Cindy of Cuppa Tea & a Blog - who shall henceforth be known as the TEA FAIRY - sent me this wonderful little package of Yunnan teas to taste.
I've been meaning to do a real scientific type tasting of all four to compare but first I didn't have time, and then it just got so hot that tea in the afternoon didn't appeal at all. (I did mention that it's hot here, didn't I?)
Well, I finally got the packages out and decided to taste two of them today, and then maybe two tomorrow. For those of you who don't know the history of this, Cindy first turned me on to Yunnan gold when she posted about her search for that elusive hint of cocoa in a yunnan tea she'd run out of. These that she sent me come close, she says. She's such a generous tea fairy.
S'wenyway, to the tasting. I tried the Inperial Gold Tips from Yunnansourcing, which is selling on EBay (not sure how to find it there, maybe Cindy will clarify that for us), and Black Dragon, a golden yunnan which I think came from China but I'm not sure. These two teas are so different, and yet, they're both definitely yunnans. With the Yunnansourcing tea ... I finally tasted it! That hint of cocoa. It was in the smell, more than the taste, and that translated to a mild aftertaste of cocoa, very mild but very pleasant. The taste itself was much like the Adagio Yunnan Gold, which up till now has been my favorite.
I have a new favorite now. This Black Dragon stuff ... I am totally in love with this tea. It's got all the character of the other yunnans, but the flavor is ... I wish I had the right "tea afficianado" words to use here ... I would say it's a little smokier, but that might not be right. In any case, it's wonderful, very smooth, very comforting. I wish it were a cold winter night with rain falling outside my window. And me, sitting in front of a roaring fire, wrapped in a bigfuzzy blanket. That's the way to properly savor this tea.
The other two teas will have to wait for another day. But thank you Tea Fairy, thank you so much!!
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