Ancient Golden Yunnan

Another day above ground. Another tea to review. How can I complain?

I am very familiar with Rishi’s Earl Grey tea. It is both the strongest and most natural tasting earl grey that I have ever tried. I regularly buy it by the pound. So, with that track record, I was anxious to take their Ancient Golden Yunnan tea out for a spin.

The unbrewed tea leaves are both dark and light brown. Think of golden monkey tea if you are trying to envision this description. The aroma is rich, earthy, leathery, and recognizable for tea from this area of the world.

I followed Rishi’s brewing instructions and steeped the leaves for five minutes at 212 degrees. The finished product was dark amber in color and smelled sweet and chocolaty.

The taste was sweet and cordial with chocolate undertones The flavor was also robust which is important to me with my life-long sinus challenges. The aftertaste was light and gentle with no astringent annoyances.

This is an exceptional morning black tea that will fit the bill when I am looking for a reason to get out of bed. I also need to make room in my tea cabinet for a pound of this great blend.

Given that the item is supposedly not available, maybe the order I just received is old and wasn’t stored properly. Maybe that’s why the tea is bitter, without any of the thick malty smoothness I expect in a Yunnan. It’s like the LIpton bagged tea I grew up with. I tried a second infusion, and it was less bitter, but hardly more flavorful.

Thank you for the sample cookies!

I always like a good Yunnan black. This one is no exception. Very satisfying. Not anything unique or spectacular compared to other Yunnans I’ve tried, but definitely a tasty solid tea choice.

I purchased this tea while I was in western New York on vacation this summer. I desperately needed a good cup of black tea to get me going in the mornings, because for once in my life, I hadn’t packed a suitcase full of my tea from home (we flew this time, and I had limited space in my luggage for tea canisters and such). Anyway, this tea was delicious during my vacation, and it is delicious now.

I am very partial to Yunnan black tea, and this one met my expectations. Smooth, malty, robust, with that nice little peppery bite to it—mmmm love it! On the box, the description states that it is “Malty and rich with a mellow, jammy sweetness and subtle accents of plum and raisin.” Yes, yes, and yes! All of the above! A very nice cup of tea, indeed.

Now I just need to try this side-by-side with Gong Fu’s Emporer’s Gold and see how it compares. I will try to save the last teaspoonful I have remaining for just that purpose.

Queued post, written June 22nd

This one also came from Auggy and if the LS I wrote about earlier was really more of an afternoon thing, then this is the one I should have chosen for the smoky wake-me-up in the morning.

The aroma is quite earthy, reminding me a bit of puerh, actually. Not nearly as much earthiness as in puerh, but something along those lines.

It’s really quite smoky in flavour, but also with a little sweet honey in the aftertaste along with that hay note. There isn’t too much of that hay, actually, which is the note that I don’t really appreciate much in Yunnan blacks. That’s the second Yunnan I’ve had where it’s been there but not super prominent. Either Auggy has a good idea of how much or little of that hay note I like, or I’m learning to appreciate it more than I used to. It’s not strong here, but it’s there. The primary note in this tea really is the peppery smokiness.

I found this quite enjoyable. I suspect if you enjoy shu, you might like this one as well.

Picked this up at Wegmans. Steeped at the recommend time and wasn’t a fan of it after trying it three more time to see if it would grow on me but it didn’t. Decided cold brew it and I definitely prefer that flavor but I wouldn’t purchase or drink this again.

I picked up a box of this Rishi Yunnan Golden, identified on the box as Dian Hong, from Whole Foods out of curiosity. It was on sale for $6.99 for 50 grams, usually going for $10.99. According to the reviewers at Amazon (many of whom are irate), Rishi has essentially doubled or tripled the price of their teas since abandoning the metal tins in the supposed name of the environment. Reminds me of when the ice cream companies told us that they were reducing the half-gallon carton size so that we could store our ice cream in the door of the freezer. (Right, and I have some nice land for you down by Alligator Alley…)

And now, at last, for the tea. I may have had elevated expectations from the appearance of the gorgeous dried leaves, which include tons of golden tips. Somehow the final brew seems a bit blunt and brisk. Did I oversteep or overleaf?

I’ll certainly try again—I have another 46 grams…

second infusion: I decided to try these same leaves one more time… The brew was slightly better, but still not very good. I debated adding cream for about half the glass but then ended up just tossing it into the wind—I was sitting on the deck.

There are so many rave reviews for this tea that I can only surmise that my batch is a dud. I noticed that the infused leaves are quite small, so it looks as though the crispy golden tipped dried leaves disintegrated in hot water.

I could have sworn this tea had been sweetened; it’s so sweet! Sipping this is like sipping honey. And, though I’m speaking out of order, the dry leaves smell like raisins. Actual raisins. I love this tea. I’ve gotten resteep after resteep of this tea and overstepped it a few times too, and every single cup has been enjoyable.

This said, this is my first Chinese black tea (shocking, I know) so I’m keeping my rating a little lower before I have another Yunnan to compare it to. But I really like this tea.

The leaves of this Yunnan Gold smell strongly of honey and raisins after a quick rinse. The brew itself, however, has a very interesting heady quality to it that smells almost “perfume-like” to me. I would say it smells something like patchouli, and it comes through in the taste. If I’m not careful, it can be perceived as an almost “soapy” flavor so I have to tread lightly with my steepings of this tea. Beyond that there are definite notes of malt, and as the tea cools and I take some more sips, the flavor seems to mellow out some. There is something sort of sharp that kind of lingers on the tongue for a while. It’s got a bit of a peppery aftertaste.

Not my favorite Yunnan Gold. It’s not bad, but that heady aroma is a little bright for me. I prefer slightly darker, richer teas when it comes to this category.

Sipdown!! (171)

Thank you for the opportunity to try this tea, Dexter, but this is just not for me. Perhaps I brewed this wrong because this tastes like one big cup of bitter chemicals. Sadly, it got dumped.