Yu Lu Yan Cha Black

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Chocolate, Cinnamon, Honey, Stonefruit, Cocoa, Honeysuckle, Malt, Mineral, Roasted, Wood, Ash, Sugar, Oak, Orange, Sweet Potatoes, Vanilla, Earth, Grain, Roasted Barley, Smoke, Smooth, Toasty, Sweet, Vegetal, Pastries, Yams, Cookie, Toasted, Cannabis, Rye, Butter, Bread, Dill, Flowers, Muscatel, Spices, Drying
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by CharlotteZero
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 45 sec 5 g 11 oz / 318 ml

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235 Tasting Notes View all

From Verdant Tea

This incredible, limited offering tea has never before been tasted in China or the west. Our most trusted pu’er advisor, Wang Yanxin, knows that we like unique teas, and has an outstanding offer from us to finance any experimental projects that she wants to spearhead in the world of pu’er. Her first experiment has yielded a completely new kind of black tea that we think combines the best chocolatey notes of Laoshan Black with the crisp texture and honey aftertaste of Jin Jun Mei.

Wang Yanxin has a good farmer friend in Xinyang village, famous for its Xinyang Maojian green tea. Her friend was lamenting to her this autumn that her family would not have enough tea to sell this year. Xinyang Maojian uses buds only, and the spring season didn’t yield as many buds as usual. They picked plenty of bud and leaf clumps, and fresh young leaves, but had no incentive to process them as a green tea. Wang Yanxin had the idea of crafting a black tea. She bought the entire remainder of her friend’s harvest to help them out, ensuring that they have enough money to invest for next year’s crop.

Next, she had the fresh leaves air-shipped to her shop in Qingdao, and took them up to Laoshan. In Laoshan village, she and her friends started experimenting with roasting. They lost a lot of the crop before they got it just perfect, but eventually, this hand roasted black tea from Wang Yanxin found the perfect balance of chocolate notes, honey, and a perfect smoothness. Closest to a Jin Jun Mei in profile, this tea is great cause for excitement, showing that the world of tea is still young with room for innovation everywhere.

The name Yu Lu Yan Cha Black comes from the ancient names of Henan and Shandong province. Yu is Henan, and Lu is Hsandong. To commemorate this landmark cooperative tea producing effort, Yu Lu is added to the tea name. Yan is the first part of Wang Yanxin’s name to honor her innovation in creating this new tea.

We are pleased to offer the 20 pounds of this harvest that Wang Yanxin perfected, and pleased to finance the experiment through buying up the results. If this tea is enjoyed as much as we enjoyed tasted it with Wang Yanxin, then we will surely convince her to partner with her friend in Henan for a spring harvest.

About Verdant Tea View company

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235 Tasting Notes

3294 tasting notes

Sipdown #28!!
I had my tea count figured out, but more tea arrived in the form of an awesome trade, & I have to factor it in, so I’ll get back to you on that.

I shared this tea with a 30 something friend of my daughter. He’s having some rough times, so we’re keeping his dog for awhile, & trying to help him get back on track. Ari had to go to work, so he spent the earlier part of the evening hanging out & drinking tea with me. He had only ever had Lipton tea, which he didn’t care much for. Needless to say, he enjoyed this one, & we went through several steepings of it. We also drank a few others.

This is my least favorite of Verdant’s Black tea offerings. In fact, the only reason I had some on hand was because they included a sample in one of my orders. Sure, there’s some chocolate in there, it’s roasty & sweet, but there’s an undertaste that just doesn’t appeal to me. Nothing wrong with the tea, & I don’t mind drinking a cup or 2 once in awhile, but it’s not a tea that I will ever crave.

I didn’t detect any smoke, Sil, but I wish I did, LOL. My sample has been around awhile, so it may be from a previous batch.

Sil

hmmmm maybe i’ll send you some of mine and see if i’m crazy haha

Terri HarpLady

I’d be willing!

mrmopar

Aren’t we all crazy considering the amount of tea we have? LOL!

Terri HarpLady

AND we all just keep buying more, hahaha!

TeaExplorer

I justify the purchases with the swaps. “Oh, I think I’ll order more of that since I’m probably going to give some away”. It does help me sleep at night.

mrmopar

And more and more……….Yunnan sourcing order on the way. How i am going to hide this? I think I will have to intercept the mail carrier…

Terri HarpLady

See…that’s why Tony & I still live in separate houses! His house is 5 minutes from mine, but he’s never here when the mail comes. Oh, and of course, we have separate bank accounts! LOL

mrmopar

Hah! I love it! I don’t have the same arrangement but I have a mail lady that lets me pickup mail before I go to work so it never hits the mailbox!

Shmiracles

i agree! :) swaps ARE the remedy to my inevitable tea cupboard conflict!

Terri HarpLady

I’m just too damn independent! Actually so is he, LOL. We’ve only been together for uh…13 years? Something like that, I lost track.

Terri HarpLady

Swaps do help! Except with the BBBBox, where I’m always thinking, “What black tea can I share with my girls next?”
and then the ordering begins. The box only comes around about once every 4 – 6 weeks, but I already have black teas lined up long enough to last until summer…

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90
15293 tasting notes

i’m back. I was really excited to be able to come home after work and sit, drink tea, organise my cupboard and catch up… however after 3 hours of sleep, followed by an 11 hour work day to come home and fine no food in the house, laundry all over the house to be put away and my other half having apparently done nothing today except washing the laundry…let’s just say i get no time to myself tonight…and i’m a grumpy bear. Oh and my other half? gone for the evening to dodgeball…won’t be back for another hour.

this was my morning tea…and apart from this and my other tea, i haven’t had a chance to eat all day. On the upside, at least i had this tea and my other morning tea…which was a welcome cup of warmth and comfort now that we’re back in the cold.

__Morgana__

Get some sleep. :-)

Sil

have to put away all the laundry before i can….it’s all over the bed sigh

Nicole

Poor grump. Hope the trip was excellent, even if you are now back in the polar vortex of doominess. Sigh. I’m not even in the worst of it and I’m ready for no more cold!

Terri HarpLady

Welcome back!!

Terri HarpLady

Welcome back!!

Terri HarpLady

Welcome back!!

Terri HarpLady

Welcome back!!

Terri HarpLady

Welcome back!!

Terri HarpLady

Welcome back!!

Terri HarpLady

Welcome back!!

Terri HarpLady

Welcome back!!

Terri HarpLady

Welcome back!!

Terri HarpLady

Welcome back!!

Terri HarpLady

Welcome back!!

Anna

I’m excited you’re back, Sil… but not quite as excited as Terri.

Sil

I don’t think anyone could be Anna lol

Anna

TERRI ARE YOU OKAY

Stephanie

ROFL! Terri is blowing up all our notices

Terri HarpLady

oops!!!
HAHAHAHA, I AM glad to have Sil back, but that happened last night, on my ipad. I swear to you all, the button wasn’t responding. There will probably be a couple more snaffoos before it’s over with. I think there were a couple other comments that I tried to send that my screen didn’t appear to be responding to either.

Sil

it’s ok terri…we know you really just missed me lots.

Terri HarpLady

that’s because you’re my awesome tea sister (((hug)))

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100
676 tasting notes

December 1, 2012 Yu Lu Yan Cha Tea arrived as a present to me.
I should be considering others, but couldn’t resist the temptation!

My main concentration was on taste and scent (which is what I will discuss). All measurements were as suggested by Verdant.

Method: Gaiwan: http://youtu.be/bp31QnuVPd4 (Wang Yanxin Brewing Yu Lu Yan Cha Black Tea)
There was 1 quick wash, followed by multiple steepings of 5-10 seconds (longer steeps with each pour). The liquor was medium gold then deeper gold, clear and vibrant.

Taste and Scent:
There was nothing predictable about this tea.
No taste or scent that I could compare it to. This isn’t Laoshan Black or Zhu Rong. Not a cleaver morphing of Golden Fleece either.
To compare one to another would be a type of Tea Blasphemy.

I took one small sip of the golden liquor and thought ‘butter’….
Off in a trailing thought…‘butter’…‘butter’….smooth and sweet and then… ‘potato’…and nothing after that.

I sat.

“What is this tea?” I wondered. There’s no chocolate flavor like the others (comparing the incomparable Verdant Black Tea’s), it’s malty, but not with a maltiness that I’ve ever tasted before.

Again I calmed myself, remembering not to rush even though I was excited. This was like opening a gift I’d been waiting for!

I poured the second steep and drank again, noticing the fragrance.

Sweet Vietnamese Cinnamon with a hint of honeysuckle floral that began to wrap around my head like the ‘Dance of the Sugerplum Fairies’. Oh yes…sweet…pastry and candies like a plate of Snickerdoodles in the Copoco Honey Shop.

There I was, sitting on my sofa but not there at all.
All I was thinking about was the Sweet Shop in Old Town.
The zillions of white twinkley lights in the trees up and down College Avenue that turn on magically at dusk every evening from October to March. Kilwins Candy Shop with handmade candies begging me to enter with the scent of fresh caramel popcorn and chocolates.
It was the buttery caramel, the spun sugar so light that a breath could crack it that drew me in past the doorway.

The tea tasted and smelled like that thinnest sweet, buttery spun sugar with a hint of honey. Somehow, the feeling is like the candy commercial on TV where the lady is looking in the window of the store and what you see is the reflection of her as a young girl.

I don’t understand how the sweetness, potato, butter, malty, honey, caramel and cinnamon flavors all dance together with such abandon on the lightest of tea toes without a mishap. What a show!

This is another exquisite tea!

Happy Tea To You! Happy Tea To Me! My Holiday’s Are in Full Swing!

http://youtu.be/eQemvyyJ—g Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy on the Glass Armonica

http://flic.kr/p/dtcfQA The Lights.

Cody

Ahhhh jealousss!!!! Still have to wait a few days before my pouch of this arrives and now I’m even more impatient!

Sil

Oh man now I’m totally impatient to gt this one

Kittenna

Our order is en route, Sil!

Bonnie

I’ll be interested in how this will taste Western Brewed. The Gaiwan method was so good.

TheTeaFairy

Love a tea that brings Fairies to my cup :-) This act of Tchaikovsky Casse noisette (Nutcraker) puts me instantly in a Holiday mood, thanks for bringing that to my Sunday morning Bonnie!

CHAroma

Awww, I almost bought this one and then opted not to. Shucks.

Indigobloom

Bonnie you are a wizard of words. This sounds SO yummy

Bonnie

BE CAREFUL NOT TO OVERSTEEP!

BecR

I love your description Bonnie and I agree! Do not oversteep! I tried this tea the first time using the brewing steps in the video and it turned out quite lovely! (I love the slight cooling sensations that dance across your palate!) I didn’t prefer a western style brew for this tea.. It came out strong and savory in a strange way….in my opinion, steeping it out gongfu style is definitely the way to go with this tea! I love this tea, it’s such a comforting tea, I feel like I could drink it everyday!

Bonnie

Wow Paul! I wish I was in your small farm community Senior Center! They are so fortunate to have you!

Kashyap

love the images you connected to

Bonnie

Thank you Kashyap!

Bonnie

I hope you weave your stories into your tea reviews! I want to hear more! Sounds like a good book to me! Tell your crew hello!

Terri HarpLady

Paul, I play at retirement homes quite often, and there is one that I have played at on the 2nd tuesday of each month for 12 or 13 years now, during what they call “High Tea with Harp”. I love going there to play for them, they all call me ‘young lady’ (I’m 54, which IS young there), and of course, they are just drinking lipton from teabags, and having some cookies, but it’s one of my favorite gigs ever.

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88
1186 tasting notes

So I wanted to do more sipdowns today but after looking through the choices I had only one cup left of, none caught my fancy. This, however, has been on my mind for the past few days, especially after Indigobloom`s note on it. I wanted to do this gongfu at first, but I am feeling exceptionally lazy today, maybe because I did a lot of gongfu brewing with my pu’erh yesterday, so I decided to do western. Also, I want to save my leaves, only have 7 g of this :(

The dry smell was quite chocolate and yum, reminded me of Laoshan Black. I steeped for 1 minute in boiling water. The wet leaves were BAM, pure honey, I was very pleased. I love honey, had a lovely honey toast for breakfast, so this was very promising.

Now for taste..this is pretty delicious. I do get the sweet potato that others have mentioned, and although I am not a huge fan of them (aka NEVER eat them haha) this tea tastes quite delicious. There is a strong honey taste and lots and lots of chocolate, but it’s a different type of chocolate than the Laoshan Black. That one was more rich and decadent, this one is more of a honey sweet chocolate with some grain. Not as much malt, but in the last bit of the sip it definitely is present. This isn’t as thick as other black teas either, more along the lines of the Mi Lan Dancong for mouthfeel. Regardless, this is a darn tasty cup, and now I want to try it gongfu at some point to see what happens to the flavors.

I will have a few more cups of this today, going out for bday sushi with friends tonight so don’t want to be too waterlogged, might have to save some steepings for tomorrow.

Overall, this is a nice, sweet black tea. Lots of honey and chocolate, yet lighter and a bit different from the other Verdant Black teas. Oh, and I feel the caffeine in this one hehe :) thank you for yet another excellent tea, Verdant!!

ETA: I actually enjoyed the latter half of the cup a bit more than the first half, it just zipped down and now I will have to make more. It is even more honey, if that is possible, and smoother too? Mmmm ok this is a darn good tea.

Preparation
Boiling 1 min, 0 sec
Sil

I’m so sad this one is sold out

BoxerMama

I wasn’t as taken with this as I was with the Anxi fo Shou

Sil

yeah i think i’d agree with that statement boxer mama…but i like having a variety of blacks :)

BoxerMama

Me too! I live for black tea!

Terri HarpLady

Me too! Yay for Black tea!

BoxerMama

Yay! lol

BoxerMama

I actually blame you, Terri. After our swap I started to drink less flavoured teas and more straight blacks.

Sil

Good for Terri! straight blacks are yummy!

Terri HarpLady

(bowing to rounds of applause)
I do what I can!

mrs.stenhouse12

I am starting to love straight black teas too :) i have a sample of the anxi fo shou that just have yet to try, I will have to have it soon!

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75
1792 tasting notes

Finishing a not-too-shabby amount of work today, I decided to stop, probably for the day, put on some Opeth, think about what to make for supper, and try something new tea-wise.

Promises of sweet potato, malt, chocolate, and honey notes initially drew me in when I ordered this back in the fall. As soon as I ripped open the packet and took a whiff, the expression on my face must have changed when I smelled sweet smoke. Smoke. Not a favourite note. But it’s not overwhelming. But still, where are the aforementioned notes?

This tastes very similar to the smell. Actually, the sweetness is coming out as it cools. There’s the syrupy honey in the background. I appreciate how this lacks astringency. Hmm ok, well out comes the chocolate, but it’s quite dull. Smoky chocolate with an emphasis on smoke.

Glad I opted for no more than a sample.

TheTeaFairy

It seems to be a very popular tea that yu lu lan (i love saying it! Sounds like a cute little song)
Opeth the metal band? Gee, I thought I was the only Steepster girl listening to that stuff!!

Courtney

Eek. Smoke. I ordered this one and now I’m not quite as a excited. I find I can taste even the tiniest hint of smoke. Hopefully it will work out.

Fjellrev

I had no idea you did too, TheTeaFairy! What are your favourite metal bands? I listened to Opeth so much in high school and early university but slowly drifted away, so it’s nice to listen to them again. I could be wrong, but I’m sure Stacy also listens to metal.

Courtney, I hope you won’t pick it up too much. But you sound like me. Too bad they don’t list that under the main notes, especially since they tend to list a lot for most.

Courtney

I was just as intrigued it seems with what they did list. And I threw 1oz. in my order. I figured with what they’d listed and knowing the awesome quality of Verdant, what could go wrong? Whoops! :P

TheTeaFairy

Yes, i know Stacy does!!
Well don,t get me started on music cause i can’t stop! I’am all over the place with music, just like tea! There’s many different type of Metal and it’s not what i listen to the most at the moment and i’m probably older than you are, but this is what I still listen to from time to time: rammstein, rob zombie (yes, a little lame I know!), system of a down, Ten Kens, mogwai, voivod, and I discovered Opeth just last year, I have only listened to their album blackwater park. I also love old school black sabbath, iron maiden, judas priest, early metallica (Not into black metal much…)

Sil

I like Yu Lu…but then I don’t mind a little smoke ;)

MissB

Oh gosh, TheTeaFairy, you just brought me a bit down memory lane with that list. Rammstein…

TheTeaFairy

Haha! MissB, I know righ?? I’m a little dated, what can I say, lol! plus I loooove oldies :-)

Fjellrev

Oh nice, Mogwai keep coming to town but I always miss them. I’m not so much into the old school metal but I do like early Metallica and Black Sabbath. They’re classics! I’m into a lot of different sub-genres too, and black metal isn’t really my thing either. Maybe if it’s mixed with other elements, like what Solefald, Enslaved, and Borknagar do, then I love that. Other favourite metal bands of mine are Katatonia, Baroness, Amorphis, My Dying Bride, and Nevermore. I could go on and on haha.

And yes to Rammstein! I’ve grown to appreciate them over the years. Anyone have any favourite albums?

Fjellrev

Regarding the actual tea, Courtney, guess you can’t like them all, quality or not! I’m feeling the same way as you about their Zhu Rong yunnan. I snapped up 1 oz. last time and have yet to try it. Crossing the fingers for no surprise notes!

Sil, have you tried Della’s Professor Grey? It’s a Lapsang chocolate EG. I don’t think Cavo has, so I was considering sending the rest of eastward. You smoke appreciators may enjoy it more, although you know them. Stupid sprinkles in there too.

Sil

swedish chef – don’t think i have. DOWN WITH THE BERG! but i’d try a cup…

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91
336 tasting notes

After working seven days in a row, I have a day off today, and I couldn’t be happier. I’m spending the morning researching Antonio Vivaldi and listening to some more of the Four Seasons… I feel like a bad musician for not being more familiar with Vivaldi or his most famous work. Baroque-era music is rarely my choice to listen to (I’m a stormy minor-key Romantic by heart), but now that I’m giving it an educated listen, it’s quite lovely.

I still really enjoy this tea. It came out very wheat-y today, and that’s growing on me. I’m on infusion 2, and I hope I can get at least another cup out of this (I’m doing it Western style). I’m glad I’ve found some Verdant teas I really like. I feel like I’ll be restocking this.

Fuzzy_Peachkin

Vivaldi is fun! And for some reason I always end up listening to the Four Seasons whenever I’m on hold somewhere. lol.

Terri HarpLady

I think Baroque music is perfect for busy stuff, like house cleaning! I enjoy it, & it’s good to put it on when you’re depressed & don’t feel like doing anything. It has a ‘motivational’ kind of feeling, at least in my opinion. LOL

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93
1759 tasting notes

Wow. Wow. WOW. I am floored.
There is sweet potato, chocolate and absolutely no astringency. Like drinking a cloud. A silk one. Dipped in gold?
Don’t wanna spend too much time online since I’m at my friends place… but I could not resist logging this asap.

Edit: So the second infusion was pretty bland. I almost didn’t drink it but then decided to add a dash of milk and that spruced things up quite a bit.
The third steep however, was great! It had a distinct mineral quality to it, with a warm cinnamon/potato background to it. Very nice.

Preparation
1 min, 30 sec
Sil

this is the one we all bought to split…so thank yourself lol i think?

Indigobloom

aha! so yay me! :P

Bonnie

Tea-riffic!

Indigobloom

Bonnie, it surely is!! :)

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84
6110 tasting notes

So, I was pretty apprehensive about brewing this tea up as I’d seen (I thought) a few notes about people not being big fans, or about it being quite strong/bitter, etc., but this doesn’t seem to be a problem for me! I was cautious and used about 1.5 tsp in boiling water for 1 minute (the low end of the given parameters, which were 1-2 tsp for 1-2 minutes… I think…) The aroma was reminiscent of Laoshan Black with chocolatey notes, but it’s definitely not quite as intense, and the flavour fits perfectly with this, being chocolatey and malty but less so than Laoshan Black, but also with a bit of… hay-y flavour, aka that flavour that I attribute to bagged blacks. I’d be tempted to call it “Laoshan Black Light” or something to that effect, as that’s how it’s coming off to me.

I’m happy to have an ounce of this added to my collection – it will help tide me over until the 2 oz. of Laoshan Black that I ordered last night arrives! (Also, it’s neat to have tried another tea with a cool story behind it!)

ETA: Second infusion (2 min) still has chocolatey notes, and more of that “classic black” flavour. Still pretty decent. I’m wavering on going for a third infusion though… getting awfully sick of reinfusing things, haha (I’m sure it would hold up for one more though).

Preparation
Boiling 1 min, 0 sec
Bonnie

I think only one person wasn’t that fond of it and the others gave high ratings.

Kittenna

Haha, yep, I read the ratings after and saw that those were two of about three or four reviews that I had previously seen. So I was biased! But I liked it!

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80
1598 tasting notes

I bought this because Sil was so excited about it that I was curious to try it as well. Also, I needed to spend $40 for the free shipping to Canada! (I love this policy by the way.)

So this tea seems to be the lovechild of Verdant’s Laoshan Black and DAVIDsTEA’s Ceylon Spring. It has honey and chocolate and oats like the LB, yet there’s also CS’s grassy notes present too. It’s almost like a burnt grass, but without being unpleasantly so.

Hmm. I love that we can describe things as burnt grass, or earthy, or fishy and in this sense it’s a good thing, but if it were something else I consumed a lot of like steak or cake or carrots, it would be very disappointing.

This is good. I’ll keep resteeping is at I’d like to get a better idea of which one I like better – this, or either of its “parents.”

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 45 sec
Sil

lol this review cracked me up yesterday :)

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96
871 tasting notes

Orange is the new black everyone!

I am on an orange slice kick again. I added a slice of orange to a cup of this tea. It is a delicious balance of sweet orange, and dark, malty, black tea. It is quite a bit sweeter than usual with the orange mixed in with the natural sweetness of the tea. Just enjoying the day today!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 0 sec
Stephanie

Neat idea :)

Nicole

Adding an orange slice is an interesting idea. I don’t like lemon in my teas, but I can see where orange with some of the darker ones would be nice.

JustJames

lololololol.

Bonnie

Never thought of that!

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