While in France I was able to try this tea. It was very good!!! It's a pricey tea, 20 tea bags is $13.00. However, it is really good tea...and I love the mesh bags. This would be a tea for true tea lovers- the purest. I am not a purest when it comes to teas, but I can appreciate this flavor. It is not some thrown together tea. This is the REAL stuff!!!
The loose pouch of 3.5oz is $47.00! Most of their other bagged 3.5oz tea is around $15.00, so not all the tea is super pricey.
This tea is from France and there are two shops in New York as well.
From the Website:
This exceptional tea is to black tea what the Silver Needle is to white tea: an essential for all lovers of fine teas.
The infused leaf has a powerful, deep aroma, with almost meaty, truffle-like notes of damp earth and rich foliage. The liquor is dark, almost black, and its full, generous fragrance evokes cocoa. Undoubtedly the best of the Yunnans.
A very high quality black China tea, it will stun black tea lovers with its complex, powerful aroma.
Origin: China
Tea color: black
Steeping Time: 3’-5’
Water temperature: 185°F
Dry leaves
Appearance: a spectacular plucking made up exclusively of very long golden buds.
Scents: an animal note is joined by the honey and floral fragrances of Yunnan
Brewed leaves (infusion)
Color: very dark brown
Scents: the undergrowth and animal notes dominate (wet wicker, leather)
Liquor
Color: almost black
Texture in the mouth: evokes velvet with a delicate astringency
Flavor: a touch of bitterness
Aromas: wonderfully rich! Wicker, mushroom, truffle, tobacco, mocha, beeswax, leather... just a few of the notes offered by this type of tea
Aromatic profile and length in the mouth: full and well balanced, the aromas remain in the mouth for many minutes after the last mouthful.
Story: Like the other black teas of the province, this tea is made solely for export and even though destined for “barbarians” it is manufactured with the same expertise habitually employed for the best green and white teas. But unlike other Yunnan grades, often graded and refined in large quantities (in Yunnan, the tea trade is organized historically around large state factories manufacturing leaves bought from farmes in the surrounding area), the buds are divided into small lots and are processed entirely by hand, right through to the final grading.
Like Silver Needles, Yunnan Buds are made up almost entirely of downy buds which take on a beautiful tawny color in oxidizing.
Yunnan Buds is unquestionably the finest tea of this family. While not drawn from a Chinese tradition, it is no less exciting on the tasting level and counts as one of the finest achievements of Chinese tea production. It is worth noting that it also displays some similarity to the very rare bud harvest in Assam, a region not too distant from it geographically.
Tea and food pairings:
This beautiful black tea pairs very well with foie gras and a red meat such as lamb or beef.
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