Tea Review: Yunnan Black Organic 2018 from Mandragora

This tea is from Mandragora Turku. And it is from a new supplier so you can’t have tasted it before. =) Nor can you find it from the Mandragora web shop. At this moment the tea is in slightly different pouch than the standards they use in Mandragora.

Fast review

Yunnan Black Tea is an organically grown tea from Yunnan province in China. This is a broken grade tea with some buds. No information is given about what leaves have been used to make this tea. Fresh leaves have a sweet and malty odor.

The steeped liquid has a strong body and it is also very sweet. Its astrigency is also very potent. This tea reminds me of cocoa with only little sugar in them. You just need quite a large amount of leaves to make a decent cup.

Leaves can be steeped up to four times. But the first two infusions will have all of the sweetness  and “cocoaness”. Later ones are simply astrigent. The taste does not evolve. It simply diminishes.

 

Pouch and instructions

This tea is packed in a double layered paper pouch which is made of two different types of paper. Inner paper is some kind of butter paper that insulates moisture and air. I dislike these papers since (I think) they tend to give the tea a “papery” dry taste and odor. Oh… and there IS an aluminium foil layer between the papers. So the insulation is quite complete. Unfortunately that does not prevent the tea from acquiring that papery taste if it’s stored in the pouch for longer stretches of time. Please remember to store this tea in a better container. It is worth it!

Instructions are made with pictograms, words and numbers. Given infusion time is from one to two minutes,  the temperature is 75-85 celsius degrees and the amount of leaves is from one to two teaspoons. Again you have to presume that the volume of water is one normal cup (1-2 deciliters). Nothing is said about how many times this tea can be steeped. So lets try it out!

Fresh leaves

The odor from the pouch is very sweet and slightly malty. The sweetness is somewhere between brown sugar and maltyness. The sweetness suggests that at least some buds have been used to make this tea. There is no hint of grassiness nor any other fragrances in the dry leaves.

Leaves are uniformly of broken grade. You can find some longer leaves in the mix but those are very rare. Colors in the leaves are dark or even black with a few yellowish brown leaves between them. Finish of the leaves is dull/unshiny.

Fresh leaves in my gaiwan

Steeping

I did my first steeping with 70 degree water for two minutes. The smell of the infusion is heavy with both cocoaness and sweetness. Just like the leaves were.

Two minutes later I get my first taste of this Yunnanic tea.

Even two minute steeping with one spoonful has left the infusion little light to my taste. But the infusion is still robust and sweet. The aroma of cocoa is definitely the strongest element in it and the next one is the honey-like sweetness. The tactile feeling is slightly astrigent even for this slightly under-steeped infusion.

I used both my gaiwan and lid-mug for this tasting/review. On my normal lid-mug I did infusions with one spoonfull and on gaiwan I doubled the amount of leaves and boy did that give A LOT more astrigency to to the infusion. Funnily though the aroma of cocoa did not get any stronger. It actually diminished. Also using hotter water seems to bring out only astrigency.

The second infusion is also fine. The basic structure of the tea stays the same and doesn’t really change in any way. Later infusions just bring out more and more astrigency while the taste is almost totally gone.

First steeping and the honey brown liquid

Judgement (and alter-steeping)

Teas from Yunnan are one of my favorite tea groups especially in black and smoked categories. And although I did expect more out of this one it really was a lovely tea. The smooth cocoa aroma with the honey sweetness. Tasty! From time to time I find these cocoa tasting teas but this one was the first one to be sweet.

Unfortunately I expected a lot more of this tea. Some lingering feel or developing aroma would have been nice. Still this is a fine tea to have. You can try out different steepings by changing the temperature and time. It can bring out new aromas from the tea.

 

Final review

Pouch and instructions: 3/5 standard pouch with nice instructions .
Tea – fresh: 4/5 malty and sweet.
Tea – infusion – color n feel: 2/5 warm looking and slightly milky.
Tea – infusion – taste n progression: 3/5 nice taste,no progression.
Bonus: Wonderful cocoa-likeness!

Overall: 3 / 5

Tea review: Yunnan Pine Needle 2018 from TakeT

This tea is from TakeT take away tea shop from Jyväskylä, Finland. They also have a nice webshop you should really check out.

Fast review

Yunnan Pine Needle is a full bodied black tea which is easy to make and enjoy. The taste and aroma are strong but sweet without any noticeable bitterness. This is a good tea to enjoy while writing a novel or working on schoolwork. Leaves can be steeped a few times depending on your taste.

Pouch and instructions

Teas from TakeT are sealed inside a plastic-metal-paper pouches which have a self-seal.
While the pouch is paper from the outside the inside is metal film coated with plastic. This is a good way to ensure your tea stays fresh for a while longer. You don’t have to take the tea out of the pouch to store it. For me this is quite convenient.

Instructions are simple: one tea spoon, 2-4 minutes and 100 degrees of celsius. You have to presume that this is meant for 1,5-2 deciliters of water. As the tea is strongly shaped the spoon is quite useless tool for measuring the fresh tea leaves. In the end I just poured them in the strainer of my tea pot.

Fresh tea leaves

Fresh leaves

As I open the white pouch the first odor is strong but pleasantly soft and sweet. Even sweeter than black teas from Yunnan usually are. I’d say this one is malty sweet with a hint of brown sugar. What a nice and well rounded odor! Count me interested.

Leaves are pine needle shaped as promised. And their color is a mixture of dark green, almost black leaves and yellow leaves. Longest needles are about four centimeters long. Very beautiful mixture of younger leaf buds and longer older leaves. The shaping is always of an interest for me since it both gives the leaves an aesthetic values and brings forth different aromas inside the cells than simple CTC-bruising (Cruch Tear Curl -method that is used in the “western” tea countries).

Steeping

I put a heapful (about three large dinner spoons) of long needle-like leaves on the open strainer inside my tea pot (Hario 3 dl glass pot with a large open strainer). Freshly boiled water over them and now just wait for two minutes. I usually dislike drowning leaves in hot water since in my opinion it “burns” them but I’m more confident to do this with Yunnanic teas. In my experience they rarely “burn”.

After two minutes the brew is ready. The liquid is cloudy reddish brown. A really warm looking liquid that is just waiting for you to take a sip.

Mellow. That is the word that comes into my mind from the first taste of this tea. Taste is not strong but it is there. It is hard to characterize. The odor from the liquid is quite similar to the fresh leaves. It is sweet but it doesn’t come out in the taste. After few sips the tea is still the same – strong body that can be felt all around your mouth but no upper or lower notes of aroma in it.

The aftertaste is as round as the odor promised but also slightly astrigent. I can’t gather anymore tactile sensations or aromas after it.

Judgement (and alter-steeping)

This isn’t a particularly (or at all) sweet tea. The tea has a full body with a slight astrigency. And that’s about it. A good tea when you have something with it. But slightly annoying to drink just by itself. Still there is something in there that keeps me returning to this tea. As if I just haven’t found out how to steep it in correct manner. Maybe it’s playing with me. =/ I’m baffled.

I had time for a little test and I wanted to see if I could steep a more flavorful liquid with lower temperature and with more leaves. More leaves bring out the astrigency and give the tea even fuller body but lowering the temperature doesn’t seem to bring out any further aromas or sweetness. Even more bafflement!

 

Final review

Pouch and instructions: 3/5 excellent pouch but lousy instructions.
Tea – fresh: 4/5 sweet and full bodied, beautifully shaped.
Tea – infusion – color n feel: 4/5 warm looking and beautiful.
Tea – infusion – taste n progression: 3/5 good base but no progression or notes.
Bonus: It baffled me!

Overall: 4 / 5