Yunnan Sourcing

This was another of my late 2020 sipdowns and a tea that was wholly new to me at the time. I’m still a little perplexed by the name. If my understanding is correct, a high mountain Wu Yi tea may actually be produced at a lower elevation than some of the flatland teas from Yunnan Province and elsewhere. I guess then that this would qualify as a high mountain tea with regard to where it was produced. Anyway, this was an interesting black tea with a unique profile, but it flattened out and faded very quickly.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 fluid ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 16 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, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of dark chocolate, cinnamon, pine, and baked bread. After the rinse, aromas of malt, roasted peanut, butter, and sweet potato emerged. The first infusion introduced aromas of honey, brown sugar, spinach, and black cherry. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of dark chocolate, grass, malt, baked bread, butter, coffee, and roasted peanut that were chased by hints of honey, sweet potato, brown sugar, and spinach. The majority of the subsequent infusions added aromas of coffee, minerals, roasted almond, roasted walnut, and sugarcane. Stronger and more immediately noticeable impressions of brown sugar, honey, and sweet potato emerged in the mouth alongside notes of roasted almond, roasted walnut, minerals, and black cherry. Hints of cinnamon, earth, pine, red grape, orange zest, marshmallow, and sugarcane were also present. As the tea faded, the liquor continued to emphasize notes of minerals, butter, malt, grass, baked bread, and roasted almond that were chased by hints of roasted peanut, honey, dark chocolate, orange zest, sweet potato, and sugarcane.

As mentioned earlier, this was a unique black tea. Not only were some of its components fairly unique for a Wuyi black tea, but some of the more familiar ones were expressed in ways I would not normally have expected. That novelty factor alone would have made this tea enjoyable enough for me, but fortunately, it also struck me as being very approachable and drinkable. It was not fussy or stuffy in the slightest, and in my time sampling it, I tried multiple other preparation methods with solid, consistent results. Still, this tea was not without its flaws. As previously mentioned, it faded very quickly. At times, some of the tea’s more unique aroma and flavor components also subtly clashed with some of the more familiar ones. Overall, this was a decent enough tea. It had its appeal, and it did make me curious about the possibility of trying some other Tu Cha in the future. I feel like I am being a tad hard on it, but a score in the high 60s just feels right to me. I wish I could rate it higher, but I just can’t do it.

Well, I’m back after a long absence. I did not exactly mean to take a three week break from posting reviews, but it just kind of happened anyway. A lot has changed on my end in a very short time. I have two new jobs. I don’t know how I feel about them yet. For those wondering, I did not get the academic library job I applied for several months back. After getting strong feedback after my interview, it turns out my references were never checked, meaning I was never seriously being considered for the position in the first place. Then I got offered a position with the state after an interview that I thought went terribly. The pay isn’t great, but the benefits are solid. I also ended up getting offered a part-time side gig at the local Wal-Mart that bizarrely pays almost as much as my state job. I literally only make $0.58 more per hour with the state. My manager at Wal-Mart, however, is the mother of an old friend and thinks I would make a wonderful manager or corporate trainer and wants me to work for her part-time until something full-time opens up or a corporate/management position opens for which she can push me. It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but I needed an alternative. I’m way too old to be putting all of my eggs in one basket in terms of a career, and I need something I can do while I go back to school in my mid-late thirties that not only allows me to support myself but allows me to live pretty well. I’m not sure how I feel about the state position yet (I’m supposed to be able to work from home after I finish training), so having another option is great for me. Getting back on track now, this was one of my sipdowns from late 2020 (maybe around October or November). I found it to be a strong competition grade Jin Jun Mei.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea buds in 4 fluid ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 18 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, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea buds emitted aromas of honey, malt, marshmallow, cinnamon, baked bread, and molasses. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of roasted almond, roasted peanut, and sugarcane. The first infusion added aromas of chocolate, brown sugar, and sweet potato. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented delicate notes of malt, marshmallow, roasted almond, sweet potato, baked bread, honey, and sugarcane that were balanced by hints of brown sugar, molasses, and chocolate. The subsequent infusions added aromas of pine, orange zest, and cream as well as subtler scents of vanilla, lemon zest, and black pepper. Stronger and more immediately noticeable impressions of chocolate emerged in the mouth alongside notes of minerals, cream, pine, roasted peanut, orange zest, lemon zest, and caramel. Hints of cinnamon, red grape, red apple, pear, plum, black pepper, leather, and vanilla were present as well. As the tea faded, the liquor continued to emphasize notes of minerals, malt, cream, caramel, baked bread, roasted almond, pine, orange zest, honey, and chocolate that were chased by hints of sugarcane, marshmallow, roasted peanut, sweet potato, lemon zest, leather, red grape, and vanilla.

Something of a typical higher end Jin Jun Mei, this tea delivered exactly what it was expected to deliver and nothing more. That statement, however, is not intended as a slight. This was a complex tea that was approachable, pleasant, and drinkable despite its complexity, and it displayed admirable longevity in a fairly lengthy gong fu session. Though I have had several Jin Jun Mei that offered more novel aroma and flavor components or had a livelier, firmer texture in the mouth, this was still a well-executed classic take on the style that was sophisticated and loaded with subtle appeal.

I’ve had this tea for a while now and wow, it is a fantastic ripe. Smooth, but also some bitter, like dark chocolate or espresso. It brews thick and burly. A great example of a ripe done right by Hai Lang Hao.

[Spring 2021 harvest]

This tea is quite a bit more savoury and less fruity than other MLX I’ve had. I like it, but at the same time there isn’t too much there that would keep me coming back to it.

The dry leaf aroma is sweet, nutty, and perfumy. Wet leaves then smell of sage and peach ice cream.

The liquor has a medium to light body and mineral, watery texture. First infusion is cooling, spicy and herbaceous with notes of rose and yeast, the latter of which persist into the nutty aftertaste. Second steep is smooth and bitter with mild stonefruit sweetness and citrus zest flavour. Later ones bring out the more mineral, savoury aspects and notes of butter, sunflower seeds, and gin.

I got to have a session with this tea courtesy a friend of mine, for which I am very grateful. Especially since it is the first (plausibly legitimate) LBZ tea I’ve ever tried. My overall impression is kind of like I would expect in some sense. The tea has a relatively strong and protracted aftertaste, albeit maybe less sweet I thought it would be. The mouthfeel and qi are both very engaging and are clearly the selling points of the tea. Its taste profile is fine, but not overly interesting or complex.

My aunt, who drinks almost exclusively Japanese green teas, refers to pu-erh as “those teas that smell like old socks”. Honestly, I’ve never made such a connection, until today. Dry leaves here actually smell like old socks :D
Another scent that I rarely get in tea, which is often used by James and Denny from TeaDB, is that of gasoline. But it was the first association I got when smelling the leaves after the rinse. Otherwise, there were also hints of tobacco and hay.

The session itself seems to have two distinctive parts. The tea accelerates fast with a full body and hard-hitting qi right from the first infusion. The texture was creamy and very viscous. The qi gets spacey and stoning very fast with a spiritual undertones. Soon afterwards, the peak energy passes and what remains is a chest warming sensation and a clarifying energy that brings me to the present moment. However, by steep 6 or so, the tea had settled into a fairly stable presence with much less interesting texture or energy and it stayed like so for the rest of the session.

The taste starts off with a sweet grassy rinse that carries a protracted nutty, bitter, and acerb aftertaste. The bitterness is of a cooling vegetal kind in the next steep and there is a honey flavour in the finish. This translates to a strong huigan, which as I mentioned already, is actually not overwhelmingly sweet.

Second infusion is woody and a bit sour. There are flavours of peppercorn, fermented fruits, and kombucha. Astringency is mild here, but there is a nice numbing sensation after swallowing. Fourth steep then bring along the epected tobacco note as well as deep fruitiness.

Two subsequent infusions follow in a similar savoury vein. A distinctive leathery flavour appears and there is also a touch of smoke. Steeps 8 to 9 are actually somewhat bitter and display a sort of earthy taste of beets coupled with a musk note. In the aftertaste, I also noticed a lingering tingling sensation.

At 4 years of age, this tea is somewhat muted in its presentation. There is a pungent aroma, which at times reminds me of strawberries and wood cabinet. The taste is simple and foresty with a strong warming character. The aftertaste is long, a bit sugary and constrictive.

First session with this tea is a familiar one. I have loved several iterations of the loose version so I decided to get a cake for easier storage.

Being already more than a year old, I would say that the bitterness is quite a bit weaker than what I would expect from its fresh state. The taste juicy and grassy initially and then sweeter and fruitier in later steeps. Aftertaste, on the other hand, is savoury and spicy/warming. Notes like parsnip, eucalyptus, garlic scapes, and sourdough bread remind me of previous sessions with these teas. Additionally, I found some new aromas of rum and candy floss in the dry and wet leaves respectively.

This sheng has a strong forest character. I could imagine really liking it with about 20 years of dry storage. As it stands, not exactly worth drinking right now mostly due to its price in my opinion.

The aroma is sweet and foresty with notes of apples, alpine herbs, ghee and mussels. Rinse is light and cooling with flavours of sweet grass, tree sap and apricots.

However, from the first infusion onwards, the tea is very pungent, biting and tart – almost acerb. Early on I can taste wood, forest floor, hot hay, straw, peanuts, saffron. Overall it is quite a rural and sweet profile though. The body is medium and the mouthfeel somewhat colloidal and buttery. Later steeps are more bitter with mild astringency and intesified nutty and foresty notes. There is a hint of camphor as well as dry grass. The mouthfeel is numbing in the middle and more smooth towards the end of the session. The late steep are somewhat boring though.

In the aftertaste, more umami emerges with its accompanying lasting sweetness. There are notes of nuts, mushrooms and decaying wood. Cha qi is super warming and it brings me to the present moment.

Sipdown…pretty mediocre, nothing to write home about tea. Not bad but not a rebuy either.

still no rating on this one….keep forgetting to pay attention to it which probably means it’s pretty middle of the road for me lol