gung fu yunnan black?

Bruce:

I am a big fan of Yunnan black and green tea. Yunnan tea produced from

High grade Yunnan teas are not cheap at all. When you use Gon fu style method, you need more tea leaves and your target is more infusion. they call the highest grade Golden Yunnan(very bold, golden looking leaves) and Imperial Yunnan(bold khaki color with many golden tips). The first one is more expensive then second one. There are also King Yunnan FTGFOP1, Grand Yunnan TGFOP, Yunnan FOP and Yunnan Grade 102, Yunnan FOP golden grade 101. Golden Yunnan can be also from small leaves and better, example- ITC's Golden Yunnan.

I don't use Gon fu method for my Yunnan but I do re-steep my Golden Yunnan 4-5 times. I have heard, Yunnan Grade 102 is more practical for Gon fu because this leaves are tightly rolled and infuse slowly. Ripon Vienna,VA

Ripon,

I am curious about something, many places say that Yunnan Gold is a very rare tea. For example pu-erhtea.com says that only 2000kg is produced per year. The really curious thing is that I see it available for sale on almost every loose leaf site. If it is so rare why is it so available? I doesn't make sense to me.

Mike Petro snipped-for-privacy@pu-erh.net

Mike:

Good question. The answer is the same- More Darjeeling teas are available compare with the total Darjeeling production. I am not sure that Yunnan Gold total production is only 2000kg but I do know Pu-erhtea.net or com Yunnan Gold is not the highest grade Golden Yunnan. The best Yunnan gold experienced i ever had with is with- Imperial Tea court's Golden Yunnan and another batch from China through a friend(exactly same looking tea leaves and taste). Interesting part is, only ITC offer this kind of small Golden Tips, tightly rolled Yunnan. No other vendors offer this same quality. If this is the highest grade Golden Yunnan(according to my knowledge, ITC Golden Yunnan is best so far) only produced 2000kg, that makes sense to me. This Yunnan has no comparison with any other Golden Yunnan.

I see the big difference between ITC Golden Yunnan(small, tightly rolled leaves) and all other vendors(Large leaves, compare to ITC much loosely rolled) Golden Yunnan. ITC Golden Yunnan is more malty and smooth(with very complex flavored) then other's Golden Yunnan.

I have contacted with China Tushu Yunnan Tea Export & Import Corp. and trying to collect some information about Yunnan tea plantation and specially about one of my favorite Yunnan black and green tea. I will come back to you, once I have the information.

Ripon Vienna,VA