Man Gang Village Wild Arbor Assamica Black Tea * Spring 2018

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Black Tea Leaves
Flavors
Almond, Black Pepper, Bread, Brown Sugar, Butter, Camphor, Cannabis, Cedar, Cinnamon, Citrus, Cream, Earth, Eucalyptus, Grass, Lemon, Malt, Maple Syrup, Mineral, Nutmeg, Oats, Orange Zest, Peanut, Raisins, Sugarcane, Sweet Potatoes, Tobacco, Walnut, Caramel, Dark Chocolate, Floral, Honey, Umami
Sold in
Bulk, Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by eastkyteaguy
Average preparation
6 g 4 oz / 118 ml

Currently unavailable

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

From Our Community

2 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Alright, since I am determined to plow through two of my review notebooks before the end of the year, I’m back with some more reviews. This was yet another of my late 2020 sipdowns. It was also a...” Read full tasting note
    73
  • “This tea is a study in sweetness balanced by the bitterness of dark chocolate. Honey, caramel, peach, some floral undertones. The bitterness comes at the tail and lingers. It is a very nicely...” Read full tasting note
    85

From Yunnan Sourcing

This is a second flush pure Assamica black tea made from Man Gang (a small village near Bang Dong) tea tree material. First Flush material was processed into a raw pu-erh tea, but the second flush of spring material was used to produce this lovely, complex and powerful black tea.

Most Yunnan black teas are made from hybrid varietals like Yun Kang #10 or #100, or Chang Ye Bai Hao (and others). These varietals are Assamica hybrids and make wonderful teas, but the style of processing and finished tea is quite different from the more subtle styling of this tea. Picked, wilted briefly, fried (kill green), rolled and then wilted for 12+ hours, before being sun-dried gives this tea a subtle but complex taste and aroma. There are elements of raw pu-erh, dried fruit and orchid flower all tied together with a full-bodied viscous tea soup with a sweet layer than permeates the brew both during and after drinking.

May 2018 Harvest

Man Gang Village, Bang Dong Township, Lincang (Yunnan)

About Yunnan Sourcing View company

Company description not available.

2 Tasting Notes

73
1048 tasting notes

Alright, since I am determined to plow through two of my review notebooks before the end of the year, I’m back with some more reviews. This was yet another of my late 2020 sipdowns. It was also a tea that made me notice a trend: I tended to be underwhelmed by the wild arbor assamicas Yunnan Sourcing offered in 2018. They just failed to make much of an impact on me. For me, this tea was like the Yi Wu Mountain Wild Arbor Assamica in that I found it to be a likable enough tea and nothing more.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 fluid ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 18 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minutes 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of malt, hay, straw, cedar, butter, baked bread, and tobacco. After the rinse, new aromas of roasted almond, roasted peanut, camphor, eucalyptus, cannabis, and black pepper emerged. The first infusion added cream and sugarcane aromas. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cream, butter, malt, baked bread, roasted almond, tobacco, cedar, camphor, and black pepper that were backed by hints of eucalyptus, grilled lemon, nutmeg, cinnamon, raisin, brown sugar, and sugarcane. The majority of the subsequent infusions introduced aromas of oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, minerals, earth, grass, and sweet potato to the tea’s bouquet. Stronger and more immediately notable impressions of grilled lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg, raisin, brown sugar, eucalyptus, and sugarcane appeared in the mouth with notes of minerals, earth, orange zest, roasted peanut, grass, hay, and sweet potato in tow. I also detected hints of maple syrup, kumquat, roasted walnut, straw, oats, and cannabis. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, earth, cedar, camphor, eucalyptus, grilled lemon, grass, cream, and hay that were chased by lingering hints of butter, baked bread, sugarcane, tobacco, black pepper, cinnamon, and roasted peanut.

This was an interesting black tea, but it was also a bit restrained and subtle for my tastes. I tend to prefer bolder, richer Yunnan black teas, and this one was smoother and a little stuffier. It wasn’t bad though. I could see people who are really into comparing and contrasting specific Yunnan terroirs being into an offering of this sort.

Flavors: Almond, Black Pepper, Bread, Brown Sugar, Butter, Camphor, Cannabis, Cedar, Cinnamon, Citrus, Cream, Earth, Eucalyptus, Grass, Lemon, Malt, Maple Syrup, Mineral, Nutmeg, Oats, Orange Zest, Peanut, Raisins, Sugarcane, Sweet Potatoes, Tobacco, Walnut

Preparation
6 g 4 OZ / 118 ML
derk

2 review notebooks? That’s a backlog! Do you take notes on every session with a tea? I’m finally near the last pages of mine, which I started when I joined Steepster over 3 years ago.

eastkyteaguy

No, not every session. I usually do one definitive review per tea. I’m about halfway through the largest of the review notebooks, and then I have fewer than twenty left in one and only one left in another. I have already posted about 10 reviews out of the 2021 overflow notebook, so I have a start on it as well. I started falling behind in the fall of 2018, so I have reviews backlogged from then to the present.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

85
226 tasting notes

This tea is a study in sweetness balanced by the bitterness of dark chocolate. Honey, caramel, peach, some floral undertones. The bitterness comes at the tail and lingers. It is a very nicely balanced tea, although it’s flavor composition is fairly common for Yunnan reds.

The liquor is deep red and the aroma is for some reason reminiscent of river water. It is a very solid red but it lacked any wow factor.

Flavors: Caramel, Dark Chocolate, Floral, Grass, Honey, Umami

Login or sign up to leave a comment.