Yezi Tea

This tea is gorgeous. I’m a little bit in love, with a tea. I’m resisting the urge to write: “on nom nom” as the entire review, because that’s probably not very helpful.

The dry tea smells like green tea, but after steeping, it smells like sweet flowers, with a little bit of berry. It smells like summer!

This was prepared gong fu style with just-under boiling water. First steep was 45 seconds, then 1:30, then 3 minutes. I prefer the longer infusions, but they were all great. The best infusion was at 1:30.

At 45 seconds, the color was very pale yellow and the flavor was quietly floral. After 1:30, the color deepened slightly and the flavor was sweet and flowery, but without being cloying. It’s hard to describe this effect, other than to say that it’s perfect. I can also taste the sweet berry flavor I was smelling as the tea brewed. After 3 minutes, the tea was a golden yellow and the floral flavors were more pronounced, but were still somehow subtle.

I want to drink this tea every single day. I’m currently kicking myself for not buying a larger bag, but it’s a little pricey. It’s absolutely worth the money, but for me, it will be saved for special occasions.

This tea is beautiful, amazing, delicious. Definitely my new fave!

This is excellent!!!! I got this as a sample with my purchase from Yezi,,,which I must say has terrific customer service and website!!!!!!!
Grown in the town of Longjing, near the west Lake of the Zhe Jiang Province of China.
I brewed this in a glass teapot.
The dry leaf is beautiful. All uniform, flattened, moss green and yellow tinted raffia-like leaves. It smells so fresh, like green beans and sea salt.
The liquor is a light, light pearl green color and it smells like green beans, and butter as well.
I feel that Yezi’s quality tea and perfect steeping instructions have allowed me to enjoy the best Dragon Well that I have had. I love their instructions. They are on the money with help on best tea ware to use, temp, and amount of tea to water.
All the other Dragon Well teas that I have tried have had a lima bean note but this one does not. It is straight butter, sea salt (not seaweed), green bean notes and it’s good stuff. No astringency either,,,very smooth and creamy. Yumm
__________________________________________________________

5/14/14 Yumm having some today with lunch,,,my favorite Long Jing
__________________________________________________________
5/20/14 More with lunch,,,I keep drinking it and am gonna be upset when I run out :(
__________________________________________________________
6/9/14
Getting low on this :( Drinking again and it’s yum as always!!
__________________________________________________________
7/9/14
Brewed this in my little 8oz kyusu this afternoon. 175 for 1 minute. Used 5 grams leaf and caught a tiny tiny amount of bitter. I might have put in too much leaf but still yummmm.
________________________________________________________________________
7/26/14
Having some more Western style this afternoon. 175F for 1:30" —definitely a keep on hand tea!!!
________________________________________________________________________
8/4/14
Gaiwan style this afternoon. Always good!! Yezi has great tea.

Got around to this generous sample finally because I was looking for one from Mandala (still haven’t found it…eurgh) and unearthed this in the mean time. A lovely leathery but mellow pu erh. I really need to give Yezi more props here than I do—I adore Qing Pin and the scotch-y tea, and this is a great intro to pu erh, flavorful but not scary, ha. (I still don’t share the fuss for Jin Pins from any company I’ve tried them from, but I reckon that’s like me and Monkey teas; my palate is just not wired right to catch the subtle notes in their full glory.)

From the Nanhu Mountain range, China.
In Chinese, Jin Pin means gold personality. The dry leaves do have a fun personality; they are small, thin brown threads mixed in with golden blonde threads that smell malty.
I brewed this tea Western style, tasting at every minute and steeped for a total of 3 minutes at 190F.
The wet leaves smell like baked brown peasant bread with a bit of citrus peel.
The liquor is a dark orange jewel color that smells like malt, honey, touch of cocoa.
The flavor is well balanced with a citrus note up front, a brown bread note, smoke, small cocoa, and a honey note on the nose more than the palette.
Overall, smoky tea with lots of interesting flavors supporting it. Golden personality indeed!!
____________________________________________________________________________
7/23/14
Brewed this Gong Fu style this morning. 190F water with short steeps—immediate rinse, 6-4-6-8-10
This tea is smoky. It seems more smoky Gong Fu style than when brewed Western. Still getting the other flavors that I did before but smoky is dominant this way today. Love Yezi teas!!

I haven’t been on Steepster for a while! I missed it more than I thought I would :)

This was one of the teas I had some time this last weekend. I mostly had the “leftover” teas, not many new ones at all.

Anyway, this dragonwell did not disappoint, although it wasn’t close to perfection either. Dragonwells must be my favorite type of green tea. I love how they brew into this sunrise, almost pastel, yellow. And I love how they smell. This one was just as flowery as the other ones I’ve had. The flavor was surprisingly strong, usually long jings are very subtle. Perhaps I steeped it a bit too long. It had all the yummy buttery, vegetal and floral notes that make this tea so special. Thank you, Yezi Tea, for offering as many as 3 samples with your orders. That’s how I got the chance to try this one :)

Next time I order from Yezi, I would love to get some of their dragonwell but I think I will settle for the lower grade (High Grade) that is considerably cheaper. I don’t think my palate will detect that much of a difference ;)

I revisited this tea because I just had some awesome green tea from Yezi using their proper steeping instructions and I realized that I over-leafed this one the other day. I looked at the wrong section for steeping and today I looked at the right one lol.
This is my old review from the other day that I am deleting but keeping here (because I like to have my reviews for a tea all in one place):

4/28/14
From Nanhu Mountain; Fuqing City, Fujian province, China.
Dry leaves are small black/brown twisted threads with a few golden ones mixed in. They smell malty, like malt-o-meal cereal.
I used a little glass gong-fu pot that I got. I love this little pot bc I could both brew the tea gong fu style and see the leaves and liquor progress at the same time.
The water was at 200F and first steep was 15 seconds then subsequent steeps for 25-30 seconds.
Liquor was a golden-amber color and wet leaves smell smoky.
Flavor is smoky,,,this tea tastes like Da Hong Pao. The dry leaves don’t look like Da Hong Pao but the flavor tastes like it with the smoky, espresso, and cream notes.

5/1/14
I got all those smoky notes on the 28th because I had too much leaf in there. I got a proper Gong Fu tea set too with serving pitcher because you need the serving pitcher.
This tea is delicious with notes of Vanilla and Cream and a natural sweetness of subtle honey. There is a light light touch of smoke but not like when I overleafed it the other day. It is subtle and hardly there.

I kept my old review here because you can see how overleafing can change the taste. I am glad that I had some more of this one to do a re-do. Yumm and I’m glad I know how to brew it now :) lol !!!

7/5/14
Brewed this one Gong Fu style today. Dry leaves are thread shaped and it has a beautiful golden colored liquor. The wet leaves are course, like a Da Hong Pao. They have definitely been twisted and smoked. The flavor is high mountain smoked creamy with not a lot of sweetness. This type of tea always gives me a caffeine buzz too so it is a good one for morning or early afternoon pick up if you are feeling drowsy.
All of Yezi’s teas are so delicious and high quality!!
___________________________________________________________________________
7/28/14
Tried this one both Western and Gong Fu this morning. I brewed it at a lower temperature, 190F for 3 minutes in my little glass one cup size pot and then gong fu was immediate rinse, 30-15-30-30
Gong Fu brings out subtle notes and a focus on vanilla, cream, and honey with a touch of smoke. Western brings out a more intense blend of them all but completely balanced both ways. This tea is really really balanced in its flavors. Super good and I like the lower temp for me but Yezi recommends 200F. This tea is good all ways as long as you pay attention to your leaf and don’t overleaf.

gao shan (Gao1 Shan1) = high mountain (高山) or high elevation, especially in Taiwan

From the Nanhu Mountains, China
Dry leaves are tiny twisted black brown with a few golden ones mixed in. They have a malty scent.
I brewed this Western style.
Wet leaves smell like baked dark pumpernickel bread.
Liquor is a deep amber red with scents of spring water, malt, and honey.
Flavor is smooth, well balanced with notes of the pumpernickel bread, malt, honey. Very good red tea!! I have enjoyed all the teas I have tried from Yezi Tea.

Autumn 2013 Ming Hong from China’s Nanhu Mountains.
The dry leaves smell like sugared raisin bread and pastries. They are black brown twisted threads and a few gold ones mixed in.
I brewed this Western style. The liquor is a deep auburn red and smells very sweet, like the top of a créme brûlée and also like fresh clean spring water.
The wet leaves are still twisted, autumn brown color and smell briny and like rye bread.
The flavor is delicious . Very naturally sweet with notes of sweet raisin bread, rye bread, honey butter.
YUmm!
_________________________________________________________________________
7/14/14
Had some more today Gaiwan style!!!!! Lots of essences and flavors of Raisin Bran. Little bit of smoke.
____________________________________________________________________________
8/4/14
Gong Fu style today. 195F Immediate rinse-20-35-40-40-50
Nice light orange Sunkist color liquor. Malty scent and flavor. So good. Cream, malt, tiny touch of smoke.
This is best brewed Gong Fu,,,I really have stopped brewing Western style for my Chinese teas. Darjeeling and Indian teas are my Western style brews.
_________________________________________________________________________
8/22/14
Good stuff!

This is the second Jin Pin I’ve had and I’ve come to find that I am quite fond of these teas.

This tea has a strong roasted scent in the first steep before it settles down in the background. It has consistent tones of cocoa and butter toffee, and longan.

The initial steep had a fruity top note of longan and peaches with cocoa over roasted grain notes,and a butter toffee where the candy has been slightly overcooked giving a stronger browned butter note and a little bitterness. The tea has a soft and slightly powdery texture.

In later steeps the peach dissapears, leaving only longan, the cocoa transitions to milk chocolate than Ovaltine and a nutty roasted cashew type note appears. As well a malt note becomes apparent. I steeped it 4 times( 20, 35, 50, 90s).

Quite enjoyable. Special thanks to Dexter3657 for the sample!

From the Tan Yang Mountains, Fujian, China.
Yezi’s notes say that Jin Jun Mei grows at 4,500 feet above sea level, at which altitude there is very little agricultural land available to grow tea. This in large part explains why there is so little Jin Jun Mei to go around.
(From Wickipedia) Jin Jun Mei (金骏眉) (Golden Beautiful Eyebrow) is a Lapsang Souchong black tea from Wuyishan City, Fujian Province, China. It is made from two small shoots plucked in early spring from the plant’s stem which are subsequently fully oxidised to giving a tea that has a sweet, fruity and flowery flavour with a long lasting sweet after-taste. The brew is bright reddish in colour.

In China, this variety of tea is viewed as one of the most prestigious of all teas. Its price varies depending on the quality, ranging from US$60 to US$700 per ounce.

I brewed this tea Western style. The Yezi website suggested temps between 176F-185F,,,I brewed at 180F and tasting at every minute, I steeped for a total of 5 minutes.
The liquor is a gorgeous red amber jewel color and has scents of the dried apple and maybe some prune, there is a slight tamarind note as well.
The flavor is cooked red apple peels, there is a tamarind aspect of puckering your mouth. As the liquor cools, a dried apricot note is coming through strongly. Very different flavors to me and I might have to play with this one since I brewed it the way I did, Western with a low temp. I will be gong fu brewing.

6/16/14
Took this one down to 175F Western style this morning. Used 4 grams tea in 16 oz water. Steeped for 5 minutes.
Liquor is deep orange and the flavor is apple peel, a bit of toast. These buds benefit from a lower temperature Western style. Still gotta brew this one Gong Fu.
_________________________________________________________________________
7/5/14
Finally brewed this one Gong Fu style this morning. I haven’t had this in a while and the dry leaves smelled winey and had notes of bread today. I used 1 heaping tsp of tea in my little 100ml porcelain gong fu pot. Used 185F water.
Did an immediate rinse then
15"- thin and very subtle flavors
30" – more golden in color and has a subtle smoky and fruity flavor. This is a very refined Lapsang Souchong. The wet leaves are all buds.
30" – got sweeter as the smoke faded.
30" – nice but subtle flavors
45"- very subtle flavors.

Overall, I think more leaf would be fine for this tea to bring out even more flavor. I will have to try an extra tsp next time with gong fu.
___________________________________________________________________________
7/31/14
Having a cup Western style. Yezi just has such good tea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is smoky and has lots of flavors adding depth to it especially apple.

I have had a sample of this for a little while but was waiting for the right time to try it. Now that I’m a green tea kick this seems like the perfect time! And, I followed the directions provided more than I usually do for green teas—go me!

The first steep, at 1.5 minutes, was slightly brothy and buttery, with notes of seaweed and a subtle astringency at the end. Very nice!
At 2 minutes, there was nothing more notable about it, so I’ll skip on to the 3 minute steep: it was sweet and slightly seaweedy, very pleasing and lovely. It has just enough astringency to make it assertive, just enough sweetness to mellow it out, making for a well-rounded, substantial, and very flavorful green.

This Dragon Well was delicious, and I would definitely like to have it again.

Wow!!!! I picked a good one for Earth Day!!!!
This is from Nanhu Mountain, Fuqing City; Fujian Province, China.
Dry leaves smell sweet like molasses and they are black and gold, tiny and twisted.
I brewed this Western style.
The liquor literally smells like hot chocolate and is a deep auburn red.
The flavor is strong chocolate and cacao notes with subtle molasses. Naturally subtly sweet.
The wet leaves smell like hot chocolate too,,,is this hot chocolate? Super Good!!!!!

Happy Earth Day!!!!!!!!! Earth Day EVERYDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Think of her, and help her everyday. This is our only home.

5/23/14
Tried this on Gong Fu style today
190F 1.5 tsp 4oz water/pot
15" rinse
30" golden light liquor, cocoa notes, open wet leaves smell so cocoa chocolatey.
Taste is chocolate, subtle honey sweet.
1 minute Delicious!!! Cocoa, not malt, just subtle sweet cocoa. Rich, and good with no bitter or astringency even when I brew Western style with more leaf.
This is my very favorite tea!!
___________________________________________________________________
6/12/14
Enjoying my favorite chocolatey morning tea!!!!!!!!!!! So good. Went with less leaf per cup today, 1 tsp per 8 oz and it is still chocolately good. I think 1 1/2 tsp might just be perfect. The suggested amount is a little more leaf per cup —but I’m running low and I can’t re-order until summer in the desert is over lol.
___________________________________________________________________________
6/20/14
YUMM YUMMM my favorite tea!! Had a little sample size that I brewed Western style. The sample size is 5 grams of tea so I put the whole bit into my infuser basket for 2 cups water. Smoky, chocolatey, subtly sweet and good!
___________________________________________________________________________
7/8/14
Western style this morning with the recommended 3 tsp tea per 8oz. This creates the chocolatey effect. You can re-steep these leaves lots too since it is so much leaf. I make iced tea after I enjoy my hot tea to get good use out of them!! YUmm this tea!!!
_________________________________________________________________________
7/21/14
Brewed Western style today. I got a huge “bowl-like” infuser basket to allow tea leaves to be really free and to swim and evenly brew the teas I have when I brew Western style. Now with Yi Fu Chun, changing this brew basket did bring out more smokiness than I have tasted in the past but still has my yummy cocoa and subtle sweet notes.
__________________________________________________________________________
7/26/14
Yep,,,drinking it again bc it’s so good!!!!!!!!!

chun (Chun) = Springtime (春) 1; or Rich or Winey (醇) 2; or precious (see Zhen)
Yi – ?
Fu – in the context of heicha, short for Fu Zhuan, but this syllable has dozens of meanings in Chinese

I had this earlier this morning, so I hope I am remembering how it tasted. I recall that it tasted it quite bready and malty, with a bit of tobacco in the aftertaste. I didn’t fine the chocolate notes, nor did I find this bitter. I also recall as the cup cooled, I found some muscatel notes coming through.

I found it to be enjoyable, and I wouldn’t turn it down if offered to me. Thank you Dexter3657 for the sample!

Ok…incoming crappy tasting notes as i have spent the morning trying to finish work…go go double time and a half on this holiday, so that i can then PACK lol

I picked this one first thing in the morning for both a sipdown and to try and clear my head with a little puerh. I have to say, this is such a great unassuming puerh from yezi. It’s not earthy..but it is mellow and manly? there’s somethnig about this one that i really enjoy – moreso than the other recent puerh i had from yezi. i’ll likely pick up more of this for an average every day sort of puerh

Oh Jin Pin, you are such a lovely, lovely tea. Malty, cocoa, vanilla, caramel, honey, baked goods, and just pure deliciousness. I am sad to see you go. 159.

SSTTB

Enjoyed as part of a side by side by side experiment exploring black teas. That can be found here: http://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/241824

Sad, sad sipdown!

Thank you Kat_Maria for sharing this amazing tea!! It really is hard to say goodbye. I actually thought I would have one cup left but apparently not. Luckily this resteeps well so I have a few more cups of this malty deliciousness.

Thank you Kat_Maria for sending this my way. I don’t usually reach for straight blacks but for some reason, this has been calling to me. So today I finally decided to brew up a cup and I am glad i did. This tea is delicious! It is malty with notes of chocolate and caramel. There is even a hint of honey. Amazing! I guess tastes really do change :)

TTB&C #14

I have been wanting to try Pu-erh, but havne’t been brave enough to purchase much. This is my first. I brewed this per the recommended instructions. I enjoyed the flavor, but I couldn’t quite get over the smell. I have some pu-erh from Verdant that I will be trying next. I am not to sure what to say about this. It didn’t jump out at me as crazy delicious, but it definitely peaked my interest into the world of pu-erh. Thank-you to whoever included the small sample pouch in the TTB. I have left enough for hopefully one other person to give it a whirl.

I didn’t know what to pick out to sip this morning, and was looking through my giant box of Dexter3657 tea’s and saw this one. Black tea? Yes please.

I thought I had under-leafed because the colour seemed a little light, but the aroma was strongly sweet. The taste was light, but naturally sweet. I didn’t pick up any fruit or peach notes, but I’m in the process of brewing cup 2, so hopefully this time I’ll find it. Despite that, I still think this is a delicious tea, but something that I would save for later in the day.

Thank you Dexter3657 for a sample of this yummy tea!

I’m in a good groove with this tea—drinking it for the past few mornings. I like how the initial impression is of a rather dry, dark chocolate and then a mellow molasses sweetness washes over the tongue. In contrast to the Yunnan teas in which I find a pronounced fruitiness, the Gao Shan has more of an austere quality that is very refreshing. I’m also beginning to take notice of the energy difference between teas (as opposed to mere caffeine effects) and this one never fails to make me feel ebullient.

We’ve all had the experience of seeing a movie that was highly recommended and highly hyped—-American Hustle, for example—and left with a feeling of, I wouldn’t say disappointment, because the movie was enjoyable, but still, you wanted it to be better. After drinking Yezi’s Qing Pin and really liking it, I expected to be seduced by the Gao Shan. The first sips yielded dark chocolate, cherry and tobacco—pleasant but not transfixing. I agree with another reviewer that the cup got better as it cooled, producing a nice red-wine flavor entirely free from bitterness.

Overall, this is a very drinkable, high grade Chinese black, but I prefer the Qing Pin.

Far less smoke than a Laphroaig and not as peaty either but it was a very gentle taste. The flavor and aroma of chocolate was the abundant profile for me along with malt and a hint of cherry. Yezi’s black teas are amazing. I brewed a large amount in a small yixing and steeped for only a few seconds to get a good tasting. Shared with a friend whos own review was “Yum”.