Yunnan Sourcing

I haven’t posted in over 2 years, so forgive me if I’m behind the times on my tea lingo. I purchased this as a sample from Scott’s 2021 lineup. I drank this one gongfu style, per usual, but also blind since I’m unfamiliar with the tea’s region and couldn’t remember description or the price/g.

It’s an interesting tea. It lacks that generic sheng aroma of apricots which I do like but will trade for uniquness.

This tea reminded me more of Scott’s Wuliang pressings in many aspects. The dried tea leaves were smaller than usual. The processing needs some work, as many of the leaves looked broken in my tea chunk, which also has happened before with mainly Wuliang teas. When brewed, the aroma had an orchid-like character that placed this somewhere between Wuliang and Bangdong teas.

In fact, the only thing that links this tea with Jinggu is that the flavor strongly resembles Da Mao Shan teas Scott had pressed in 2017, which are also quite different from other Jinggu teas.

There are sharp floral notes and a good amount of grassiness. I’m a sencha guy and generally like greener shengs, so this combination is just fine. There is good depth and some earthiness in the background. The tea is very present in the back of the mouth and throat, and there’s good cha qi. My wife commented on the aroma being soft. I would agree. I’m enjoying the long sweet floral and minty finish…there’s a hint of jasmine in there.

It’s worth a try for sure, especially since I don’t see Scott pressing any Wuliang teas this year.

I don’t often drink sheng so I don’t have much means for comparison, but I liked this one. A mild flavor with fruity undertones, tangy but not bitter. Really smooth and easy to drink, reminds me of the smell of rain somehow. A good way to start a chilly morning.

Spring 2021 version. I think I originally ordered the pure bud Bi Luo Chun but was sent this one instead, but I don’t mind because it’s great. What struck me was an intense dark chocolate flavor, to the point I wondered if I’d accidentally spilled cocoa powder in my teapot somehow. Very sweet and long-lasting flavor that handles lots of resteeping. Hard to go wrong here.

Gongfu Sipdown (1455)!

Finished this one off during the afternoon while also also breaking in some gorgeous new Qinghao teaware pieces from a recent Crafted Leaf Teas order!! I love the distinct heavy and dank earthiness of heicha so much, and this one is very interesting with some very brothy & resinous notes of cocobolo wood, golden raisins, peat and damp forest undergrowth, and casacara! It hits so deep, with some really grounding and complex flavours that are making for a really serene afternoon session!

My only complaint is that it steeped out more quickly than I’d have liked. I got like eight or nine good steeps and I would have easily been able to sit down and enjoy a session double that length without coming close to tiring of these amazing flavours.

This was another sample that I recieved from Togo – so far I’ve been very impressed with the different heicha samples he provided me and in general I’m enjoying the teas from Yunnan Sourcing much more than I had expected to. I’ve found several I would order for myself, and I’m including this among that list.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CULMaR0r8K6/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzDSoIEsmlU&ab_channel=anjimile

I’ve had this cake stashed away in the bottom of my raw pu-erh box for the last six months or so but haven’t tried it until now. Out of town family decided to invite themselves to my house for a long (very long!) weekend and I needed a little treat after finally shoving them out the door. I didn’t weigh the leaf because I left my scale in the other room and didn’t feel like going to get it. My water amount wasn’t terribly precise so I’m not sure weighing the leaf would have done much good anyway. I was using a glass gongfu bottle that is, I think, 200ml on the water chamber side…but filling it all the way is usually too much water for the amount of tea leaves that will fit in the leaf chamber side, and there’s also pressure buildup and sputtering of hot water on my hands and that sort of unpleasantness if it’s too full. I tried to aim for about 2/3 full but I wasn’t very careful about it. For entertainment I decided to use both a silver lined teacup and a double-walled glass espresso cup of about the same size to see if the cups made any difference to the taste.

It smells like delicious Mengku tea. Fruits and something kind of like fresh hay. For some reason the scent of Mengku raws makes me think of naps in the sunshine. I got a little more bitterness and astringency than I would have liked but I’m not sure how much is the tea and how much was my lazy, imprecise steeping. It’s pretty young still, maybe a couple more years would do it good. But next time I’ll try to take more care with my brewing to see if that makes a difference. Interestingly, the tea drunk from the silver cup tasted sweeter than the tea drunk from the glass cup. I don’t know if that was just a psychological thing or if the temperatures ended up being different when I drank them or what. I’ve always been a little skeptical of some of the claimed benefits of silver teaware so I was surprised to find a noticeable difference. The magpie in me enjoys drinking from shiny pretties so they seemed necessary regardless of any possible tea-improving capabilities. From either cup there’s a pleasant sweet aftertaste that makes an interesting contrast to the bitterness. I made it about four steeps before wanting a nap. Raw pu-erh seems to make me sleepier than other teas.

Gongfu Sipdown (1455)!

Wow – this is one of those teas that, when you look at the tasting notes on the Steepster page, really takes you for one hell of a wild ride.

Anyway, I have to thank Togo for gifting this sample – it’s one of many Yunnan Sourcing samples he gave me in early August and I’ve been greatly enjoying going through them and expanding my familiarity with YS’s teas.

This was one of those sessions where I kind of feel like I’m in a jungle thanks to all the surrounding plants! This shou is really nice though; it’s a great combination of very thick and wet soil notes like soaked forest undergrowth after a heavy rainfall mixed with dense syrupy sweet elements like fig paste, dates, and molasses. Occasionally a little like oatmeal. It’s such a curious accord of brothy flavours and heavy sweetness/starch. I’ve been steeping very casually in between different working from home tasks this afternoon and a couple times I’ve forgotten I had tea still steeping in the gaiwan – so it’s forgiving and long lasting as well!! All around pretty solid!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CT5LoOflYUR/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbvWxCwIrvY&ab_channel=StJasper

Powerful beginning astringency that overwhelms, followed by great sweetness and hui gan. Full bodied and complex. Lovely fragrance. I get the feeling that this would be great for aging. Energy is not physical nor mental, but rather emotional— feeling uplifted.

$250 for the whole cake eh? Add it to my list of sheng to consider buying and aging after my first or second year of newbie tea exploration.

Sipdown (1458)!

Finished off this sample that was gifted to me by Togo by bowl brewing over the course of the afternoon – I was amazing by how much the overall taste reminded me of really good barbeque sauce. Nice and deep with a mixture of woody and smoky notes, a bit like an Applewood Smoked BBQ sauce, with notes of brown sugar and molasses and just a bit of a nice tangy quality too. I wish the mouthfeel had been thicker to better suit the heavy rich flavour, but overall this was something I would easily see myself gravitating towards and wanting to purchase in a larger quantity. So yummy!

While I’m still in the mood to write and have a little time before I have to get back to work, here is another review from my backlog. This is another tea I finished earlier in the year. It was also a totally new experience for me, as I had never tried or even heard of Po Tou Xiang Dan Cong prior to this one. Did it make a good first impression on me? Yeah, for the most part, it did, but it also did not wow me so much that I will be frequently making much of an effort to track down more Po Tou Xiang.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a 10 second rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 7 seconds. This infusion was followed by 16 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, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of cinnamon, smoke, char, and cherry. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of cream, butter, roasted almond, orchid, and cannabis. The first infusion brought out subtle aromas of blackberry and roasted peanut. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cream, grass, roasted almond, cherry, and butter that were balanced by hints of cannabis, cinnamon, earth, orchid, smoke, blackberry, and roasted peanut. The bulk of the subsequent infusions introduced aromas of vanilla, blueberry, mulberry, baked bread, minerals, orange zest, and rock candy. At times, I also picked up on a subtle violet scent. Stronger and more immediately notable impressions of orchid, blackberry, and earth appeared in the mouth alongside mineral, sugarcane, orange zest, blueberry, mulberry, and violet notes. I also consistently detected subtler impressions of char, vanilla, baked bread, toasted rice, pear, rock candy, and white grape, as well as an interesting and unexpected hint of green apple after each swallow. As the tea settled and faded, the liquor began to emphasize mineral, baked bread, orange zest, grass, sugarcane, violet, butter, mulberry, and blackberry notes that were balanced by lingering hints of orchid, roasted almond, cherry, rock candy, charcoal, white grape, toasted rice, green apple, and blueberry.

This was an incredibly odd and challenging Dan Cong oolong with highly unique aroma and flavor profiles. It also produced a tea liquor that was constantly shifting in terms of weight and texture in the mouth. There were times where I expected it to hit me hard, and it never did, but then there were other times where I expected it to calm down and thin out, and it instead presented as being strong and heavy. Honestly, I am still not entirely certain what to make of it. I can say that I most certainly enjoyed this tea, but I also found it to be a bit much. I think I’ll primarily stick with my preferred Dan Cong oolongs for now, but should I ever get the opportunity to try another Pou Tou Xiang, I doubt I will pass on it.

I love a good Wuyi zheng shan xiao zhong. It seems like this style of richly flavored, mineral and structured red tea has increased in popularity since I started drinking loose leaf 4 or 5 years ago. I see it offered now by most online vendors.

This tea has fallen flat in its 4 years of existence. The floral notes I love have vanished, which is common with age. It really needs to be pushed with heat and time to get that rich cup I crave from ZSXZ. The typical for me notes of lychee, apricot, honey, cinnamon and cream are watery. Chocolate does make a nice appearance when pushed but to the detriment of a cedary woodchip bite in the throat.

Well, this is the last tea from a Leafhopper swap. Your generosity, Leafhopper, has made this stupid year bearable! I got a lot of older teas, which I’m absolutely not knocking you for (my own collection has some age-related issues). Instead, with your unwanteds, I was able to find some treasures, like a few 5-6 years old green teas (who knew!). And you were so kind to share some of your more valued teas, like a few immensely flavorful Darjeeling second flushes and my favorite green Shan Lin Xi oolong to date. Thank you, thank you <3

This is my first tea from Yunnan Sourcing in a while and my first review in two months. An un-air-conditioned apartment during a heat wave isn’t the best place to drink tea, but fortunately, the weather has cooled down and I’m back in business! I got this spring 2019 harvest just a couple months before COVID hit and turned everything upside down at the start of 2020. I don’t know whether that says more about my tea hoarding habits or how long this pandemic has gone on. I steeped 6 g of tea in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of honey, malt, baked bread, wood, and smoke. The first steep has notes of baked bread, malt, honey, molasses, hay, smoke, pine, and wood. I’d describe this tea as bready rather than sweet. The next steep has hints of cocoa and citrus. Steeps three and four are like rye bread with chocolate chips, which is a thing that should really exist. However, the smoke is also more apparent and the tea has some astringency. Orange is slightly present in the tea and at the bottom of the cup. The next couple steeps are similar, but without the cocoa. As the session winds down, the malt, smoke, and wood become dominant, though the tea remains enjoyable. The final steeps have notes of malt, tannins, earth, wood, and smoke.

This is a nice Yunnan black tea, but it’s nothing special.

I tried the March 2021 version, which has a nice malty flavour with some caramel taste and a bit of ash. The flavour isn’t that strong; it is very warm, and smells mostly of malt. It’s pleasant, but not especially unusual.

The leaves are whole and a warm golden colour. The wet leaves smell edible, but slightly sharp. The lid of the teapot I used to steep them smells like dark chocolate and ash.

As a big fan of the 2016 Wild Purple Green Mark, Dizzy as another raw–ripe blend became a tea that I definitely wanted to try. I received my sample of it around a year ago and had a couple of sessions with it. I remember liking it and still have my tasting notes from one of the sessions jotted down on my phone, but I never got around to writing an actual review for it at the time. Today I dug up the last of my sample from the depths of my pumidor and here we are finally properly reviewing this bad boy.

After a brief rinse, Dizzy opens up quite earthy and surprisingly sweet. Perhaps a bit caramely or nutty. I’m reminded a lot of roasted wulongs, which is quite interesting. The mouthfeel is also surprisingly enjoyable for the first brew. The cha qi which I remember from the previous session is also kicking in already from the first steep. A very enjoyable opening.

The second brew presents a very multilayered flavor profile. We are still in the sweet, roasted, earthy spectrum, but the texture has picked up a little and become slightly sticky and coating. I also notice some active sensation in my mouth. Cha qi’s even more noticeable than before, but thankfully it’s a good type of qi. Very positive and vitalizing.

The third steep presents a big turning point for this tea. I’m greeted by an almost shockingly fresh and fruity taste. Very zesty, citrusy I’d say. I can’t overemphasize how fruity this tea is. The body has also thickened up and the soup actually feels heavy to swallow. The cha qi is possibly at its most potent, very heady. I wouldn’t consider this a casual brew. The aftertaste is strong. To me this is a quite superb tea.

Immediately after I say that, we head into steep four and experience a bit of a dip as the tea heads in a more sour direction, which I personally aren’t a big fan of, although sour teas have their fans out there. I’m getting a bit of a cola vide in the finish and as I keep drinking this steep I do actually end up liking it. The mouthfeel remains great and the tea very flavorful. For a tea with ripe mixed in, the freshness is quite uncanny. There’s a lot going on here and you aren’t getting just one singular taste. Dizzy is a very dynamic tea to session.

Infusion five is even thicker, even zestier. SO fruity. I get such good vibes from this tea. It’s so clean, so fresh. I’m getting a touch of cooling now. The flavor has shifted from citrus to white grapes together with the slightly earthy touch from their skin.

Unfortunately from infusion six onward the tea starts tapering off, big time. I remember having issued with longevity in the past and I really recommend beginning to push the tea hard once you notice it gets to this point. Steep six is pretty much a combination of a standard shu affair and a run-of-the-mill sheng in its twilight. Infusion seven is similar but has more of the fruity, zesty character. Both brews are still good, though. Very flavorful and enjoyable. But there’s a distinct “thinness” to the flavor – a lack of depth. And that ultimately makes these steeps lacking in satisfactions, at least for a person like me.

Steeps eight and nine are the last two, but fortunately present yet another chapter in the journey of Dizzy before we close the book. Both present an unexpected medicinal character, distantly similar to what I experience with Wild Purple Green Mark. In infusion eight I get a nice minty, camphory taste. We’ve also returned back to the sweet citrus. The closing brew on the other hand leans more toward licorice. I’m happy to say these last two brews elevated my opinion of this tea back up again.

So yes, I highly enjoyed Dizzy. I remember it being good a year ago, but even just a single year in storage has done wonders to this concoction. The experience is really unique and I recommend a sample to anyone who’s even a bit adventurous. If you’ve already tried raw–ripe blends in the past and didn’t like them or just find the idea of such teas sacrilege, then perhaps this is not the tea for you, but otherwise I highly, highly recommend picking up a sample next time you are putting together a Yunnan Sourcing order.

While I highly enjoy (the now sold-out) Wild Purple Green Mark, which I own a cake of, I think Dizzy easily surpasses it in my book. I don’t think the two teas used in WPGM by themselves are anything special. It’s really the combination of them together and the unique flavor profile that results that makes that tea better than the sum of its parts. Dizzy on the other hand shines in other areas besides just taste, which is key for me. And on top of that the flavor profile that is born is even more unique than what we get in WPGM. Granted, it is most similar to some roasted Taiwanese wulongs I’ve had, but at the fraction of the price and on top of that you get the body and cha qi which you often miss out on in many wulongs.

The only shortcoming is the longevity, which ultimately isn’t that poor all things considered, just a tad disappointing. It reflects the affordable price of this tea, which I would consider amazing value. I’m most definitely going to be grabbing a cake of this.

One final note, though. I would say the sheng is easily the main star here. If you are more of a shu drinker, this might not be the tea you are looking for. This baby might brew up dark, but the flavor as stated is very fresh and zesty after the first few steeps. And similarly if you are mainly a sheng drinker, don’t be put off by the inclusion of shu in here. The earthy, fermented spectrum really plays more of a supporting role here.

Gongfu Sipdown (1469)!

Started my morning today with a simple tea pairing of this white tea and a sweet and crumbly peach infused Wensleydale cheese – one of my favourite nibbling cheeses. Bonus points, because this session is also a sipdown – I’m on a solid roll this weekend!

The tea is soft & sweet and already has a very nice natural delicate white peach and nectarine taste to it, supported by notes of wildflowers, fresh timothy hay, and just a little bit of Whipped honey. I really like this pairing because Wendsleydale is a bit of a softer flavour already so it doesn’t drown out the tea – the shared peach note is just a natural compliment and I just love that flavour becoming exaggerated and more jammy, but with the silkier honey notes of the tea & creaminess of the cheese also creating this ‘peaches & cream’ adjacent flavour as well.

No complaints here; this is just gentle and fun! Thanks Togo for the share!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTKdQdPA0SP/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxp3uOfWHGM&ab_channel=honeywhip

Gongfu Sipdown (1470!)

Thank you Togo for the sample! I feel like my exploration of teas from Yunnan Sourcing has actually been pretty limited, so I really appreciate how generous and kind you were to give me such a wide variety of samples to explore!

The leaves of this tea are just so gorgeous and inviting, with a bit of a glossy purple-y black sheen to them. As soon as the water hit them for my first steep, my room was filled with a mouth watering aroma of fresh garden strawberries, burnt sugar, and tamarind jam! My God – I wish I could bottle that scent because it was intoxicating and so distinct!

Steeped, I’m finding the taste leans more towards muscat grapes & stone fruit; something like a mix of the brightness of ripe plum alongside heavier notes of stewed or brandied stonefruits. The liquor is thick and almost buttery, with undertones of oak and leather! This is super pleasant, and it making for a really nice warming and cozy session on a little bit of a more grey morning! I steeped this one out after about a half dozen or so infusions, and it was genuinely on of the most pleasing teas that I had experienced all week.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTIDDmUg1tD/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgoE-xiN968&ab_channel=DDWalker