Thank you so much for this one, Nicole! Only Nicole and I have reviewed this one so far? Hmm. Yunnan is my new favorite… but I’m not sure if there is a strict flavor difference between the golden yunnan and the black yunnan. After steeping for four-five minutes, this one is medium bodied. It tastes more like a ploughed field of hay (in that delightful tea-like way) than anything chocolatey. It has a tiny bit of maltiness to it, but the flavor isn’t dark and deep enough to have too much of a malty flavor. Are these the differences between golden and black yunnans? I don’t know. I just found out today that not all yunnans are golden. The steep color is a lovely shade of amber, after all!
The second steep at boiling for six minutes was certainly more like my favorite tea flavor.. deeper, chocolatey and maltier. So you can certainly tailor this (or any tea, really) to your tastes. So the first cup had the lightness of a darjeeling, but the second had a much stronger flavor. I like the differences! And I guess I answered my own question.. the black yunnan can certainly still be deep and malty — it’s all in the time and temp.
