Tea Session: Emperor's Yellow Tea

For the tea of the day, we have Emperor’s Yellow Tea from Yunnan Sourcing.

From Yunnan Sourcing

We are proud to offer a Certified Organic YellowTea from Yunnan.
This tea was grown in the area of Simao and was harvested in April 2017.
This is a "Pure Bud" Yellow Tea (单芽黄茶) made from a 50/50 blend Yunkang #10, and Xue Ya #100 varietals growing at and altitude 1300 meters (4300 feet) on the southern slope Ma Wei Mountain (just west of Pu'Er City). Fresh leaves from both varietals are picked and blended together before processing. The blend of the two varietals gives a balanced complex taste and increases the number of steeps that the tea can be brewed.
The processing is similar to black tea with sun withering, rolling, oxidization, and finally drying. The main difference between the Yellow tea and Black tea processing done by our organic tea growers is the sun withering stage and the oxidization stage are quite a bit shorter for the Yellow tea. You will notice the dry leaf of the Yellow tea is tending to be more grey and less gold as compared to our Pure Bud Black Tea, and the brewed tea soup is more yellow-gold (as opposed to gold-orange) and the brewed leaves are more greenish.
Our Emperor's Yellow Tea is incredibly sweet and complex, with notes of flowers and sugarcane, with a oolong-like mouth-feel. It is neither astringent nor bitter, and can be brewed 6 to 8 times gong fu style. We recommend using 85-90C water and brew gong fu style.
Our Yunnan Sourcing Certified Organic teas are certified organic by EcoCert SA and are certified organic to international standards (EcoCert is IFOAM accredited).

Tasting Notes

The leaves feel like a cousin to silver needle leaves (which are soft and velour like) This one tastes of bittersweet cocoa with hints of orange/citrus and some florals. It’s an easy tea to drink with a mild viscosity reminiscent of very light roasted oolong, but parts of it remind me of a green/white tea.

• Brewstye: Gongfu
• Tea: 5grams water: 150ml
• Temp: 185F
• Time: 20s, 30s, 40, 60

The color of the tea brother is a golden, orange amber.

The wet leaf smells of chocolate, malt, cocoa, orange. Later infusions bring out slight florals.

The flavor ranges from bittersweet chocolate to cocoa & florals depending on the steep. There’s a mild viscosity.

Overall, I really like this tea. You need to be careful on the temperature. I brewed once over 185F and it came out just a tiny bit bitter. This really needs to be brewed closer to green tea temps.

Flavors: Cocoa, Dark Bittersweet, Floral, Orange