Golden Yunnan

I'm not a huge black tea fan, but this morning I had to be dragged out of bed by a dog and I needed something warm and caffeine-laden to get me going. All pu-er comes from the Yunnan province, as do a few green and black teas, including this one. The dry leaves of this tea are beautiful, if you peer in the canister you can see the gold buds intermingled with the black leaves. The tea itself is rich and a little sweet.

In addition to being delicious, this tea taught me a lesson. For months, I thought that it was quite bitter. It turns out that I was just using too many leaves. I began using about a level tablespoon of leaves per cup and the resulting tea wasn't bitter at all. As it turns out, brewing tea can be a little tricky.

P.S. I am drinking the broken nugget pu-er as I write this. I can't get enough of it.