Tippy Yunnan (BC03)

I have a rather ambivalent relationship with Yunnan. I think it’s because they have such a very distinctive flavour profile. Sometimes they’re the bee’s knees and the cat’s pajamas, and other times they’re simply ‘meh’. Or even worse, like drinking hay. Makes me feel rather like a cow, really.

When I first had this one it was obviously a bee’s knees phase, and during those times I like it so much that I feel it’s unfair to fiddle with the rating now that I’ve been in meh phase, if not an actual cow phase, for so long.

Today, though, I decided to have it based on the fact that it’s been so long since I’ve had any. I have a couple of different brands to choose from and it’s only now, after I’ve made my cup, that I realise that had I chosen a different brand I could have crossed off one more sample. Oh well. Ten samples, three tins to go before I am allowed to make a new order. I’ll get through that quickly enough anyway.

I think actually right now I’m not quite in a bee’s knees phase, but it’s not quite a meh phase either. We’re in-betweening here. I think I’ll take this cup with me and watch some tv, maybe. After having checked a few things and places and all, of course.

(Work. It ought to be illegal!)

Half the day is gone already! How did this happen?! (Might it have something to do with it turning 11 before I managed to get out of bed?)

So I’m Yunnan-ing today. It’s one of those days where I look at all the tins and unable to make a decision just grabs one at random. It was the first one of the lot that I looked at twice so I figured it was selection.

Hopefully this will provide some energy and give me a kick in the rear about NaNoWriMo. I’m currently about 7500 words behind my personal daily goal system which is rather annoying. But before you bring out the pep-talk and the cheerleading and the encouragement, I’ll just tell you all something, because you might not want to do the pep and cheer afterwards. I may be behind on the personal goal, but I’m still 12K ahead of the minimum to NaNo goal for this day, and set to reach 50K at record (for me) speed. Still want to cheer? Go ahead. :) smug

So is this an inspiring tea, then? Does it smell and taste like the tea that can zoom me through at least 5K today?

I’m surprised at how sweet it turned out today. It’s very much as if there’s sugar in it, which, as anybody who knows me just a little bit will know, is not the case, and certainly not on a first sip. Ever. It’s not the honey of an Assam and it’s not the caramel of a Keemun (which I have only nearly been able to find). This is more like just plain sugar, but a little smoother than refined sugar. It’s like, if you can imagine the sweetness of refined sugar but without the stickyness of it. I want to say it’s something more fruit-like than plain sugar, but I can’t seem to think of a fruit that comes close in flavour. I’m leaning a bit towards ripe pears here, but without it actually tasting like pear. It’s that kind of sweet.

It’s very difficult to identify it anyway, because on top of all that there’s a prickly layer of spicyness and if you focus really hard on the flavour to try and figure out where that sweetness comes from you end up with a mouthful of pepper prickly and not much else.

It’s funny, though, that a tea can be so pepper prickly on the tongue and at the same time as smooth as velvet. The two things just don’t seem to get along in the head, do they? But the thing is the prickly stays mainly on the tongue and isn’t noticed when swallowing, so combined with the lack of astringency to speak of, we have in fact at arrived something that is smooth in a prickly way. How fun is that! I think that’s awesome.

I used to consider golden yunnans to be of the smoky spectrum, and I was surprised when others consistently identified that note as pepper. The more I’m tasting it however the more I find myself moving into the pepper camp. I remember the first golden Yunnan I ever had. It was from Chaplon and I had not yet discovered the awesome appeal of smokies. I thought it tasted very smoky and I didn’t much like it at the time. Right now though I would dearly like to go back in time and try that one again because I really think that it would have been a hugely different experience for me today.

But is this inspiring? Yes, you know what, I think it is. I shall go get some words out now, and hope that my characters will behave themselves.

T – 5h 45min on NaNoWriMo starting. If there are any other wrimos out there, feel free to add me as buddy. I’m Angrboda there too, but if you use a different name there be sure to let me know who you are.

I’m on holiday this coming week, planned so that again this year I could get a midnight start. However due to some social circumstances I slept rather badly last night and woke up a lot, so I’m beginning to feel rather used at the moment.

Caffeine is required, and why not warm up for the writing month by writing a tea post.

I had a sample of this one before and on a whim, inspired by the Yunnan Auggy shared with me recently, decided to throw in a bag of it. I can see now why it stuck in my mind. 95 points, I gave the sample! That’s a lot of points. Now I just hope it’ll still live up to that score.

I’m struck by how floral the aroma is. Kind of rosy. Just flowers to begin with and then deeper down when taking a better sniff the pepper-y spicyness comes through. (My mouse just died. Again. Lovely.)

Very spicy on the first sip. I was slurping a lot and I got a mouthful of wet smoke and pepper out of it. Without slurping, it’s more spicy and pepper-y with a hint of smoke than actually smoky. There’s a hint of something sort of citrus-y too at the back of the mouth.

It’s a relatively strong cup of tea, and it certainly has a lot of flavour, but it’s not really all that complicated. I’m not sure I still think it’s with 95 points but with my mouse currently being dead as a dodo, I can’t do anything about the rating until I’ve rebooted the computer.

I do hope I’ll be able to hold on until midnight and get a good midnight start. I’m totally excited about NaNo starting.

(And the mouse is back! Ha! New score.)

I’m having this cup for Indigobloom with whom I had an exchange of comments yesterday regarding pu-erh and Yunnan tea as a type. I was inspired.

I tried my best to pay attention to an earthy note that Indigobloom finds in both pu-erh and Yunnan blacks. Personally I’ve only ever found it in pu-erhs, but not in Yunnan blacks, so I focused mostly on that while drinking.

This is actually the second steep fo the leaves as I had the first steep with me this morning on the train.

I’m still not sure I’ve found anything earthy in this, Indigobloom, but now that I’ve really been paying attention to it, I think I understand what you mean. I just experience that particular note differently and for me it’s not the primary note. To me, Yunnan blacks are largely hay-like, and this particular one is extremely honeyed.

I can definitely, just to write the post backwards, find lots of earthy goodness in the aroma, though. Even without searching for it. I’ve never noticed that before.

I feel like I’ve been helped to discover a whole new dimension of this region. Thanks for that, Indigobloom!

I tested this on the boyfriend this morning. For some reason I had got it in my head that he didn’t like this type at all, so I’ve been avoiding it for the shared pot for the longest time. This morning however I finally decided to ask him either confirm or reject this notion. He couldn’t remember what it was like, so we had a pot.

Turns out it was indeed a wild notion of mine, and that he didn’t have any opinions on it for or against. Not a favourite obviously, but totally not ruled out either.

Excellent! It’s good to know these things.

Om nom nom jelly beans! Steepsterites, green tea flavoured jelly beans are odd! Not bad, just… odd. And to me they’re rather more like a green oolong than an actual green. But then again there are so many jelly beans that are odd flavoured. I fully admit that I chose some of them because of the flavour striking me as bizarre and american. Butter, for example, has no business being anywhere near popcorn. In Denmark popcorn has salt on them. Just salt. And always salt. (And then the english boyfriend said something about toffee which made me go O.o) Just. Salt. Please.

That said the cappucino flavoured ones and the pink grapefruit flavoured ones are to die for.

I’ve put the bowl away now, though. I’ve had quite enough jelly beans now for one day. The great thing about jelly beans is that they’re so forcefully flavoured I usually can’t eat that many.

I rather need something with a more wholesome flavour in my mouth now and tonight’s cup has been chosen specifically for that purpose. I shall enjoy it while wasting some time on silly Facebook games and tv.

The boyfriend and I went to the rainforest yesterday (http://www.regnskoven.dk/en/frontpage/) and I’m still all exhausted. It did inspire my choice of tea, though, because I’ve discovered that I associate the idea of Yunnans with that sort of climate and nature. I have no idea what that area of China looks like, but in my head it just makes that connection. This was a pretty new discovery for me, so don’t bother asking me what my associations with the Fujian teas or Keemun would be because I haven’t the foggiest idea yet. I only discovered it about Yunnans this morning when I thought it seemed appropriate for a post-rainforest visit cup.

Unfortunately I’ve managed to make it a bit of a weakling cup this morning, which frankly doesn’t suit it very well. A large part of the body of the flavour seems to be missing and has just gone watery instead.

The spicy pepper note is intact, though, and it has a sort of hay-ish tint to it as well. The sweet note that it often has also seems to be missing along with the rest of the body, though, and that really is a shame.

It’s a good tea, this one. This is just not the most succesful cup I’ve ever made of it. That’s all.