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This Yunnan has been a favorite of mine all winter, although I realized I hadn’t written a review of it yet! Time to get a note done before it’s all gone…which, as I only have a few teaspoonfuls left, is a likely to be soon.

I really like Yunnan black teas—they tend to be so smooth and tasty—and this Emporer’s Gold is a good one. The dry leaf smells sweet and chocolatey. The liquor is a lovely, a rich golden brown, with a fragrance that makes my mouth water before I even take a sip. It has a very nice flavor: smooth, lightly malty (but not a ‘thick’ malt taste) with a few chocolate and caramel notes and also a very slight but pleasant peppery bite. Mmmm!

Having ‘gold’ in the name is highly appropriate, not only because it literally describes some of the leaf color and also the golden brown liquor, but also in a sort of metaphorical sense too: like pure gold, which is bright and beautiful but very malleable, this is a brilliant and malleable black tea; solid but also soft and smooth on the palate. It doesn’t have the super bold strength of an Assam (which could be equated with Iron, to carry the metal analogy further, haha). And, as the description states, just like gold this tea is highly valuable and fit for an emperor! So I feel like royalty (or should I say royalTEA) every time I take a sip. Yum!

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Charissa

Okay, I had to go ahead and have another cup of this. It is just TOTALLY hitting the spot this morning and one cup was not enough to make my craving go away. I think it’s because I have been drinking a lot of stronger black teas like English Breakfast, Bolder Breakfast, and Assam this week so it’s nice to tone it down a notch and enjoy something a little different today.

Nicole

Funny – when I went to Gong Fu on my Iowa road trip, the kid working the counter said he had never heard of Yunnans. :) Now I need to go back! This sounds good and I would like to try some more of their teas!

Charissa

What?! I can’t believe he would be working there and not know about Yunnan black teas! Crazy. Maybe he was a new employee or something. lol

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Charissa

Okay, I had to go ahead and have another cup of this. It is just TOTALLY hitting the spot this morning and one cup was not enough to make my craving go away. I think it’s because I have been drinking a lot of stronger black teas like English Breakfast, Bolder Breakfast, and Assam this week so it’s nice to tone it down a notch and enjoy something a little different today.

Nicole

Funny – when I went to Gong Fu on my Iowa road trip, the kid working the counter said he had never heard of Yunnans. :) Now I need to go back! This sounds good and I would like to try some more of their teas!

Charissa

What?! I can’t believe he would be working there and not know about Yunnan black teas! Crazy. Maybe he was a new employee or something. lol

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“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
― C.S. Lewis

I have been enjoying and obsessing over tea since my college days, when a good cup got me through a long night of studying. Later on, tea helped keep me energized and hydrated for my long runs when I was marathon training. I was (and still am) a complete health nut, and researched all of teas’ wonderful benefits and to this day value the beverage not only for its outstanding flavors but for its antioxidant and health-giving properties.

After a torturous nine-month hiatus from tea while I was pregnant (I tried not to drink too much because of the caffeine) I am back to enjoying it without guilt once again! Although I’m nursing my son so I still have to limit my intake (Bummer! Guess my days of downing 4 cups of gunpowder green tea in the morning are long gone…) I’m just savoring the 1-2 cups per day I do allot myself. Now tea has once again come to the rescue at this time in my life, granting me moments of peace and pleasure and helping me keep my sanity after many long sleepless nights with the baby. Oh thank God for tea.

Favorites: Yunnan, Kenyan, and Assam black teas, White Peony (Bai Mu Dan), Pu-erh, and Milk Oolong.

I really need to try other kinds of tea, and not just stick like glue to my favorites! However, it can be hard with a limited budget, and I tend to buy my favorites repeatedly instead of trying something new because I honestly just love what I have!

Location

Iowa

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