Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Mandala Tea
Tea Description:
The highest grade spring buds turned into a black tea. Amazingly smooth and slightly sweet.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Wow! This is really GOOD!
I steeped this a little differently than I normally would steep a black tea. Usually, when I steep a black tea, I use my Breville One-Touch, but based on the amount of tea that I had, I decided to steep it in my gaiwan using short steeps. And I’m really blown away with the results.
Even after steeping for just 1 minute in my gaiwan, I have a deliciously full-bodied black tea that is rich and robust. It is incredibly smooth with notes of malt and cocoa. There is a sweet undertone to this, but, it is not so sweet that it overwhelms the nuances of this tea. I also taste a fruit note in the background that has both sweet and sour tones to it. Such a remarkably complex tea!
What I’m loving most of all about this particular tea is the creaminess it offers. It isn’t a milky-creamy kind of taste and texture you might experience with a Milk Oolong, for example, but, it is more like a rich, dark chocolate kind of creamy. It does not saturate the palate, though, because there is a clean feeling from the light astringency at the tail to keep the palate fresh and invigorated … and ready for the next sip!
Do yourself a favor, and try this tea … and be sure to brew it in your gaiwan! Don’t get me wrong, I still am completely in LOVE with my Breville, but for bud teas like this one, I highly recommend getting out the gaiwan. After your first sip, you’ll thank me!
“Snow Dragon” Supreme Yunnan Pure Bud Green Tea from JAS eTea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Jas eTea
Tea Description:
“Snow Dragon” is made entirely from small bud shoots picked in a 3 day window of time when they are just the right size. They are meticulously hand-processed into these tight little curls. When brewed they will open slowly as they dance in the water. The brewed tea is almost totally transparent with a light fruity flavor akin to White tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is such a cool looking tea: the leaves are curled into spirals, and they “dance” while they’re brewing. If you have a glass gaiwan or teacup, I recommend using it to steep this tea so that you can watch them dance!
The dry leaf has a very faint aroma that is vaguely vegetative – reminding me of the smell of the air in the morning after it’s rained all night: clean and fresh and somewhat grassy. The brewed tea smells a little stronger, like freshly steamed green beans. The color of the infused tea is a very pale color – looking much more like a white tea than a green tea.
The flavor is much less vegetal than the fragrance would suggest. Yes, there are some slightly grassy notes in there, but primarily what I’m tasting is a lovely sweetness. It’s a very pure kind of sweetness, it doesn’t really taste like honey or caramel or any of those other comparative terms that I use to describe a sweet flavor. This tastes so natural and clean – like fresh dew or mountain air. This reminds me – again – of a white tea, and not so much of a green tea.
There are the faintest nutty tones in the background that also contribute to this sweetness, or perhaps they are highlighted by it. Either way they work in a synergistic fashion to bring out the best of each.
After the first couple of sips, the sweetness shifts focus to a more fruit-like flavor – apricot? There is a mild astringency to this tea, and the finish is sweet, with a sweet grass aftertaste. It is in this aftertaste that I begin to recognize the green of this tea.
I love how this tea reveals itself in stages, showing first its dewy qualities, and then slowly giving me a little more flavor with the nutty tones. Sometime afterward, the fruit tones arrive. This tea keeps me guessing while giving me new flavors to explore.
What a memorable tea this is!
Yunnan Golden Bud from Life in Teacup
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Life in Teacup
Product Description:
Production Year – 2010
Production Season – Spring
Production Region – Yunnan
Taster’s Review:
What a beautiful tea. The dry leaf is gorgeous! It does not possess a strong aroma, but the color is lovely. Once brewed, the liquor has a lightly spiced fragrance with hints of cocoa and leather.
This is deliciously full-flavored. It has a sweet note to it that is somewhere between honey and burnt sugar. It is malty with chocolate-y notes in the background. There is a pleasant set of spice notes to this that meld beautifully with the dark cocoa flavor. It isn’t as spicy as some Yunnan teas that I’ve encountered – this has a stronger sweet presence with hints of the spice.
It is a very smooth tea with a light astringency. There is no bitterness to the cup. It’s just perfectly delicious. An absolutely fabulous cup of tea!
I love it!
Farm Fresh Huoshan Yellow Bud Tea from Chi of Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Yellow
Where to Buy: Chi of Tea
Product Description:
This rare tea was imperial tribute tea in the Tang, Ming and Qing Dynasty. The processing method was said to be lost and only to be re-discovered after the 70s, since then, it has been sent as tribute tea to China National Departments every year.
The aroma of the dry leaf is gentle with a hint of sweet hay and the liquor has a soft, fresh sappy aroma of great charm, with a warm toasty edge and a delicate vegetal taste that lingers on the tongue. This is the best of the harvest, which produces a slightly more refined, lighter liquor, yet retaining the characteristics of a green tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love yellow tea! And this may just be the BEST yellow tea I’ve yet to taste. It’s absolutely extraordinary!
It tastes and smells incredibly fresh. It is sweet and vegetative, smooth and mellow. When I inhale the aroma before taking a sip, it is like breathing in the clean air of a grassy meadow, with the fragrance of wildflowers dancing in the air. That is very much what it tastes like, too.
It is because of this type of experience that yellow tea is my favorite. I love the way it smells and tastes, and I love the way it makes me feel when I sip it. And somehow, these yellow buds from Chi of Tea taste even fresher than others that I’ve tried.
If you adore yellow tea as I do, I strongly recommend trying these Farm Fresh yellow buds. You’ll be glad you did.
2009 Yunnan Pure Small Bud from JAS eTea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: JAS eTea
Company Description:
This Yunnan varietal of Black tea is created from highest grade small bud Feng Qing spring season tea. Early spring tea is picked when the buds are still young, the tea is then rolled, briedly fermented and then wok-dried by hand. The flavor is the smoothest of any Black tea I have ever tasted. Since this tea is nearly one year old is in its prime stage for drinking. Yunnan Black tea is best when it is 12 months to 24 months in age.
Taster’s Review:
I’m finding myself a little lost for words right now – which is rather unusual for me! (Yeah, I have been known to be a bit long-winded sometimes.) But, WOW! This tea is so amazing that I’m a little speechless!
The dry leaves are beautiful – gold in color, wispy thin, long and curly. They don’t give off much of a fragrance when they’re dry. When brewed, these lovely leaves create an enchanting golden brown liquor that is mildly fragrant, smelling a little spicy, a little flowery and fruity, and even a little bit earthy.
The flavor is smooth – perhaps the smoothest Yunnan I’ve yet to encounter. There is a light peppery kick to it though, which is something I love about Yunnan teas and have come to expect – and feel a little disappointed when I don’t get that pepper note. Fortunately, with this tea it’s there.
There is a nice complexity to this tea. There is a nice fruity note to it, almost plum-like, but also a bit of apricot… and it almost tastes like a fermented version of these fruits. It is sweet with a pleasant astringency and no bitterness.
Allow this tea to cool just slightly after it’s been brewed (not too much – just to a drinkable temperature) and then, enjoy it as it’s warm. I find that the flavors enhance greatly as I continue to sip it when it’s warm, but, as it gets cold, some of that exquisite flavor is lost. Because of this, I recommend brewing it in small batches (use your gaiwan for this one!) and enjoy it when it’s at its full flavor. It has sweetness to the liquor so you needn’t add anything to it… enjoy it in it’s plain and perfected state!