Tea Type:
Black Tea
Where To Buy:
Yezi Tea
Product Description:
This smoky black loose-leaf tea is grown in the majestic Nanhu Mountain range on the outskirts of Fuqing City in the Fujian province of China. These mountains might be covered in dense fog for two hundred days a year, but one thing remains clear: for the last 250 years they have been home to some of the finest teas to come out of China.
Yi Fu Chun is an organic tea, and Yezi is proud to bring you this offering sourced, like most of our teas, directly from the farmer. You will find drinking this golden brown brew as smooth as riding in a Rolls-Royce on a newly paved highway. A light and natural sugarcane sweetness is a distinguishing characteristic of Yi Fu Chun. Notes of apple and peach add to its complex flavor.
Our Tea Farmer
Farmer Huang Jian, Nanhu Mountain, Fujian, ChinaHuang Jian, Nanhu Mountain, Fujian, China »
How to brew Yi Fu Chun Black Tea teaAmount of tea in grams Temperature in °C Temperature in °F Number of brews First brew time Use: 4-5 grams or 3 tsp. of tea Water amount: 1 gram of tea / 50-60ml of water or 1 tsp. of tea / 3 oz. of water Time of day: Afternoons or early evenings Temperature: 90-95 °C or 194-203 °F Brew: 4-5 times First brew: 20 seconds Subsequent brews: Add 10 seconds Recommended tea set: Lu Yao porcelain or glass tea set
Tea brewing is an art – and you are the artist! Just as a jazz musician adds individual touches to make a composition unique, you can add your own individual flourishes to make your tea stand out. The guidelines provided above are derived from two time-tested principles: 1) The more oxidized a tea, the higher the temperature you will need, and 2) Smaller tea pots allow for more control over the brewing process and are especially recommended for lighter teas. That said, we encourage you to experiment with the amount of tea you use, water temperature, tea utensils, and infusion times to conjure up your own “Aha!” moment.
Yi Fu Chun Black Tea is also known as…Cantonese version of the name is Yat Fat Chun 一拂春茶
Tasters Review:
I’ve heard this tea as being described as Baked Bread, Brown Sugar, Caramel, Cocoa, Dried Fruit, Floral, Malt, Molasses, Rye, Smooth, Sweet, Thick, Apple Skins, Cherry, Dark Chocolate, Creamy, Honey, Sweet Potatoes, Peach, Peanut, Smoke, Cannabis, Grain, Chocolate. Whatever your tongue may taste – I really LOVE this tea from Yezi! As for my experiences with this tea – I like it because it’s fairly smooth, gently sweet – much like a bit of sugar cane, and towards the end of the sip I could pick up on subtle peachy notes as well. The first infusion hint at a bit of smoke but additional infusions – the smoke flavors are diminished.
Keemun Classic 2014 Harvest Black Tea from Capital Tea Limited
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Capital Tea Limited
Tea Description:
Small, even and slender wiry black leaves with a forward classic keemun aroma. This tea produces a strong, rich tasting and full bodied tea liquor with a sweet and subtly smoky aroma and with prominent cocoa flavour notes. Highly recommended!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I looked forward to trying this Keemun because I’ve enjoyed the other teas that I’ve tried from Capital Tea Limited thus far. Unfortunately, this Classic Keemun leaves me wanting.
There is a strong leathery note that is prominent and up front. As I mentioned on Steepster about this tea, it is almost as though the leather notes want to pull all the focus on them to disguise the fact that this is not a very round tasting tea. It doesn’t have that well-rounded, pleasing flavor that I have come to expect from a top-notch Keemun tea.
I’m not getting a strong cocoa flavor as promised in the above description. Beyond the leathery notes, I do get some notes of chocolate and also a smoky presence. But I wouldn’t call this a “rich tasting” or even a “full-bodied” tea. It’s kind of thin in the flavor department, lacking that round, satisfying taste that I want from a Keemun.
Not my favorite Keemun.
To brew: I placed a bamboo scoop of the leaf in the basket of my Kati Tumbler and added 12 ounces of boiling water and steeped for 3 minutes.
Mintberry Pine Green Tea Blend from M & K’s Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: M&K’s Tea Company on Etsy
Tea Description:
Sweet roasted sloe berries doused in honey and liquid hibiscus, tossed with fresh spearmint and 3-distinct green teas, paired with real pine needles. That’s Mintberry Pine. It’s our limited-edition green tea holiday blend that offers a more complex, subtle taste (as opposed to mint exploding in your mouth with the force of a white hot sun). If you’re a green tea lover, mint lover, berry lover, or all three, this tea is perfect for you. Get it while it’s here!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I saw that M&K’s Tea Company had some really intriguing holiday blends, I decided that I needed (yes, needed) to try them! Fortunately, they understood this need and they offered a Wintertime Tea Sampler! This sampler offers five different teas: Moroccan Mint, Pine Needle Tea, Winterwolf Tea, White Vanilla Peppermint and this Mintberry Pine Green Tea. These samples were all packed into a special sampler package that’s just the right size for stocking stuffers. It’s a handsome package, something that Santa would be proud to give!
Before I received my package, I received a message from Marty (the “M” of M&K’s, I think!) explaining that the Mintberry Pine (and the Pine Needle Tea) are both very subtle teas. He recommended steeping them a little longer than the package directs and to allow plenty of steep room for the leaves (let them steep loose in the teapot instead of using an infuser tool).
To steep, I grabbed my small teapot (4 cup size) and dusted it off – it’s been a while since I’ve used this! I have gotten spoiled with my Breville! I warmed the teapot and poured the contents of the sampler into the teapot and heated 16 ounces of water to 180°F. Then I poured the water into the teapot and let it steep for 3 1/2 minutes. The package suggests 2 – 4 1/2 minutes, but I couldn’t bear to let a green tea steep longer than 3 1/2 minutes. I was willing to sacrifice a little of the mint, berry and pine flavors but I didn’t want a bitter green tea.
Yes, the flavors are a little subtle, but I like that I’m tasting all the elements of this tea and that the green tea doesn’t taste bitter.
I like the subtle flavor of the mint here. I like that I have a crisp, cool minty taste without it tasting like I added a shot of mouthwash to my cup of green tea.
The berry notes add some sweetness and not a lot of tartness (which I was a little apprehensive about because I saw liquid hibiscus up there in the description). There is a light, tingly tart tone that tickles the tongue (try saying that five times fast) in the aftertaste, but that’s to be expected with berry blends. I’m also picking up a delightful honeyed note from the honey roasting process. Nice touch.
The pine needles are the softest flavor component of the three elements in the name of this tea. I do get a very slight, resinous pine note to this that hits the palate right at the start and then it quickly disappears and reappears just after mid-sip, just to remind me that it is there. It’s very faint and it’s something that I think I’d have missed if I didn’t search for it.
However, as I continue to sip, I taste more and more of the pine, and by the time I’m halfway through my second cup of this tea, I’m getting a nice pine note. It never becomes a strong presence, but it certainly is a noticeable presence at this point.
And let us not forget that we’re drinking tea here. There’s a soft, buttery note of green tea. It’s lightly grassy (and I think that the grassy tones accentuate both the pine and the mint notes in a positive way), and it has a nice mouthfeel. It’s not bitter nor is it overly astringent, even though I steeped it longer than I typically would steep a green tea. I think that this could have even gone another 30 seconds to 1 full minute longer without bitterness!
Overall, a very unique blend. Certainly festive and definitely different from the other teas that everyone else is producing out there! Bravo M&K!
24 Days of Tea Holiday Countdown – Day 7 from Teanzo 1856
Seasons Greetings on Day 7! There are just eighteen days left until the big day and just seventeen shopping days left until that day!
Yesterday, I shared with you a holiday ornament that I made by decoupaging papers onto a paperboard coaster and attaching a cool fringe-y element. The highlight of that particular project was the paisley design, because as I’ve mentioned already, I love paisley. I go wild when I see something paisley.
So, I thought I’d share something that I made for another year’s 12 Day of Christmas gift swap. I was Day 1 in this swap, a fact I remember mostly because the project that I made turned out to be very “pear-like” – unintentionally – but it was still really cool because I was day 1 (Partridge in a Pear Tree.)
For this project, I upcycled a few burned out light bulbs. Then I used a resin clay and covered the threading of the bulb. This served two purposes, one, it covered up the metal threading, plus it enabled me to attach a wire loop to the ornament and seal it in with the resin clay. After the resin clay had set, I started decoupaging different papers. After each of the layers had dried, I finished the decoupage with a paisley napkin, and then after that was dry, I painted the bulb using shimmery paints and added rhinestones and sparkly fibers. I finished it off with a pretty purple ribbon.
I was quite proud of this project. I tend to be a bit of a pack rat (I think that most artists are) and at that point, I had accumulated a lot of burned out light bulbs and my husband was quite annoyed that I had a box full of burned out light bulbs. He would ask, “What are you going to do with them?” This! This is what I did with them.
Let’s see what tea Teanzo sent me for Day Seven!
Moroccan Mint Green Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teanzo 1856
Tea Description:
Whisk away to the culturally diverse Kingdom of Morocco. Slightly larger than California, Morocco is known as “an oasis for the senses”, with its rich culture, mesmerizing natural landscapes and magnificent architecture.
Moroccan Mint tea is Morocco’s drink of hospitality, and is served throughout the day to welcome guests at home and in business. Moroccan Mint Tea is a refreshing combination of gunpowder green tea with mint. Serve it hot or over ice, or mixed with a little lemonade.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Ah! I was happy to find a Moroccan Mint in this Advent Calendar box, and even happier to see that it was a Moroccan Mint with a gunpowder green tea base. Yeah, I’ve had Moroccan Mint teas with other tea bases: black teas, other green teas, and I’ve even had at least one Moroccan Mint that was just mint. No Camellia Sinensis. Still tasty, yes. But, it didn’t need the fancy “Moroccan Mint” title. It could have just had the “mint” because that was what it was.
But this one tastes like the Moroccan Mint teas that I originally fell in love with – a refreshing burst of mint with the complex flavors of a Chinese gunpowder green tea. These two elements seem so well suited for one another.
To brew this sample pouch, I again reached for my Kati tumbler and poured the contents of the pouch directly into the basket. Then I added 12 ounces of hot water (I heated it to 175°F) and let it steep for 2 minutes.
The gunpowder is sweet, earthy and just a wee bit vegetal. I find those vegetal tones to be very complementary with the herbaceous quality of the mint. There is a hint of smoky quality to the gunpowder – a distant smoky note – a compelling contrast to the fresh notes of the mint.
The mint isn’t overdone in this blend. This doesn’t taste overly minty. It’s not mouthwash-y. It adds a delightful fresh note without overpowering the palate with minty vibes. It’s a touch of crispness to the earthy gunpowder green tea.
This tea resteeps well. The flavors taste a little more unified when resteeped and I like that seamless taste. A very enjoyable cup!
Bolder Breakfast Blend from The Tea Spot
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black & Pu-erh Teas
Where to Buy: The Tea Spot
Tea Description:
This new American black tea blend combines bold flavor, rich color, & full body with hints of chocolate. This robust breakfast blend is made from our favorite strong black teas from high altitude estates in China, India and Sri Lanka. We have combined these black teas with pu’erh, an aged black tea from Yunnan China, and dark chocolate essence. This tea yields a rich, dark liquor and a warm, well-rounded flavor that takes very well to milk and even better in the form of a tea latte. The high caffeine content and robust flavor makes this the perfect tea to help kick your coffee habit!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve tried quite a few different teas from The Tea Spot, so I was kind of surprised that this is one that I hadn’t yet tried. I mean, it has chocolate and The Tea Spot seems to understand that more chocolate = better. Check out their Chocolate “O” and Chocolate Cherry Bomb! if you don’t believe me.
Since this blend has pu-erh in it, I decided to brew it in my Kati Tumbler so that I could do my usual pu-erh rinse. I heated the water to 200°F and added a heaping bamboo scoop to the basket. Then I poured the water over the tea, allowing it to steep for about 15 seconds, and then strained off the liquid, discarding it. Then I refilled the tumbler with the heated water and steeped for 2 1/2 minutes and strained.
Wow! This is an interesting breakfast blend and I mean that in the best way possible. It’s a very GOOD interesting!
What makes it interesting? Well, first of all, The Tea Spot has got the right idea by adding CHOCOLATE to a breakfast blend. That’s my kind of breakfast blend. They should just call this the Chocoholic’s Breakfast Blend.
But when they do that, they should also consider adding more chocolate. Not saying that this doesn’t have enough chocolate, because it’s a rich and chocolate-y flavor. But really, is there ever “enough” chocolate? That’s like saying there’s enough bacon on a BLT. Uh … no. The rule when it comes to chocolate is more chocolate = better. That said, this does have a really wonderful, chocolate-y flavor and it’s a strong chocolate note.
The second thing that makes it interesting is the base. The base is a blend of black teas and pu-erh. And it’s what the pu-erh DOES to this particular blend that makes it so amazing. (Yeah, I didn’t think that I’d ever say those words in that particular order in a sentence either.) The earthiness of the pu-erh complements the earthy notes of the chocolate really nicely – it adds depth to the chocolate. It makes the chocolate taste even better. And the presence of the pu-erh also adds a deep, mellow flavor to the black tea. It makes the base taste fuller and better rounded. It’s a deeply satisfying cuppa.
The black tea in this blend adds notes of malt and caramel-y undertones. The pu-erh adds an earthy richness without tasting too much like earth. I think that the pu-erh also mellows out the black teas a bit, softening the edge enough so that you don’t need milk and sugar (or honey) in this tea to reduce the harshness like you might in a typical breakfast blend. This isn’t harsh. It isn’t bitter. It isn’t astringent.
It’s just pleasant and yummy. And as extraordinarily yummy as it is, it still has that hefty flavor that you want in a breakfast blend. This still has that vigor to get you off and running. It’s a much nicer way to deliver that kick in the butt that you need. It’s like a best friend kicking your butt instead of a stranger. And at least this best friend will share chocolate with you while it’s kicking your butt.
And that paragraph qualifies as the most times I’ve used the word “butt” in a paragraph this year. I apologize if it offended anyone.
A really, really good breakfast blend. I don’t really have a top list of breakfast blends, but if I did, this one would be somewhere in the top three. Yeah, it’s that good.