Yunnan Again

I thought about what my mom said about Yunnan being smooth, and still don't know about this version. I have the used leaves drying in my cup sized infuser, and they smell good. I was letting the tea roam around in my mouth a little bit, just to see if I could get anything else out of the flavor, and it's not really there. Or it's just subtle to the point of I-can't-notice-it. I was so excited about the Yunnan Jig, and now I have this other Yunnan, and it doesn't make me so happy. Sigh.

Golden Monkey, Mighty Leaf style

Well, Golden Monkey is Golden Monkey. Good stuff! This one had a bit of aroma to it, which is nice. I don't have a whole lot to say about this one, though the flavor was light, and it was smoother.

Black Gold

I must be doing something wrong. This tea was subtly different from the Yunnan, but not a lot different. I was expecting the taste to different, and it really wasn't. Maybe a bit milder, but I did use a tiny bit less tea. I was thinking how my mother said the Yunnan Jig was smooth, but I don't remember thinking that when I was drinking the Yunnan yesterday. The leaves don't seem to dry in these pouches, either. And I still wonder about those little blue measuring spoons. They're nice, but if you put one in every bag, how many spoons is that? A lot of waste, if you ask me. And their usefulness seems a bit limited, too, given the different densities of tea leaves for each type. And another thing I wonder about is the labels. I've found that each tea has a specific amount to steep that is unique to each tea. Some require more, others less, to get the right flavor out of it. They should tell you (or give a guideline) as to the proper amount for each cup. They do talk about 12 ounce cups, but I don't know how much that is...is that a standard coffee cup? Yes, I use a coffee cup to drink my tea. It even lists different kinds of coffee on it. So anyway, I need a scale. Right now I'm eyeballing it, to determine how much is appropriate. Some day I'll get a scale. "Tea Nerdness"...

Yunnan

So I had some Yunnan. Nothing to write home about. It tastes similar to the Assam tea that I drink at home from Teavana. The leaves are long, unbroken, and almost grey-ish green-ish, with some golden flakes of leaves in there, too. I wasn't sure how much to put in my little cup sized tea strainer. I may have put too much in there to get the flavor, and just made strong tea...but not too strong tea. I'll try the "Black Gold" next, just because the name sounds interesting, and the Golden Monkey is just waiting for me...ok, so I've named 3 of the 5 teas that I got. Darjeeling is one more, and then...I can't remember the other one.

And another thing: they give you two free samples, and one of the samples isn't the one I ordered. I already have the Green Dragon one...whatever the full name is. Why would I order that?

I have so much of this tea I need to figure out a way to nicely store it at home and have some for work, too. Back to my tins idea. Sigh. I just don't want to have to buy some when I get them...but then I have to wash them, relabel them...ugh. And the ones I have are only one ounce anyway. Ugh.

I got my tea today

So I got my tea today. I was outside playing with my son when the UPS truck showed up. He's 3 years old, and very smart. He said I was excited to get my tea. He even said that to the UPS driver: my daddy's excited to get his tea! He wanted me to open the box right there on the on the driveway, so I did. But I had us go inside to actually open the packs. So they're soft, envelope packs, and I apparently got 5 of them. I don't have them with me right now, so I can't say what they are. Anyway, I opened each one to smell them, and they all smelled the same, which I was not expecting. One cool thing was that the bags have this little blue plastic measuring spoon, with markings for 5 ml, or 10 ml, a teaspoon and tablespoon, I believe. But I'm not sure how useful in measuring tea this thing is, given the way tea doesn't have a uniform density, like sugar or water.

Maybe having them in the tins (like Adagio) does something...I don't know. My son picked out the Yunnan for me to drink first. A few of them were really dusty in the bags (it was dusty inside the bags :-P). I wonder when I get larger amounts from Adagio if it'll be the same. Hmmm...

I was thinking that Adigio could sell the first order of teas in tins, and then subsequent orders for a little bit less, and send them in the envelopes, so that way you get them on how cool it is to get the tins, and then make it cheaper to stay with them. And you keep the labels and types of teas consistent over time. And the wastage isn't such a problem, either. I have tins I don't know what to do with, and they're not recyclable. Same issue with the Twinings teas that are sold in stores in tins.