Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong is a top grade Red Black tea from Teavivre, online seller of Chinese teas.
Dry Leaf
This particular Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong was harvested in March 2013, but most interestingly from oolong trees. The dry leaf here is interesting: wirey, thin ribbons of twisted black tea with the odd brown tip. The scent of Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong is quite strong, filling my kitchen with the scent of floral of fruit.
Steeping Instructions
Teavivre has excellent steeping instructions, and always includes western style steeping as well as gong fu. I’ll be doing gong fu steeping today with my gaiwan. With that said, I followed Teavivre‘s instructions of 6 grams of tea (almost the entire sample pouch), 195F water and steeps of rinse, 15s, 25s, 35s, 45s, 60s, 75s, and 90s
After the rinse, I had a cup of Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong with a gorgeous bronze orange red colour with a spicy fruit scent.
Tasting of Teavivre’s Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong
First and Second Infusions: Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong sips in stone fruit sweet, similar to plums, with plenty of dark wood notes and full body. The wood notes remind me a bit of a rooibos in intensity, but a much more richer dark wood and Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong having more sweeter notes. Mid sip there is a charred earth like flavor adding a slightly smokey spice flavor. Despite the hint of smoke, Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong has a very clean and sweet fruity finish. No bitter or dryness too.
Third, Fourth and Fifth Infusions: With each steeping of Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong, I find the sweet fruity notes get stronger, with the woody earth notes creeping to the background. End of sip is more sweet notes, actually tasting closer to honey here.
Sixth and Seventh Infusions: These last infusions were my favorites of Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong. the tea has lightened, slight hit of earthyness but lots of honey sweetness with a hint of briskness at the end. All these infusions, I found, were quite fresh in flavor too.
Comments
If you like a smooth, earthy yet sweet black tea, Teavivre‘s Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong would be your tea match! I enjoyed the fruity and honey sweet notes in Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong. Personally, I wasn’t that much into the woody notes in this tea, but was still overall impressed with the how fresh Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong was as well as having a nice full body.
Bonus: This Tea Owl looks so serious!
(tea provided for review)
