Yummy Yunnans

When ordering your Pu's you might consider the other wonderful Yunnan teas which aren't fermented. There are other previous posts but I'd thought I'd add my dos centavos. Yunnan black is actually drinkable by my wife. She can't tolerate any smokey teas which is typical of the Fujian oolongs. It has a floral scent she even likes compared to even a Taiwan floral oolong which she hates. Chunmee is the easy available Yunnan green and may be too astringent for most tastes. You can get green leaf with white tip which I describe as a Bi Lo Chun with attitude. The black gold is just absolutely amazing. Others describe it as a malty taste but to me it is smokey with prominent vanilla aftertones. This tea is so good I could drink it as a desert. I've always wondered about the Chinese use of red to describe an infusion. With this tea and the black that's the only way you could describe it. The infusion is so dark red it is bordering on non transparency. I'm not sure of the origin but another interesting tea is Zui Mei Ren. It absolutely looks like seed pods which has no visible seams. There is no indication it is a rolled leaf. Even after three 5 minute boiling infusions only a few unfurled into a leaf. I'm wondering if this is a compressed pu'rh green tea. I've never seen a tea that looks like this or behaves like this in a pot. Yunnan is noted for hand crafted teas but this is amazing.

Jim

Reply to
Space Cowboy
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I Googled this tea name Jim and do not find it...where did you get it? Sounds different.

Melinda

Reply to
Melinda

I try to match the characters on the package with the Pinyin with no luck. I've had this problem in the past where commercial fonts can be almost anything. I was hoping somebody could supply the tonals. It was a sample that came with the last pu shipment from China. I'll order some more next time. The physical characteristics are absolutely unique.

Jim

Mel> I Googled this tea name Jim and do not find it...where did you get it?

boiling

Reply to
Space Cowboy

Can you get a picture of the characters for us to look at; I'm sure one of us can help to translate. I am quite curious as I will be traveling in Yunnan this summer.

Reply to
Mydnight

If it's any help I ran the pinyin you gave through babelcarp and it gave some of the words as pertaining to Drunken Concubine but that's an oolong. You are referring to a puer right? Anyhow...yes please do try to post the characters and a pic of the leaf if you can, I am interested in seeing what the leaf looks like myself, sounds fascinating.

I love tea...I learn something new literally every day. What fun!

Melinda

Reply to
Melinda

Everytime I get a web camera working on a computer something happens. So I can't take any photos now. There is a place in town that does it so one of these days if I get motivated. I checked the dealer's price list and he identifies it as a Fujian oolong. Not bad $40/kilo. I was hoping Mydnight came across this in one of the open air stalls. It's neat in it's own right but nothing to loose sleep over. It reminds me of the first time I every saw Yinzhen or compressed tea. I second the pu seller BabyWrapper recommendation on Ebay. He keeps expanding his selection. This week he sent email saying he'll be in remote western Yunnan on a buying trip and unreachable till next week. Some of his identical items have appeared on TaoBao by other sellers. The prices are similar so he isn't gouging. If you buy more than one then the shipping becomes a little more reasonable. You can save a few dollars by bidding but I just Buy It Now. He is selling limited items from Arizona so you can save on shipping.

Jim

Melinda wrote:

Reply to
Space Cowboy

Enjoy your trip. When you get out in the countryside you will find that Yunnan does not have a large variety of tea, in fact almost all of the tea produced there comes from the large leaf trees and bushes used to make puer. The reason for that is sunlight. Unlike the rest of the tea producing areas in China, which are almost always overcast. It is rare to see an unfiltered blue sky in the those areas, except in Yunnan. All of the tea, not matter how it ends up, begins the same way in Yunnan, as mao cha. Small farmers pick the tea, do some rudimentary processing, which includes whithering, artificially heating the tea in some way to stop the oxidation, and then sun drying it, thus mao cha. The mao cha is collected by the tea producers and made into green, black, cooked and raw puer. The farmers try for a two leaf and a bud configuration. The bushs can produce some smaller leaves and buds early in the spring if they are picked early in the morning and some of the buds are separated after picking. As mao cha those buds can be larger that the Fujian white tea buds, and much richer in anti-oxidents the those white tea buds that were tested against leaf green tea by Oregon State for the much hyped white tea research, and a lot cheaper to but.

You will find that you can go most places in Yunnan via paved roads not, though they are so winding it is easy to get car sick. My advise is to go lightly on the goat's feet and bamboo worm dishes.

Reply to
Austin Hodge

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