Yunnan Sourcing

This is perfectly acceptable for the tea that this is supposed to be, but I’ve never been a fan of this flavor. Charcoal roastiness that I can never distinguish from other charcoal roasty teas. This isn’t the tea for me, but as I said, it’s a great example of what it is. Not a great tasting note, but my brain kind of stops with ‘charcoal roasty’.
Steep #1 // 12 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 7 minutes after boiling //3 minute steep

After many many months of looking over at it, thinking “wow I haven’t had a proper gongfu session in ages”, I finally got the tea tray and gaiwan out and used them to make tea! It’s amazing how I can develop these weird mental blocks about things where something seems like “too much trouble”, so I procrastinate forever, then when I finally go ahead and do it, it’s no big deal.

8g of tea is a LOT for my 100ml ruyao gaiwan from White2Tea so I’ve basically just been steeping this all afternoon. It’s a good black tea, medium bodied with a bit of astringency. Malty, somewhat floral early on, but in later steeps it develops a kind of “generic black tea” flavour. Not unpleasant, but also not very exciting? I did really enjoy the whole tea ball concept though, so I look forward to trying some more of them. :)

Wow! I’m apparently the outlier for this one. Almost everyone else who has reviewed this tea has enjoyed it, yet I think I am the only person to assign it a score of 90 or higher. I have been working my way through a pouch of this tea for the last two days and will probably finish it either tonight or tomorrow morning. While Yunnan Sourcing’s Laoshan black teas have not always wowed me, this one has, and I highly doubt my opinion of it will suddenly change. This tea really reminded me of why I fell in love with Laoshan black teas in the first place.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 15 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of dark chocolate, malt, pine, and raisin. After the rinse, I noted the emergence of roasted peanut, smoke, and red grape aromas. The first infusion then introduced scents of honey and plum. Once in the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of honey, pine, malt, smoke, and dark chocolate that were backed by hints of roasted peanut, cream, butter, and cinnamon. The subsequent infusions brought out aromas of molasses, orange, vanilla, and cinnamon. Stronger cream and butter notes appeared in the mouth alongside belatedly emerging impressions of raisin and red grape and a few scattered hints of plum. New notes of minerals, orange, toast, roasted walnut, and vanilla also appeared, as did hints of brown sugar, molasses, and roasted barley. By the end of the session, I could still pick up on impressions of minerals, cream, malt, dark chocolate, and vanilla that were underscored by hints of roasted walnut, butter, brown sugar, toast, raisin, and cinnamon.

In my opinion, this was a fantastic example of a Laoshan black tea. It also represented a leap forward in terms of quality from the Spring 2016 version I previously reviewed. This was a smoother, slightly more complex, fuller-bodied, and more consistent tea overall that also displayed slightly more resilience and longevity. This one was a winner, and at this point, I kind of wish I had purchased more since I am on the verge of finishing my pouch.

Finals week is in full swing for me, and I have turned to black tea to keep myself alert and productive. Since I have been polishing off some of the black teas in my keep left and right, I figured it was about time to take a break from work and school responsibilities and get some reviews posted for them. This was one of my most recent sipdowns. I finished off a 50g pouch of this tea late last week while recovering from some sinus nastiness and finishing a few final written assignments. I found it to be a very mild and mellow Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong, respectable and appealing, yet nothing out of the ordinary.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 15 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of brown toast, malt, and honey. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of roasted almond, brown sugar, pine, and dark chocolate. The first infusion introduced scents of cream, raisin, and vanilla. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered up notes of cream, roasted almond, raisin, honey, malt, and brown toast that were backed by impressions of pine, brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of butter, cinnamon, and straw. Stronger, and in some cases, more immediate notes of butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, and pine appeared in the mouth alongside new impressions of minerals, red apple, and red grape. Impressions of dark chocolate came out along with some subtle notes of straw and vanilla and unexpected, equally subtle ginger and smoke hints. By the end of the session, I could still pick up mineral, pine, raisin, cream, malt, and brown toast notes that were backed by ghostly hints of roasted almond, butter, cinnamon, dark chocolate, and brown sugar.

This was a very respectable and easygoing Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong and would make a perfect daily drinker for Wuyi black tea devotees or those just getting into such teas. I am probably being more than a bit hard on this one because it was quite good, but I just feel that Yunnan Sourcing and some other reliable vendors (Old Ways Tea and What-Cha chief among them) offer some higher grade teas of this type that are simultaneously more challenging and appealing. Still, I would not caution against seeking this tea out, especially for those who are looking for a smooth, sweet, and gentle Wuyi black tea with decent enough longevity.

One of many Yunnan assamicas that are typically processed into puehrs but Yunnan Sourcing is now offering as regular red teas. Large wiry leafs, fresh floral malty aroma, which is being nicely complimented by a pronounced sweet potato note as a wet leaf. The taste did not appear very complex to me: very sweet, in a honey and flower ways. Plus some chocolate, sweet potato and baked bread. The aftertaste is not particularly remarkable nor strong: some rather generic honey and chocolate.

It is a simple but pleasant tea, “not that there’s anything wrong with that”. The type that you are certain to finish (and enjoy!) but equally certain not to re-order because it does not stand out in any way.

P.S. I feel somewhat intimidated because the template for this tea had been created by eastkyteaguy and he has it in his cupboard…which means that soon he will post here a detailed review that would meticulously document about 20 other aromas and flavors for that tea that I had failed to pick up…but I feel bold today.

I think it is a new tea offered by Yunnan Sourcing – and one of the cheapest on their website. I had the one picked in October 2018, merely a month before my tasting.

The tea looks, smells and feels good in the bag: huge twisted wiry leaves, very hard and strong. It has an unusual dry aroma of vegetables: carrots, cabbage, raw potatoes…

It steeps well (western style) and fast to a bright red soup. The smell changes somewhat to a smell of vegetable stew with a hint of sweetness. The taste follows the nose: vegetables, a bit of floral sweetness, some sourness and copper, and a long minty and sour aftertaste. The flavors are changing and evolving, and the taste not nearly as rough as I expected based on the size of the leaves and its low price point. This tea re-steeps
fairly well and in the process acquires a pronounced sweetness as if the ever-present carrots had just been roasted.

All-in-all it is a tea with a bit of unusual taste that may grow on the drinker substantially after trying it several times (it surely happened with me before). And I really liked the look and feel of it. Yunnan Sourcing claim that this tea has been grown without pesticides and that it will improve and change flavor with age. I will probably reorder it and store for a year or so to see what happens. I was not swept off my feet by this Assamica but I was certainly intrigued.

I got this as a sample from Togo, thanks! The dry leaves had a distinct look, silvery and beige and smelled of floral, lemon, mineral soil and pine. This sample was totally loose but it seems like the cake might be lightly compressed. Warming the leaf brought out a really strong aroma with the addition of fresh apricot. Had me swoonin’ for a minute. The rinse brought out some mushroom, too. The gold liquor was tart and had some characteristic youth bitterness and astringency yet it was very smooth. It was bright and lively in the mouth with some light tastes of apricot, honey and florals. The aftertaste was buttery/yeasty with light honey. Despite the astringency, I could still feel a layer of oil on my tongue.

I really enjoyed this tea’s clean character reminiscent of a damp mountain forest on a sunny day. While it’s drinkable now, I think aging might do some wonderful things. It’s a shame it’s sold out – good deal for $39. Would make an excellent daily drinker. I hope whoever owns a cake enjoys it :)

I guess this tea would be classified as puerh maybe, but it reminds me of a fruity oolong in many ways. There is a pleasant plum sweetness that lingers in the mouth and a very smooth , thick mouth feel while drinking it.

This is really, really good. Probably a top three oolong for me, as it brings together most of the elements of oolong that I enjoy. First of all, it exists between sweet and roast. This multi-faceted flavor is far more complex than many the cheaper oolongs I’ve had, which I’ve enjoyed but this definitely brings new levels to the table. The roast reminds me of the dong ding from What-Cha, which I liked but did not love due to the one-dimensional taste that grew a tad boring as the steeps went on. This Da Hong Pao evolves as the sweetness and roast interact. Also, the energy it gives is really satisfying! It’s super soothing as well as warming.

I used around 4 grams in my 120ml gaiwan and used 195 degree water, steeping for random amounts of time (I’d wager around 30ish a steep after shorter beginning steepings).
Highly recommended!!

As someone who mainly drinks young raw pu’er for the time being, probably my main issue with aged teas has been that it is hard to find teas where the quality of the base material matches the teas I’m used to drinking, and even if you find some the prices can get absolutely ridiculous and verifying the authenticity of the tea challenging unless you are dealing with a vendor whom you trust to trust that the tea is what it claims to be. While Hai Lang may not have started out as such, today he is mainly known for his more premium productions. This tea falls somewhere in between, being made from older trees yet remaining quite affordable despite having some age on it already. While familiar with the name, I don’t believe I’d had tea from Nannuo before. I believe it’s located somewhere in Menghai county, possibly somewhere in the vicinity of Bulang, but that’s about the extent of my knowledge.

For this session I used 5g of tea in a 75ml Yixing zhuni clay teapot. The pot is new, having only been used once before for a more casual session with this very same tea, but since this type of clay is in part appreciated for the less dramatic effect it has on tea compared to other types of zisha, I wouldn’t expect it to absorb too much of the flavors even this new. I rinsed the leaves briefly for under ten seconds and gave them a couple of minutes to absorb the moisture before proceeding. I did a total of eleven infusions, the timing for these being 10s, 8s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min., 3 min. and 4 min.

The Nannuo started off very full-bodied and creamy. Really, really thick. There wasn’t much taste yet, but the sticky soup coated the surfaces of your mouth. The taste was creamy, sweet and mineral, with some hints of underlying bitterness or smokiness. The finish in particular had a subtle sour smokiness to it. Steep two was thick and creamy still. Sweeter, with more clear bitterness now. This was a bitterness that transforms into sweetness, leaving your mouth really sweet and a tad spicy.

Some astringency emerged in the third infusion. Nothing major yet, though. Otherwise it remained largely unchanged. Full-bodied, sweet, with a pleasant bitterness that turns into sweetness, leaving my tongue slightly numb afterwards. The fourth steep was the same deal, but now slightly drying and also boasting a nice caramel note in the finish.

The next four steeps did not bring much change. Brew number six was noteworthy though for its almost immediate huigan. Somewhere along the way the bitterness ceased being pleasant, turning into something less so. After this, starting with the ninth steep, the tea acquired a somewhat honied character to it, whereas the bitterness and sweetness were more muted compared to before.

While still possessing plenty of body in the tenth steep, the flavors were definitely getting thinner now. The tea was mainly sweet, but also bitter in the finish. The color had faded substantially by the final steep. While there was an adequate amount of flavor still, the tea was also starting to feel quite watery by this point. I decided to call the session there.

All in all the 2010 Nannuo was an okay tea. The material is definitely better than your standard factory production, but didn’t necessarily strike me as high-end. There is huigan and transforming bitterness — things you’d look for in, say, a Bulang tea — but overall I didn’t find anything particularly memorable or special about this tea. While the quality is better than some similarly aged daily drinkers from Bulang, I’d personally rather drink some of those teas than this one.

While taste-wise I imagine this tea hasn’t changed all too much from when it was young, the age is most evident in the texture and mouthfeel. The texture is definitely that of an aged tea which you don’t get in younger teas. While not a weak tea, the Nannuo doesn’t necessarily possess the amount of strength I would like to see in a tea to have confidence that it won’t go flat over the years. I’m not entirely sure how a tea like this would age, but based on how it is right now, it feels like it has a long way to go still.

thick soup. slightly bitter and astringent, Light color, sweet fruity smell but couldn’t taste it. Very relaxing. Great tea!

This was one of my more recent sipdowns. I bought one of these dragon balls back around the start of 2017, but I decided that I wanted to see how it would age and resolved to break it out after I finished what I had of the spring 2017 production of Yunnan Sourcing’s Feng Qing Silver Needles. Though I finished what I had of that tea some time ago, I only got around to drinking this 2016 silver needle dragon ball last week. I found that it had kept very well in storage as it had not seemed to lose any of its youthful vigor. Compared to the spring 2017 Feng Qing Silver Needles, this was a more astringent and slow-burning offering likely due to a combination of its compression into dragon ball form and its age.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a 10 second rinse, I steeped the entire 7g dragon ball in 5 ounces of 176 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 19 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and 40 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry dragon ball produced aromas of hay, straw, sugarcane, and eucalyptus. After the rinse, it emitted aromas of cream, pastry, vanilla, malt, and marshmallow. The first infusion then introduced subtle scents of almond and butter. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered delicate notes of cream, vanilla, malt, sugarcane, and eucalyptus that were chased by hints of lemon. The subsequent infusions brought out aromas of wood, lemon, honeydew, and oats. Notes of almond, hay, straw, butter, pastry, and marshmallow came out in the mouth along with slightly stronger lemon notes and impressions of wood, minerals, oats, apricot, lychee, honeydew, and honey. At the time I decided to end the review session, I could still detect notes of minerals, cream, butter, sugarcane, oats, vanilla, and marshmallow that were backed by hints of wood, almond, lemon, and eucalyptus as well as belatedly emerging impressions of watermelon and steadily building astringency.

This was a very satisfying white tea, though it did not offer anything that one would not expect of a Feng Qing Silver Needle white tea. If you, like me, are a fan of Feng Qing Silver Needle white teas, then this tea will very likely be up your alley, but if you are not a fan, then I doubt this offering will be the one that converts you. Compared to the 2017 Feng Qing Silver Needles I have tried, this tea was a bit simpler and more astringent, but overall, it was still very enjoyable. In the end, though, I just think teas like this are probably best left to fans of such niche products. Feng Qing teas, in general, seem to be offerings that people either love or just find to be kind of odd at best.

Ohh yeah, this is a winner. I did about 4g in my 120ml gaiwan, starting with 10 seconds then, uh, not really paying much attention but more time in the following steeps. There was nice evolution and development through the process! Great aromas and a really cool bright/lime green liquor!
I woke up feeling groggy and a bit sick, and after enjoying 5 or so infusions of this tea, I’m in a far better place! It’s got the typical green tea aroma in that it’s grassy with hints of sweet corn, but it adds a lovely nuttiness alongside a slight, and enjoyable, sourness. It’s not going to blow your mind, but it just about fulfills everything great about green tea. Similar to the Classic Laoshan Black, it has a really nice energy! I feel both energized and soothed—this is the wonderful duality of tea.
I’ve had a few greens, and this is one of the most enjoyable. I really like Longjing, and this provides a nice change from that style while maintaining an interesting experience that Longjing provides.
Highly recommended, another winner from Scott and the Yunnan Sourcing team!

This tea is perfect everyday drinker. Price/quality is great for this tea! Steeps for 5-6 times.

Woooooow this is probably my favorite black tea out of what I’ve had before. I feel like I’ve had some good ones before, but they’ve tended to be similarly malty with some variation of nuts or cooked fruit. This is a lovely chocolate, not very sweet but like a pleasant dark chocolate—full and toasty. As the infusions progress, it gets sweeter and less bitter but never overwhelmingly sweet. It also has a lovely energy, very invigorating but not super panicky which is crucial. Highly, highly recommended.

It’s raining and cold outside, this is a great tea for afternoons like this. Honestly, this is close enough to hot cocoa where I would never need hot cocoa. I also have the green tea variety of this and I’m very excited to try that and see if there’s any similarities!

This jujube leaf is remarkably similar to the one offered by Verdant Tea. The dry leaf smelled a little different but it had all the same taste notes using the same parameters with short steeps in a gaiwan at 175F. I picked up on roasted broccoli, potato skins, potato, brownies, edamame, light sweet cream, a red fruit, vanillin and a pleasant lingering sourness.

The only noteworthy difference between the two was this YS jujube was much less sweet, which I greatly appreciated. I feel like that allowed for a silkier body to come through, still reminiscent of a lightly sweetened, watered down vanilla oatmilk. This one also seemed like a better herbal replacement for green tea.

I’m definitely inclined to purchase YS’s jujube over Verdant’s, but if you like your teas super sweet like Verdant’s other Laoshan offerings, I say go for that one. I’m going to have to drop my rating on that one to compensate for how much I appreciate the lack of persistent sweetness in this YS offering.

Thanks for the pleasant nightcap, Togo.

I bought this tea during my big Tie Guan Yin restocking this spring. The price, $6 for 50 g, gave me pause, but it’s Yunnan Sourcing, so how bad could it be? I also recalled reading a review that praised a previous harvest, so into my cart it went. I steeped 6 g of tea in a 120 ml teapot at 190F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 60, 90, and 120 seconds.

In the teapot, the dry aroma is kind of like sweaty socks. More charitably, I can detect funky zucchini, citrus, grass, and orchids. The first steep has notes of grass, citrus, slightly off zucchini, stewed tomatoes, tomato vine, and pungent orchids. The best part of this steep by far is the aftertaste, which is long and peachy, though that squashy funk also makes a reappearance. The next few steeps are similar, gaining more vegetal, herbaceous, grassy, and floral flavours. Thankfully, the squash sort of dissipates by steep five or so, but finishing the session was a struggle.

I tried this tea Western (3 g, 355 ml, 2.5/4/6 minutes) and it just shortened the misery.

This is a very grassy Tie Guan Yin featuring a rather unfortunate combination of citrus and zucchini. I have around 35 g left and honestly, the thought of finishing the bag depresses me. YS has excellent premium and imperial TGYs, and I’m not sure if this harvest is an anomaly. However, based on this tasting, there are much better budget Tie Guan Yins out there.

I’ve had this since September when I threw it into my YS.us order. It’s quite good, especially at $6/50g. Fairly one-dimensional, but it offers a nice taste of sweet malt as YS describes it. I like the mouthfeel, it’s very refreshing while remaining thick-bodied. I much prefer YS’s “three aroma” bai mu dan: even though I enjoy this tea as well, the former is just more complex and an improvement in every way. Certainly very good as a nice tea to begin or end a day with, but don’t too much from it!

My first sip reminded me on :“mushrooms” :)
the same mushroom soup gourmet note kept on all other infusions.
Tea is nevertheless quite drinkable…really interesting and unusual.

Personally it’s OK to try it as sampler, I would hardly use it as everyday-office tea.

It’s a relief to move away from bagged teas finally and back into the puerh realm. I have a sample of 2017 Impression from the benevolent Togo. Thanks, Togo :)

The dry leaf on this is very impressive, shimmering and velvety in the light. It reminds me of a rock covered in lichen, twigs and dirt. It smells like mineral soil and stonefruit. Warming the leaf brings out a date sweetness with the stonefruit and soil. After the rinse, I can smell artichoke, dates, baked apricot and soil.

The first pour is a clear gold with a soft and fruity aroma. It’s dominated by a clean vegetal tone and finishes with peach and apricot. The aftertaste is of apricot and faint pine. Moving along, some bitterness comes in but it is smooth and not penetrating, complementary to the tastes. The texture remains light in the mouth but never lacking. The liquor transitions into tastes of a pleasant leafy and dry grass brassiness, which to me is evidence of autumn material, and the stonefruit finish turns into faint florals. Astringency picks up in the seventh steep and I ended at the ninth, feeling the tea had not much more to offer. The energy is light and calming.

2017 Impression is drinkable now and caused no stomach discomfort. Based on the initial review by Oolong Owl, the bitterness is already taming, or maybe I’m less sensitive to bitter. It seems to be suitable for daily drinking given its smoothness, longevity and energy.

Edit: Am I crazy for thinking this is drinkable now? HA!

cake has an earthy smell
deep yellow slight orange brew
lid smells vegetal
tea is slightly vegetal with a little astringent/bitter kick
later brews around 4 get more bitter and astringent

The steamy hot leaves smell like artichoke! Strongest note I taste is vegetal. Maybe next time I brew It will be better