Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Mark T. Wendell
Product Description:
Cultivated in China’s Yunnan Province, the birthplace of tea, this black tea has a large leaf with distinctive golden tips. It has some of the best characteristics of traditional China teas as well as teas from India. When brewed, it produces a rich, almost peppery flavor.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a really good Yunnan. Very bold – in fact, I’d describe it as rugged. Very masculine.
It has much of what you’d expect from a Yunnan: a delicious, strong flavor with hints of fruit in the background, notes of earthiness and a sweet, caramel-like low note and, of course, that distinct peppery overtone. There are hints of smoke in the background too, which accent the spiced tones quite well.
The peppery taste to this Yunnan is one of the most pronounced peppery notes I’ve ever tasted with this type of tea. This flavor of spice lingers through to the aftertaste, which is accompanied by a hint of smoked caramel sweetness.
The overall cup is rich and delicious, with no bitterness or harsh tones. It has very little astringency to it. It is incredibly smooth, while at the same time maintaining its hefty masculine attitude. An excellent Yunnan!
Nice review. I have actually completed an order form to try some of their teas. Not yet mailed, need stamp and dough…but forsured.
Your review prompted many questions: I can discern earthiness, and hint of smokes but have yet to be able to taste caramel-like note or peppery overtone in a Yunnan.
Earthiness is pungent, almost soil like but fresh and moist; with smoke it is woodsy or smell of wood burning slightly. So the caramel-like note must be layered somehow with more infusion perhaps.
I don’t know.