Imperial Gold Needle Yunnan Black Tea

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Yunnan Black Tea
Flavors
Allspice, Cardamom, Honey, Honeydew, Wet Earth, Citrus Zest, Dark Chocolate, Malt, Nutty, Plum, Raisins, Spices, Alcohol, Anise, Bark, Berries, Broth, Caramel, Cherry, Chestnut, Chicken Soup, Cinnamon, Cloves, Cocoa, Floral, Grain, Lemon Zest, Licorice, Molasses, Roasted, Roasted Barley, Rose, Rum, Sweet, Vanilla, Vegetables, Wood, Chocolate, Tannic, Melon, Sweet Potatoes, Mushrooms, Umami, Nutmeg, Spicy, Creamy, Honey Dew, Flowers, Bread, Dates, Meat, Smooth, Thick, Cucumber, Pastries
Sold in
Bulk, Loose Leaf
Caffeine
High
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Shae
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 2 min, 15 sec 6 g 10 oz / 290 ml

Currently unavailable

We don't know when or if this item will be available.

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81 Tasting Notes View all

  • “sad to see this one go. I started my morning out with this one as there are still a few things to be doing around the house as we have friends coming over for dinner and board games…and i’m still...” Read full tasting note
    88
  • “I’ve been avoiding steepster for awhile. I’m back. YS is the company I buy the majority of my teas from, and this one is among my favorites. Today I’m attempting to compare the Spring and Fall...” Read full tasting note
  • “I like this one a lot more than I expected to! I’ve made it gong fu style style and am on something like my 5th steep and it’s still going strong. Chocolaty, sweet, malty, not hay-y like I was...” Read full tasting note
  • “Autumn 2013 This was an excellent tea which I enjoyed over six steepings. Upon opening the package, I could immediately smell the vibrant floral qualities of the tea. The tea was very fragrant, and...” Read full tasting note
    90

From Yunnan Sourcing

Picked from tea plants growing in Ning’Er county in Simao prefecture. Only the bud shoots were picked. The tea is lightly wilted and processed to keep it’s delicate taste and appearance intact. A kind of chocolate and malt taste comes from the brewed gold-orange tea soup. Aroma is thick and sweet. An enjoyable experience comes from the aroma, flavor and appearance of this lovely tea.

Spring Harvest is in March, Autumn Harvest is Late-September

https://yunnansourcing.com/products/imperial-gold-needle-yunnan-black-tea

About Yunnan Sourcing View company

Company description not available.

81 Tasting Notes

80
1758 tasting notes

This tea is relatively good. It is somewhat astringent. There are notes of malt and subdued notes of chocolate. Or at least the note people call chocolate. There are some other notes in there too but I’m not picking up on them.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190degree water for 2 min.

Flavors: Chocolate, Malt

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 2 min, 0 sec 3 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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87
1704 tasting notes

Sipdown. Andrew and I tried this on our search for the perfect daily dianhong. After finishing off a tablespoon and a half of this in my urban tea tumbler, I just realized how close this one was to being the daily tea. So, so close.

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100
3 tasting notes

This is the best black tea I’ve ever tasted. It’s almost light and refreshing, and has a very sweet finish, especially for a black tea. There’s a hint of chocolate but much less than other yunnan teas. It tends more towards the honey and flower notes.

Note that although Steepster says this is not currently available, Yunnan Sourcing puts batches for sale from each seasonal harvest at different links, so you can absolutely still buy this here: http://yunnansourcing.com/en/yunnan-black-teas/3476-imperial-gold-needle-yunnan-black-tea-spring-2015.html

Flavors: Flowers, Honey, Malt, Sweet

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 1 min, 30 sec 9 g 25 OZ / 750 ML

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1113 tasting notes

Here’s to the 2015 I picked up: https://instagram.com/p/8GgHqdRYOv/

The first thing you will notice about this tea is how bright the tea needles are. Second, the aroma is a bit overwhelming. I love me some dianhong, but dang… I had to pull my nose back :p

This brews up one very strong cup and I’m unsure of how to make the strength kind of take step back. Some potent tea, but I rather like it because it made one mean brisket :)

In my honest opinion: This dianhong is an amazing value at $8 for 50g!

tea-junkie

Did you do western or gong fu?

Liquid Proust

I gong fu’d this… maybe that’s why it was so strong?

Liquid Proust

Wait… I did whatever you call it in that IG post, is Kamjove’s known to be gravity steeping or gongfu?

tea-junkie

What were your steeping times? Did you do more flash steeps or short steeps?

Liquid Proust

I did 45 seconds x 4 steeps

tea-junkie

You should definitely try a lot shorter steeps if it’s too strong for you. Maybe like 10 seconds to start with.

Daylon R Thomas

It reminded me of brisket, too.

mrmopar

I will second short steps. If 10 seconds is still much decrease to 5 and try 190f temp.

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987 tasting notes

The second tea in my simultaneous triple tea test from the GCTTB4.

This tea was a fairly typical yunnan/dian hong for me. It had that bready note, the sweet potato note. I’m not generally a huge fan of sweet potato in my tea, I’ve found. There was also a slight pepperiness to this, that sort of thinned and sharpened out the flavour. Not bad, but not something I’d want to keep in stock. But that’s the whole purpose of these trading boxes, isn’t it?

boychik

I’m having this Gongfu session all morning. Making it in Yixing is so satisfying. I don’t know what method you used but I find that Chinese reds are really good Gongfu ;)

Terri HarpLady

I have to agree with boychik!

Christina / BooksandTea

I did it western style – 1 tsp, 100C, 3-4 minutes. I do have a gaiwan, but I don’t do many gong-fu sessions.

boychik

Once you start Gongfu there is no way back lol. It tastes different, refined , changing from steep to steep. I only do Indian / Darjeleeng / Ceylon western method. Please give it a try. I can suggest you my parameters if you want. I try to list them in my notes. It’s like they are tried and true for me. You can come up with yours and they work pretty much all the time

Ubacat

I’ve done this Western and love it but curious about what parameters you used boychik for the gongfu.

boychik

For 100ml I use 5g of tea, 150ml 7g. 200F. I always rinse any Chinese tea, just few secs to remove dust and help open up. In a min or two I start with short steeps of 3/5/7 sec etc. to your liking. I don’t time anymore. It’s approximately. See if you need longer or shorter steeps. But it’s always under 10sec in the beginning. The pot can last me half a day, maybe 15 steeps, maybe more.

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90
661 tasting notes

While packing up the GCTTB yesterday I found this among my black teas pretty much ignored since I’ve purchased it. The bag looked full and I haven’t left a review. Shame shame! How could I have ignored this tea? It’s so good!

Brewed it Western style . This is a delicious bready, maltly brew. It’s got chocolate notes too which I love in black teas. The chocolate is not as prominent as some Fujian blacks but it’s still good. There’s also a honey sweetness to it. What a fantastic tea. also love the golden colour of the leaves. So pretty.

I’d like to add some of this to the GCTTB but I had trouble getting it closed already.

Flavors: Bread, Dark Chocolate, Honey, Malt

Preparation
2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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1040 tasting notes

Drank this one yesterday – It was pretty good, all the nice notes that I like in golden Yunnan blacks.
Just wasn’t to say thanks Sil

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86
894 tasting notes

Thank you Sil, for this sample!

I am a sucker for golden Yunnan teas, and this one is delicious. Rich and malty, with notes of dates, plums and slightly alcoholic tasting. Faint astringency, no bitterness.

I think I measured out 2g of this, and steeped it for 4 minutes at 96C.

Flavors: Alcohol, Dates, Malt, Plum

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Sil

love swaps for not having to buy 50g-100g before tasting things! terri turned me on to this one!

Anlina

Swaps are seriously the best.

Sil

yeah i hadn’t been swapping for a while…. yours was the first in a bit after i got burned by someone not swapping back :(

Anlina

Boo, that sucks. I’ve only had one swap go bad, and I think the package coming to me must have got lost in the mail, because the person sending it had several other successful swaps under their belt. Sadly, they stopped being active on Steepster and so I was never able to follow up with them.

I haven’t sent out your package yet – I’m waiting for sample sized bags to come in the mail, as I ran out without realizing it, and they’re non-permeable, so really nice for tea.

Sil

no worries on sending it out later. i can handle the wait haha

Dexter

Awww that’s so sad :(( I would be more than happy to send both of you a care package to makeup for the “lost” swap packages.

Anlina

Aww that is so sweet Dexter. Don’t worry about me though – while I was looking forward to trying the teas I was swapping for, I’m not overall too worried about it. I have more tea than I know what to do with. And once I get organized, we will be setting up a swap anyway :)

Sil

hahaha dexter… you’ll send me tea regardless lol

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95
737 tasting notes

Soo I’ve only tried the Autumn version of this tea last year. It tasted like honey and sweet potatoes. It was incredible! I have wondered what the other seasons of this tea taste like. I have wondered if they are super different or almost the same.
Terri was kind enough to send me a sample of last year’s spring harvest in our swap so today I finally tried it!
I was kinda thinking it would be the same while I waited for it to steep. But when I went to drink it, much to my surprise, it was pretty different from the Autumn harvest! The sweet honey flavor was there still. But instead of the other main flavor being sweet potatoes, it was bread. There was a few hints of sweet potato in there but not as much as the autumn harvest.
Love this one!! Seriously soo good! Makes me wonder if this Spring’s version of this tea is going to be like the sample I have. Wish I could know! If it was, I’d totally pick up some!
Thank you sooo much for a sample of this amazing tea, Terri!! :D :D :D

Flavors: Bread, Honey, Smooth, Sweet, Sweet Potatoes

Cwyn

Regretting not getting this last year. Long sold out.

donkeyteaarrrraugh

now I’m going to check my stash to see which it is I have….

Ost

Either one is really good! Least to me!

donkeyteaarrrraugh

I have 2014 spring….

Kirkoneill1988

i shall also try this tea someday

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82
55 tasting notes

Two things I noted about this tea: 1) it’s wicked tasty, and 2) it’s remarkably consistent. I put 5 gm into a gaiwan and used boiling water. I started at 15s and added 15s each time for 7 steeps. It was nearly the same flavor every single time: mostly honey, with some tones of something lighter, not floral, maybe melon? Hard to tell. Anyway, good stuff and I’ll look forward to more steady steeps.

Flavors: Floral, Honey, Melon

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec 5 g 5 OZ / 140 ML

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