Yunnan Sourcing

I have delayed posting this review for so long now. I finally decided to get it over with simply because I knew I had to get it out of the way at some point and wanted to be done with it. I dreaded posting this one so much mostly because I found this to be a really unexceptional tea. Normally, I like the Wuyi oolongs offered by Yunnan Sourcing, but this one did not do it for me in the least. For a Zhengyan tea, this was bland and poorly balanced with an unappealing texture in the mouth.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 205 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was chased by 15 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of cinnamon, char, pine smoke, and cedar. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of roasted peanut, cannabis, and mushroom. The first infusion did not seem to offer anything new on the nose. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of cinnamon, char, and roasted peanut backed by a subtle creaminess. Subsequent infusions saw aromas of black cherry, black pepper, rock sugar, ginger, and hibiscus emerge. Flavors of mushroom, cannabis, and pine smoke belatedly appeared in the mouth accompanied by stronger cream notes and faint hints of cedar. New impressions of malt, black cherry, rock sugar, ginger, black pepper, hibiscus, caramel, and minerals emerged along with some subtle candied orange peel notes. As I worked my way deeper into the session, I also noted some faint grass, roasted green bean, and tobacco notes that came out toward the finish on several infusions. The last few infusions mostly offered notes of minerals, cream, malt, roasted peanut, and mushroom backed by very faint rock sugar, tobacco, and candied orange peel notes.

Generally, Wuyi Shui Xian is strong on the nose and on the palate, but this one was oddly timid in a number of places. The mouthfeel was much thinner and slicker than expected, and several of the aroma and flavor components did not always work well together. This was an awkward and often somewhat unappealing tea overall; indeed, it was definitely one of the least likable teas of this type I have tried. If you are looking for a quality Zhengyan Shui Xian, I’ll be honest and just tell you that this one is likely not going to be the tea for which you are looking. There are much better teas of this type out there.

Many of the reviews for the 2017 version of this tea at YunnanSourcing.com mentioned that it is pretty heavily roasted. That jives with my own experience with YS dan congs. So it was quite a surprise when this year’s crop turned out to be very green.

I steeped 4g of leaf in a 4oz gaiwan. The dry leaf had a delicious aroma of honey, apricot, flowers and baked bread. After a quick rinse, I got notes of sandalwood, wet rocks, and roasted peaches on the nose. The first steep tasted sublime. Juicy fruit nectar with TGY like florals. No char or roasting could be detected at all. Full mouthfeel with notes of honey and grape. I resteeped for 5 more infusions which brought out peachy notes but also a little bitterness. Nothing too heavy but probably an indication that I need to keep my steep times short.

This is the greenest Mi Lan Xiang I’ve ever had. Normally this type of dan cong has a roasted edge to it, but it’s barely detectable here. The taste and aroma of this tea resembles a TGY or duck shit oolong more than your typical Mi Lan Xiang. Recommended for fans of lighter oolongs.

Today I tried something a little different for this tea, in order to see if it makes me like it more. Also, I didn’t want to spend much time on the session. That’s why, I only used about 2.5g in a 100ml gaiwan filled to about 2/3 each time. On top of that, I also broke the dry leaves to about 1/5 of their original size, so that the extraction is faster.

The resulting tea is less pungent and lighter bodied. However, the taste is more robust and in fact manifests its more subtle aspects better. I am happy with how it turned out and I will continue experimenting with this tea further in the future.

The aroma of this tea is fairly weak for a Dan Cong oolong. I can smell some cookies (especially in the dry leaf), overripe fruit (passion fruit in particular) and sometimes cheesecake. The taste is bitter and crisp, with some notes of honey and herbs. Mouthfeel wise, I also found it somewhat underwhelming. It’s quite thin, soft and slightly sticky. Astringency levels are good, maybe a little too high, but that could very well be due to my brewing not being perfect. I didn’t detect any particular cha qi.

It is definitely not a bad tea, I enjoyed drinking it. However, given the price, I cannot recommend it, especially compared to other Dan Cong oolongs from YS.

The last of the four cakes I bought from boychik is this budget semi-aged sheng. Today’s session was very nice, with a bit more body and more pungent character than when I tried it a few weeks ago. Apart from having acclimatized by now, I think that preparing it in a larger gaiwan also helped. Even though this particular cake has been stored by boychik for a few years, the notes are very similar to the ones from the sample I got from YS more than a year ago. Nevertheless, I do detect some more tartness. In the aroma, it’s an alcohol like scent of fermented fruits, while in the taste it manifests itself through a grape skin flavour. Forest notes like moss and tree bark are also quite present, as is the camphor in the aftertaste. Apart from being cooling, mouthfeel is also slightly numbing I’d say.

I am very happy that this tea expanded my tiny collection of aged sheng, and I have no doubt I will be drinking quite a bit of it in the near future.

This is a very nice semi-aged, medium bodied tea with many subtle notes. It seems that the price has gone up considerably in the last few years, but I would say that it’s still a very good value.

The smell is not too strong, but pleasant nonetheless. It is quite cooling and I could find some thyme, petrichor, wet wood and ash aromas, plus a little bit of mushroom/moss after late steeps. The taste is a mix of sweet and bitter, with the main flavour I am getting being dried fruits, probably dates would be the closest approximation. The first few steeps seemed sweeter, while the middle of the session was fairly bitter actually. Other notes I get are those of dry wood, thyme (and other floral ones), mushrooms and camphor, the latter mostly in the aftertaste.

There is some nice astringency that helps the liquor, which is not too thick, even though it coats well.

Compared to another popular option from YS in this price and age range – the 2007 Pin Xiang “Bu Lang Shan Tuo” – this tea is definitely sweeter, more fruity and less herbal.

I’m going to put my note in as I wrote it, because I found this interestingly changeable for shou. It is actually the 2012 that has varied reviews, but the reason could be similar.

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Continuing with the shou because of my cold, I broke out my 2009 Nan Jian 801 tuo from YS. This doesn’t seem to have much to show for the age – it’s another quite woody and earthy shou, has good thickness, but there isn’t really anything that says it is older than the 2016 Yong De I was drinking before. Wouldn’t get this one again because there isn’t much point (yeah, it was a cheap tuo). The tuo and the wet leaves in the pot both smell much more interesting than the tea.

Oh hang on! I am now on my second 500ml water in my thermos, and now I get huigan if I riffle it in my mouth, which admittedly I don’t do that much when drinking shou. That makes some sense of the split in reviews for this tea – it has multiple entries under slightly different names on Steepster, and some say it is sweet and some say it isn’t. Either that, or the character really does change after 500ml of steeps, which is odd given that it isn’t that tightly compressed and the leaf I put in the pot was not a single big chunk but mostly loose.

Ok tea, you have risen in my estimation mid-review and become significantly more interesting. (I do prefer it if my shou isn’t finicky though!)

I’ve been putting in ~6g of these to give me more thicker infusions for my throat – that’s more leaf than I’d usually use. (Gongfu in 140ml clay pot, not entirely full – I’m getting 85ml out in my cup, most steeps about 25s, increasing as it thins out).

ETA: Water temp. Close enough to just-boiled gives huigan, once it has cooled a bit it doesn’t.

Not a bad white tea, although not as unique in flavours as some other moonlight white teas I’ve tried. It’s possible I am not brewing this properly, will try adding more leaf next time to see. There is a definite a sort of sweetgrass flavour that comes through which is quite nice, and only adds to the already thick liquor.

Golden Monkey is the tea that awakened me to black tea after avoiding it for most of my life. The YS 2016 version was marvelous. Last year’s version was also good, though not as sweet. So this year I decided to upgrade to the Imperial grade stuff to see if was really worth it. Well after gongfuing around with this tea, I can say this is totally different from the standard grade version and not in a good way.

This tea resembles keemun in appearance with its dark curly leaf. There’s fewer gold-tipped leaves here than the regular grade version. On the nose, I get an almost pungent aroma of dried fruit, smoke, and malt. The tea brews to a nice reddish amber. The taste though was far removed from any other golden monkey tea I’ve ever had. It has a very basic black tea, dare I say Lipton-like flavor. I didn’t get any of the deep caramel and molasses notes I love. There was no sweetness or real nuance to it at all. Subsequent steeps tasted the same.

I’m still scratching my head at this tea. It wasn’t bad or anything, just flat and kind of boring. Maybe this was an off year or something, but it’s hard to believe this is golden monkey tea let alone the high grade stuff.

Nice mix of different aromas, I can smell black pepper, bay leaves, nuts (especially in the dry leaves), overripe plums and cherries and red wine. Overall it’s quite a sweet smell though. Taste-wise, it’s more savoury and very nutty. Much more than most ripe pu-erh’s I have had. There is also some light coffee bitterness and medicinal note in the taste. The mouthfeel is creamy, effeverscent and a little bit numbing with a touch of dryness in the finish.

One can play around with the steeping times a lot for this one. I often like to push them long, which gives a less sweet and more coffee like character to the brew. I found this tea to be a great value, very suitable for daily drinking.

Based on the description I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I hoped this would be a nice blend between a milky and roasted flavour oolong. I was pleasantly surprised to find my hopes satisfied, with a happy addition of extremely floral notes! This is truly a unique oolong, but I will say that it’s probably not for everyone. The flavour is very difficult to describe. I think this is up there with milky oolong for me.

While this isn’t a bad black tea, I was disappointed. By far not as good as other dragon balls I’ve had from Yunnan Sourcing. At first it was beautifully floral and sweet tasting, but after a mere 3 brews gong fu style the flavour dropped off to a dull grassy-ness reminiscent of a tea at the end of a long brew session or cardboard. The only redeeming quality I found is that there is a very pleasant aftertaste of sweetness that lingers from the first couple brews. Perhaps I got an off ball? Won’t be purchasing again.

A very good green tea, not as pungent and delicate as the imperial version, but in terms of the price/quality ratio they are comparable.

The dry leaf smells of chestnut, seaweed with a hint of sweet (maybe vanilla) aroma. Wet leaf has more of a beef broth smell, complemented by some fresh grassiness in the background.

The taste has a mix of brothy, vegetal, mildly bitter and surprisingly also fruity (strawberries) notes. My favourite steep is probably the third, because of the thicker texture, cooling aftertaste and a bit more astringency. Taste-wise, it is not extraordinary, but definitely a pleasant savoury drink with sour and fruity undertones. In fact, this infusion somehow resembles a brighter version of Dong Ding oolong. I know it sounds strange, and maybe I am just imagining it, but that’s what came to my mind now.

This is another of the teas I finished back in May. If I recall correctly, I finished it sometime close to the end of the month. It was a tea I had a bit of trepidation about trying. Ginger is not one of my favorite things, and I had seen several other reviews of this tea that basically stated it was a subtle tea and may not be to everyone’s liking. I found that I shared those sentiments myself. Even though the ginger presence was thankfully not consistently overpowering throughout, this struck me as being mostly a very subtle, elegant tea not ideal for regular consumption.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 8 seconds. This infusion was followed by 13 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves offered a clear ginger aroma supported by pungent fruit and flower aromas (almost like a mix of pomegranate and orchid) and a touch of bread-like character. After the rinse, the ginger aroma grew stronger while subtle red apple and vegetal scents emerged. The first infusion then saw the ginger aroma continue to dominate, this time mostly overwhelming the other scents offered by the leaves. In the mouth, notes of ginger, baked bread, butter, and orchid were chased by pungent fruity (pomegranate) and vegetal notes that I could not quite place before the ginger reasserted itself on the swallow. Subsequent infusions saw the nose turn nutty, fruitier, and more vegetal. New notes of minerals, roasted almond, red pear, wood, cinnamon, lemon zest, hibiscus, green pepper, and grass emerged in the mouth alongside subtler notes of red apple, radish, and turnip greens. The final infusions offered mineral, wood, roasted almond, and ginger notes with some barely perceptible fruity and vegetal undertones.

This was an interesting oolong, but it was not one that I would be in any rush to reacquire. I appreciated that the ginger aroma and flavor was carried throughout the session and that the tea offered a unique range of aroma and flavor components beyond the ginger, but I found some of the tea’s most appealing qualities to be a bit too subtle in most places. As mentioned earlier, I am not the hugest fan of ginger, so this tea was likely going to be a tough sale for me anyway. I’m just happy that I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I guess that says something. People who enjoy the smell and taste of ginger would probably enjoy this tea quite a bit. It’s still not my thing, but I enjoyed my experience with this tea and would not caution fans of Dancong oolongs to avoid it.

This is everything I’ve ever wanted out of a jasmine green tea. The jasmine is balanced and not perfume-y like many cheaper jasmine teas on the market. The pearls are a very decent, uniform size and have clearly been rolled with love.

This green tea is as light and refreshing as a white tea, it steeps very well both Western and Gong Fu style (I prefer the latter as you can taste the layers of flavour as they devlop). The leaves are incredibly pungent with a strong, true jasmine scent. More umami flavour arises in later steeps, but it never goes overboard. Almost no astringency or bitterness, just sweet floral notes and a light but calming cha qi.

I should also say that I have the 2018 batch.

5.4g, 100C, porcelain gaiwan 100mL. The last reviews on this were about 3 years ago so lets see what I think now that its had 8 years.

Dry leaf smells really good and complex already but I can’t put my finger on it…Once I rinse then it becomes apparent that this tea is going to start smoky….which I thought I didn’t like because it can be too harsh
In the early steeps I rapidly realize that this is a treat. The wet leaf smells like smoked sweet sausage. Just from two sips I’m already getting a lasting gan, this tea is so strong. But it isn’t heavy. Instead I’d describe it as uplifting. The taste is savory, strong, bitter and making me feel lightheaded. The cup is sweet but with that savory smoke going down without bitterness or astringency. Time has done this well.
Already its getting heavy and fills the mouth by middle steeps. It is neither drying nor sweet though, instead just heavy and savory.
By the end of this my burps were as if I had eaten a lot of bacon—yummy :). I highly recommend, even for people like myself who thought they didn’t like smoke-leaning sheng.

Still one of the best teas around. Hints of sour fruit like a pickled mango with a splash of IPA. Punchy. Strange. Enjoyable.

This tea was yet another one of my forays into unique Chinese green teas. So-called purple teas, in general, are still somewhat new to me, and prior to trying this tea, I do not recall ever trying another green tea produced from a purple tea cultivar. If this tea is representative of all such teas, these purple green teas are very likely not for me. I can appreciate what this tea had to offer, but it did not offer the traits of Chinese green teas that I generally find to be most enjoyable.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 176 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 15 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 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted muted aromas of roasted grain and roasted almond. The rinse brought out a stronger roasted almond aroma as well as an aroma of cooked spinach. The first infusion then saw the nose turn a little more vegetal while something of a berry-like presence started to make itself known. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of roasted almond, roasted grain, cooked spinach, grass, and cream accompanied by hints of lemon. Subsequent infusions saw a touch of coffee appear on the nose with stronger berry tones and hints of woodiness. New flavors of coffee, blackberry, blueberry, black cherry, red grape, malt, minerals, wood, umami, and popcorn hull appeared as the liquor turned more bitter and more astringent. The final few infusions were dominated by mineral, umami, and wood notes backed by hints of grass, blueberry, roasted almond, and a late-emerging menthol-like quality.

This was such a strange and challenging tea. In terms of both smell and taste, there were numerous points where it reminded me more of a Dancong or Wuyi oolong than any kind of traditional green tea. The texture of the tea liquor was also something else. It was rather full-bodied, yet displayed an alternately grainy and slippery texture that made it hard for me to focus on the flavors it presented. In the end, I did not find this tea to be bad, but it most certainly was not for me. As mentioned earlier, it did not offer enough of what I tend to enjoy in a Chinese green tea, but then again, I doubt this tea was intended to compete with most other Chinese green teas. If you are into really quirky teas, this will probably be your thing. I, however, will likely be sticking with more traditional Chinese green teas for the foreseeable future.

There are reviews here for the 2016 and 2017 productions which is one reason I tried it this year. See those notes for more detail.

I’m glad I found Chinese greens, they are a good fit for me over the Japanese ones.

This tea has umami both on the nose and in the taste. I like the marine, buttery, vegetal, chestnut notes.

Edit:
The wet leaf can easily become bitter so I doubt I will purchase this one again.

As one would expect from a good Long Jing, this is quite a delicate and nutty affair. The main notes I get are almonds, eggwhites, cooked vegetables (courgette, spinach) and also cooked poultry. It’s savoury, but maybe not as much so as it might seem from the flavours. Overall, the taste is actually quite balanced, with a touch of astringency and sourness in the finish, and very little bitterness. The mouthfeel is velvety, thick, and not too coating.

I can definitely recommend this tea to people who like Long Jing, but if you are not already onboard with this style of tea, you might want to look elsewhere for an introductory tea.

After a few tries I managed to get the brewing parameters right this time, and what a difference it makes. I used 3.5g of leaf in a small glass teapot of 300ml, which I never filled above 2/3 though. I started with 78°C water and put a little bit into the (non preheated) vessel. After the water cooled down a little, I dropped the leaves in there as well and gently moved the teapot around, so that the leaves get wet a bit quicker. Once they were in the water, I filled the pot up to about 180ml with the water at 78°C.

I didn’t time the steeps, I usually go by feeling and sight, but the first one was probably about 1.5 minutes. I decanted about 3/4 of the liquid into a cha hai and added more hot water. The same way I got 4 steeps, with the added water at about 80°C for the first 2, 85°C for the third and 90°C for the last. First three were all on the order of 1-1.5 minutes and the last one more like 4 minutes.

This is by no means an ideal preparation I settled on. A lot of the parameters were chosen on a whim. But since it produced a tea that’s significantly better than my previous tries, I thought I would preserve the details. Both for myself and others who might be struggling with getting the brewing parameters for this one right.

I will add some tasting notes and evaluation of the tea itself next time :)

The compression is not too tight, one rinse is enough to open it up. After the rinse I can smell some composted grass, straw and old wooden cabinet. Because of the small leaf particle size, I started with lower temperatures and as short infusion times as possible. Nonetheless, they were fairly bitter and astringent thorughout the session. Because of the high acidity and nutty flavour, I got reminded of coffee a bit. Other than that, the taste resembled the notes I got in the aroma. It’s fairly bland overall though. In the end, the 5g yielded about 9 100ml infusions.

As far as sheng mini tuos from YS go, the 2016 Monkey mini tuo is much better, I would say get that one instead if you want to have a super-casual raw pu-erh that’s also very suitable for cold brewing.