Yunnan

On Saturday I peeped into my mailbox, and there was a Tiger in there!!!!!!! Ricky was kind enough to send me some Series 4 :) I gave the tiger his own little area in a nice basket in the tea cabinet so he wouldn’t hurt Florence and Marco Polo (Thomas Sampson and Jackee Muntz acted all brave but I could see it in their eyes that they were a little scared – what with that blue tongue and pointy teeth!).

He brewed up so dark and strong! Almost like coffee! I was frightened out of my wits! Imagine my surprise when I took a sip, and found out he’s just a pussy cat!!!! A bit feisty (I am definitely getting some pepper!) but purrrrrringly smooth and sweet. I of course used some milk, him being a cat and all. A little sugar too. Very very delicious!!!

2nd Steep – 6 min It’s Grrrrrrrrreat! (Tony the Tiger humor! Please forgive me!)
just a little lighter in body and taste, and no pepper. Thoroughly enjoyable.

The Tiger is now curled up in the basket in my tea cabinet. (There is enough for at least one more pot!!) I saw Florence furiously knitting him a toy, and Marco Polo somehow produced some catnip (most likely from his vast spice travels around the world). I was totally SHOCKED to see Thomas Sampson and Jackee Muntz huddled over the basket talking “wickle puddy tat You so cuuuute awwwwwwwww!” baby talk to the tiger! NOW I’ve seen EVERYTHING!

The eagerly awaited A&D DFT Yunnan arrived today!

The husband brought it up. We didn’t wait until I’d rescheduled his eye dr appointment tomorrow. We didn’t wait for the husband to take a shower. We didn’t wait until we were ready to drink it. We opened it up within moments of it entering the apartment.

The tin was wrapped in brown paper instead of in a bed of shredded zig-zags. I liked the art better on this tin than tins from Series 1. This tin opens like a mini paint can lid. I had to open it with a flat screw driver and bang it closed with it. I do not like that about it but am hoping it becomes easier to open and close with time. In the meantime, I’m keeping a screwdriver over the stove in the misc. cabinet. Oh, and we got two Series 4 stickers in our box. Anyone else get two?

The tea leaves were dark brown with golden yellow brown and ash gray mixed in. They smelled smokey and like something else that I can quite put my finger on right now but am hoping will come to mind when I’ve smelt the tea more. It smelled strong, bold, and good but not what I was expecting.

After putting a huge pot of chilli on to cook, the husband pushed to try the new tea tonight even though it was after 7pm at the time and it’s a black tea. So we steeped up a pot. The wet leaves were a dark brown of two shades and smelled smokey, like burning paper in a good way if that is possible. The tea was deep brown in color. It smelled smokey, rich, and full.

Sip sip. Sip sip.

It tastes smokey, no surprise there. But yummy smokey. I thought I wouldn’t like a smokey tasting tea. It also tasted ashy, non-cigarette ashy though, unctuous, and bold. The surprise was no bitterness or dryness. More notes on taste will comes as I drink more of this tea I’m sure. It’s unlike any other tea I’ve had. The husband also liked it but wasn’t as surprise he liked it or as into it as I was.

We steeped a second pot for 5 min. I was expecting it to be watery and need a pinch of fresh leaves to keep the taste strong enough. It was not at all. It was as full of flavor as the first steep but muted, less smokey. I think I liked this steep better. I also drank the end of this steep as I started to eat my chilli and was surprised that it held up to the chilli and complimented it well.

I decided to steep the leaves a third time to see what happen since the second steep went well. I steeped for 6 min this time. It was watery with nearly no tea taste. I threw it down the drain.

In conclusion, A&D’s Yunnan is a damn fine tea, I look forward to drinking it again quite soon, and it’s possibly better than Series 1’s black teas.

I’ll do a full tasting note later, but I got to try this tea today! A&D also has damn fine shipping as well as damn fine tea, so it arrived on Saturday. I didn’t find the box until Sunday evening (oops!) and then tried it this morning.

Nice, smooth, and flavorful. Not too powerful. I can see myself enjoying this tea a lot!

I was just given a shock by running water. Sigh. Today has just been one of those days. I deserve an early tea break.

Takgoti was lovely enough to send this to me so I’m very excited I get to try it because I? Was totally not on the ball and ordered no Series 4. The dry leaf smells lovely – earthy but fresh. The leaves are pretty cute, too – short and brown but with fuzzy gold bits popping through everywhere. I kind of want to coo at them. (Please note, it is only just past noon but it has been a long day.)

The color of the tea matches the dark parts of my desk which the office supply place says is a cherry finish but it’s not really because if it was, part of it wouldn’t have peeled up when I got tape stuck to it. But anyway, the tea matches my desk nicely (though I imagine that it would react differently to tape). Oh and the smell is so nice. Rich and fuzzy and stout and sweet like figs and brown sugar.

Wow this tastes good. Sweet with a little coffee-like edge of sort-of-acidity. Not so much that it isn’t smooth (because it is), but just enough to make it energetic. It’s not quite chewy but definitely closer to chewy than it is to light-bodied thinness. I could see perhaps putting a splash of milk in it to make even richer but it’s sweet enough with the raisin/fig/brown sugar taste that I think adding sugar would be overkill (that’s not to say I still won’t give it a shot though).

This is a good tea for me today. Bracing enough to help me make it through the rest of the day but with an edge of sweetness to show that it is a nice tea and really just doing what is best for me by standing me up, dusting me off and sending me back into the fray. Good kitty.

ETA: 2nd steep @ 5mins. Oooh, smooth. The tiger is calm and purring as he sits beside me. Lovely. Very similar flavor as the first steep but without the not-quite-acidic edge to it.
^3.1g/8oz

It’s taken me a while to get around to logging this one. I was a bit worried, even though I love me some Andrews & Dunham, because this is a big ol’ tin. Luckily, I don’t have anything to worry about.

I’ve taken to steeping my black teas a lot shorter lately, thanks to something that Teaman said, and I think I’ve been better for it. Black tea tends to go bitter on me rather easily. The first couple of times I had this I steeped it around 2 minutes, but I’ve found that 3 minutes also works well and gives me a bit more flavor, so I like it here. At 4 minutes it was a little much for me, but I’ll try 3:30 soon to see how that goes.

Okay, now that parameter-talk is out of the way, the tea. I enjoy this tea. It might be the first time that I’ve gotten a distinct black pepper note from a Yunnan before, and it was subtle enough that I didn’t find it off-putting. It actually gave it a little spicy bite that I enjoyed. I also got sweet, malty flavors and a hint of smokiness. Overall, it makes for a very pleasant, balanced tea.

Next up, I’ll be trying it with milk and sugar for poo and chortles. I think that I’m going to enjoy making my way through my big ol’ tin!

ETA: Pictures! [x4!] Beginning here: http://bit.ly/b7Bvp3

My my, “the strongest tea on earth.” Now that’s a bold claim. Taking my first sip, I have to say, they were damn right about that. Well, probably not the strongest tea on earth, but it was definitely a super strong Yunnan. I haven’t really had much Yunnan so I doubt I can say very much. I’ll leave that up to Takgoti and Auggy. One thing I do know for sure is that I definitely enjoyed this cup a lot more than Series #1. Now there’s some hope for Series #2! I don’t know why but I always feel like there’s a hint of cocoa in Yunnan tea. Actually, Adagio’s Dragon Pearl is from the Yunnan region (sorry, that was a sidetrack, I just remembered I tasted cocoa from that too). Umm, it does taste a bit smoother, definitely a lot smoother than Adagio’s Dragon Pearl. No scratch that, way smoother and it didn’t seem to have a single tad of bitterness. Earthy? Maybe, a pinch. I can’t really tell, I mean I never really considered pu-erh to be earthy. Ahh, I loved it!

(#28 of 50) I’m glad I splurged. None for you Miss Tea Mooching Jillian =]

Okay, fine fine. If I’m feeling nice, you might get some in the mail =P

Wow, this is a really great tea. I am so glad to have gotten my hands on it! It isn’t as strong as other yunnan provence teas i’ve had. But because of that , I think it is perfect. It isn’t so strong that it will turn you off after one cup, instead the leaves keep bringing you back for more and more. It is smooth, flavorful, a bit earthy, a bit sweet and a lot of yumminess :)

Tastes great for tea that came in a paint can. Really, this is very nice. Smooth (as others have noted) and very approachable for a black tea. I am a big fan of Adagio’s Yunnan Gold which is sweeter and earthier. I’m going to try to steep a bit longer next time.

New tea! This is much better than Rishi’s Yunnan by far. I like that it’s not too sweet and not too earthy. It’s smooth and I noticed a little bit or froth form in my tea basket (didn’t make it to cup tho). This would be a good tea for those who aren’t into the punchier black teas A&D offer, I think.

This is hands down the best black tea I have ever had. Good and strong, but needs a bit of sugar for my taste.

I stupidly decided to see what this would taste like if I made it a little strong, so I preceded to make a strong thermos full and drink it between 6 and 8. Consequently I did not sleep very well. It seems, however, that it does get a little bitter but overall the taste remains constant.

Delicious! Complex and earthy, as promised. Very drinkable.