Naturally sweet and a little curranty. We brew ours without milk.
This Yunnan Loose Leaf Tea is brought to us by a British importing company that is a leaf tea specialist, who have been trading for almost 150 years. It could be me, but I still get the feeling that they are excited to have a telephone in the office, as a modern gadget. They are the lovliest people. This could well be my age, but phoning them is a nostalgic experience, in the loveliest way.
This is a regional tea, referred to as “black”, but some of the tea world refer to it as “red”.
Yunnan or Dianhong (meaning Yunnan Red) is typically grown between 1300 and 2000 meters above sea level.
Dian Hong is a relatively new introduction, approximately 100 years. This is the bit where I have to get my facts right. It’s moments like this that Indi saves my virtual bacon.
“Pu’er is produced in Yunnan using the leaf of the Camellia sinensis assamica variety, which is the majority of tea bushes in that province.
Camellia sinensis (varieties of sinensis) is more prevalent in all other provinces of China. This may be of interest if you look at The Nilgiri Pu-er.
This is a general background on Yunnan Tea.
It turns out that Yunnan is the Yirgacheffe of the tea world, so legend has it. The birthplace, the beginning of all legends and stories of camelia becoming a dried, brewable leaf.
The black tea from Yunnan is called (or referred to as) Dianhong. It is more red in colour and soft and sweet, like a green or brown tea.
8-10g a litre 90 °C for 3 minutes.
I can’t see the point of putting milk near this tea; it’s sweet enough already. If you really feel the need, you could increase the dose to 10/12g of tea per litre of water and go near boiling, but you would miss the best characteristics of the tea, in my opinion.
Currants, dry citrus finish and a slightly creamy body. This is a really easy tea to drink.
