Golden Fleece

I feel like I shouldn’t even be talking about this tea. There’s really no telling whether we’re ever going to see it again. The Golden Fleece, true to name, has already developed a mythic eminence among those few who’ve had the opportunity to experience it. “Why?” is a question that recurs often. Why… this inexplicable privilege? And the apparent difficulty of obtaining even a small quantity of this stuff only intensified the pounding I felt in my heart at the prospect of parting with any of it. Truly, when we realized how little there was, the temptation to tell no one and keep this tea to ourselves was very strong. But David was adamant, and the best part of me completely agreed, that to not share this tea would do it dishonor.

It has been my good fortune and great pleasure to try many inspiring teas, but this Dian Hong, which we came to call the Golden Fleece, immediately stood apart as one of the finest things I’ve ever had the chance to drink. I’m sure this will all inevitably sound hyperbolic, and in any case, it is known that I’m nothing close to an unbiased source on these matters… But I just want to say, for whatever it’s worth, I’m writing this in earnest as an endeavor to draw out and unburden myself from the weight of the inspiration this tea has placed inside me. Apart from that, I can’t see any other gain in writing about a tea that we don’t have, and perhaps may never be able to obtain again. Whatever the case, I must speak… it can’t be helped.

A little back story. David first told me of this tea about a month and a half ago, while we were still hard at work getting the new Verdant website together. I was surprised to hear him emphatically going on about “the most exquisite Dian Hong I’ve ever seen”. It’s not common to hear David talk about black teas in this manner; most often he’s praising a Sheng Pu’er or a Dancong that has recently inspired him. I probably reach for the black teas far more often than he does, so this got my attention; but I was so busy at work on the website that I kind of had to forget about it.

Anyway, we finally got around to staying after work one Friday evening to relax and drink some teas, and he brought the sample of this Dian Hong out for us to try first. I remembered how he told me that the tea buds of this Dian Hong were extraordinarily beautiful. Indeed, on inspecting the plump buds closely I was struck by their beauty. Light shined off of them, glowing and golden, giving the appearance of something very precious. (Note: photos have yet to do them justice.) I observed closer and commented about how the downy filaments on the surface of these buds looked unreal, like I wasn’t even looking at tea, but rather was looking at the fleece of some enchanted mythical creature. Now, none of us really remember who said it first, but perhaps it’s most correct to say that the words appeared somewhere between the three people present at that drinking session. What we do know is that one of us then uttered the words “Golden Fleece”, at which point we all looked at each other and agreed that we couldn’t call this tea by any other name from that moment forward.

So then David brewed it. I took a good ten or fifteen seconds just to appreciate the aroma of it in my cup. As a serious fan of gourmet mushrooms, I melted in the sensation of this fragrance, which was like walking into a large room where a master chef was laboring to perfect the finest mushroom soup anyone had ever prepared. I gazed into the pure, liquid gold color of the liquor and imagined all the very best qualities of morel, chanterelle and truffle mushrooms synthesized to perfection. First sip… a moment of silence… then the only comment I could make…

“It’s not even fair.”

The texture of silk, a delicate effervescence, as if an exquisite sauce had been made from the very spirit of Yunnan and poured over that platter of incredible mushrooms. An incomparable tea. Only a few sips of this heady brew and I was tea drunk. The tail and aftertaste revealed a sweetness like vanilla and honey. These sweet things seem far away from the savory qualities described above, but somehow this tea manages to bridge, no… encompass the spectrum of all these flavors in a way that is completely integrated, and hard to comprehend. But how it works doesn’t need to be understood, because it works so magnificently. Further cups had me writing notes such as: feathery, lush, luxurious. And the spice of this tea, it’s like pepper, cinnamon and clove, but it doesn’t bite you – which I mean in the best way. The image that comes to mind is of a large and powerful enchanted creature (something like the forest spirit in Princess Mononoke) that has amazingly soft fur, and is completely at peace with letting you nuzzle and rest against it. That’s what this tea is like for me… an encounter with the forest spirit of Yunnan.

It’s only appropriate to know that all of this was wild-picked in Xishuangbanna. I asked David where Wang Yanxin could have possibly found such a tea, and he said she didn’t explain much about that first sample she sent us. She only sent this one Dian Hong and wrote on the label, “This is the one. Best Dian Hong. Taste slowly.” Indeed. There was no question in my mind about whether we should try to get more. Although, the possibility of sourcing this tea did raise some questions. We don’t do grades of tea; it just doesn’t fit into the curatorial rigor of our selection process and goal for the Verdant collection to carry more than one representative of a given tea, unless they’re expressing dramatically different things. We were already carrying another very good Dian Hong at an attractive price point, and it was popular. The Golden Fleece, because of its rarity, would have to be twice the price of our Yunnan Golden Buds. And at that point, we didn’t really know how much of the Golden Fleece we’d be able to acquire, much less how much was harvested to begin with.

After some careful deliberation, it was decided that the Golden Fleece was just so outstanding and unique that an exception could be made to source some quantity of it as a special limited offering alongside our other Dian Hong. The price and uncertain supply factors certainly made it out of the question for Golden Fleece to replace our other Dian Hong. And in any case, we found them distinct enough to exist side-by-side in a way that could be justified. So we ordered about ten pounds to be included in what was our next shipment at the time.

I vividly remember the day it arrived. I had more anticipation for Golden Fleece that just about anything else in the shipment. We were going through the box of sealed tea packages and pulled out all the ones that were labelled as wild-picked Yunnan budset tea. The red bags piled up in our office. We opened one of them to check, and in the first one found the Wild-Picked Yunnan Jin Jun Mei we ordered. Then we opened another bag and there was the Golden Fleece. The two Yunnan black teas were sent in the same colored bags with similar labels.

Anyway, I went home that night a bit drunk on the thought that we’d secured ten pounds of Golden Fleece. But then… The next morning I came to the office and David gave me the news. “I did a thorough inventory of the shipment last night, and it turns out that there’s only two pounds of Golden Fleece. The rest is the Jin Jun Mei.” Two pounds. That’s all we could get, and all that was available apparently. “Will we ever be able to get more?” I asked. David gave the answer I was most unprepared to hear, “Honestly, it’s impossible to say one way or another. When these two pounds are gone, we may never see this tea again.” It was at this point that the temptation to keep it all to ourselves had to be fought.

When you love something, and know how ephemeral your time with it is… that one day soon it will be gone… that it may never come back… and you’ll only be left with a memory to treasure… perhaps a pang of nostalgia… Well, let’s just say that it took some strength to come to grips with the situation, and accept the circumstances as they were. Ultimately, David made the point, which I already knew deep inside of me, that we should be grateful to have had the privilege to taste such a tea even one time – and not take that for granted.

That week we had scheduled a tea tasting for about sixteen guests at our office, and we had raised some anticipation for these attendees to try the Golden Fleece and purchase some if they wished to. It was before we understood how little supply we had. The day before that tasting, we were due to make the Golden Fleece available for purchase on the website, and I had to lobby with David for setting aside an appropriate amount of the tea to be available for our local guests. After that was done, we put Golden Fleece on the website with the limit of a two ounce maximum quantity per person and watched it sell out in a few hours. The most limited-edition tea we’ve ever carried.

As expected, the Golden Fleece we set aside for our local tasting was nearly cleaned out by the end of the night. I like to remember how, when we brewed it for everyone, a good friend of ours was at the end of the table and I only had about half a sip left in the serving pitcher to pour for him on the first round. He was still grateful, and appreciated what he had before him with no less care. This particular friend is a flavor aficionado, with highly developed taste from many years of developing an amazing talent for cooking, as well as from taste training in fine wines. The look on his face when he took that little sip for the first time… how to describe it? He ruffled his brow in a kind of quiet shock and consternation mixed with obvious signs of deep pleasure. He turned his face to me, wide-eyed, and whispered, “…the texture …this is wrong.” To which I replied, “Like I said… it’s not even fair.” He nodded, quietly repeating the words to himself.

I’ve now had four sessions with this tea, always preparing it gongfu style in a gaiwan. It blows me away every time, and what further bewilders me is that none of us have yet managed to exhaust all the flavor from the buds. I’ve steeped it out over twenty times in a given session and it just keeps going, even into the next day. We always get waterlogged long before we’re able to make the buds reach their limit… if they have a limit at all. My mother picked up some of this at our tasting, and she told me that she recently re-steeped it many times over for three days. The further I go into a session with this tea, the more its headiness gets to me; and in my tea-drunk musings I start to imagine that I’ll never reach the end of it… because it really may just be some enchanted mythic thing that always keeps one of its feet firmly planted in eternity.

There has been rumor from Wang Yanxin that we may be able to secure more of the Golden Fleece. But after all that’s happened, I’m not sure I’m going to really believe it until I see it. At any rate… if by some grace it does become available again, I can only suggest that you try some while you can – and taste slowly.

I feel like I’ve been avoiding this tea subconciously. As if it’s too much of a big deal or something… I went ahead and order 2oz of it, but I don’t want to mess it up or anything. I mean, those two ounces cost me a pretty penny. But I’m going to go for it now, and I’m going to steep it western style (following the instructions on Verdant’s site) because it’s somehow less stressful to me at this point.

The dry leaf is beautiful and smells like very fragrant sweet potato chips. I took a big whif and was like, woah! sweet potatoes! Someone came into my office moments after I poured the water on these leaves and asked if I could unlock a door for them, which put me in a panic because I only had a minute to play with. I had a moment of indecision: do I tell them to wait one minute until the steep is done, but the door is just around the corner and that would sound odd anyway. So I walked briskly and I arrived back at my office with 5 seconds to go! Whew.

The steeped tea has some of that sweet potato-y aroma, and maybe the slightest hint of vanilla and spices. First sip, after it’s cooled a bit: woah. woah. Sweet, like brown sugar on a baked sweet potato. Sooooo smooth. Just a luxurious, silky, creamy feel to it. With a little tingle in the aftertaste. In the first part of the sip its straight up sweet potato, one that’s been baked to perfection and still has those fresh notes. Then the brown sugar and spices come sliding in… I mean, not spices so much as the faint hint of allspice perhaps. The after taste is light, and more of a sensation than a taste, a light tingling that is really intriguing. Really an amazing Dian Hong, and if you are a fan of that varietal you owe it to yourself to get a bit of this tea. Can’t wait to gong fu this one and see its performance there!

Backlog:

I’ve enjoyed this a couple of times now. I’m really glad that I broke down and ordered this one, as it is OUTSTANDING. Stellar! Amazing!

Here is my full-length review of it: http://sororiteasisters.com/2012/06/15/golden-fleece-from-verdant-tea/

This is probably super rambly but I’ve been drinking this for almost an entire day now.

I finally did it. I opened my sample. Now or never, what good is the super special tea you can’t afford sample unless you brew it?

There’s a lot of hype around this one, that’s for sure. You just say Golden Fleece and I think people faint thinking about it.

I decided to go with the gaiwan in a basket hybrid steep because I absolutely suck at being able to pour water in the gaiwan and then pour out the tea within 3 seconds. I barely have put down the kettle at 3 seconds. Maybe I just need two more arms.

So 4g in a basket with one of my glass cups where the basket reaches the bottom just right works perfectly. With the glass being 8 oz it’s pretty easy to guess 4 oz.

At first I was not impressed. All the hype. Then…it started to taste just like vanilla ice cream and that coarse decorating sugar. Not fair.

As I’ve steeped it over the past 20 hours, its’ gotten a bit earthy which I don’t really care for. I am not a fan of mushrooms at all and that’s precisely what it tastes like.

I am not really blown away by it but if I could just have those first 1-3 steeps over and over…

I will say that the scent of this tea no matter what just …I want to bottle it up and wear it.

Ok I almost gave up on it, but it’s gone back to being sweet as whipped cream. I don’t even know how many times I have steeped it at this point. A dozen?

I’ll be steeping it until my boyfriend comes to get me so I can leave my car at my apartment complex hopefully in about 2 hours…and at that point I might stick it in my travel mug and cold brew it for the car ride to Clearwater tomorrow.

cold brew update: I think this did not really work because my stupid travel mug lid would not get rid of the cinnamon from the previous, DAYS ago tea…it was far more subtle than it was brewed hot, but it still had that amazing lingering taste at the end, so I did drink it after all.

Really want to make another tea now and sit on the balcony out facing the water. But I am in a food coma and I also strained a muscle in my neck/shoulder sleeping last night and just want to lay here.

When I first was getting into tea, I saw how popular this was and figured I had to at least buy a sample. Luckily I got some of the last tea left. Seeing as it is going up for sale again I figured I would try it out to see if it’s something I want more of.

Dry smell: This is definitely the best smelling tea I have ever experienced. It has the floral notes of the spring TGY and the lightness of the yunnan white jasmine. I was expecting it do have a very deep, dark smell but it is very sweet and light. It is almost as if the aroma is dancing around :) on smell alone this tea is a 100

Wet smell: As soon as the water hits the tea it gives of the deep black tea smell I was expecting. It still has some of the floral and I think it may have even become sweeter (if that’s possible) but it now has an intoxicating aroma like a mix between laoshan black and sugar.

Taste: This tea is incredibly smooth all the way from entry into you mouth to the swallow. It is very thick and flows nicely. There is a long sweet chocolatey aftertaste. I can hardly describe the flavor. It is very very sweet and deep yet still with a light flavor. It has a cocoa flavor and a vegetal flavor. There is no bitterness or astringency what so ever

I will never be able to do this tea justice. I had high expectations and this tea goes above and beyond. Definitely purchasing an. ounce or two

First, thank you SO MUCH to David @ Verdant for sending me this sample!!

I wasn’t on Steepster when this tea emerged, never got to try it, & have always (I say “always”, but I’ve only been on steepster for 29 days, so my “always” is relative to that) wished I could have had the honor. During this last month, I’ve ordered from Verdant ‘several’ times (obsessive compulsive & their tea is awesome), & on the most recent order David sent me this sample, with a hand-written label that said “Original Harvest Golden Fleece Sample – Just for fun!”

Today is a special day for me. I often joke around about 12 step programs & mysterious substances of my youth. Let’s just say that I was very wild & out of control, at one time, & I suppose you could say I was a connoisseur of sorts, at least in the realm of psychotropic & hallucinogenic substances. I’m not going to say it wasn’t fun, because I had a lot of awesome revelatory experiences, some amazing highs, but there were also lows, which I won’t go into here. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “The higher you rise, the farther you fall”.

Today I’m celebrating 29 years clean & serene!
No alcohol, no hallucinogens (believe me, I did enough of those to be able to slip in between realities at will for the rest of my life), no cigarettes, etc, & when you add in food allergies (no dairy, no sugar, no grains (no pastry…sigh…), etc it starts sounding like “No Fun”.
You could say my only vice, my ‘drug of choice’ is tea.
I was contemplating what tea to drink today, & when this sample arrived, I got tears in my eyes, LOL, & gave thanks to the Divine Universe, & to David.

I read the instructions on the website. To brew in the Gaiwan or the basket???? I couldn’t decide…So I asked the leaves, & then I went with a hybrid (I’m sure someone is laughing at this point).

Dry, I smell a mix of Tobacco & chocolate. The beautiful blond leaves brew into a deep golden honey cup! The flavor is rich & smooth, I think of dark chocolate, but it’s deeper, more earthy. I see an old growth forest, & there is a hint of spice. The 1st 3 steepings were done in my favorite cup with the finnum: 1 min, 2 min, & 3 minutes. There was a sweet undercurrent, which I identified in the 3rd cup as sweet potato. Also, my tongue & throat developed a satisfied sensation as if I’d eaten some really wonderful dark exotic 92% chocolate. The chocolate that isn’t really sweet. All of these steepings were full, dark, & rich!

At this point I switched to the gaiwan, so that I could keep steeping these leaves in a smaller amount of water. Now I’m getting a hint of banana bread pudding! I’ve gone through several steepings of this tea, & it is still flavorful, still caramel honey colored. Still tasty.

“Onward through the fog”

Said to husband, “I’m about to start quiet tea time…don’t bother me!” Using my gaiwan today. I haven’t quite mastered it, but this tea’s reputation seems to call for something special.

Dry smell: bark, sweet buttery cream, coconut mochi, spice, light cocoa. It smells like dessert.

I love how the dusting of the brown tea fuzz makes everything look like it’s been covered in cocoa.

Steep 1: Hot water hits the leaves. Wow. Such a luscious sweet aroma. The taste is sweet creamy cocoa. Smooth and refined, yet dark and reminiscent of wilderness. Thick mouthfeel. I keep sniffing my cup. It’s fantastic. Non-tea scented air is so plebeian.

Steep 2: Hmm, darker. There’s some spice here…like roots. Still sweet and cocoa-y, but also more savory somehow. Mouthfeel is still brothy, but the moment the liquid moves past my tongue, I feel the effects of astringency. Liking steep #1 more so far. I probably went too long with this steep though. Let’s try again.

Steep 3: Oh my. The caffeine is kicking in. This is why I can’t do gong fu tea more often. Or if only I could convince husband to have tea with me. But the tea! mmmm… this steep is good. not so astringent as the last one. Dark and tastes like bark. Sweet cream and vanilla. Smells like ancient forest.

Steep 4: Last one till later. Something floral now. I’m terrible at recognizing floral scents and flavor except for jasmine and rose. And this is neither. More vanilla and dark spice.

This is a heavy rich tea. Nothing like the light springy green oolongs that i adore. Yet, I still enjoyed this thoroughly. More steeps to come, but my belly feels sloshy. I got a 4oz gaiwan, which produces about a quarter cup of liquid after allowing for the tea leaves and water absorption, but I’m still wishing I had a smaller gaiwan. They don’t seem to come much smaller than this.

Anyway, I’m feeling all warm and alive. Somehow relaxed yet alert. Lovely.

EDIT Here are my lovely tea companions (not imbibing)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23283174@N00/8438839204/

EDIT #2

Steep 5: Did not record this one while drinking. It was starting to develop that flavor tea gets if the wet leaves stay out too long. But the flavor of the tea underneath is still good. A bit weak, but I will blame that on my steeping time.

Steep 6: Reminds me to dark rye bread. It is a strong tea but the flavors are becoming more subtle now. There is bitterness in the swallow. Almost unpleasant.

Though I had originally wanted a ceramic gaiwan, I must say that this glass one has its charms.

Steep 7: This is, again, light. Reminds me of watered down barley tea. Or toasted rice porridge, which my grandpa was very fond of. This next steep shall be left to develop.

Does anyone else get super thirsty from gong fu sessions? I think I’ve chugged like 2 tall glasses of water since I started this late morning.

Interesting!! cocoa, malt… and something I can’t quite put my finger on. Carob?
Three steeps and it was still going strong. On the last one I started to get a slight tingle, an inkling of the spice to come should I have the time to do another steep. But… it’s almost bed time so sadly it shall have to wait for another day. Perhaps a Gawain experience? So far, not my fave tea but it is superb and worth the extra expense. No questions about that! in my memory-lapsed brain, it reminds me of Golden Monkey, but then I’d need to do them up side by side to be sure.
Sorry for the short note. I’m pooped after spending the afternoon with the fabulous Kittena and Sil!! (in alpha order only, they are both amazing!)
I came away with just as much tea as I doled out, so sadly my purge tea mission backfired, but then on the plus side… I have more tea to try. yay!!
Rating: 90

Wang Yanxin did it- She actually acquired several more pounds of the Golden Fleece from her friends who wild-pick this tea in Yunnan. I didn’t want to breathe a word about it until the package made it to Minneapolis, I opened all the bags and tasted to be sure, but I can say that the Golden Fleece is back. It was somewhat mind-boggling to see the whole last batch sell out in one hour, so I hope that my work to convince Wang Yanxin to part with more than a pound this time will allow more people to try this tea.

Wang Yanxin is such an interesting character. Getting tea from her is not as simple as ordering it. She will allude to a tea that you never knew that she had, dangling it out like a test. If I ask to buy the tea, it is suddenly gone, ‘sold out.’ Only through a discussion of flavor texture and aftertaste will Wang Yanxin decide whether or not to part with teas like this. She wants to know that it is going to be appreciated and cared for. She wants to see the tea leaves advancing the tea culture. On the occasions that I can convey appreciation appropriately, we end up with tea like the Golden Fleece, Artisan Revival Sheng and Yiwu.

She is not trying to be temperamental. Indeed, her desire is to inspire people all over the world to fall in love with tea, and through it gain a respect for the leaf and a humility towards others. She wants small farmers to gain recognition for their tea without the pomp and glitter of brand name pu’er workshops. She is an idealist, but a fierce and practical one. The Golden Fleece is an incredible tea in that the majority of its complexity lies in texture and aftertaste, two elements of the tea experience that are underrated. In the west we tend to prize flavor above all else. Yet flavor is only a fraction of what tea has to offer. Golden Fleece gives so much in flavor, but so much more in texture, and sensation. Wang Yanxin is sometimes concerned about whether the merits of a tea like this will be noticed.

Thanks to support from so many friends on Steepster, so many intelligent and thoughtful tasting notes, and such a positive and humble attitude towards tea, I have material to translate and share with Wang Yanxin, making her more and more comfortable releasing teas like this.

The Golden Fleece will be available on our website Friday May 18th at 12 noon CST, along with an entirely new black tea offering, the Zhu Rong Yunnan Black, named after a dagger-wielding warrior queen of Yunnan. I hope that both teas are enjoyed thoroughly.
Many Thanks,
David

I feel very lucky to have received this gift of tea. So lucky, I have not wanted to write about this tea. What can I say about it that has not been said? To speak would imply judgement, and how can I pass judgement over a gift such as this? I am happy to drink and learn.

I can say nothing but Thank You.

It’s a pleasure to meet you, Golden Fleece. I am thoroughly enjoying our time together.

Momentous occasions call for the best tea..and today is definitely the day. I wrote my last final of my undergraduate university engineering degree this morning! I am done! (providing I pass everything, but that is very likely haha) So to celebrate this excellent day, I decided to try this tea. I’ve had a sample of this tea for ages, from one of my first Verdant orders last year. I have been waiting for the right time, and it is here.

The dry smell is excellent, it reminds me of Master Han’s Yunnan black, a light hay scent with a hint of honey. I decided to do this tea gongfu, so I put in a bunch of it, almost half the sample bag, and did a short rinse. Good lord, the rinse smelled so good!! I was like why am I pouring this away! Lol, and then I steeped for just a few seconds and poured it out. The resulting liquor is the most beautiful golden color, and it smells like sweet potatoes dipped in honey. Mmmm. A sweet, delicious scent.

My goodness.

The taste is so. good. The sweet honey flavor, the sweet potato richness, vanilla, sparkles, sugar. Like a yunnan white but so much richer and smooth. I have decided, I really enjoy yunnan teas. This one is the king though. I just love that honey aftertaste. So good.

Overall, this is one heck of a treat. So happy I finally opened up this sample. Might have to get more of this, but this is definitely a savoring tea, one I want to save for special occasions. I cannot say anything else about it without repeating other reviews haha. I know my tasting note isn’t very in depth with flavors or anything, but this is just a tea that is so tasty I don’t even know how to say it enough. If that makes sense. I will enjoy many steeps of this this afternoon. I should probably eat something first, though, as I will be tea drunk in no time if I don’t!

I honestly don’t know why I bought a sample of this. I don’t really much care for most Yunnans because 95% of them tastes like hay to me, and I particularly don’t enjoy the golden ones. I suppose it was just extreme curiosity that came over me. (Strangely though, I can find myself in a state of mild panic sometimes over not having any Yunnan at all in the house, so there must be a time and a need for it. I just haven’t figured out what it is that creates this)

I suspect that I got this out of simply sheer curiosity, since I was ordering a vast amount of Laoshan Black anyway. When this one was first introduced to Steepster at large it was with many a word of praise, and those who got their hands on some swooned en masse. Really, they fell like flies! So I thought when I ordered, now is my chance to see what all the fuss is about.

The fuss is indeed about a golden type, but with that name I would honestly have been rather disappointed if the sample had not contained bright yellow leaves.

The aroma is heavy and smoky. I’m getting a fair bit of pepper here too, and a funny sensation that there is more depth to it than this, but gravity itself is preventing the aroma molecules from being pulled into my nose. There is also a thick sort of smell, that makes me think it smells as though I’ve put milk in it. (Which, for the record, is something I never do. No additives here, ever.) It doesn’t, however, seem to smell like hay at all. Good!

The first sip is a confused jumble of flavours that I can’t pick out from one another. On the whole, it feels thick. It’s this pseudo-milk sensation again. And then there’s an aftertaste of pepper and smoke. But all that stuff in between? That’s just a right mess. It feels all tangled up in there, so I’ll have to see if I can untangle it a bit.

No, I can’t. Or rather, I’m not sure it’s actually really necessary, because every sip I try, here, just gives me those three same primary notes. First the milkiness, then pepper and a smidge of smoke. Under it all we’ve got that hay, that I was fully expecting, but it’s not as prominent as it can sometimes be with these types.

And that’s really all there is to it. This is a funny sort of tea which has a fairly simple flavour profile but somehow manages to make it seem like it’s extremely complicated. I’m not sure how that even works at all.

Unfortunately for me, I does fall somewhat to the fact that I’m just generally unimpressed with Yunnans and it just doesn’t hit my swoon-buttons. I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed, because I honestly hadn’t expected to swoon either, but I am still somewhat underwhelmed. Sorry.

My first tasting

Everyone is getting their Golden Fleece in the mail and reviewing it! What a treat!

I watched David’s video on the Verdant website and chose the method of steeping with a basket in a mug…just to be different than what I’ve done before. All the timing was the same as the video and I’m recording 6 steepings. After that I was full and happy!

I. The scent struck me first. It was like one of my sweet potato pies…full of the best cinnamon and butter, steaming hot right out of the oven. There was a scent like pineapple far off. Taking a careful sip was like plunging into a pool of water and gasping for air. The flavor was clean but humid like the tropics after a rain and you take a breath which is juicy and spice filled from exotic plants. I could taste the spotted verdura plantains ripe but barely sweet. The tea became creamier as it cooled.

2. My tongue lit up. Fire! There is no tannin but heat on my tongue with butter lettuce and juice. I put my nose into the glass mug and breathed in and out…slowly inhaling steam. Sugared creamy pudding. I have no idea how to say what the flavor was! Tapioca? Something had happened physically to me! The tea was in my pores like I’d had a tea transfusion! It was all over me! Whoa…what an awesome feeling!

3. Cake. Juicy cake.

4. The insides of my lips were tingling and my mouth and cheeks felt like they were vibrating. This was too strange (but not bad)! I know that I have a brain dysfunction, but I’d like to know if anyone else has a tea high like this!

5. Very spicy and juicy.

6. Here’s where it also got interesting. I’ve had all these steepings to think about the flavor. Pie, yam, cinnamon, juicy, lettuce…all good. Then, a memory came in to ruin everything and I had to put it here.
My old Aunt had a cabin in the Coast Range Mt’s. of California, where my daughter also lived before moving to Colorado. The place is Mount Hermon, close to Santa Cruz and is in the Redwoods. The smell of the Redwood forest floor, the California Scrub Oak, Bay, Myrtle, Laurel, Arbutus, and….Wild Blackberry bushes not far from the ocean! That smell and this tea. The forest floor and the berries in the sun is what I thought of on the last sip. http://www.flickr.com/photos/disabilitea/7265662702/

I want to recommend using a Gaiwan for this tea. My infusions were very successful but I know that a Gaiwan would allow these tea leaves to have contact with the water better. I am still tasting the tea long after finishing the actual drinking of it. Like liquor I am tea drunk. I expect my rating will increase as I have more experience with this tea.

I want everyone to know that I did NOT read the review notes of anyone besides Jim Marks prior to my tasting today. So whatever I wrote is my opinion and you can form your own!

Ah the mythical Golden Fleece. It’s been built up to such levels of epicness by fellow Steepsters that I’ve been hesitant to even open my sample. I had convinced myself that I needed to refine my pallet more so that the beauty of this tea wouldn’t be lost. I mean, it’s such a rare tea and people love it so much… I honestly almost felt guilty having it, like I knew I wouldn’t appreciate it fully and someone else who could was missing out.

Three days ago I decided that was the stupidest thing ever. Tea is about the journey, not building any single leaf up to be some mythical destination. Golden Fleece is not the endgame, it’s a step on my teaventure! So I ripped open the packet with glee (okay, I carefully cut it up, but that is not as dramatic sounding) and inhaled the delicious aroma. Malt! Chocolate! Like fancy chocolate cake. Flourless chocolate cake, the “so dark and decadent it should be illegal” kind. And that just from the smell~!

So far I’ve brewed up 4 steeps in my gaiwan. I tasted them all individually and in the end mixed them together into a mug. There was not a huge amount of variation in steeps 1-4 so I feel like it’s okay to do! 1-2 had some faint vanilla notes that weren’t present in 3-4, and 3-4 were a bit deeper in color and flavor (though I chalk that up to the longer steep time).

I love Yunnan blacks, and this is a delicious one! Malt and caramelized sugar are the predominant notes, the sugar flavor bordering on almost bitter but the brew is smooth enough to make up for that. Oddly enough there is no cocoa or chocolate in the steep even though it smelled so heavily of it! My cup is leaning more towards yeasty bread, rye bread, maybe even pumpernickel! Very dark and deep.

There are also some citrusy orange notes similar to what I got from Teavivre’s Yunnan Dian Hong. Blood orange!

I’ll be honest: I like this tea, but so far it’s not showing me any “wow” qualities that I haven’t seen in other high-quality Yunnans. Of course I have many steeps left in these leaves and half the sample to go, so the journey’s not over yet! I will hold off on a rating until I feel like I have really “gotten to know” this tea: I brewed it at near-boiling as per the instructions on the back but some of the notes (caramel, orange) verged into bitter territory and I think this tea would benefit from a lower temperature. Also going to try out cold brewing, because why not? Gonna get as much use out of these pretty leaves as I can!

I think this may actually be the perfect tea. It’s just… everything. Words fail. Honey, vanilla, mushroom, yes. The mushroom sugar and kind of a cashew taste keep recombining in each sip, always there in different measure. There is a touch of spice in the back, it is really nice, but I am not sure what it is, I really can’t sort it. Others call it cinnamon, so I guess we can go with that. I keep getting a smooth feeling, with a warm barn fragrance even beyond the fungus smell which I keep relating to lanolin, and it won’t go away or just be called silky, even though I probably only think that because the name ‘fleece’ suggested it.

Speaking of fleece, this is so incredibly soft and sexy and golden gorgeous I wish it were my fleece. I could wear a sweater made of this stuff all winter if I wouldn’t be worried about messing up the flavor of the precious. :-)

I can’t understand why I have not left a tasting note on this before.
I thought I would simply come and log this as I am having it as my morning tea and just make a note to see my previous review on it. Alas no previous review exists that I can find!
Not from me I mean.
However after reading over some of the lengthy amazing reviews of others I am highly intimidated to even make a remark worthy of this tea.
Soothing to say the least.
A true embodiment of what a quality tea should taste like – if only more did!
This is a tea that makes you feel “Im not worthy”.
It is sad it is gone, I hope more is available someday.
It is like others have said – like drinking silk – its mouthfeel can only be described in that manner, its not milky, I suppose you could say creamy but creamy does not do it justice. It just slides through the mouth, lingers on the taste buds romantically then slips into your throat and just slides down.
The result is an aftertaste similar to nothing you have tasted before because with each sip new flavors evolve as if your taste buds and the tea have a little game they are playing and only they know the rules.
I will miss this tea when I have my sip down. For now I have just enough to covet and stash away for a rainy day.

Well HELLO my fuzzy friend!
Thanks Azzrian for a bit of this! I have been hearing so much about it and was really excited to try it!
Sure – to the naked eye – it’s a bit fuzzy – much like a Fleece Sweater! Warm and Cozy! YAY!

Since this has been so highly spoken of and because it’s been described 7 ways to Sunday – I’ll be brief(ish).

My tasting experience was a combo of flavors including but not limited to:
a smoother cinnamon, a bit of pepper, musky mushrooms, sweet caramel, bready notes, cigar notes, etc.

Pretty good, indeed! I can see why most would enjoy a cup of this!

I may or may not have dance after my Verdant order arrived. It took two loooooong weeks to get here. Seeing as how everyone is so intense about this tea I have decided to drink it bare. This is something I don’t normally do.
I was incredibly nervous about it because of the odd steep times. I’ve never had a tea that gets steeped for one minute.
It smells like sweet potato and tastes rich. I regret making the first try a morning where I’m rushing though.

For whatever reason, I felt like doing a comparison of the black teas I have from Verdant tonight, so of course wanted to start with the highly regarded Golden Fleece! I used about 2.5 tsp of leaf in 8 oz. of water.

The first thing I noticed about this tea was the downy golden orange fuzz from the buds, which left itself everywhere – most noticeably on the teaspoon, and collecting at the top of the cup. Interesting! Unlike downy white teas, the fuzz here obviously was no longer solidly attached to the buds. I got a bit of a weird aroma while brewing; reminding me a bit of fermenting compost or something. A touch offputting, but I’ve smelled far more dodgy teas, and aroma doesn’t necessarily dictate flavour.

The first infusion, for 30s, is super sweet! So sweet and honey-like. The mouthfeel is SO smooth and creamy and velvety. No astringency, no bitterness. There’s a creamy aftertaste as well. Quite tasty; I’m wishing I had done a 1.5 minute infusion to better compare to the other teas though.

Second infusion (boiling/2.5 min): Oops, got distracted for this one, so there’s some astringency now. Same thick, creamy, velvety mouthfeel though. This infusion has a similar but darker flavour profile, and although it’s astringent, it’s still pretty enjoyable. I have to admit though, that the flavours in it do remind me a bit of fermentation, moreso than I get from other blacks. (Hmm, the astringency has dropped off a bit as the cup cooled. Tastier now.)

I might try another infusion (hopefully I didn’t ruin the leaves with that overly long second one), and am glad that I have an ounce to play with so I can try a few different things. This tea by far had the sweetest initial flavour that I’ve seen in black teas, which was absolutely delicious and intriguing. As I’ve said before, black teas are not my thing, so this would probably garner a bit of a lower rating than I’m giving it because it’s not a tea I’d keep around or drink often, as I’d prefer something lighter, but I feel like black tea lovers would adore this one! Glad to have tried :)

Hello, Steepsterites!!!! Sorry that I dropped off the face of the planet. I’ve been super busy with wedding planning, trips to visit family, handling what feels like a million problems at work, and still trying to find time to work out and remain sane.

I don’t think I can keep up with the rate at which I tea blogged and read/liked everyone’s posts. I haven’t even drunk a cup of tea in over a month! Well, unless you count the disgusting cup of overly sweetened iced green tea I had yesterday from Panera. Yuck. Tasted like lipstick. Anyway, I’m not disappearing forever. I’ll pop on every now and then, just not quite as often as I used to (i.e. not daily). Nonetheless, I apologize if anyone has been left feeling neglected. I promise it’s not on purpose and I still love all of you, even if I can’t like all your posts!

Okay, well here’s a long anticipated tea from the generous Kittenna!!! Golden Fleece, you are my heart’s desire. I can’t believe how long you’ve sat in my cupboard waiting to be steeped. Well, your wait is over!

The dry leaf aroma is a jumbled compilation of the other teas that Kittenna sent. But the brewed tea aroma? Malt and bread and cocoa. Ohhhh yeah! This is the tea of my dreams! Well actually, my dreams have been quite strange of late. Most are set in an apocalyptic world with someone trying to kill me. I often wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. So much for restful sleep.

Anyway, time to actually taste it. Ohhhh, this tea is incredible! Exactly what I could ever have hoped for and more. It’s the perfect Yunnan black. 100% complete yum factor. Who knew a tea could be so flavorful after a quick one minute steeping? I’m going for quality over quantity so the second steep was for two minutes. Mmm, this tea is sweet and silky and surprisingly frothy when you pour hot water over the leaves.

There’s also a hint of darkness. Not full bitterness and definitely not astringency. But there’s a subtle darkness to the cup, perhaps leaning towards bitterness but not completely there. This is interesting and quite unexpected. The first cup was very smooth. Maybe I should have used less than boiling water? Or maybe I should have gone for the gong fu method of brewing instead of Western style.

I’ll try 195 degrees for 2.5 minutes for the third steep. Yay! All traces of darkness are gone! Now I’m left with a cup of the Yunnan black I love. However, for that earlier odd hint of darkness, I feel compelled to lower the rating a tad. I was expecting 100, so maybe my high expectations tarnished the evaluation. But it is still amazing, and I’m glad that I had the opportunity to try it. Without Kittenna I wouldn’t have had the chance. Thank you sooo much!!