Yunnan Jig

Remind me never to resteep a black tea again!

The Yunnan wasn’t quite jiggin’ today. I had this earlier in the day, after I came home pretty exhausted and freezing from the cold weather outside. My feet were hurting from being in heels all day, and I just wanted something hot and uncomplicated.

I don’t know what happened today, but this wasn’t as flavorful as I remembered. I steeped it the same time, same water temperature, etc., but it just wasn’t hitting the spot for me. It was a teensy bit astringent, and I think there was some sort of fiery quality to it that I felt in my throat today. I don’t know if that counts as “peppery,” but I’ll take it.

Feeling a bit brave, I decided to do a second steep of this, and BLECH. Ugh. It looked around the same as the first cup, but it smelled entirely differently. I steeped it for 6 minutes, with the same amount of boiling water. It tasted like a green tea done like a black. Grassy but black, and altogether unpleasant. The flavor was watery and shot. The tea lost all of its subtleties and became a mess in my mouth. I really couldn’t finish the second steep, and I tossed it down the drain.

Today I was in a happiness mood because the cramps have finally alleviated! Yay! Thanks so much to everyone for the well wishes. :)

I figured that I could finally have something caffeinated again, so I figured I’d get jiggy with it (LAME). Something nice, basic, black, and tasty for my morning cup. I actually had forgotten how absolutely pretty the leaves are! When I opened the tin, I was pretty surprised by the golden and delicate twists of this Jig.

I steeped it up with a bit more leaf than usual, to make up for the wiryness than won’t fit into my teaspoon. The resulting cup was definitely more powerful and bold, but not bitter. It actually smelled like toasty cocoa, if that makes any sense. Warm and deep and delicious.

Because of the extra leaf, I actually think that I might have tasted a bit of the peppery taste that has been eluding me the entire time I’ve been drinking this. It was extremely faint, but I think I finally might have caught a taste of it!

Wrapping Christmas presents and sipping this was pretty much bliss. And happiness. Add onto that the fact that I’m not curled up in the fetal position, or rocking back and forth in pain, Paranormal Activity-style, this is turning out to be a fairly good morning indeed.

Another one finished off. This is the last of a sample that Jillian sent me. It’s been a while and I can’t actually really remember what I thought of it at the time. I’ve only got a single cup here, because I only had leaves enough left for half a pot.

I steeped it a bit too much I think because it’s got a fairly astringent bite. There is a sweet note though, a sort of tongue coating one. Not quite caramel, but similar. Mostly I got the smokey peppery note which was probably brought out more by the fact that it was steeped a bit too long.

Anyway, this was a good enough tea to have in a sample. It was good to try and overall I liked it. I’m definitely interested in exploring the yunnan blacks further, but it probably wouldn’t be this particular one.

I’m a lazy freezing bugger this morning, so we’re going to see how this holds up to a resteep. I’m not expecting miracles here, but if it doesn’t work then what have I actually wasted other than time and half a liter of water? Might as well give it a shot.

After I wrote mine yesterday, I’ve been looking through what other people have said about it. I’m glad I’m not the only one to pick up that honey note, because for me it’s really strong and I couldn’t immediately recall anybody having mentioned it before. One person said that it was also quite nice when sweetened with honey, so if the resteep works to my satisfaction, I will try that. Otherwise I have enough leaves left for one more pot, or most of one.

Being impatient, I’ve been sniffing at the pot. The smoke, or pepper, (because I really think it’s the same flavour that people recognise differently. For me it’s smoke. Not even remotely as strong as in Lapsang Souchong, but still smoke.) seems to be a little diminished but the honey is as strong as ever.

The colour looks the same too. Possibly a little darker, which sort of surprised me. It seems logical that resteeps should provide a gradully lighter colour.

It’s like an entirely different tea! I’m getting a strong honey note out of it and the smoke or pepper or whatever is almost entirely gone. It’s just there in the finish, giving the honey some sparkles. I can almost almost recognise it more as pepper than as smoke here. I don’t think it’s quite pepper but it’s more pepper at this point than it’s smoke. It’s got the same sort of prickling sensation on the tip of the tongue, whereas smoke, I think, is more prickly all over the mouth. Does this even make sense?

At any rate, yes, Yunnan Jig holds up nicely to a resteep.

The smell of this made one of my coworkers state, “That’s a lot better than what I get out of a Lipton bag.” You know it. Maybe one day they will be tempted enough to take me up on my offer of making them a cup.

This is sweet in a way that reminds me of cane syrup, a little earthy, brisk and fuller bodied than the Yunnan Gold I’ve had. It also leaves a pleasant peppery tingle on my tongue after I swallow. I was prepared for the more breakfast-like intensity of this tea this time so I’m appreciating it more and have upped the rating a little. This would really make a fantastic morning tea I think, and one that I would hope could stand up to a little doctoring because that’s just how I roll with my morning teas.
^3g/6oz

Sometimes I don’t want my palate challenged, or a finicky steeping ritual, or a lot of nuance. Sometimes, I just want a really good, satisfying cup of tea. Now, please.

This one has a deep tea perfume, a dark color that promises and delivers a strong tannic flavor. Tannic meaning it tastes like tea – good, honest, no fussiness about it tea. I wrap my hands around my mug and inhale deeply before each sip. Ahhh – tea.

Wait, the pot is empty already?!!

This is the last of the tea in my little sample tin. It’s maybe not my favorite plain black tea but I still enjoyed its unique taste and found it a very pleasing drink for waking me up in the morning or shaking the tiredness out of me during the day.

I’ll likely re-order at some point in the future; maybe not a full tin, but I’ve been eyeing Adagio’s black tea sampler which this is part of.

I re-steeped the leaves from the last cup (adding a minute onto the previous steeping time) and found that the taste this time around is lighter and there’s also a curious hint of spice. Le gaspeth Could this be the elusive pepper flavour the tea gurus speaketh of???

I honestly have no idea, but if you squint and use your imagination I suppose the flavour might be considered peppery. shrugs Maybe I’m just crazy and this tea has finally driven me mad! ;)

I tried it with milk this morning and I don’t think it added anything to to the tea, if anything it looses much of it’s subtleties. Still not tasting any pepper.

The coloring of this is extremely dark today…I don’t remember it being this dark…hum…smells a little fruity, a little smoky. Taste is nice! Fully and malty!

Bold but Comforting. Is that possible!? Why-YES…YES, it is! :P

Incredibly smooth and a good morning ‘brew’ This morning it surely hit the spot!