TeaChat

I've got the Feng Qing "Ye Sheng Hong Cha" and the Jinggu "Golden Strand" right now and both are good. The Ye Sheng can get a little astringent if overbrewed but if you do it right it's great.

sriracha wrote:Btw, has anyone tried their zheng shan xiao zhong?

I bought this about a month ago and got it in the mail a week ago. Finally got around to trying it today. It was good, very astringent and somewhat bitter, not smoked. Too astringent for my tastes.

Had the upton black buds and it reminded me how much i love tippy yunnan... but good golden yunnan is pricey and hard to find stateside, so thank you for reminding me of Yunnan Sourcing!

I can't wait, last time I ordered from them in 2007 there was like 250g minimum, and the shipping took forever.

Now I see they offer 50 and 100 packets, shipping is quicker, better website, larger selection of golden tippy offerings, and they even have a warehouse in portland.

This board isn't nearly as active as it used to be, but I will report!

I just wish their was a 'Keemun Sourcing' and an 'Assam Sourcing' with similar pricing

Joel, I had fun getting & comparing many of YS USA black teas. I think YS is excellent; however not the only vendor. Adagio sells some excellent "golden blacks" also. First time customer discount pops up when you search. Can have some fun w/ that also. Please report. I'm into black tea.

I received a $90 order of black teas from Upton, (25 or so samples) and 3 items from YS USA, and one Black from Ito En over the past month or so. I will post my highlights shortly.

There were 4 or 5 black teas I sampled that I rated 4 or 5/5 from Upton and that I plan to reorder, and the Spring 2014 Imperial Needles from YS are not the best I've had but good enough that I will probably order 500g of the Autumn 2014 picking at $47 from their China based site, if shipping is reasonable.

I'll post a more detailed review in a separate thread, shouldn't be hard to spot as this forum has become sparsely populated over the years

joelbct, Thanks for the post. I welcome your comments. My niece buys many black teas from Upton which I get to taste. I think most that I tasted are quite inferior to tea I've had from YS, but my niece buys mostly Upton's cheapest so it is not a perfect comparison.
I've been surprised by the difference in specific YS teas by year. I had assumed that fermentation/oxidation played such a big role that year to year variation would be much less noticeable than it was--- Wrong.
I'd like to add more comments about black tea but now only have some gold Yunnan tea & the Himalayan Orange from Nepal.

Of the 3 I ordered from YS, I preferred Imperial Mojiang Golden Bud Spring 2014, followed by the Imperial Golden Needle Spring 2014.

Many of Upton's Blacks are unspectacular, but I would recommend:

ZY63: Yunnan Black Buds (Sold Out)
ZK93: Keemun Hao Ya A Select ($18 for 50 gram but an excellent example of real Hao Ya A)
ZK89: Jiangxi Golden Tips ($15 for 100 grams)
ZKP2: Pre-Chingming Golden Black ($12 for 80 grams)
ZK11 Keemun First Grade (good value, $8.80 for 125 grams)

Ito En often has a limited selection of quality China and India blacks, they are very picky about what they stock. Their current Ceylon Vithanakande is decent and only $3/oz.