Yunnan Gold Tips (Limited Edition, Chinese New Year 2014)

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Malt, Sweet, Bread, Chocolate, Cocoa, Molasses, Rye, Sweet Potatoes, Wood, Creamy, Honey, Earth, Floral, Forest Floor, Yams, Hops, Yeasty, Citrus, Fruity, Grain, Stonefruit, Autumn Leaf Pile, Cannabis, Flowers, Leather, Tobacco
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
High
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Lion
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 30 sec 3 g 12 oz / 345 ml

From Our Community

2 Images

7 Want it Want it

13 Own it Own it

56 Tasting Notes View all

  • “As per JC recommendation I brew 2 heaping tsp in 200 ml glass pot short steeps 5/5/10/15/20 sec none of the steeps are weak. Very chocolaty and malty. Wet leaves smell of honey and tobacco. ...” Read full tasting note
  • “I’ve been a cranky ragebot all week long for various reasons, but as one of those small silly things that can talk you off the ledge last night before bed I reminded myself I’d be able to try this...” Read full tasting note
  • “Last night I did my monthly tea count, re-organized my shelves a bit, etc. I’m starting the month at 362 Teas, which is down from 389 last month, so progress, not perfection, right? My first cup...” Read full tasting note
  • “Oh. Mah. Gawd. Sulu. This is good tea. Smells fantastic, looks nifty. Cute package. Heavily baked bread flavor, sweet, malt, smooth…golden. It was probably a mistake to have an entire pot this late...” Read full tasting note
    97

From Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea

Limited Edition of 150

Happy New Year!

We’re galloping into the New Year on a 150 horse-powered infusion of Yunnan Gold Tips. Care to join us? Like a chestnut mare with a brilliant golden mane, this special tea has the might to carry you through good times and bad, and a gentle, unassuming beauty that will stir noble feelings in your breast. We wish the year of the snake a fond farewell, perhaps even a tip of the hat as it slithers away into the bushes. Now it’s time to face the road ahead. Welcome to the year of the horse — saddle up this damn fine steed and ride out to meet it!

We’ve teamed up again with our pals at Aesthetic Apparatus and made 150 tins of one of our favorites, Yunnan Jin Hao Gold Tips tea. This full-bodied black tea from China will remind you of a classic Yunnan — it’s good and strong — but the gold tips add a soft, velvety smoothness. Brew it in boiling hot water for at least five minutes and you’re off to the races. Cross the finish line and re-steep the leaves for another ride.

About Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea View company

Andrews & Dunham knows that nothing beats a perfect cup of tea, and a great tea needs no explanation. We love the romance of tea. We love that tea might just be the healthiest thing you’ll ever drink. But if the tea you’re drinking doesn’t taste fantastic, you’re missing out. Only a few teas meet our mysterious, rigorous standards and we’re proud to offer them to you. We’re always looking for that perfect cup, so you don’t have to.

56 Tasting Notes

83
1353 tasting notes

Queued post, written June 18th 2014

A random grab in the box this time. Here’s one that Auggy sent me this year. Yunnan is the type where our tastes part company a little bit. She seems to appreciate them a little more than I do, but it’s still close enough I think. It depends on how hay-like they are.

This one doesn’t strike me as very hay-like. I think it’s the sweetness in them that sometimes comes across as a haystack to me. In this one it’s more just sort of sweet-sweet with a bit of hay on the side.

I don’t really know what else to say about it… I try to analyse it a bit, but the words aren’t coming. It won’t show me its secrets. Maybe there’s a little honey note in there? I think so. Perhaps with a bit of grain? Yes, maybe. Only when I try to think about it more, all that comes to mind is that it’s a very long time since I baked a honey bread…

I think what I’m trying to get at is that this tea reminds me of my honey bread recipe.

Difficult to decipher as it may be for me, it’s still a quite good tea, even with the hay-y notes. They could have been worse, a LOT worse. I don’t really like them stronger than this, but at this level it’s nice. It’s a bit like herbs and spices in food. Too much is awful, too little is meh and bland, but just right is lovely.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

80
157 tasting notes

Sample from hapatite! Thanks hun!

This is the second time I’ve tried this tea. The first time I was too busy to write any notes and I wanted to give it a proper review. So! I brewed some of this up tonight. I was craving a bready, malty Yunnan. When I set my mug aside to cool, an ant somehow found its way into my cup. I deliberated for a moment…and then just picked him out. I’m gross. ): But I didn’t want to sacrifice the entire cup when I only had a few teaspoons of leaf left.

Usual method for blacks without instruction: 1.5tsp/10oz, pre-boil, 2 min. Subsequent steep times vary, but this time it was 3min.

It’s a little brisk at the beginning of each sip—especially when it’s hot. Notes of citrus, cocoa, bread, and a maltiness that coats the tongue. It has a smooth texture and it’s surprisingly light-bodied. Maybe medium. Towards the end of each sip you get stone fruits. Red fruits. It has me thinking of plums, then it has me thinking of raisins. There are notes of sweet potato: rich and thick, with a lingering sweetness. There is a bit of honey there as well. The sweet potato, grain, and fruit notes are more prominent as the liquid cools.

Well, this is a decent tea. It doesn’t wow my pants off like I hoped it would. It’s not overly complex. It stays consistent through steeps and it could probably hold up to milk and sugar. No muss, no fuss. For those reasons I would make it an everyday tea…maybe an everyday morning tea. The cost makes it less desirable, though. There are other teas with similar flavor profiles that are of higher quality and more affordable. Plus I think they just sold their last tin!

Flavors: Bread, Citrus, Cocoa, Fruity, Grain, Honey, Stonefruit, Sweet Potatoes

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

437 tasting notes

This smooth and pleasant tea accompanied my morning yesterday. These dark medium large leaves mixed with around 25% golden tip yielded 3 good steeps using my usual method of 1 TSP/225ml/94°C/1 min+1 for next steep, which is slightly less resilient than some of the Yunnan’s I’ve been drinking. The last steep was weakening and I will probably extend the steep time the next time I drink it.

The first steep smelled of malt, cocoa, a musky, grainy scent, and red fruit. The taste was sweeter than the scent with with a strong barley note mixed with cocoa and caramel. There was a faint leather spice mixed in with light malt and a touch of fruit. The tea had a slightly metallic, mineral note that leant a certain coolness to the flavour of the tea. The tea was very smooth on the tongue.

Future steeps introduced a light bright floral note, plum mixed with red fruit and a light hay note. The caramel evolved to cane sugar.

Altogether this was a smooth, pleasant, and uncomplicated accompaniment to my day.

Thanks boychik for the sample!

Cameron B.

How many steeps did you end up doing? I might have to try the rest of my sample this way. :)

yyz

I tried 4. Steeps 1 and 2 were really good, with strong flavour, the third steep was weakening, so I tried the fourth steep at 5 min and really it was just fading cocoa, some malt , and indistinct sweet notes. I would try adding 1.5 to 2 minutes for the third steep and not bother with the fourth.

Cameron B.

Gotcha, thanks a lot! I’ll have to try this today. :)

boychik

Glad you liked that;)

Cameron B.

So I tried it with 1 minute, 2 minutes, 4 minutes and I liked it a lot! I need to try other Yunnans that way. :D

yyz

Yay! I’m glad you liked it that way. I do it with a lot of my Chinese teas, and it helps me discover another character to them. Some I prefer this way and some Western style and a few I steep at very short intervals.

Cameron B.

I tend to prefer the lighter, more tippy Yunnan teas, so this method kind of emulates that even with darker ones. Which is nice! Thanks again for the suggestion. :)

yyz

I like the tippy Yunnan’s too. I love the diversity of them. I once had one ( well it wasn’t specifically labeled Yunnan, but its leaf morphology and some aspects of its flavour suggested it was) that tasted of violets and grape jelly on top of other notes.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

88
3986 tasting notes

Another one from Nicole! And I’ve been really wanting to try this one too, mostly because of the adorable horse tin (hangs head in shame). I’m such a sucker for cute packages! The leaves are quite lovely – they’re somewhat long and curly and “fluffy”. About half golden and half brown. I ended up using closer to two teaspoons because of the fluffiness. I didn’t want to underleaf! The dry aroma is what I’m coming to expect from a very tippy Yunnan – bread and malt with honey and lovely stonefruit notes. Yummy.

At first, the tea smelled of just bread and honey. And I was okay with that! However, I noticed that as it started to cool to a more drinkable temperature, those stonefruit notes started poking their lovely little heads out. The taste is surprisingly light in texture. It’s predominantly bready malt with a bit of dried autumn leaves mixed in. And then there’s that little bit of honey sweetness too. I maybe get a little bit of a fruity aftertaste if I really look for it.

Overall, this tea is tasty. It’s uncomplicated, but done well and would make an excellent lighter everyday black tea.

So, a separate issue. I’ve made all three of my black teas today with bottled water instead of my usual tap. And they all three seemed to have the same mild bitterness. I don’t find that bitterness is usually an issue for me, since I generally do shortish steeps and use cooler water (200 degrees usually). So is it possible that my bottled water is making my teas taste more bitter…?

Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Bread, Honey, Malt

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Ost

Mmm that sounds so good!

Marzipan

I love the tin, although I thought it was a cow at first.

Cameron B.

I love it too! But I don’t love it enough to spend $25 on it when I could get a comparable or better tea for cheaper. :(

TheTeaFairy

I guess it depends of the water Cameron. For example, I can’t stand Dasani water, I think it tastes worse than some tap water. I’m lucky to have found what works best for me, I use Mavea filters and love my water cause it gets super soft.

Nicole

I have noticed similar issues with water. Usually when something turns out way off from what others have noticed on here I try with a different water. I have some teas that I can’t stand when done with spring water from the local grocery store or the filtered water at work but with my tap water at home I love them. As TheTeaFairy said, just have to find what works best for you and if you like the tea, try to remember how you made it. :) That’s the part I have trouble with…

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

424 tasting notes

Thanks to Stephanie for this sample. I was glad to have it tonight so I could make a decision about ordering it or not. I liked it well enough, but at $30 shipped for 4 oz, I have to consider that I can get 4 oz of Malty Irish Breakfast for much less ($17 plus shipping) and I like it more.

Cameron B.

They never did answer about whether they’ll have free US shipping on Friday! :P

ohfancythat

Which brand is Malty Irish Breakfast?

Stephanie

Good call! Malty Irish Breakfast is from Butiki whatshesaid

ohfancythat

Good to know :) thanks!

donkeyteaarrrraugh

if you’re a first time customer of this company you can tweet them and they will send you a free shipping code….just so you know….

Stephanie

Ooh good to know donkeytiara I’m still considering ordering Spring Keemun after sampling it in a swap!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90
871 tasting notes

Finally reviewing this tea.

This one is delicious, as with all other A&D blends I have tried.

It is a beautifully thick and malty Yunnan. I laughed when I read some of the descriptors that steepsterites had given this tea. Now I totally do not get the cannabis flavour. But I do get the autumn leaf pile. Not in a bad way but the smell of the tea is kind of like the sweet scent of drying leaves in the autumn. There is a very slight dry vegetal flavour to this tea which I would attribute with dry and crumbly leaves. I also feel like a get a hint of sweet potatoe flavour, more potatoe than sweet though.

I feel like I should hoard and savour this tea but not sure if it will last that long now that I have started drinking it.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Sil

nice!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

92
1113 tasting notes

Yum, I knew this would be fab. Thanks boychik!

Can’t really go wrong with a bold Yunnan black, or anything Damn Fine teas has to offer. So good. Seriously, think you want to order something from them? Just go for it.

boychik

Damn Fine!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

85
184 tasting notes

After yesterday’s weak steep (made more ironic by the fact that this tea came with a badge that says “No Weak Tea” on it), I had another go. I have a .8 finum TeaControl that holds 16 oz. I used 3 hefty teaspoons. There the flavor is!!! This tea is smooth. Michael Bublé smooth. Notes of yam, grain, cocoa and malt blend smoothly like brilliant dance partners, to the point where you almost can’t separate the notes. Is that good? I think that for a morning when I’m not at work and all I want is no dramatics for a change, this tea fills the bill. On an extra note, I truly got a second steep from this tea, which is rare for me. Because I drink only black teas, if it’s watery, I’ll chuck it down the drain. This tea held it’s water for the second steep. Very impressive.

Side note: tin #138 out of 150. If you’re thinking about ordering this tea, might want to consider soon…

Flavors: Cannabis, Cocoa, Grain, Yams

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 3 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

95
652 tasting notes

1.5 tsp for 300mL water @100C, steeped six minutes and fifteen seconds.

Honey, bread, roses, earth. No astringency. A soft and downy mouthfeel from those gorgeous leaves. Mineral sparkle on the finish. I love this tea.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

81
12 tasting notes

Fantastic – even more drinkable without additives than the Red-Tailed Hawk. After having this tin for half the time I’ve had the Red-Tailed Hawk, there’s already less of this left than remains in the other tin. That’s a testament to how often I reach for it during my most uncaffeinated bleariness.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.