First up is the Yunnan Black (3 g/8 oz-ish/3.75 minutes).
Note that the actual leaves do not look as good as the picture on the website, but I guess that is to be expected.
The liquor is more orange than brown or red. It has a rather thin mouth feel, the malty depths I find typical of this type are not there. No innate sweetness, kind of bland, suitable for adulteration. I prefer my daily black tea to be strong and sweet, sweet with the benefit of a judicious allotment of sugar, so while this one is clearly not a sophisticated variety, it will not go unused by me.
The Zarafina didn't like it.
Next is the Select Yunnan Black (3 g/8 oz-ish/3.5 minutes).
The tea has more depth to it, notes of the sweet amber/honey that I find so endearing. As it cools it becomes more flavorful, though I still can not taste the "pepper" that I often see attributed to Yunnan hong cha.
Of the three, this is the closest to my regular dian hong.
I saved the best for last, the Yunnan Gold Rings.
This time I tried a different approach with the brewing parameters, using 4 g of leaf for 3 minutes. I did not prefer this way. The flavor did not increase, and it became unpleasantly astringent.
So I made a fresh batch with my standard 3 g/4 min. This was not the best pure bud Yunnan I've tried, but it was very good. Naturaly sweet, malty, and smooth. The "honey" lingers in the mouth for several minutes after.
Wet leaves, clock wise from top: Gold Rings, Black, Select Black.
1 comment:
"For me, when it comes to black tea, its dian hong cha or gtfo." made me lol or rofl or some other derivitive.
Now I'm thirsty for some dian hong.
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