Yunnan Sourcing

Significantly stronger and with more bitterness than the 2016 Han Gu Di with also very nice leafes, but also no very unique character, which would make this tea stand out.

Image sand more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2015-bang-dong-village-ys

This is an excellent Wu Yi, particularly for the price. It is bursting with flavor – chocolate, nutty, fruity, creamy – it’s all there. The roast is present, but it is mild and pleasant, and marries very well with the other flavors. There is also a very subtle dryness that helps balance the chocolate and creaminess. It is sort of like the expected minerality of Wu Yi, but just a mild sensation of it, and less of the actual flavor.

I should also note that I was brewing this in seasoned clay (jian shui), which I have found to improve the flavor of my Wu Yi oolongs across the board. I forgot to do a comparison with porcelain.

This is no longer available on YS, which is a real shame. It would easily have become a tea that I would have bought in bulk. I hope it comes back at some point so I stash a bunch away.
*
Dry leaf – chocolate, roasted peanut, roasted barley (thanks, TPerez! – excellent observation!) notes of tart raspberry. In preheated vessel – fruit and mineral notes much stronger.

Smell – roasted peanut, charcoal roast, mineral, notes of slightly burnt chocolate

Taste – arrival of chocolate, roast peanut, roasted barley. Creaminess develops in-mouth, balanced by mineral-like dryness. Creamy chocolate and tart raspberry finish. Tart berry and citrus notes increase in aftertaste. Hints of yeast roll and cinnamon butter present in finish and aftertaste

This is a very subtle tea. And usually I dislike the understated teas that you have to give your full undivided and focused attention to pick up specific variation in fragrance and taste (many greens and whites fall into that category for me). But this tea is very enjoyable in all its subtlety. The leaves have a malty and flowery sweet aroma and the taste is mineral, malty and sweet. It also has a wonderful and long-lasting aftertaste that comes kind of suddenly and has a lot of different components that I totally do not want to analyze.

What I like about this tea the most that it is very comforting, and “homey”. You seep it and feel instantly cheered up and happy – without any need to deconstruct and analyze. In short, I liked it a lot. Oh, and it is very forgiving with water temperature and steeping times – no need for precision.

I noticed recently that Yunnan Sourcing’s “Green Miracle” had sold out, so I decided to pick this one up while it was still available, just to see how the two compare. I used 12.1g in my 160ml Jianshui clay teapot and drank the tea from Jianshui clay as well. After a 10s rinse and a 5 min. rest I proceeded to do a total of eight steeps, the timing for these being 12s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 50s, 90s and 2.5 min.

The color of the first infusion was still light. The texture reflected this and was fairly light as well. The tea wasn’t quite bitter nor chocolatey, but bittersweet might be an apt description. Despite the color, the strength was stronger than your average shu. The second steep didn’t actually brew much darker. The texture was very light, which you could tell already by just looking at the liquor. The taste was a bit stronger, consisting of darker tones and being at the edge of bitterness. Bittersweet might still be applicable here. The lasting flavor left in your mouth was however clearly that of coffee.

The third steep finally brewed a bit darker, although hardly very dark for a shu pu’er, more like a hong cha. The tea was strong, but light, if that makes any sense. The initial burst of dark, bitter coffee flavors was fairly strong, but the texture was disappointingly light and the flavors faded quickly, leaving behind this sort of void. It just left you with this sense of there being a lack of substance. There was however at least a persistent lingering aftertaste. I also noted that the tea became very bitter once it cooled down.

Slightly extended brewing time finally produced a slightly better body in the fourth steep, although the texture was till light+. The taste was bitter, maybe even a tad sour (but not in a bad way), now leaning more toward woody notes. This was a decent brew. The body didn’t hold up in the next steeping. The flavor had dropped as well. This with me extending the brewing time by 50% from the previous steep. The taste was perhaps slightly sweet and mineraly with some light woody tones. Very disappointing.

The sixth steep I apparently managed to push adequately as the strength was back to a decent level. The taste was mineral, with some darker woody notes as well. The tea had a certain freshness to it, being almost cooling. There were some nice lingering woody tones as well. This was a decent steep. Steep seven was light in texture, but had a nice mouthfeel. I’m not quite sure how to describe it, but it was tasty. It was refreshingly woody with a bit of mouth cooling going on. A nice infusion.

Steep number eight was the last one I did. It was light, simple. Drinkable, but the tea could have very well been on the verge of either giving up entirely or becoming nasty. There was some of your typical base sweetness, but I deemed the tea done in my eyes.

This tea was decent. I’m fairly picky when it comes to shu pu’er, so I wasn’t expecting too much. I found the tea to brew stronger than your average ripe, while the body was generally quite lacking. If you like your ripes thick, I’m not quite sure how to achieve that with this tea without making it excessively strong in the process. If you are wondering how Immortal Monkey compares to Green Miracle, I haven’t had that tea recently enough to make a good comparison, but I recall Green Miracle being perhaps a bit more dynamic in terms of flavor, although the flavor profiles are comparable. At least right now Immortal Monkey seems to lean more towards bittersweet and woody, while Green Miracle according to my memory was less bitter and perhaps more chocolatey and mineraly. These teas are still young, however, so they will continue to change over time. I don’t think I really have a preference for either tea right now. They are similar but different in their own right.

To boil things down, Immortal Monkey seems like a decent tea to drink now, with the potential to become a better tea in the future. Those leaning toward a bittersweet woody profile when it comes to shu may find this to their liking. Those seeking a replacement for Green Miracle should not be too disappointed either. While the tea is not distinctly sweet, the lack of sweetness does not come off as a negative like it can with some other teas.

2012 Menghai “Chun Jian Qing Tuo” Raw Puerh Tea. Bought on Yunnan Sourcing
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhR9jmzgegv/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988

Gongfucha review.

Dry leaf: musty, slightly green.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhZ1sYAB4HM/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhZ1ySkhsAu/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988

Wet leaf: roses, honey, green, spices(?), floral.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhZ13m0BUbF/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988

Light steep; I smell/taste:
(Smell) light green.
(Taste) slight spices(?). light —→ green, musty, honey, sweet.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhZ10_9haLc/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988

Medium steep; I smell/taste:
(Smell) slight honey.
(Taste) light-medium —→ honey, spices, green, roses(?), metallic (iron), floral, sweet.

Heavy steep; I smell/taste:
(Smell) slight —> honey, floral.
(Taste) medium -→ floral, bitterness, strong —→ honey, metallic (iron).

All in all a wonderful tea nice cha qi, tastes and aroma. Good for beginners although I was expecting more. So I rate a 99/100.

Good price for 2 × 250g tuo’s. I suggest you give it a go.

where to buy: https://yunnansourcing.com/products/2012-menghai-chun-jian-qing-tuo-raw-pu-erh-tea

This has a really nice profile with no fermentation notes or off flavors. Produces and thick malty choclatey brew. Very good, definitely recommend if you want an inexpensive shou.

Sipdown (213)

Thank you Evol Ving Ness for the share. This reminds me my tea infused hot chocolates because it has that same chocolate flavor as the cocoa and chips mixed together. Not bad when you consider this is just water and tea leaves.

Thank you Evol Ving Ness for sharing. I made this to accompany my black sesame eclair and while the eclair had loads of caramel this tea is all chocolate. The end of the sip as it cools gets a touch more bitter (for lack of a better word). I’m also getting stone fruit which seems out of place. It’s very nice but I think I’ve preferred some of the other blacks I’ve had.

Finally, the wait is over! These are my first impressions of Yi Wu Rooster! I heard about this from Scott back in December and I’ve been impatiently waiting for it to be released. Technically, I got this three days ago but to my parents’ house not my apartment so it’s had a small chance to rest.

This is everything I wanted it to be! Dry leaf smells crisply sweet and oddly floral with a classic Yiwu wood profile and a hint of pile. The tea soup is perfectly balanced with a lot of sweetness and bitterness, had obvious Yiwu character (even from the beginning). There is also a lot of floral flavor that emerges later on and smells amazing in the cup and cha hai. I do get some flavors that remind me of a good pour over coffee but disregard this if you haven’t had that kind of coffee specifically. I also get some duiwui throughout the session but it isn’t fishy or unpleasant to me. If you love Crimson Rooster then this is for you! It is much more complex and maybe not as much an intro into shou as Rooster King (which is super friendly) but for a premium shou this is exactly what I want!

This is fantastic for gongfu brewing. Starts off with a beautiful aromatic floral note (exactly what the dry tea smells like) and moves on to some chocolate malt flavors in a slow transition. Very nice tea, and when I stopped getting much out of the gongfu, I put it in my basket infuser and started brewing western style. This gives a much better western style flavor than just doing that. I’m real happy I picked this tea up.

Oh yeah, the backlog is almost clear. I only have one tea left to review after this one. Then I can move on to what I have been drinking for the past two days. I finished a 50g pouch of this tea towards the end of last week. I found it to be an excellent and incredibly thick, vegetal, and savory Yunnan green tea.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 176 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 14 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, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of hay, grass, and grilled lemon. After the rinse, I found new aromas of malt, chestnut, smoke, and corn husk. The first infusion then introduced a hint of spinach to the nose. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of grass, hay, grilled lemon, chestnut, and corn husk chased by subtle impressions of honey. Subsequent infusions saw the nose take on buttery, woody, and even more strongly vegetal qualities. Malt, spinach, and muted smoke notes belatedly emerged in the mouth alongside strong impressions of butter, straw, asparagus, lettuce, peas, pine, minerals, and seaweed. There were strong broth-like umami notes too. I even found some subtler notes of honeysuckle, apricot, and sour plum on most of these infusions. The lengthier final infusions presented notes of corn husk, minerals, hay, and grass backed by touches of smoke, lettuce, seaweed, and chestnut.

I think everyone should know by now that I am a huge fan of Yunnan green teas. I almost always enjoy them on some level. With that in mind, I guess it should come as no surprise that I greatly enjoyed this one. It was a more savory, filling tea than I was expecting, but I found a lot to appreciate about it. Even if thicker, more savory green teas are not exactly your thing, I would still recommend that you at least consider giving this tea a shot. It is worth trying for its depth and complexity.

I am very quickly getting caught up on my reviews. I should be able to completely clear the backlog within the next three days. This was another of my recent sipdowns, and I have to say that I was sad to see this tea go. It was an impressive and thoroughly likable green tea.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a flash rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 176 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 14 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, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of honey, toasted rice, and roasted chestnut. After the rinse, I detected emerging aromas of spinach, asparagus, and roasted walnut. The first infusion then brought out something like a combination of soybean and sugarcane on the nose. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of roasted chestnut, roasted walnut, asparagus, spinach, soybean, and toasted rice balanced by more delicate impressions of honey and sugarcane. Subsequent infusions introduced impressions of maple candy, vanilla, lettuce, grass, malt, peas, seaweed, minerals, and roasted barley. The final infusions presented lingering notes of minerals, seaweed, and grass chased by fleeting toasted rice, soybean, and sugarcane impressions.

Though I have seen some tea snobs thumb their noses at the green and black teas coming out of Laoshan, I am a huge fan of them and find them to be some of the most consistently pleasant and accessible teas on the market. This was yet another high quality Laoshan offering, one that would make a fantastic daily drinker or a great introduction to Chinese green teas. As I found this to still be a great tea nearly a year after harvest, I would recommend that those who just have to have a large amount of green tea around for regular consumption make a point of picking this one up if it is still available.

The first green tea from China that I really enjoyed. The detailed description that
eastkyteaguy left for the 2017 version still applies. I will not go in such detail but just say that it has a great aroma and a really complex taste: floral notes, citrusy spiciness, spinach and honey. It also gives multiple quality infusions (with sweetness becoming more prominent in the later ones), which is always a plus.

Just a very accessible and forgiving (re: temperature, seeping time) tea for an extremely affordable price. I will probably order more.

Update: I had this tea a few more times. While I still like it a lot, the truth is that all of the complex goodness lasts only one steep in a gaiwan. The second steep is already markedly less interesting, and the subsequent ones are simply not enjoyable at all (one-dimensional vegetal bitterness dominates). Had to lower the score accordingly

Smells vegetal and tastes that way, which many love. Its just not my cup of tea. There is some complexity but the savouriness just doesn’t get me excited.

I have the Spring 2015 harvest, and this is almost a sipdown already but I’ve been drinking and loving this tea so much especially in the past year now that the flavours have fully developed.

Dry leaf: Powdered cocoa, sweet passionfruit

Liquor: Smells divinely floral, like sweet creamy gardenia or orchid. The tea tastes sweet and tangy, tangy like coffee or fruity Madagascan dark chocolate, with the typical Yancha notes of chocolate but less pronounced ones of mineral and wet rocks. Amazing.

I remember when I visited Tea Drunk in NYC and the cheapest Wuyi oolong on the menu was this Qi Lan, so I thought of it as an “inferior” Wuyi. How wrong I was! While my favourite Wuyi oolong is probably still Da Hong Pao, Qi Lan is a gorgeous lighter, floral alternative on days when you don’t want something so heavy or roasty. I like the Qi Lan even more than the Shui Jin Gui and Rou Gui varietals I’ve bought from Yunnan Sourcing, but since it has been a while I should revisit those to see if they’ve aged as beautifully as the Qi Lan has.

First time I have tried Black Gold Bi Luo Chun" and this 2017 production.
I like the malty sweetness and hints of chocolate.
It is always a treat when an enjoyable tea has a budget price so it can become a daily drinker.
I’m going to order the 2018 and keep it for a year as I’ve found Yunnan black teas are often at their best a year after processing.

This is drinking super nice now. I’m getting a lot of tobacco like flavors, some earthiness, and some other good flavors that I can’t put my finger on.

I am not into green teas but still diligently buying them and trying to develop a liking. The greens are supposedly really dependent on being fresh so here it comes a new harvest, right off the fields, Spring Snail Bi Luo Chun.

It is a very good looking, fragrant tea. it is rolled into nice little heavy snails, making it easy to put too much into a teapot if you go by volume vs. weight. Both dry and wet leaves smell of umami, grass and spices.

The taste is the same. I started with 15 secs (5g/100g) and it was to short, resulting in the taste being mostly umami a-la sencha. Then I increased the time to 25-so seconds and hit the right spot, bringing in the complexity. The tea gave off 4 solid steeps.

This is the tea that is hard to grade: the taste was good but not great, while the aroma and appearance are top notch.

quick rinse, smells nice and fruity

12s/17s: Creamy texture, brief nice vegetal wonderfully refreshing bitterness. Some floral aspect, I think. Hint of pineapple. Heavy warm sweetness lingering in my mouth and down my throat. Ears pop and crackle. Sleepy now.

23s: Still lovely creamy same initial good bitterness, but going maybe a bit beany (in a nice warm savory yums way) towards the end of the sip. The sweetness is a bit fruity after, lingering a nice long time deep in the throat.

30s/35s: That sort of savory hearty beany broth flavor sensation hits earlier now. Very tasty. I’m feeling a little floaty. (But see also paint fumes, exhaustion, and a bit of a cold. So who knows.)

40s/45s: Still pretty beany, but lighter, so it’s become very chuggable and refreshing.

51s/1min/1m10s/1m23s/1m30s: Sweeter and a bit floral again (melding with still some bean brothiness). No more bitterness anymore. Clearly winding down, but in a really enjoyable way.

1m40s: Definitely more wound down now.