Yun Nan Dian Hong Black Tea – Golden Tip

Second of my samples generously provided to me by Teavivire – I am loving them so far!

I’ve had a bad experience with Yunnan’s in the past due to the fact that I found the one I tried (from Upton) to be quite smoky. I just don’t like the smoke, guys. In anything. Ever. It was suggested (by Tabby, I think) that maybe I need to just lower the temperature to reduce/avoid smokiness (despite Upton’s label saying to brew at boiling). I’d already passed the Upton tea on to someone else at that point, but when Angel at Teavivre offered this one I eagerly accepted.

Sure enough, the suggested brewing temperatures on this tea were about 20 degrees lower than my previous one. The leaves in the sample were beautiful – gnarled and golden and huge. The dry leaves were malty smelling – I picked up on a hint of sweetness, cocoa or caramel-ish but only very lightly so. I didn’t pick up on any smokiness in the scent, so I was very hopeful as I scooped about 3 heaping tsp. into my Breville.

Once steeped the liquor was that rich, mahogany dark brown I associate with black teas. No smoke in the steeped smell, either! Instead just an assam like maltiness. On the first sip the first thing I really picked up on was the full-bodied texture of the tea – it has a fabulously smooth mouthfeel. The malty scent carried over into the taste, where it blends with the taste of dark chocolate. I’m loving this without sweetener, but I could see it being strong enough to handle milk and sugar if that’s how you like your black teas.

What a wonderful morning tea – I am so glad to know that Yunnans are a tea that I can and do enjoy very much!

Another huge thank you to Teavivre for this sample. I’ve already ordered more, that’s how good this was. When I opened the inside packaging (I love the way they package their tea) I really like how malty yet sweet this tea smelled. The color of the leaves was really pretty too. It smelled sweet as it was steeping too. Almost like it had been infused with honey.

I love the hint of malty flavor (almost like an Assam, yet different) I’m getting while I sip this. Again there is also a little sweetness to this tea too (I didn’t add anything – it doesn’t need it). This is my second cup with fresh leaves (someone threw out my first batch :cough: husband :cough:. So I hope this one re-steeps as well as some have noted. I can’t wait to get my order. This is one I have to have in my tea cabinet!

Ah, I started drinking this cup quite a while ago, forgot about, and ended up finishing it off cold. The honey malt smell came off strongly from the cooled off liquid a lot more than I thought it would. In between my cup of Da Yu Ling Oolong this was like drinking sugar crystals and the lightest, smoothest beer ever. There’s a bit of that peppered-ness too that I always look for.

This is good, and since this is technically a sipdown I should steep it more than once but I’m too distracted by this: http://tonematrix.audiotool.com/

I made a union jack and a dinosaur. Easily entertained. That’s me!

I got a new round of tea samples from the wonderful Angel at Teavivre. This is the first one from the new set and I decided to actually write down the steeps in my journal before logging them into Steepster. It was fun actually writing down a tea tasting in my neon pink ink.

Steep 1: Brewed for two minutes. The tea smells dark and the liquor is a deep warm brown. The first taste is more earth and then a slightly sweet taste creeps in along the sides of your tongue. I looked at the tea packet and saw that it suggested a lower water temperature than I used so I am going to try a lower water temperature with the next steep and see if that changes things.

Steep 2: Brewed for 2.5 minutes. The liquor is slightly paler, but not by that much. It looks more like a dark topaz. It smells slightly like a sweet potato that has been taken out of the dirt and then quickly sprayed off so that it is clean but bits of earth are still clinging to the skin.

The taste is amazing. A very faint cocoa note that mixes with the previous taste to make an amazing slightly sweet rye bread. The kind that is just out of the oven. The crust is crisp and the crumb (the soft part of the bread) is so soft that it deflates in your mouth and releases a burst of flavor. So delicious.

Steep 3: Brewed for 3.5 minutes. The liquor is a light bronze. The flavor of rye bread is still there but it has a slight sweet potato taste to it now. This steep is a little watery, but I think if I had brewed it for another minute it would have been better. This is the last steep for the night.

Overall, this tastes very different from the full leaf version, but I love that it is so different. It just tastes good and makes me think of a warm kitchen when I was little. My mom doesn’t like rye bread so she never made it, but she did make bread. I can let my imagination fill in that it tasted like this tea and I would be content wherever I was at the moment. Delicious.

As part of our ‘try every black that Teavivre has’ thing, we also were hoping that this Golden Tip was going to be a replacement for the discontinued Teavana tarantula tea that we had picked a couple packs of when they discontinued it.

Side by side, I cannot make a distinguishing difference between this and Teavana’s Golden Imperial Lotus (though, obviously, it’s not held together by a string in a round formation).

The tea is smooth, but with a very rich, malty flavor to it. There is a sweet, caramel undertone that really finishes off the taste. It doesn’t feel quite as thick on the tongue as say the Bailin Gong Fu, but it still has quite a bit of weight to it. It’s a very, very enjoyable black tea.

We’re definitely going to keep this one around, me thinks.

“I was randomly contacted through Steepster by a rep for Teavivre a couple of months back with a glowing opportunity – that being to try several of their wares. The dry leaves for this new batch were all twisty green-’n-gold excellence with a peppery sweet aroma. It reminded me of honey dipped in pyrite. Each and every time, the liquor turned out exactly as I hoped – deep gold-to-amber, reeking of honeynut-chocolate. On taste, it was as I expected, if not a little bit more.”

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2012/01/27/review-teavivre-yunnan-dian-hong-black-tea-3/

^{Sample provided by Teavivre.}

By now I’ve used the entire sample I got from Teavivre. The dry leaf is light and fluffy, and pretty—it isn’t my first golden tip yunnan, but it is definitely the nicest looking, with those large golden leaves. It also smells yummy, vaguely sweet.

The brewed liquor is a dark mahogany brown, though I did steep it for a minute longer than recommended because this last pot was a little light on the leaf. The tea is not bitter at all, has a nice body and mouthfeel, nor is it astringent at all. The flavor is smooth and bakey, and some unidentified sweet delicious flavor that upon reading other reviews is like sweet potatoes. That’s the flavor! I also did pick up hints of caramel (not surprising, with the taste of sweet potatoes).

So far I’ve tried three of the teas that Teavivre sent me (I’ll have a review of their Bai Mu Dan in another day or two), and I love them all. I can see their teas taking up permanent residence in my collection.

I can’t sleep so I am drinking tea and listening to a playlist comprised of songs I used to love. Like it’s seriously playing O-Town right now.

This tea tastes like an orange scone, or a scone and orange juice. It’s kind of amazing. I’m not sure if that’s because I want a scone or what, but I really think it’s the tea.

It’s got this breadlike flavor, something just baked, just sweet enough, and it’s just screaming scone. Well not screaming, because it’s just this taste that makes you think about it.

Before brewing I smelled the tea in the bag and it smelled really peppery, like I can’t believe this is the same tea. They are also really pretty leaves, pretty sure I said something like “how curly!” while measuring it.

Seriously all these Teavivre samples I’ve tried have had me branching out into more teas that aren’t flavored – a couple months ago I probably would not have gotten kukicha if given a menu filled with flavored teas like I did on Saturday. (And a combination of them and Steepster caused me to have to buy a gaiwan WITH PANDAS ON IT so I am waiting impatiently for that.)

So I am reviewing this one after my second tasting because sometimes with my palette I have to try it a second time before accurately reviewing a tea. First of all I have to say that I am very impressed with the ATD of this company. In the broadcast industry we call that attention to detail. Never on tea packaging have I seen the origin, factory it was produced in, date it was produced and shelf life. Now about the tea. So as I have matured in my coffee tasting and can pinpoint beans from different regions…so it goes with teas. There is a certain taste quality that you get from Yunnan blacks….slightly smokey…a little peppery…hint of leather…maybe even pumpkin. None the less this is a quality tea and I am quite glad to try it.

I fully accept the fact that I’m a real girly girl. I know it sounds a bit lame, but when tea is «pretty» I’m predisposed to love it, its appearance adds a little «je ne sais quoi» to the experiment.

This tea is very pretty. Its thin tentacles shaped as little golden spirals are really unique.

The scent of the dry mix is just as special. It smells like hay warmed up by the summer sun…

The liquid is a beautiful amber color, and the taste has sweet natural maple feel good deliciousness to it. I could not describe the taste of sweet potato, but I understand the reference that others have made.

Until recently, I drank a ratio of 75% flavored tea for 25% plain tea. The ratio is now up to 60/40 in favor of plain tea! Who would have thought?

I find myself longing for Teavivre teas every day. They are of exceptional quality for the price. In addition, the personalized service, I mean REAL personalized service, makes the experience that much more enjoyable.

Ok, now I sound like an Info commercial, but this is how impressed I am!

I’m not huge on unflavored black teas, but I didn’t turn down this one when it was offered as a sample from Teavivre (thanks again!). I do think that Yunnan “golden” teas tend to be some of my favorite blacks to drink plain. When I opened the package on this one my first whiff was definitely the dried sweet potato note others have gotten, and then a malty black tea. I was surprised at the low steep temp for this one, but I stuck with it. The steeped tea smells really malty with a hint of brightness. Like an Assam, which others have mentioned, though that is somewhat disconcerting to me as I tend to not like Assams.

But! I needn’t have worried. What a tea. Those sweet potatoes show up again in the flavor, this time like really good sweet potato french fries… and I love sweet potato fries! The flavor is actually really different than what I expect when I smell the tea. Besides the baked/fried sweet potato, I get caramel notes and some roasty notes as well. All around a really tasty black tea… I think it’s my only unflavored black to crack 90!

Sample sipdown! YAY!

The leaves on this black tea are really neat. Black with gold tips (it is in the name, so I don’t know why I was surprised) and wiry looking. Really cool.

Dry, this one had honey notes, bakey/croissant notes, a malty aspect, and possibly sweet potato? Yam? Something like that.
Once brewed, it picked up a slight spicy note (cinnamon, but not quite…) which is very interesting. The honey notes have calmed down, and the sweet potato/yam aspect has increased. The maltiness has also increased some. The bakey notes are still present (hooray!) and there is a slight earthiness to it.

Taste – Honestly, I think I screwed this up a bit (doesn’t taste bad, but it is a bit bitter). I forgot about the water in the kettle until it was at a boil, and then thinking “Black tea, boiling water”, I started to pour the piping hot water on the leaves…before realizing it called for a lower temp! Oops. I drained the water out and started over, but I think it had already affected the leaves. That being said, I will share with you what I’m getting from the cup.
So, other than the bitterness, I’m picking up some bakey notes, the sweet potato/yam aspect I found in the smell (it also happens to describe the mouthfeel – this one is almost potato-ish feeling), and a slight spicy aspect that is NOT attributed to the bitterness. I’m also picking up some earthiness and maltiness in the sip.

Luckily I have another sample of this one, so I can try again and hope for better results. This brew isn’t undrinkable, but I fear the bitterness is masking the full flavor profile of it. Holding the rating until I get this right.

This is my last sample from Angel at Teavivre, and it is a good one!

The dry leaves are beautiful. Long and slender with lots of warm yellows mixed in among the black. As soon as the tea started stepping I knew there would be no need for sugar. The honey fragrance is strong. Not overwhelming, but very easy to pick up. And the taste… yum. It’s malty, sweet, and velvety. This is good. I mean really, really good. I don’t usually stick with one tea all day, but I can easily see myself steadily sipping on this while I get an order finished and in the mail today.

ok
so just a brief summary of my past week
so as alot of you probably do not know i am an avid mountain biker
so on friday last week me and a couple friends decide to go biking on the local hill
so since there is no lift we ride our bikes up switchbacks in order to get to the trails
so me and one of my friends started biking up and we got to the very top and then rode back down a little bit to meet up with two of my other friends
we met up with them and started down the trail
i like to kick up the rear so i waited a little bit before following after them
i very easily caught up to one of my 3 friends and passed him
i caught up to my next friend an stopped for a little bit to wait for the friend i had passed and then kept on going
i go to a place where the trail split into 4 parts and i was not sure where they had gone so i waited for my other friend to show me where to go then started biking again.

this is where it gets a little gruesome/interesting
my friend was 50 metres behind me and we were talking and riding and i hit a rock and my feet slipped of my pedals and i sacked myself very hard.
if your a guy you know how it feels so i hopped off my bike and started hopping around in pain. eventually the pain subsided and i hopped on my bike and kept going.
30 seconds later i felt a liquid in my pants and i screamed to my friend behind me " hahaha i pissed myself"
i looked down
there was blood all over my jersey and all over my shorts.
(since i am a downhill mountain biker not alot of things scare me but this
this scared me)
i told my friend and we decided it would be best to keep going out until we got on the road.
i called my dad and he picked me up and took me to the hospital. it was a very short wait at the hospital and then i went into a room
ill skip all the disgusting details and get to the point
i ended up rupturing my urethra and i have to wear a catheter for a month which means no biking for a month
that sucks

now to the tea

i stepped out of my comfort zone today as i am not a big fan of black teas
i brewed this one up and the smell of honey hit me instantly
steeped it for 3 minutes and its a browny reddish liqeur
i took a sip and its good
the thing i dont like about blacks teas is the sharp taste and maybe thats because i do not drink alot of black teas
i have yet to learn how to distinguish the flavor notes in a tea and that is something i will have to work on
in all a really good black tea

thats my story for the day
:)

oh oh oh and

hey guys
so i have started a little business selling teas coming straight from china
ive been trying to find a way to jumpstart my business and i found the perfect way
YOU GUYS!!!

i will have a price list up very soon and i have decided to have a few promotions
the first one will be as follows:
– with your first purchase you will recieve 25g of any tea free and a sample of any tea free
thanks so much guys
i have also decided that 10% of the proceeds will be evenly split between 2 places as follows:
5% will go to childrens hospital
5% will go to lions gate hospital
i will donate the money as soon as i get a decent amount
thanks so much everyone
oh and heres the website
http://manitouteas.yolasite.com

Hmm it seems I never properly logged this, just gave a comparison on the Full Leaf’s page, I went to edit my tasting note and it simply wasn’t there. So this is a backlog from yesterday which was my sipdown for this complimentary sample from Angel from over a month ago, when I drank it with the husband. I liked it much better yesterday follow the given parameters of 185 F water for just over 2 mins. It was smooth, sweet and a bit savory too. There are a few other black teas (Bai Lin Gongfu, Laoshan and a couple of wild picked Yunnans from Verdant) that I find either more complex or to my tastes, but make no mistake this is a very fine cup, that outshines the majority of blacks I’ve tried and is quite delicious. It also helped me with my migraine yesterday. I’ll be updating the other two versions as I finish them. but for today it will be British Blends for the Olympics!

_{Free sample provided by Teavivre for review}

Warm sweet potatoes on a cold, rainy day-need I say more?

I’ve only had a couple of Dian Hong teas, but I have really loved them. That combined with a sky-high Steepster rating sets a high bar for this tea. Never fear, Teavivre easily clears the hurdle with this wonderful tea.

The dry leaf aroma is slightly sweet with notes of buckwheat and orange citrus-quite intoxicating. The long twisted leaves are colored golden and chocolate brown. Brewed leaf aroma is mostly the pleasant buckwheat aroma. The liquor is a rather striking golden orange.

The dominant flavor in this tea is sweet potatoes and it really doesn’t need much more than that. Sometimes I catch a notes of cinnamon and orange citrus-both of which go great with sweet potatoes. There can be very subtle malty notes as well. It’s very smooth and non-astringent. For me, I enjoy this most as a mid-morning or afternoon tea. This is a tea that I really need to have in the cupboard all the time.

First infusion-1 heaping teaspoon to about 7 ounces of water. Temp 185/2 minutes
Second infusion-185/3 minutes.

Think I will use 1.5-2 teaspoons next time, because I think that I can draw more infusions out of this terrific tea.

(Free sample provided by Teavivre. Thank you!)

My schedule is being quite hectic lately, so I don’t have much time and inspiration for writing notes and reviews. However, I was really impressed with this tea, so I decided to scrap up my tasting notes and write a note.

Dry leaf: 3 gr
Water: 250 ml at 85 Celsius
Number of infusions: 1
Steeping time (in minutes): 3

Dry leaf gives away impression of hay being stacked in sunny summer day (if you’ve done it you know what I’m talking about) with mild citrus and molasses edge. I’ve drank a few good Dian Hongs in past couple of years, but this one is the most tippy of all teas I’ve had an opportunity to try. Dropping leaves in pre-heated teapot reveals more malty notes.
Tree minute steep seems to give a rather deep red infusion, almost like that of ripe Pu Erh. I’m getting the feeling that 3 minutes was a bit too much, but it doesn’t matter. Placing my nose over steaming cup reveals rich caramel-molasses and citrus notes with smooth finish.

If Teavivre’s Ripened Aged Pu-erh Mini Tuocha is intensive as espresso (check out my note), thank this tea has intensity that of a coffee. Right after swallowing a starchy dryness builds up in the throat and peppery note covers the tongue. A few sips in and I can sense some flowery hints in the background. Just delicious!
Unfortunately I didn’t have time to resteep it.

Dry leaf: 3 gr
Water: 200 ml at 85 Celsius
Number of infusions: 5
Steeping time (in minutes): 2, 3, 4.5, 5.5, 7

1st

Deep and clear red hue, typical for black teas. Wet leaf has initial citrus aroma that quickly turns into impression of wet hay and (mulja) with flowery hint that sits in between.
First sip is deep and slightly minty. Right after swallowing tongue gets covered with peppery sensation – a Yunnan black tea trademark. Few sips in and I could feel that my throat is getting a bit dry and sore.

2nd

Second infusion came out identical to first, only with amped peppery sensation. Nice.

3rd

This is where I accidentally left it to steep for additional 30 seconds (I was doing the dishes). This infusion was just a little bit weaker than previous but still it was one impressive cuppa. Peppery taste just can’t seem to dissapear and that’s where I got the idea to pair this tea to something like well seasoned red meat. I just hope it doesn’t slip from my mind by than.

4th

Again, a little bit lighter infusion, both in terms of taste and color, from the previous one. Seems like pepperyness is starting to let go since it was a little bit too strong for my taste in previous steep. Somewhere at the finish I’m starting to get a real nice sweetness to it. Makes me think of Bailin Gongfu black tea.

5th

And this is where I’m calling it a day. I drank 1 liter of tea, and even if I went for another cup or two I would certainly enjoy it, but my stomach is calling shots here. Last, fifth infusion was (again) lighter than previous but the sweetness kept its magnitude and peppery sensations seems to be totally gone.

Magnificent tea. Honestly, I thought I’ll stop after third cup but it turned out to be quite a surprise, from deep and complex character to sweetness in the end… Oh, and not to forget that peppery bite. Not to mention that this tea is really cost-effective, I might get a bag of this in my next order.

There has been a quality to Yunnan black teas that I’ve noticed multiple times across the various ones I’ve tried. Until now, I haven’t quite known how to describe it. Every Yunnan black I’ve tasted has the same earthy quality that distinguishes it from other black teas. This earthy quality is unlike that I’ve found in other teas because it’s almost dry. Most of the time, I’ve noticed that when drinking an earthy tea, it brings to mind moist soil, a forest fresh after rainfall, etc. But with these, it’s a dryness that really comes to the fore.

I love it! And I’m not even entirely certain why. When it comes to alcoholic beverages, I tend to avoid dry drinks. Leaves a weird taste in my mouth. But with tea? Yes, please!

I received this with a few other samples from TeaVivre, and let me just say… delicious! If you couldn’t tell, I’m a bit of a sucker for a Yunnan Black/Red tea. I’ve got about 3 or 4 others tucked away in my cupboard of varying qualities. Based on the dry leaf alone, this is probably middling quality compared with some I brought back from China myself. But to be fair, I brought back some really freaking nice Yunnan Black!

I love the golden tips, and this one is particularly beautiful to behold. This tea has an interesting, almost dusty scent to the dry leaf that could give a bad impression to someone unfamiliar with this type of tea. But it was exactly what I was hoping for when I opened the package. It’s sharp and lightly floral. Gorgeous.

My first infusion was accidentally a little longer than intended, so had a mild bitterness to the end. But my successive infusions were better timed and absolutely delicious and smooth.

Delicious!

So, I’ve never been a fan of black tea except for the milky sweet variety or the interestingly flavored variety. Sometimes I have a craving for black tea, but as I drink it, I realize I’m not enjoying as much as I want to. So I never make an effort to have black tea around. In fact, I sometimes take steps to avoid getting black tea. I know this makes me an anomaly in the tea world. But everyone makes this tea sound so special, I had to give it a try.

I’ve never had tippy black tea before. The leaves really are very cute somehow. I guess my palate is not trained on blacks because all I can say about the smell and the taste is that it’s a black tea. It’s got a bit of sweetness and leafiness. Surprisingly, I get no caffeine jitters from this. I just feel like I have energy bubbling below the surface. I imagine this is how caffeine makes most normal people feel. :) Over all, this is very pleasant. It is the smoothest most drinkable black tea I remember having.

I did have to repress an urge to add milk and sugar at my first sip. I still can’t say that I love black tea, but I can drink this one and enjoy it even without additions.

_{Tea sample provided by Teavivre for review}

For anyone that has watched my steeping habits, you know that I love to resteep tea. So I was excited to see that on Teavivre’s webpage for Yunnan Dian Hong that you can resteep it 12 times! To ensure the best results, I contacted their representative on Steepster for the steeping parameters. For the short steep method, I should start with a 3 second rinse, and then steep for 30 to 45 seconds, followed by 10 to 15 seconds for each resteep.

So for today’s tasting session I chose to start with 30 seconds and then add 10 s for each resteep.

Moving on to describing the tea; inside the tea pouch I noticed very fuzzy black tea buds that have a caramel aroma.

After the quick rinse and steeping, I tasted the first cup. It was a touch sweet like honey, spicy, earthy and overall light bodied.

More familiar flavours presented themselves in the second cup. The third cup sort of “blossomed” into what I consider typical flavour for this type of tea. Very smooth and comforting Yunnan black tea goodness.

The fourth steep was remarkably sweeter than the rest, and I am definitely picking up on the initial caramel notes I sniffed in the bag. After this cup I sniffed the gaiwan before continuing on with the resteeps. For some reason the scent reminded me of banana bread and grains.

Moving on, the fifth and sixth steeps seemed a bit more floral, both in taste and aroma. These were hearty, heavy bodied, full flavoured brews. The sixth gave me a wonderful resonating feeling.

Seven and eight started progressively getting lighter, but with the sweetness staying pretty consistent. The eight steep felt somewhat different on my tongue, I can’t quite describe it but it’s not a bad feeling.

Nine to eleven were dominated by sweetness. I can still taste the familiar flavour of this type, but it is not in full force.

Finishing off with the twelfth steep, I can start to taste the flavour of my water. With hints of black tea, sweet, earthyness. Is this still black tea? Well it still tastes like it, but obviously after this many steeps it is like a distant memory of tea.

I highly recommend this tea for those of you that enjoy resteeping. It’s a very tasty, smooth, black tea that works hard to please your senses. Like most of the teas Teavivre carries, they are an excellent price to flavour ratio. :) And a final note, I’m very impressed with these steeping parameters for the gaiwan, and I can’t wait to try it again with my other excellent black teas.

100ml gaiwan, 2 tsps, 12 steeps (rinse, :30s, +:10s resteeps)