YUNNAN FOP

Oh boo!! I had a bad tea tasting day. The other tea I had this morning was not great either, and it was my standard toasty Triple Leaf Oolong… previously tasty, now less so!
so I won’t rate it now.
This reminded me very much of a basic Asian black tea. Almost like the Teavana tea I bought awhile back.
Except… well it tasted somewhat soft. Like there was something missing. Picture the “flavour” made into a pie, and then someone removing a third of the ingredients. It’s not dampened or bad tasting, but simply missing.
Anyhow, I didn’t taste anything spicy at all so I suspect that’s the piece I need to find!
Doc app on Wednesday so hopefully I will get a lead on how to fix this. It’s driving me batty!
That said, I did find this tea to be mild, but rather sweet as well. Almost overpowering in that aspect

Backlogging slightly: I had my very last cup of this one last night. I have had 100g of it since I first discovered it – in fact, it was my standard breakfast tea for a while – but a pretty little Ceylon has since caught my eye…so it’s time to move on, and I don’t think I will be re-cupboarding this one.

I have been trying to formulate a tasting note for this one for weeks, and yet couldn’t seem to. Despite near-daily cups of the stuff, I just couldn’t generate something to say about it. It’s dependable. It’s…black. Yep, black! Suuuuure is a black tea…

It’s not “too” anything, but that also means there’s nothing particularly spectacular about it, and it was ideal for bleary mornings when I didn’t want to waste anything I’d really want to taste. I guess the only thing of real note here is that I could never stomach it with less than a packet of turbinado. Angrboda had a tasting note a few weeks back in which she said she finds Yunnans to often be like a mouthful of hay…and I have not been able to get that statement out of my head since when I drink this one. It’s not drinkable to me clear – it does, indeed, taste like hay, and sugar is required to cut that taste and bring out whatever-it-is that I like about black tea, the “tea” taste which I guess really only tastes like itself.

So. Goodbye, Yunnan FOP! I had a good time with you while it lasted.

Tastes very earthy to me, and a lot like that 5 year or Golden Pu-erh from DAVIDsTEA etc. I oversteeped though, because I got distracted. There’s a little sweetness but not much. Will definitely have to try again.

A delicious alternative to a regular orange pekoe. This has become my “standard” black tea.
It has a sliiight spicy undertone, but isn’t as bold as most orange pekoes. I grew up adding milk to black tea, but this one’s delicious on it’s own.

This black tea has a rich body and delightful robust leathery or smoky flavour, due to the swampy soil in which the plants grow. It has become my usual breakfast tea. It is not overly high in caffeine, so I can make it strong, let it steep long, and mostly drink it with a generous amount of milk.