Imperial Mojiang Golden Bud -Spring 2014

2014 harvest from Terri. I love that her box has a few same teas from different years because i can try drinking them at the same time to see which i prefer. Just makes for a fun time. This one i haven’t had, as i generally prefer autumn harvests. Hot there was a strong note to this one that sort of jarred with the overall cup….as it’s cooled, that’ lessened and it’s a smoother, more mellow , malty cup now. i still prefer the autumn 2015 harvest that i’m also drinking, but this was a decent cup :) thanks terri!

Yummy & Malty, I know I’ve written umpteen reviews on this tea, but somehow I can’t find them.

Tonight, I discover a tea that will be a black staple of mine.
The aroma filled my room unexpectedly
The golden brewed vividly
The taste made me login to Steepster to review this before the other 8 teas I drank earlier today.
Next up is finding an amazing dian hong :)

What is wrong with me? Why can different days have such different tea experiences?
I’ve drank this before and had moved it over to the “for work” pile – normally that pile is decent but not really that special teas.
I’m not sure what I did at home last time to make me think that, but at work today, using my normal Hodgepodge steeping, this was amazing. Over leafed, cooler water, fairly long steep times and this was hot really dark chocolate, with some burned sugar notes. Fantastic – too good to be drinking at work – now to see if I can recreate that at home. (interesting that others were saying stone fruit – what is wrong with me?)

Another Dexter sample. THANK YOU! :D

Oh, was this tea fun… how it changed with each steep! It started out real malty and caramelized sugar like, and then a hint of stone fruit showed up in the scent of the liquor. It really smelled like an opened jar of apricot jam. I didn’t begin to actually taste that stone fruit element until the 5th steep, which was so interesting to me. The caramelized sweetness transitioned into rock sugar, while the malty bread note was present from beginning to end (although, I’m not done drinking yet….8 cups in…).
I really enjoy this tea! I love a tea that takes you for a ride, and this one surely does.
Short steeps were my thing here, along with the 85-90 C temp recommendation.
I found an old imitation thermos in my basement yesterday, and that has made keeping my water warm for gongfu so much easier. It’s not the best quality thermos type thing…but it does the job if I don’t need the water boiling hot (with this tea, it was perfect!).

Mmm, this is so good! I get a lot of cocoa notes from this one. It’s like I drank all three of the golden teas I ordered in order from lightest to darkest, potato to cocoa. Pretty funny, actually. They are all awesome. The tea leaves are absolutely beautiful. As I was warned by MzPriss, I think this may be a new addiction. Uh oh! ;)

Tea #2 from the (Mostly) Unflavored TTB
While I guess I should’ve resteeped the Mao Feng I just had, I have too many teas I want to try today (so I just set the leaves to the side, now I see the benefit of having multiple brewing baskets).
I only used a tsp in about 8oz since it seems a special tea and I’d hate to ‘waste’ it if I didn’t like it.
Wow. This has a super malty/bready/honey sort of smell to it. Maybe a bit of cream mixed in. It’s mouthwatering. And I haven’t even taken a sip. Lol.
The first sip is very bready (almost reminds me of eating pita chips weirdly enough), but I don’t think I steeped it enough, or else I used too much water since it was slightly watery tasting to me. I probly pulled a major fau pas and just dropped to steeping basket back in for another 30 or so seconds and that seemed to help. Definitely got rid of the watery taste.
Wonderfully malty and a nice fullness to the sip.
I think I’d like to have this in my cupboard if Yunnan Sourcing wasn’t so daunting to order from. But maybe I’ll bite the bullet and finally place an order.

MzPriss’ Unflavored Tea Box – Tea #19
Oh this is the perfecttt Yunnan. Mostly golden twisty leaves here, but enough hints of darker leaves to give it some character. I know teas like Verdant’s Golden Fleece are all gold. And most Yunnan is mostly dark with hints of gold. The flavors: honeyed squash, sweet potatoes, yams with drizzles of dark chocolate… with some hints of tomato soup. The color of the cup is an orangeish amber. SO so so good. The second cup might have been steeped a little long (three min would be better), but no astringency just tangy for some reason, but it is deeper with more character. It seems all the flavors I previously mentioned have combined instead of being able to pick them out. The first cup is GOLD though… the second needed less steep time. I’d love three pounds of this in my cupboard!
Steep #1 // 2 tsps. // few minutes after boiling // 2 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min

Sipdown! (106)

This tea is so delicous. :3 I used water within the recommended range this time around. I’m definitely getting a fruity note that I don’t remember from before, it’s kind of like a golden raisin (sweet and syrupy, but not as intense as a regular raisin). Very lovely. I will definitely be adding this to my list of teas I must repurchase! And I would like to try this with the 1/2/4 method or as a gong fu session. Thanks so much to Nicole for introducing me to this tea and to Yunnan Sourcing in general! :D

Today this was so supremely cocoa-y I almost passed out from happy. The leaves are gorgeous, the tea is so delicious… Happy place. No more tea today so I can make sure to end on a great note. :)

Did this in the little glass teapot again, leaving leaves in water, small cups at about 30 sec, 3 min, 10 min, 15 min.