Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy:  Simple Loose Leaf

Tea Description:

Black tea from the Yunnan province of China, the birthplace of tea itself. Yunnan black tea is easily identified by its abundance of soft golden tips, and savory cocoa and black pepper flavors. It is a very forgiving tea; will not taste bitter when over-steeped. Our Yunnan Jig has a sweet, almost creamy aroma. Rich and savory flavor, with a slight cocoa powder finish. Earthy and spicy and soft, smooth mouthfeel and finish. Classic Yunnan. 

Learn more about this tea here.

Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Co-Op program here.

Taster’s Review:

Mmm!  Now this is the kind of tea that I like to wake up to!

The dry leaf is beautiful.  The aroma is very leather-like, evoking thoughts of an old library with lots of old, leather bound books.  The leaves are long and curly, looking a bit like thick pieces of wire in colors of chocolate brown and gold.  When I see golden leaves like this, I immediately think of autumn and the leaves.  I love this time of year with the beautiful leaves!

And I am loving this tea!

I brewed the tea in my Breville One-Touch.  I poured 500ml of freshly filtered water into the kettle/jug.  Measuring this tea is a bit of a challenge, because of the long, wiry leaves!  I measured out what looked to me like 2 bamboo scoops of tea.  I guess with teas like this, a scale would be really handy to have, but again, you probably won’t ever find a tea scale in my kitchen because I live by the ideal that tea should be simple and more gadgets don’t make it a simpler process to me.  I set the timer for 2 1/2 minutes and the temperature for 212°F.

The brewed tea has more of an earthy fragrance than a leathery one, although I do still pick up on some subtle leathery notes as well as a gentle spice-like note.  It’s a very masculine aroma.

The flavor is delightful.  And as I typed the word “delightful” I found myself questioning the word, because I don’t think that delightful is enough of a word to describe just how lovely this tea is!  It is rich and smooth from start to finish.  There is next to no astringency.  I only pick up on mere hints of astringency – a slight dryness – toward the very tip of the tail of the sip.  It is very slight.  It’s not bitter and while the description above states that it’s a very forgiving tea, I didn’t try to overbrew it to test that out, but based on what I’m tasting, I’d say that’s probably very true.  I’m not even tasting the slightest insinuation of bitterness here.

Notes of cacao and warm spice notes.  There is a sweet caramel-y note that offers a nice contrast to the savory notes of this tea.  It’s an amazing balance between sweet and savory which is what gives this tea it’s smooth character.  It is so well-rounded and palate pleasing.  It certainly has an invigorating quality to it, but this isn’t the tea that will give you that jolt that you might look for in that first cup of the day, instead, this will give you a warm caress that will gently nudge you awake and make you much happier to be alive and kicking!