Yunnan Sourcing US

All your typical Yunnan red tea flavors and aromas in a nutshell. It’s comforting on these cold winter days and I drink it as a second round of tea after my morning oolong. A standard bearer that is consistent year after year.

I tried this tea a few months ago , loved it , but failed to write a review at the time.

This is the BEST Tie Guan Yin I’ve ever had. It has an amazing floral bouquet. It’s very light with not a hint of bitterness. There’s a bit of sweetness and buttery flavour to round out that great floral aroma and taste.

This tea is expensive but I say it is worth it and plan on getting some if I place an order in the future (and there’s still some left).

This was fantastic! I’m going to go a little in depth; because, I feel that this tea deserves that.

The dry leaf have an enticing slight aged scent. It’s hard to describe. It’s alike other aged sheng with the common old parchment aroma, except there is a lingering sweetness like stone fruit. It’s unique and doesn’t seem to dissipate even after being left out for a little bit.

I took a bunch of leaves and placed them inside my warmed jianshui. I shook these guys up and let them sit there for a bit to waken up. The scent that arose from my pot was amazing. I took in a deep sweet grapes aroma. These grapes smelled like they were ripe on the vine. This vineyard scent was followed by a walk through a warm oak forest. The light wood tone in the background kept the aromas grounded and stable. They too did not dissipate, and they seemed to fill my room. I sat for some time just enjoying the warmed teapot.

I washed the leaves and prepared for brewing. The steeped leaves deepened tremendously and became quite complex. The scent begins with a rich tobacco tone, alike fresh pipe tobacco, and then continues unto spinach and fermented pear. The scent was very aromatic and filled the air extensively. As the session went on the scent became more rough and sharp. The sweet tobacco was replaced with a spice scent. The spinach and pear became a resinous sap scent. These leaves gave off some enticing aromas.

Now unto the best part, the taste. This was something special, that I’ve only tasted in a few sheng sessions. The sip beings with a pear and apricot flavor. This sweet tone slams into your taste buds and sends a prickling sensation throughout your body. The flavor progresses to a light sweet oak and a tangy creme. The huigan was phenomenal! The huigan was the special part. It completely filled the mouth and slowly moved down the throat. This was unbelievably sweet and succulent like warm sugared honey. The aftertaste is a sweet yet sour cream. This is a pleasant sour tone; it’s very light and keeps the taste buds alert. The brew carries a lubricating mouth-feel and fells good going down. The brew is incredibly smooth and silky. These flavors were deep and lasting; they made quite an impact on your taste buds. However, the huigan fades at about the sixth steeping. The liquor becomes drying and completely changes. The slight wood tone is still prominent except the sweet overripe fruit flavors are replaced with dry fruit, alike white grapes. The taste becomes slightly tannic at about the eleventh steeping and all sweetness has disappeared. The brew continues to be filled with dry, wood, and stonefruit tones for an incredible amount of time. I have no idea how many times I steeped this, but it took me most of the afternoon.

Now let’s talk about some power. The qi in this brew was commendable. The sensation begins at the heart center of the chest at about the second steeping. This feeling grows into a deep warming wave that spreads outwards in the body. The qi takes comfort behind the eyelids and at the top of the head. There it radiates forward and pushes you outward. It was a wonderful feeling, and it put me in an amazing mood. I was very productive afterwards, and the energy lasted well after the session. I was amazed at the endurance of this qi. It’s something to experience.

Now for a little critism. Is this authentic pure LBZ? I would very much doubt it. I could be mistaken, but this is too good of a deal for 10year aged LBZ. However, this is still a killer tea. I do believe it was blended with LBZ material. That goes to show how good just a little bit can be.

I loved this tea, and I will be enjoying for quite some time. I highly recommend trying this out :)

https://instagram.com/p/9RQS35TGYx/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

I’ve recently had the Imperial Mojiang Golden Bud Spring 2015. This tea seems much more malty to me. Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me but it seems that way. This is a very malty tea. There are some notes of chocolate, or what people call chocolate, behind the malt. I say it that way because that note never completely tastes like chocolate to me but I have learned what is meant by a note of chocolate. They are somewhat muted in any case. It’s hard for any flavor to get past the malt flavor.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 2 min.

I tend to buy loose leaf ripe puerh for two situations, one in the morning when I’m brewing Western style and have no time, or when I’m in a hurry to have a gongfu session for some reason. Today I finished a really good raw tea and wanted a ripe, but I wanted to get the ripe in early enough so I can still sleep tonight. So I picked this loose leaf because it was handy. It started out fairly bittersweet with a lot a fermentation flavor left. The fermentation was still noticeable in the fifth and sixth steep to some degree. I would say there were some notes of chocolate in there. I really didn’t notice any fruity flavors but I only gave this eight steeps. Could be they would emerge in a few more steeps. I don’t really know. But I was at my caffeine limit so I stopped at eight.

I steeped this eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 10.4g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. Overall I’d say this is a fairly good quality loose ripe puerh but then again most of the ones you get from Yunnan Sourcing are good. It is somewhat rare in that these are spring leaves. Most ripe are not spring tea but autumn or even summer leaves.

This review is based on me quickly brewing this western style. I’m sure it would be better gongfu but no time this morning. The tea is tasty. It is slightly bitter and slightly sweet. It has a lot of fermentation flavor but not in a fishy sense. When I have time I will gongfu this.

I brewed this once in a Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 8.6g leaf and boiling water for 30 seconds. I did give it a 10 second rinse first.

This was a free gift sample from YSUSA. It was about 50 grams and other than the name, no other descriptors. Dry leaf aroma of hay, wet leaf of asparagus, grass and butter. The flavor profile is typically green with the requisite nutty vegetal butteriness with a slight bitter and astringency. I would definitely purchase this tea, but will have to see if it is offered on YSUSA next year.

Hopefully, this is the right Dian Hong cake that Andrew gave a piece of. He complained that it tasted entirely too much like a black tea, and after steeping it for 2 minutes and 45 seconds in water cooling way too quickly, I know exactly what he means. I swear I’m drinking an Assam. Now, this is like a GREAT Assam yielding a very dense complexity, being very malty, sweet, mildly astringent, kinda fruity, leather like, and a little bit chocolaty. I do get some of the same malt notes cocoa notes that are closer to a Dian hong, but with the Assams robustness. I need to steep this one so more to get a definite judgement because anything like an Assam or English Breakfast depends entirely too much on my mood. There are some days when I want a strong tea, but I don’t want to be choking on my dehydrated tongue doing so. With that said, this is a really great candidate for a breakfast tea and for those who enjoy more English style black teas.

I’ve developed a sweet tooth for many of the YS wild arbor black teas (which often hail from the same villages and mountains as their raw pu-erhs), so I thought I would check out a different kind of black tea. I was rewarded with a really nice cup, albeit one that is a little tough to characterize. In one sense it reminds me of a red robe oolong, a tea that I’m not particularly fond of, but wedded to a creamy, cannabis-scented maltiness and you get a delicious and forgiving tea that can handle a longish steep and extra leaf. It’s very nice to drink in the evening on the cusp of autumn, when the perfume and dried fruit seem to presage the coming season.

Here’s Hoping TTB (round 5)

For such a tiny, twisted , black leaf this produces one strong cup of tea. While the flavor is intact with this tea, it is surprisingly a thin liquid. The malty/choco notes run across the taste buds with a vanishing mouth feel. While the flavor is quite nice, I want some sort of mouth feel and/or aftertaste to accompany the brewed liquid’s flavor. This would be a nice morning cup though to be drank along with breakfast food as it would not leave a taste in the mouth which would change the taste of the food.

I’ve never considered myself a big fan of green oolongs, but if I keep on tasting teas like this, I may be a convert.

And it turns out this has to have been one of the best teas I’ve had in ages! The dry leaf of this tea looks exquisite: beautiful, dark emerald green nuggets. It smells exquisite, too: lovely, floral, creamy, and fresh. You can really tell that this tea was harvested only a few months ago. Normally the floralness of green oolongs turn me off because they have a weird sort of astringency to them, but this tea is mild and light.

Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2015/08/tea-reviews-yunnan-sourcing-july-2015-jade-tea-box/

Good morning Steepster,

So same brewing parameter as yesterday, but even tho, I brewed this heavily, WARRIOR STYLE… this tea is ‘all about that bass’ :) It’s a very nice bassey Yunnan black tea, not any off taste nor fancy flavors, it just taste like yunnan black and has the texture of heavy cream.

Good tea all around,
Enjoy!

I must confess I bought this tea b/c I absolutely love how it looks. I’m a sucker for the bi luo chun rolled tea but last year I had the green version of this tea and it was way too green for me :) Who would have guessed. So, I brewed this ‘warrior’ style, ~5-6g in 95ml of water with short steeps. Like I would brew a puerh! The resulting liquor is POTENT, BRUTAL and Tasty, it reminds me vaguely of coffee, as it has a weight to it.

Proper review time:
Dry Leaves: Smell of milk chocolate
Wet Leaves: Cacao and Dian Hong smell.

Taste: Oh my, the first infusion have a really clear cacao after-taste, after a couple of infusion that aftertaste become dominant in the taste too. The texture is basically the same as heavy cream or jam :) As state earlier, it’s a tea to be drunk really slowly, I feel it going down into my system very clearely, and like coffee, I feel a ‘returning flavor/weight’.

Anyway, a very good tea. Drink it slowly, BREW IT HARD
WARRIOR STYLE :)

ps: Is there anything I don’t brew hard!! :)

This tea is the first one of my big hongcha order I review.

This is a really simple yet delightful hong cha. It taste everything like a hong cha should
taste. There is a bit of a cacao’ey taste and aroma comming through in the later steeps.

A good tea but nothing stellar. Cheap daily drinker…

Bought this a while ago and finally giving it a go. I mostly drink oolong but have been somewhat hesitant to buy them from Yunnan Sourcing as I think they are really average teas and not much definition. That said I do like all they offer in greens and pu erh, that’s where they shine. This tea is from the US website and must of been sourced prior to the Taiwan Sourcing site going live.
Dry leaf has usual floral hay scents, the liquor is deep golden with a definite creaminess, floral bouquet and mild char from the roasting. You can get a hint of chocolate from the first couple brews as the website suggests. After the first 6 steeps flavors drop off but still the structure is there in the viscosity and color. I played it out for a total of 12 steeps.
Now I have to re-examine my purchasing to include more oolongs from USUS.

This is by far perfection in a cup. The leaf consists of small vibrant emerald curled to resemble claws. These delectable treats smell of spring in full swing. The scent was like a deep vegetal garden with flowers blooming all over. I placed these sweet smelling herbs in my yixing and shook em up. The scent deepened to an oceanic seaweed that was mixed with forest moss covered it dew. I brewed up and prepared for my mind to be blown. The taste of this brew brings the phrase “nectar of the gods” to mind. I really can’t describe it. The flavor is rich, creamy, vegetal, floral, and transcending. With each sip, my mouth is left with a thick warm coating of milky goodness, hahah. This is by far the best TGY I’ve ever had, and I highly recommend it to anyone. The aroma, taste, and leaf quality was completely on point. This will definitely be something worth showing off.

https://instagram.com/p/3t2cRzzGTB/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

https://instagram.com/p/3t3OJUTGUj/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Bought a 25g sample of this with my last order to Yunnan Sourcing US. IT is described as having a licorice flavor. That is one interpretation but I feel it has more of a grape note to me, like a muscatel darjeeling tea. In any case its quite good, if expensive. It was $12 for the 25g sample although they were running a sale at the time. I only brewed this western style and it deserves gongfu but I’m on my way to work so no time.

I steeped this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 min.

This tea has just become one of my favorite black teas! Very aromatic, very potent. And a really good value from Yunnan Sourcing at only 6$ / 50g. At the time I got it it was still fresh that there’s a green tint to the leafs once brewed. It has this kind of unique, complex, sweet taste, that stays with you long after the cup is done.

A tea from Dexter. Thank you!

(I have a LOT of teas from Dexter. A lot I haven’t even tried yet!)

This one is roasty/carby/verging on chocolate-dirt for me. It’s totally drinkable, but I think that perhaps it’s just not my “thing”.

Thank you for sharing, Dexter.

Hmm, this sounds like something I would like but somehow I am not loving this particular tea. It is flavorful but also on the tobacco/bitter side of things, at least when you steep it for 2 minutes. So maybe the answer is to gong fu it. I hope I find some way to enjoy it as I now have 50g. Not leaving a rating for now…

Bought this with my recent Yunnan Sourcing USA order. This review is based on a single western style steep so I am sure there are more nuances to the tea. There is a lot of fermentation flavor to this tea, it is think with it. It also has a nice natural sweetness to it. There is one other note too, it has a spicy aftertaste to it, not entirely unpleasant, just spicy.

I brewed this once in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 9g leaf and boiling water for 30 sec.