I find that most of my Yunnan’s fall between the spectrum of leathery spicy and honey fruity all with cocoa underneath, but each are unique in some ways. The crudest, roughest one has almost licorice tones, one has orange notes, one has a lot of spice over chocolate notes, another is jelly and violets and then there is this one. This one is quite fruity and almost boozy in the first steeps, overlying the honey, cocoa, and leather and has a bit of snap pea to it.
It looks just like the picture with medium thickness blades and furry gold buds. About 75-80 % appears to be buds. The dry sent is almost hay like.
I steeped one heaping TSP in a 150 ml gaiwan. Using boiling water.
After 45 s the scent is of honey, hay, cocoa, smoke, and a faint leather spice. The tea is a medium ambre brown with a yellow green ring I get in many tippy teas around it.
The flavours of cocoa, hay, smoke and honey combined to create something slightly fruity. It brings back a memory of something I had at school when a classmate prepared a Vietnamese meal for us. There was a hint of grapes, cooked apple and a slight musty tone all soaked in a touch of rum.
Other notes I tasted were of snap pea, honey sweetened cocoa in grape juice, and very faint leather notes. As it cools the cocoa, honey, slightly boozy fruit dominate. Very smooth tingling in front and top of mouth.The first steep was kind of syrupy. Further steeps were as follows:
60s less honey, more cocoa, and hints of tarter red fruit, touch of bean still quite sweet and honeyed. Not as syrupy as first cup.
75s honey cocoa,leathery earthy notes.
120s. Cocoa, honey, red fruit , leather spice
240s. Cocoa, leather,honey.
This tea still has some life in it. I especially liked the first steep and the hint of red fruit in some of the later ones. All together a nice tea that I wouldn’t mind enjoying from time to time.
Thanks, Capital Tea Ltd for this generous sample!
