Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
This Ripe Pu-erh Cake Teavivre choose is from the representative Pu-erh production area Fengqing. Fengqing is the original place of the world-wide famous Dian Hong Tea. And it is also a classic place of Yunnan Pu-erh. It is a place in Lingcang which is one of the four famous Pu-erh production areas. The taste of Fengqing Pu-erh is mellow and sweet, deeper than Pu-erh in other production area. And it usually has the flowery flavor of Dian Hong Tea. The tea leaves used to make this Ripened Tribute Pu-erh Cake Tea are all pure leaves hand-picked from 50 to 100 years old Large-leaf Arbor Tea Trees.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Fengqing Ripened Tribute Pu-erh Cake Tea from Teavivre is a really lovely pu-erh. It’s a delightfully mild tea – very smooth and sweet!
To brew this tea, I grabbed my gaiwan. I broke pieces of the cake off into my gaiwan with a knife and eyeballed the measurement until it looked like about a bamboo scoop of tea. Then I poured enough hot water (180°F) to cover the leaves and let it steep for 15 seconds and then I strained off the liquid and discarded it. (The rinse!) Then I filled the gaiwan with more water and let it steep for 45 seconds.
The aroma is a little loam-y but I’m not getting a strong earthy flavor, which I’m very happy about. What little earthiness I taste is more like a mushroom than it is like ‘earth.’ Yay! The flavor is sweet, like dates and honey. I’m also getting an interesting contrast to the sweetness, it almost tastes ‘salty’ but without tasting briny or fish-like, it’s almost as if someone might have sprinkled a couple of grains of salt into my cup.
It’s a remarkably smooth tea with no indication of astringency or bitterness. As I continue to sip, I pick up on notes of leather.
Before I knew it, that first cup was gone!
The second cup was a bit more earthy in flavor than the first, tasting a bit more like the loam notes that I smell. Still pleasantly sweet, I notice the notes of leather starting to develop, and I’m also picking up on notes of raw bittersweet cacao. I’m not getting any of that contrasting salt note that I noticed in the first cup. The flavor has deepened and intensified from the first – it’s as if they’re two totally different teas!
Later infusions were less earthy, it seemed like that second cup was the earthiest of the bunch and then after that cup, the earthy notes began to wane. I think the third and fourth cups were my favorite, the flavors were deep yet mellow with notes of dark chocolate, dates, and honey. I picked up on a mid-note of leather with an undertone of mushroom.
A very pleasant cup … oh-so-smooth!
Yun Nan Dian Hong Black Tea Golden Tip from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
Dian Hong black tea, also known as Yunnan black tea, is one of China’s most famous black teas. This is the highest grade Dian Hong generally available in China – called Golden Tip Dian Hong. It has lots of orange pekoe in the dried tea, and brews into an absolutely great tasting, golden coloured tea, with very rich taste and aroma.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I reviewed this tea a couple of years ago, but I’m revisiting it because it’s a new year and a new harvest! Plus, it’s a chance for me to taste this amazing tea again – how could I resist?
Because mmmmmM! So good!
Rich! Smooth! Delicious.
When I first opened the sample pouch, I could smell notes of sweet molasses. The dry leaf aroma reminds me a bit of freshly baked cookies – like rich molasses spice cookies without the strong notes of spice. I can almost smell the cake-y notes of the cookie in the leaves!
To brew this, I used my Breville One-Touch. The sampler pouch is just the right amount for my Breville, so I poured the contents of the pouch into the basket and added 500ml of water to the jug. I set the parameters for 212°F and 2 1/2 minutes – and the tea came out perfectly!
This is a wonderful, full-flavored tea. It’s nicely round. It’s got a really robust flavor with notes of earth and leather with hints of smoke and spice. And then I pick up on the sweet molasses-y, caramel-y notes with hints of cream. It’s got a really delectable balance between savory and sweet.
A truly remarkable black tea – definitely something I’d recommend to all tea drinkers who are looking for something exceptionally excellent!
Barb’s Breakfast Black Tea from White Two Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: White Two Tea
Tea Description:
The Barb’s breakfast black is an homage to my mother, who despite years of being baited with high-end Puer teas, still prefers to start her day with a heavily brewed pot of black tea in the morning. This Yunnan black tea blend is built to survive British style steeping as well as gongfu style brewing techniques. Well balanced daily drinking black tea with a classic style, versatile enough to enjoy with breakfast on the go or in a slow and quiet tea session.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about White Two Tea’s Tea Club Subscription here.
Taster’s Review:
A really lovely Yunnan!
This isn’t as robust as I expected it to be. Usually, I’m expecting a real wallop of flavor from a Yunnan tea, but this is more subdued. It’s like a mellow version of Yunnan – smooth, rich, flavorful, but without the gusto that I was expecting.
That’s not to say that this isn’t a really good tea – it is!
It’s just that with a Breakfast Blend moniker, I expected it to have the kind of kick that breakfast blends usually deliver. This is smoother and mellower, more like a gentle nudge awake rather than a swift kick in the pants.
I really love the smooth flavor of this. It’s nicely round. It has light notes of spice, like white pepper and hints of cinnamon. And I find that these gentle spice notes becoming more lovely with each sip. Not more intense, really, but more clearly defined.
I think that I’d be more likely to reach for this tea as a late morning tea or perhaps an early afternoon tea rather than my breakfast blend. For a breakfast blend, I prefer really strong teas with some edge, and this doesn’t have that kind of edgy flavor to it. This is more refined, like something you’d want after you’re already awake and alert, and now you want something to please the taste buds, because this tea certainly does that!
Rather than brewing this gongfu style as suggested in the above description, I brewed it in my Breville One-Touch. (I don’t like to brew black teas gongfu style, mostly because I don’t like to scorch the fingertips with the hot gaiwan.) I found it next to impossible to measure out a bamboo scoop of this tea because of the curly leaves, so instead, I poured the leaves into my hand and eyeballed a bamboo scoop measurement. I eyeballed two such measurements and put them both into the basket of the Breville, and then poured 500ml of water into the jug. The thermometer was set for 212°F and the timer for 2 1/2 minutes.
The result is a cup of perfection! Smooth with very little astringency. Flavorful with notes of earth, spice and leather. Hints of fruit in the background that continue to develop as I sip, and now that I’m more than halfway through my mug of tea, I taste a distinct plum-like note that is quite nice. I also taste distant notes of flower.
A really nice, complex cup of Yunnan!
Eggnog Yunan Black Tea from 52Teas
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Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Organic Royal Golden Yunnan infused with organic eggnog flavors, cinnamon chips, marigold petals and a touch of nutmeg. This long, tippy-leafed Yunan steeps a smooth cup with rich aroma and superb taste. The hints of creamy eggnog and spices just makes it an extra special treat.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about 52Teas’ subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
After reading the various tasting notes on Steepster about this tea, I decided to let it cool a bit before I started to formulate my opinion about it.
The aroma of the tea wafting out of my teacup made the waiting difficult because it smells so good. I can smell notes of creamy eggnog with notes of cinnamon and nutmeg. The fragrance of the cinnamon is especially praise-worthy in my opinion.
Cinnamon can sometimes come off as a very aggressive scent (and don’t get me wrong, I love the strong smell of cinnamon!) but here it’s so pleasantly delicate, reminiscent of what I might smell when I prepare snickerdoodle blondies. (Seriously, try that recipe, you’ll be glad you did.)
This is a really tasty tea. I like the Yunnan base. It’s a strong, robust tea and it has a really pleasing flavor. It’s an earthy, slightly peppery, rich tasting tea: a really good Yunnan – one that I’d be happy to drink as a pure tea.
Some would think that it’s wrong to flavor a tea like this, but I’m not one of them. I don’t agree that the only teas that should be flavored are the ones that aren’t good enough to be consumed as a pure tea. I think that if you start with better ingredients (including a better base tea), you’re going to have a better product. This is true of whatever you’re making, whether you’re making a soup or a batch of cookies or a cup of tea. You need quality ingredients to produce a quality product.
And I’m very happy with the quality of this Yunnan.
The flavoring is not quite as strong as I expected it to be. The eggnog flavor is definitely there but this isn’t as creamy as I would have expected it to be. I guess if I’m to offer a criticism about the tea, that would be it: it lacks a little in the creaminess department. When one pours a glass of eggnog, they are anticipating a very creamy drink. This just isn’t as creamy as the “Eggnog” part of the name of this tea would imply.
At the same time, I find it hard to actually complain about this because I think that if this were creamier or more eggnog-y, it would interfere with my enjoyment of the Yunnan tea and I really like the Yunnan!
The notes of spice are really nicely done here: accent notes of cinnamon and nutmeg. Nothing overpowering. The spices are but a hint of flavor, just as it would be if you were to drink eggnog. The eggnog recipes that I know of don’t include cinnamon usually – usually nutmeg but not cinnamon – but I like that hint of cinnamon and I really like the way it plays with the natural spice notes of the Yunnan.
Overall, I enjoyed this tea. I found that adding a small amount of half & half (about half a teaspoon!) to the cup amplified the creaminess factor significantly without otherwise altering the flavor. I still got that really lovely Yunnan flavor, wonderfully warm hints of cinnamon and nutmeg and more eggnog flavor with the dash of dairy, so I highly recommend this addition to this tea!
Duchess Black Tea from White 2 Tea Co.
Tea Type:
Black Tea
Where To Buy:
White 2 Tea Co.
Product Description:
Just the tip of the leaf is used in the production of the Duchess black tea, which is made in a traditional Jinmaofeng [gold tip] style. This tea is suitable for both heavy brewing and gongfu style, depending on personal preference. The fragrances range from sweet and floral to mint.
Tasters Review:
This tip heavy tea is grown and produced in Northern Yunnan province. Boy oh boy do I love a good Yunnan Tea! This tea lived up to it’s roots…literally! With aromas of malty-goodness and florally-sweet you can’t go wrong! The flavor of the sips I took were well rounded and a bit bakey but still sweet on the first infusion and less baked-goods with more of a floral and sweet flavor on the second infusion. It had a medium-dark color liquor in my cup with it fading just a tad on the second infusion. It does leave a slight aftertaste but it’s a sweet one that makes you want to drink even more.
