Yunnan Gold

Tea: Yunnan Gold
Vendor: Teance
Price: $15.50/ 2 oz.
Source: Yunan, China
Vendor Description: Fermented golden tea buds harvested from ancient trees grown in Yunnan, China, create this unique and highly prized tea. Picked by local indigenous peoples where tea first originated thousands of years ago, Yunnan tea processing was considered a protected State secret until the 20th century. This tea stimulates the palate with its peppery, brisk, and full bodied taste.

When I first picked this up I did not have much of a notion of what Yunan Gold was. I had heard quite a few people though talk about how much they enjoyed this tea though so I figured it was worth a try.

The dry leaves for yunan gold are very different than most of the other teas that I have tried recently, they are very full leaves which have been twisted into an assortment of twists and turns. Because of this it is a low density tea, like a bai mu dan. The edges of the leaves are a golden color like the name suggests, but the rest of the leaf is a darker black color giving this tea a very interesting appearance. The contrast of the gold and black in twisted shapes makes this a very visually appealing tea.

This tea is very bold and full bodied, it has a definite strength to it. When you first taste it you notice the strength of the black tea along with the smoothness of a black tea. The taste fills out your mouth when you take your first sip and gives you a strong long lasting flavor. There is a light astringency and no bitterness to it, although that is somewhat expected of a black tea.

The second infusion of this tea posessed the same strong dark color and power of the first infusion. The taste did not even waver one bit. And at this point the leaves had barely even begun to unravel. I made successive infusions for a third, fourth and fifth infusion and there was no sign of the flavor letting up. Each cup posessed the same strength and boldness. This tea can go for quite a while and continue to perform amazingly.

I also tried this as an iced tea, and it had a very refreshing sweetness to it and I can see myself making quite a few pitchers of it as the weather starts to warm up.

Rating: 10/10

Conclusion: This tea is very solid and bold and produces cup after cup with no sign of letting up easily. This makes this tea a very good value for the price. The rumors I had heard about this being an excellent tea proved to be true and it produces a great value as well.