Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Damn Fine Tea
Tea Description:
We’re galloping into the New Year on a 150 horse-powered infusion of Yunnan Gold Tips. Care to join us? Like a chestnut mare with a brilliant golden mane, this special tea has the might to carry you through good times and bad, and a gentle, unassuming beauty that will stir noble feelings in your breast. We wish the year of the snake a fond farewell, perhaps even a tip of the hat as it slithers away into the bushes. Now it’s time to face the road ahead. Welcome to the year of the horse — saddle up this damn fine steed and ride out to meet it!
We’ve teamed up again with our pals at Aesthetic Apparatus and made 150 tins of one of our favorites, Yunnan Jin Hao Gold Tips tea. This full-bodied black tea from China will remind you of a classic Yunnan — it’s good and strong — but the gold tips add a soft, velvety smoothness. Brew it in boiling hot water for at least five minutes and you’re off to the races. Cross the finish line and re-steep the leaves for another ride.
Learn more about this limited-edition tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have been chomping at the bits to order this tea for months now, ever since it was announced. However, I have quite a bit of tea as it is, and I always seem to go a bit over my budget when it comes to tea spending, so I held off on ordering this as long as I could. I didn’t want to miss out on it – since it is a limited edition! – but I also couldn’t justify ordering it when it was announced. I waited and waited for a “free shipping” offer from Damn Fine Teas, but I never found that opportunity.
Then they offered free shipping to Canadians for Canada Day, and when I looked at this tea, I saw that there were only 6 tins of it left! Egad! I was freaking out, worried that I’d miss out on this tea while I was waiting for the 4th of July when (hopefully) they might have free shipping in the states (which they did), but I worried that this tea might sell out before the 4th arrived (it didn’t). But I still didn’t want to take that chance, so I paid for the shipping and declared that my budget be damned! It was time for some Damn Fine Tea!
I mean, it’s not like I haven’t had a golden tips Yunnan before, I’ve had quite a few lovely opportunities to try this type of tea. I didn’t really feel like I was missing out on something as far as the tea goes, but, as I’ve admitted in the past, I’m a sucker for packaging. And I didn’t want to miss out on a numbered tin which is beautifully appropriated with a vivid, yellow label with a cool horse on it. I didn’t want to not have this tin. I also needed to find out what cool little extra they’d send along with the tin. They always have a nifty little toy or something with the tin … something that corresponds with the tea. This tin came with a little rubber horse head finger puppet toy. Cool.
Yeah, go ahead and say it. I’m a nerd.
This Yunnan Gold Tips is an enjoyable tea and a nice selection for the celebration of the Year of the Horse (which was the reason behind this limited edition series). I don’t know that it’s the best Yunnan tea that I’ve ever tasted, but I’m enjoying it and happy to have it as part of my tea stash while it lasts.
The dry leaf is beautiful with it’s chocolate-y brown leaves tipped with gold. The aroma is earthy and rich, and there are hints of sweetness. The leaves brew up dark and produce a flavorful liquid that smells sweet – like molasses!
That molasses-y note translates to the flavor, and I can taste notes of sweet molasses that seem to mingle with an undertone of caramel-like flavor. It’s a hearty, robust tea with enough gusto to get someone up and running (or galloping!) on the days when you need that sort of thing. It has a leather-y, earthy quality to the flavor which is a nice contrast to the sweeter notes.
But what I like best about a Yunnan are the spice notes. And this tea has those too. They are warm and comforting, and I think that’s why I enjoy a good Yunnan like this one so much. It is an invigorating drink but there is a certain comfort to drinking it. Like waking up even though you don’t want to, but then walking into that hot shower and it feels so good that all the sudden you’re not minding waking up so much. That’s what this tea provides for me.
A really awesome tea, I’m glad that I finally ordered it. I just wish that I could have gotten the free shipping on it. Hey … Washington is right next to Canada … and I live in a city that is often confused as a Canadian city. That should count for something, eh? (See, I’m even trying to sound Canadian.)
