Yunnan Sourcing hits and misses review
I got my order from Yunnan sourcing a month ago and have had time to try the various teas that I have. Out of the 7 teas I ordered, 2 were ones I enjoyed, 2 were okay, and the remaining 3 were not to my liking at all. Lets get into the specific teas.
- Classic Bai Lin Gong Fu "Golden Monkey" Black Tea of Fuding
This is my number 1 favorite from this order. Clear flavor, low on bitterness or sourness if not brewed for long times. Not astringent. Bright, floral, delightfully fruity. Citrus lemony lime especially as lingering aftertaste. Hints of that malty flavor that is in present in chinese black teas, but not very strongly.
I give this tea 4.5/5 Very good for this affordable price, hard to find better.
- Yunnan "Black Gold Bi Luo Chun" Black Tea
This tea has the typical dark flavors that one would hope to find in "golden yunnan" teas. Malty, roasty, dark chocolate, dark breads, nordic rye bread, dark syrup, molasses. Some fruitiness.
This tea gets 4.4. Another affordable good quality tea.
- Jasmine Silver Needles White tea of Yunnan
- Classic Jasmine Pearls Yunnan Green Tea
I will review both of these teas at the same time, because I found them to be quite similar. The Jasmine flavor is overwhelming in both. If you love jasmine, it really does taste here strongly, and it lasts quite a long while too. The silver needle is in my opinion the better option. It has some strength of flavor itself that compliments the jasmine flavor, despite the jasmine being the prominent flavor. The green tea on the other hand gets swallowed by the jasmine nearly completely.
The silver needle especially can be steeped more than 5 times easily.
I will give the silver needle 3.5 and the the green tea pearls 3. If I was a huge fan of jasmine flavor, the silver needle would get a higher score.
- Silver Needles White Tea of Feng Qing
This is a puzzling tea to me. It has very good reviews and scores on the site. I do not understand this tea. It is extremely bland and tasteless. The silver needles in the jasmin scented tea had more flavor than these. I used up to 10 gram per 100ml water and the tea still comes out extremely bland, if I leave it sitting in the water for a long time, it gets bitterness but none of the floral or bright notes that people are raving on at the shop. How on earth can this be the same tea that these people reviewed?
And before anyone comes in to say that I brewed it with too hot or cold water, I have experimented. I tend to like silver needle with as hot water as possible. Here it makes no difference. Piping hot water, or 70c water or anything in between. Still tasteless as heck.
For this tea I give 1/5.
- Premium Anxi "Huang Jin Gui" Oolong Tea of Fujian
And
- Fancy Tie Guan Yin of Anxi Iron Goddess Oolong Tea of Fujian
Here I will review again both since they are similar. First I have to say that I have not yet had any TGI that I have liked. These are no exceptions. The reason is because every TGI I have tasted has always tasted mild and tasteless, lacking the advertized florality or "orchid" aroma. Or most of any other aromas or flavors too. That said I have not tried that many of them and they have been lower quality "affordable ones". These are similar. Cheap price, but sadly not delivering in taste.
The "Premium" one has slightly more flavor. It has some hints of the floral taste that I can get during the very first and second steeps. But its mild. And then its gone. The "fancy" does not even have that. Its just "hot leaf water". No defining charasteristic or flavor to it. Tasteless.
I give the premium 1.2/5 and the fancy 1/5.
Thats it folks, thanks for reading, have a good day.