, not so much.

i wasn’t feeling this one today….it wasn’t a terrible cup but it just wasn’t what i wanted to make the world go ’round.

Another tea from this morning! I am certainly slacking a little today. I quite enjoy this particular jin jun mei, though i’m not typically a fan of this type of tea :)

Okay, I’m getting a little frustrated with the TTB teas, so I figured since I can’t mail it out until Monday anyway and I only have a few more to try, I’d go back to trying all my older untried teas. This sample came from boychik. I’ve tried similar teas before from Whispering Pines and Han Xiang via AliExpress, but I tend to love Yunnan Sourcing’s Yunnan teas the most, so I’m excited to sample their version. The leaves are rolled into cute and fat little curls which are covered with magical golden fuzz. There’s no dry scent left, but I have had the sample for a little while so no surprise there.

Once steeped, the tea smells like sweet potatoes and honey with a slight savory note. The mouthfeel is quite thick and silken. The flavor is surprisingly heavy considering this is a pure bud tea, the strongest note is definitely the rich sweet potato, which goes perfectly with the thick texture. For some reason, I’m getting a very slight bitterness, not sure why since I used a fairly conservative temperature and time. I’m also tasting that slight savory note, and it reminds me of a salty cheese or smoked meat. There’s a little bit of a mineral tone, and apricots, fuzzy exterior and all, appear in the aftertaste.

I had the last cup of this today as the rest is off to other homes so that everyone can try out YS. I’m a fan of their teas and their customer service so I’m happy to spread the word :) Not much else to say on the subject except that i’d be willing to pick this one up again someday.

Final Count: 147

today this was sooooo tasty …cocoa, molasses, sweet and smooth. just what i wanted today. bumping the rating a little.

i had a cup of this today…while i went through my cupboard and tried o get everything all tidied up for when my orders get here…since a few of them will take a couple weeks because of us to canada shipping, i’m hoping being organised will let me get a few sipdowns in before they arrive, so my start of year cupboard will be a little smaller lol

This one is malty and sweet and delicious! It’s not my favourite from YS but it’s a good one and worth having around until i drink the rest up :)

delicious cup of tea this morning as I’m trying to work on samples AND get around to trying/re-trying some of my YS teas. This was a really nice cup of sweet, malty deliciousness! a really nice pick from YS.

This is from the November YS TOMC. I’ve been sipping this all evening, & it is a delicious rich tasting tea, with a thick quality to it that I absolutely love. It reminds me of Mandala’s Special Dark, & I want to keep drinking it forever. It is sweet, & brings to mind a dense yeasty bread. It’s creamy like cocoa. It has a chocolate mouth, & a boldness as well. I don’t really know what else to say, except it’s awesome, LOL. I will have to buy some when my sample is gone…maybe sooner ;)

8 grams in a gaiwan this time and bang! The liquor is very thick in the mouth; the lemons are much fuller, more bitter and the base is thicker and more woody.

7g used.

Mid compression with some very pale green leaves (approx 1 in 20). Dry leaf has a light, sweet hay aroma, nothing much. The wet leaf is interesting; it explodes with a bacon-like aroma, then becomes fruity with citrus notes and ending in a sweet over-brewed sencha-like sweetness that lingers. There is some menthol too.

5s – Liquor is pale yellow. It has a pleasant fruity aroma, like honey and lemon cough medicine. The flavour is mainly lemony; it is a light, floral flavour, but it has a contrasting strong boost to it; like it start off light and lemony, but then it intensifies without the flavour changing much. No astringency; very little bitterness.

10s – Syrup, lemons, soft. Some bitterness, which contrasts with the sweet lemony flavour.

15s – Still soft and lemony. It has now started to show some bitter lemon. The flavour is so light it makes the water taste thick.

I had a quick read of some other’s notes on this tea, and yes this is delicate, but is this bordering on not much flavour? I’ve also noticed some creamy hay, something I noticed in the Hebden Tea Darjeeling FTGFOP Grade 1 First Flush. Is it bland and lemony or is it delicately soft lemon with contrasting bitter lemon? Is it honey and lemon cough medicine or is it delicate, peaceful, pleasant with subtle qualities, that are to be admired by those patient enough to understand it?

35 mins – I thought i’d brew it longer, so 35 minutes later… Liquor is dark yellow. It has a much thicker consistency. Taste is astringent; dry lemons and surprisingly not so over-brewed as I imagined it would be.

40s – Flavour gone.

This is another sample from boychik. Sorry it’s taking me so long to try these! Visually, this tea strikes me as the white version of wee snaily yums, which makes sense since they’re both bi luo chun. The color is a lovely and very pale mint green with some silver and dark grey spots. The leaves have a very mild and soft hay scent. I have no idea whether I used the correct parameters for this particular tea, but I just went with my default white tea steep time and temperature.

Wow, the steeped tea actually smells quite smoky/savory! In fact, it reminds me of the black version of bi luo chun, which makes perfect sense. I just wasn’t expecting it! I can also smell hay and perhaps a slight hint of menthol or eucalyptus? Wow, this is an interesting one. I am happy to say that it didn’t come out bitter, so clearly my parameters weren’t too far off. The overall flavor is quite mild, and it’s mostly a mixture of savory smoked meat and green vegetables (spinach?). I can taste a little bit of that menthol quality, and honestly it’s numbing my mouth a little bit which is odd! I can taste a touch of floral and stonefruit at the end of the sip and in the aftertaste. It’s amazing how similar this is to black bi luo chun and yet how different at the same time! I’m not sure I would drink this, as the mouth-numbing is a little weird, but I do enjoy the flavor. :)

(I’m going to ignore the mouth-numbing quality for the rating.)

Dry – Sweet, Bitter floral, Fruits, some vegetal/faintly tobacco, fresh.
Wet – Very sweet scent, fruity, creamy and somewhat buttery in scent, vegetal, bitter-floral with some tobacco notes.
Liquor – Yellow, very faint green hue.

Initial steeps are very aromatic with matching taste. The liquor is immediately sweet with balancing ‘tart’ fruity notes and a very pleasant creamy/buttery character up front. The initial thickness/buttery body becomes smoothness as it goes down and develops bittersweet-floral notes and minor astringency. Some tobacco notes are present but only faintly, though it becomes slightly more apparent as you continue to steep.

Following steeps (4+) the body still has a good thickness, but feels rather smoother than thick (changed from creamy to buttery if that helps). The initial notes are very similar, with some savory notes appearing in the middle like steamed vegetables and tobacco/medicinal notes, but never overtaking the initial nots. The astringency is still present at the end, but still remains pleasant.

Later steeps tend to be a bit lighter, but not departed from the initial notes with only shifting of the notes, appearing floral-bitter, fruity with thickness upfront and becoming more mellow and sweet and smooth as it goes down. The astringency is more apparent, it doesn’t bother me yet, but it might be a bit too dry for some people past the 8-9? steep. Still very pleasant mouthfeel.

Final Notes
I really liked this Puerh, it offers a filling and satisfying thickness.The notes were always mellow and gentle, even though it is a young Sheng. I usually lean towards Aged Sheng and ripe during Winter season, but it delivered what I go for this time of the year. The Huigan is pleasant, sweet-fruity with floral notes and the thickness sensation seems to linger as well.

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This is my kind of sheng. Nice bold punchy flavor. Nice balance between sweet and bitter. Faint hint of floral. I like a little astringency sometimes. Good stuff.

11 grams this time. The Gaiwan is full. The flavour is concentrated spice, pepper and raw beetroot. It leaves the mouth with a peppery, raw beetroot tingle. The flavour hangs around.

7g used.

The dry leaf has medium/high compression. The aroma is dust. It looks dark and has been humid stored. There are hints of White2Tea 90’s Hong Storage, but without the lively raw beetroot.
The wet leaf has warm pastry, some soil, similar to by Hebden Tea’s Pu Erh Brick Aged Green Tea 1991, but without the sweet uncooked pastry. There is a bit of dark fruit.

5s – Liquor is light brown; this is wet stored, but how wet stored? Let’s find out. Flavour is not complex; there is no concentrated herbyness here. Currently, it is mild; a mild version of the Hebden Tea mentioned above, without the grease. Light pastry; light soil.
10s – Liquor is much darker – a darkish brown. Flavour is stronger: the soil is more prominent; it has more body. This tea is not particularly interesting at the moment.
15s – Liquor darker again: becoming dark brown. The flavour is now concentrated; there is some astringency. It is bolder, but has a sweet, raw beetroot flavour in the swallow. Have I just brewed the storage influence out and now getting to the tea?
20s – Liquor is reddish brown. Flavour is settling down: raw beetroot meets a lot of heat and loses some sharpness.
25s – Liquor is lighter reddish brown. Raw beetroot, soil, lively; there is dried chilli spice. It is described as being spicy. This can be felt at the back of the roof of the mouth. The warm pastry has gone, and that’s a good thing.
35s – Liquor is a darker reddish brown. The smoothness has gone; it’s now a little astringent, soily, and a bit dry.
~1 minute – Browny red. Boldness is going, leaving raw beetroot and spiciness.

Thanks for the sample of this one, boychik

This one is really good. Green and fresh and vegetal and sweet. I’m really enjoying it. The dry leaf was just so pretty and the tea tastes even better.

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