Ancient Yellow Buds

Backlogging from the weekend!

Okay, can we talk about how much my love for Rishi has shot up? Between this, Purple Bamboo, Ancient Emerald Lily, and their Silver Needle… yeah, Rishi has it going on. Their Golden Yunnan is delicious too. I think they’re joining the esteemed ranks of some of my favorite tea companies.

So, this one has been getting a lot of hype on Steepster from some of my absolute favorite posters, so I knew I needed to buy me some Yellow Buds! The only yellow tea I had previously didn’t go so well. It was that awful Yellow Peach put out by TeaGschwendner, and I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to like yellow tea after tasting that.

Well, guess what, this one is amazing. Let’s start with the dry leaves before we get into the taste, though… The leaves are really gorgeous. It looks like a silver needle, but tinged with yellow. Same shape, same fuzziness, just… different color. And the aroma that’s coming off of them is a dusty sort of honey. Like a sunset.

Anyway, I really was intimidated by the amount of leaves this bad boy requires. Half a teapot worth! I didn’t really measure out the leaf. I poured. It looked to be around 2-3 tablespoons for 8 oz., but what do I know? It’s really fluffy and hard to judge. This one steeps up to a gorgeous pale, pale cream-yellow, and the smell coming off of the cup… I let out a little whimper. That’s how delicious this one smells. It’s wonderfully fragrant of honey-butter. Seriously.

And the taste? Man. It’s actually really light and subtle, but it’s a delicious honeyed flavor. Sort of like wildflower honey. There’s a tiny note of vegetal-floralness that’s awesome. And this melts into a flavor of apples! Peeled apples! There’s something specific to the taste. I kept thinking it was baked, but it’s not. And then it hit me. Almost like those dehydrated apple snacks that I absolutely love to eat.

I’m getting this yeasty sort of taste as well. Almost like fresh out of the oven little breads. I had these breads at Calle Ocho in NYC the other day for an engagement party. They were gently spiked with cheese, but they were pillowy with a crust that gave rather easily. Minus the cheese, the aftertaste is that bread. Oh. My God.

This one is compulsively drinkable to the nth degree. I finished my cup quite quickly, enjoying the savory sweetness that accompanied each and every sip.

The second steep (3:30, 180) didn’t go as well for me. It was still very sweet and apple-lite, but I was getting a stronger vegetal note than I would have liked. I haven’t tried a third steep yet, but I probably will.

But seriously, I’m sort of late to the party and echoing everyone’s sentiments, but this tea is awesome. Thank you Rishi, for another tea well done!

Ever since I read this: http://bit.ly/6kBYYq, I have been obsessed with trying this tea. So, when I decided it was time to put another order through with Rishi, Ancient Yellow Buds was the first tea on my list.

Not gonna lie, it’s pretty amazing.

First things first, this tea brews clear [or very nearly so]. It doesn’t look like you’ve done anything. I was thrown by this a bit, but now you know, and knowing is half the battle. [Cue shooting star rainbow swipe thingy.]

I’m going to have to agree with LENA, in that I primarily get honeysuckle out of this. Lovely, concentrated, honey combined with that almost strained sweetness from cholorphyll and a nectar-like thickness honeysuckle. It also did this crazy wonderful thing for me where, once I had swallowed the tea, I could feel the lingering honeysuckle taste actually dissolving on my tongue. Physically felt it. Like cotton candy, that kind of sensation, except not sickly sweet. Or angel food cake. It was awesome.

But the thing that kicks this tea from “love it” to “I am going to throw down some serious hyperbole and expletives until you try this” is the fact that lightly, in the aftertaste, towards the back of my tongue, I get the taste of freshly baked white bread, sweet and yeasty. This is not obvious. I like to wait in between sips of my tea, and that’s probably why I noticed it.

I did three steeps of this at varying times [gauge reflects the first one, Rishi recommends 3 minutes and then 4-5 on second and third steeps, which is what I did]. I don’t really see any need to deviate from these times, but I might since I definitely have enough to experiment a bit. Speaking of which, I bought 4 ounces of it, which I’m very glad of now because I expect that I’ll be drinking a lot of it. Anyhow, if any of this sounds even remotely appealing to you I’d suggest that you get it.

Oh this smells good. Seriously seriously good. Thick and sweet and rich and nectar-y and a tiny tiny hint of green and floral but mostly rich, dark yum. The smell reminds me a lot of Samovar’s Downy Sprout. So yeah, I’m excited.

Oh this tastes good. Seriously good. No. Awesome. Sweet and rich with a hint of solid-ness underneath. Sort of… bake-y but not as strong as Thomas Sampson’s bake-y. Where as TS is biscotti and mistake brownies, this is soft, warmed dinner rolls. Slathered in a honey butter – but not really honey (which is good because I’m not a fan) but more of nectar. Nectar butter. Is there such a thing? Because yeah, that would be awesome. There’s also a hint of greenness to this – just a hint – which makes me think of Silver Needles. Except I haven’t had a SN that I liked – it just tasted like boiled soybean water. This however, is like smelling freshly steamed edamame. So similar taste but this one? Done the right way.

Yeah, really good. Love it. Sweet, rich, thick, delicious. Love.

2nd steep: 3 minutes – Sweet and lovely.
3rd steep: 4 minutes – A little light. Must try 5 minutes next time.
^3.5g/6oz

Oh my! This is good. The last yellow tea I had was medicre and I sort of wondered what the big deal was about. This tea though! Amazing! Thank you for sharing this precious tea with me Azzrian!

I think used too little leaf but it’s still wonderful! It has the fruity floral complexity of an oolong but the light freshness of a white. Love this! More leaves next time though!

OhmygoodnessGuessWhatIFound?!!?!!?!!

This… is the… BEST… unflavoured… unsweetened… tea I have ever experienced.
That’s right… I did not just taste it… I EXPERIENCED it.

Have you ever spread fresh honey from the farmer’s market onto freshly baked, still warm, French bread?
You’re salivating right? Good. That is the aroma of this tea. The aroma matches the taste. It’s glorious.

This is the very first yellow tea I have ever had… and I do believe it may become my new obsession, if any others even slightly compare to this.

I saw that Rishi has one other yellow tea right now, called Yellow Sprout. It’s next up on my “to-do” list. As for the Yellow Buds… I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THEM.

Another sample from LiberTEAS! Still have tons to get through, but this will be the last for today (or at least until I’m back from work).

This one brewed up to be the lightest colour I think I have ever seen with any tea! Just barely a hint of a beigey colour in the cup. As the tea has sat a bit, the colour has deepened somewhat, however.

The flavour is very, very mild here. I can definitely taste sweetness and the tea has an absolutely wonderful, smooth, full-bodied mouthfeel. If I try a bit harder, I can taste a light “tea” flavour amongst the sweetness. This one’s definitely quite pleasant, but seems to unfortunately fall into the category of teas that are a bit too delicate for my liking! (And then, I read the reviews…)

Ok! I think part of my problem here may have been underleafing my cup; I used maybe 1.5tsp of the rather fluffy leaf for my 8 oz. cup, but I think that may not have been enough. Luckily, I can try this one again :D Another potential problem is not drinking this tea on a fresh palate, so next time I should do that instead of drinking a strong matcha and black tea immediately prior (my bad!)

Thanks LiberTEAS!

(Oh man… I think that large cheesecake matcha is catching up to me… stomach not feeling so well anymore…)

Backlogging from yesterday.

I’m afraid I’m going to be doing quite a bit of backlogging since I’ve been off of here for a little. It’s getting to be the end of the semester so all the professors simultaneously decided to give out all the work at the same time. But I only have one last assignment left until finals…thank goodness!

As for this tea, I never had this before, so I didn’t know what to expect. I opened the package and saw what looked like Silver Needles, took a sniff…Silver Needles but not quite. I went over and grabbed my tin of Silver Needles to compare, no, these were different, slightly different color and smell.

The liquor was so clear I was starting to think I had done something wrong. I waited for it to cool and took a sip, no I don’t believe I did a thing wrong with it. It tasted lovely. I was a mix of the light crispness of Silver Needles with not quite honey notes, more like nectar. The description said honeysuckle, I grew up with honeysuckle but this was not what I was expecting. I was expecting the floral qualities, instead I got the nectar qualities of honeysuckle and it was divine. Delicious tea!

Ah… my precious!

Of all the teas – yellow is my favorite. I don’t drink it very often (as you might notice from my tasting notes) because it is so precious… I tend to hoard it and only treat myself to it every once in a while. I really need to get myself out of this tendency… I deserve yellow tea more often. :)

This tea reminds me of spring at my gramma’s house. The room where I would sleep, just outside the window, there was a beautiful honeysuckle vine that covered that corner of the house… and when the windows were open in my room and the winds would blow (it was So Cal, so there was usually always a breeze) I would be treated with the most delightful aroma imaginable – honeysuckle and fruit tree blossoms! (she had a lot of fruit trees in the back yard too!) This tea smells like that… and tastes like it too.

I love this tea.

Have I ruined my palette by drinking black teas and chais for the last month or so?

I’m having a little trouble adjusting to the MUCH lighter tastes of this tea. It’s good. It’s very good. But subtle. I even steeped it a bit longer than the recommended 2 minutes because the liquor was almost totally clear. The smell is that of a lightly floral green tea. I do not taste the apple notes, but the honeysuckle is there…and proud. I love the smell of honeysuckle. It flashes me back to when my Pop (grandfather) taught me how to extract that one magical drop of honey from the flower. It’s a good memory. Maybe that’s why I keep honeysuckle on my back yard’s fence line. If a tea can help envoke a happy memory like that, then I’m all for it.

I’m not sure how long this tea has been on my shopping list, but I feel like it’s been ages. I remember checking the Rishi Tea website to see if these little buds would be in stock, but each time I have, they’ve been all sold out! I was very lucky to receive some from Invader Zim. Thank you so much!

The scent of this tea is lighter than expected. It reminds me a little bit of golden monkey tea. Something like sweet potato and flowers. It’s actually very delicate and soft!

Sipping… how interesting! I taste very light notes of flowers, and something darkly sweet and leathery. Sometimes I think I have a grasp on the flavors I am tasting, but before I know it, they slip away. They’re present, but not strong enough to really be defined. The finish is sparkling on the tongue. Very beautiful.

Honeysuckle! YES! That’s gotta be it! :) I can smell it and taste it after realizing just what it was I was smelling and tasting.

This is a cute little diddy! yea…I called it CUTE!

It’s warm and fuzzy…cute lil leaves with a matching taste and scent. Lovely. Delicate.

I think I can taste a little apple-likeness, too…interesting.

It does remind me of spring and that is EXACTLY what I need on these COLD – bitter-COLD winter days in the snowbelt!!!!! YAY for Rishi Ancient Yellow Buds!

Another tea from the lovely Lena. I’ve never had a yellow tea before so I was excited to try it – and a bit nervous when I heard how delicate they are.

So let’s start with the steeping instructions: “Use a porcelain guywan, glass teapot or a Ho-hin and fill it half full”

Riiight, because I have any of those things. I had to look up what a Ho-hin is sadly enough. I do have a glass tea pot, but it’s a huge two liter one so filling that half-way would be a bit difficult. I’ve seen guywans in Asian stores in Vancouver and all I can say that me drinking from one of those is an accident waiting to happen. I can just see myself pressing too hard on the upper rim and flipping the whole thing over onto me. DX

So I ended up using about half of the sample Lena gave me (about a tbsp) in a 10 oz coffee mug. The dry leaves were covered in a thick coat of soft fuzz and they looked more silvery than yellow. The first steep for about 2 min yielded a pale-looking, delicate brew that smelled quite fragrant. The flavour is subtle and a bit vegetale, but with honey-sweet notes intertwined throughout. The steeped leaves absorbed water and unfolded a bit and I could see that they were, indeed, a pale yellowish-green shade.

The resteep was a little lighter but it still had that same green-sweet flavour. Some people have compared it to honeysuckle – I’ve never tried honeysuckle so I really can’t say. I could get more steeps out of the leaves, but I’m pretty tired so I think I’ll just head off to bed.

This came in my monthly sweepstakes set and it doesn’t disappoint. I’ve tried a couple of yellow teas but this one has the subtlest and sweetest flavors. It reminds me of honeysuckle flowers but also has a wonderful apple flavor, almost like a honey crisp. It’s not overpowering at all and is a great substitute when you want green tea but aren’t in the mood for vegetables. There is a great thick brothiness to the tea as well and the leaves really hold up to multiple steepings. Other people mentioned it and it’s true, there is a wonderful breadiness to this tea, like soft french rolls with butter. This will have to be on the buy list.

This tea is so rare..It is sad that so many do not know of this tea. Its just amazing! The taste is so refreshing and so subtle. If you have never tried this tea. YOU NEED TO DO SO ASAP!

I am so glad after a long day a successfully cooked dinner and a movie I am able to relax with a cup of tea. Did I mention my Rishi order came in today Yay! So I decided to start out with this one since it seems fairly light and I would like to be able to go to sleep at a decent hour (not the party animal I use to be).

Anyway on to tea this smells not blatantly apply but I could kinda smell apple in the dry leaf. The dry leaf or bud is beautiful not unlike silver needle as the description suggests and I do agree with them.

I have to agree with my pal Lena on this one I don’t dislike it I don’t get much taste out of it but it’s subtle and I like it for some reason. Usually I like in your face but I wasn’t expecting that out of this tea so I wasn’t disappointed. It’s nice not something I would serve to someone who doesn’t normally drink tea because as I already stated it’s very light. I like it and I don’t know if I would reorder at this time but if I find myself craving it I will up the rating a bit or if second steep totally rocks.

Let my mistake be a reminder to us all – temperatures really matter.

The Sainted Lena gave me some of this tea the other night. It’s the first tea I ever remember putting on my shopping list. I’ve been wanting to try this forever. I’m in a hotel without anything but a little coffee maker, but I did bring my gaiwan.

And I thought – eh, it’s probably around 190, definitely not boiling, and I’ve got an appropriate vessel. I’ll give it a shot.

Yeah, well… maybe not the best idea. This is not the glorious “experience” others have had. IThank goodness I have a little more to give it a go at home, because I’m a little dissapointed. I know this tea from the aroma can be better.

Also – even though it mentions gaiwan brewing, this is not really ideally suited to it. At least not from my limited gaiwan experience. Big-leafed oolongs are great in a gaiwan, but I’ve been picking ancient yellow buds out of my teeth so far too. Blea.

Let’s all cross our fingers that my weekend tasting experience with this tea goes a lot better.

I’ve finally emerged from my job vortex long enough to actually get back to Steepster.

I’m predominantly a black-tea drinker, so this was my first foray into yellow tea. But I figured that since three of my favorites teas are made from the same ancient Assamica tea trees of the Mannong Manmai Reserve in Yunnan, China (Rishi’s Golden Yunnan, Golden Needles and Rishi’s Earl Grey), I figured what could be bad?

This tea is good, but I didn’t find the taste so unique. While yellow teas are supposed to be less vegetal than green teas, I found the taste very reminiscent of some senchas I’ve had. The tea holds up very well to multiple steepings. In fact, if you follow Rishi’s steeping instructions, the second steeping lost none of the tea’s flavor.

The brewing instructions are a little complicated, especially if you don’t have a gaiwan as Rishi suggests. I used a Pyrex measuring cup and a saucer as a cover. It worked just fine. Overall a nice tea.

Wow, just…wow. This is truly a fantastic and unique tea. The leaves are beautiful, and the aroma is powerful and reminds me of dried apples. That dried apple smell continues into the flavor, and the tea has a little zest at the same time. As much as I like ordering new teas and avoiding repeat purchases, this is something that I might have to keep stocked on my shelf.

Also, as an added bonus, the second steeping keeps a remarkable amount of the original flavor, and is not weak at all (though given the absurd amount of leaves needed per cup, perhaps this is to be expected). The third steeping came out a little bitter, but the flavor definitely remained. I’ll adjust the water temp and steeping time on the third steeping next time, and hopefully this will kill the bitterness.

Sweet scents of apricot and honeysuckle are surprisingly pronounced considering this is a completely unflavoured tea. It defies logic.

The taste is delicate and feminine without being overtly flowery; perfectly delightful much like the nectar of honeysuckle with the added depth of premium white tea.

Sublime. (seriously).

Rishi’s Ancient Yellow Buds is light, airy bliss. The pale-green and yellow leaves look like they’ve been artfully crafted and loved for. Sticking your nose in the dry leaf, I sense a baked sweet potato meets spring-breeze fusion. The wet leaf is a toasty version of the dry. Nothing too exciting… thus far. But here comes the star of the show, the liquor.

The pale-yellow brew is deceivingly complex. The smell from the liquor is that of a honeysuckle/apple medley. A gentle and soft sweetness is present. An early spring day where life curiously comes out of hibernation. Upon sipping, the tea is comprised of floral and mild-apple notes. The mild-apple notes have a slightly sour tone, almost like the apple peel of a granny smith. This creates an interesting dynamic between floral spring elegance and an autumnal fruit. Very pleasant. Upon swallowing, a sweet honey-like taste lingers at the tip of the tongue and at the inner-edge of the lips. The slight-sour notes of the apple with the sweet honey-like aftertaste strikes a great, harmonious balance.

A very unique tea. Definitely worth trying.