This lovely organic black tea hails from Lianhua Village in China's southwestern Yunnan province. It is slightly tippy with golden buds and twisted leaves. The full-bodied infusion of this loose leaf tea is deep red with molasses-like sweetness, a subtle milkiness and light coppery finish.
Ingredients: organic and Fair Trade Certified Chinese black tea
Origin: Landsun Tea Gardens, Yunnan Province, China
The Yunnan province lies at the southwestern corner of China just touching the Tibetan Himalaya and is dotted with several mountain ranges of its own. Known as one of the birthplaces of tea, Yunnan is home to some of the oldest tea trees in the world and the province boasts a climate well-equipped to grow tea. Landsun Tea is a multi-garden operation based in Lianhua Village, Simao Town. Their Dacao Tea Farm was the first tea garden in the Yunnan Province to receive organic certification in 2001. Since then, Landsun has converted all its land to organic cultivation. Landsun is most notably known for its poverty alleviation program in which it is helping to house, train and employ inter and intra-province migrants.
Steeping Instructions
At Arbor Teas, we believe tea should be brewed to suit your personal taste. We’re happy to make recommendations to get you started, but don’t hesitate to experiment! When brewing your tea, your main considerations are tea quantity, water temperature, and steeping time. We recommend black teas to be steeped for 3 to 5 minutes in water heated to a full, rolling boil. For the best flavor, use fresh water whenever possible, and avoid overboiling. Try not to steep your tea longer than necessary, as you’ll extract undesirable bitterness from the leaves. If you want a stronger brew, don’t steep longer, just use more tea. And don’t forget to re-steep your tea leaves to get the most out of your leaf!
"This has become my everyday tea with milk and honey! Even the kids love to have their tumblers full before they head off to high school."
Aubrey
"The fuzzy golden tips in the dry leaf are beautiful, and the slightly sweet, malty flavor makes for a perfect afternoon tea."
Chelsea
"This is - without a doubt - my favorite black tea! I love everything from the first aroma of the leaf to the last drop in the cup - a creamy, malty, spicy delight!"
Health Benefits
Like all true tea, black tea offers many potential health benefits. Research has found that tea (Camellia sinensis) can have many positive effects on human health, including improved cardiovascular function, cancer risk reduction, improved immune function, improved oral health, and help with weight management. Tea is also full of polyphenols, which are a class of antioxidant that help your body maintain homeostasis and balance your stress levels. Black tea specifically has been found to regulate blood sugar in diabetics better than other types of tea, according to a study done by the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
For more information about the health benefits of black tea and other types of tea, and for direct sources of the above information, check out our Tea Health Benefits page!
Please note: the information above is for educational purposes only and has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Customer Reviews
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This is a fairly light bodied, moderately flavorful, slightly tippy Yunnan tea. I've been drinking Yunnan teas for twenty years or more and usually order direct from a shop in Yunnan, China. Compared to other teas from this area I've had, it has an unusual leaf style. It is definitely not an "old tree tea" Assamica like one reviewer said. Such teas have much larger, thicker leaves than this one. The leaves are a bit more broken than I'm used to. They are larger than early "spring tips" style but smaller than most later plucking styles. Not a great deal of malt on the initial tasting, but it then blooms and lingers in the back the throat for a long time after swallowing. It's a pleasant tea but lacks a great deal of the bold, chocolatey, malty taste that the best Yunnan's have IMO. Yunnan teas of best quality have become very expensive at most USA retailers and this one is very fairly priced all things considered.
5
Golden Yunnan
Posted by Timothy Graefe on 29th Jun 2024
This is a really good black tea. Flavorful and bold but not bitter at all - a great breakfast tea.
5
One of my favorite morning teas
Posted by David Wonnacott on 9th Aug 2023
I really like this tea, it reminds me of a "red tea" a student brought me from China some years ago. I often brew it for 45-60 seconds rather than the longer suggested time, but it is nice either way.
4
Solid
Posted by Dave M on 13th Jun 2022
It's a solid black tea. I think it's somewhat generic in terms of flavors but stands out for being well balanced and smooth, which deserves an above average score. I'd certainly never turn down a cup. It's a safe play, a good all rounder.
4
Golden Yunnan
Posted by Rob Plewnarz on 28th Sep 2021
Rich flavors of rose petals along with a malty sweetness. I like it brewed extra strong with nothing added. Very substantial tea.
5
Lovely Yunnan
Posted by Claude Vidal on 16th May 2021
Excellent tea with subtle flavors. Both the tea leaves and the liquor are beautiful.
5
Beautiful leaf, delicious tea.
Posted by Omar S. on 2nd Nov 2020
This tea is very aesthetically pleasing in leaf form, with a mixture of gold and deep burgundy leaves, which make a fragrant, slightly malty, full-bodies tea, with a complex, but smooth, flavor. It goes well with milk, but I typically prefer my teas without, and this is no exception. I bought in bulk, and I will be drinking this daily for the next few months.
5
Excellent!
Posted by Charles Harrington on 18th Aug 2020
I like to stock a variety of black teas but this is probably the one I drink most often. Nice, full-bodied flavor. It also has a better second infusion (with some extra time) than most other blacks.
5
Yunnan
Posted by MaryAnna Manley on 27th Jun 2019
I am not a connoisseur of tea but a lifetime tea lover. Black tea. While I have sampled many Yunnan teas from far and wide, this is my very favorite as is the staff who never fail to send a personal note. I love many of their teas but always go back to the Yunnan which is perfect with a touch of cream!
2
Not my favorite Yunnan
Posted by Sueann on 9th Mar 2017
Don't get me wrong, I simply adore 99.99% of Arbor Teas. However this is not my favorite Yunnan because of the hint of smokiness. Just me, but I don't care for even a teeny bit of smokey flavor. Two Hills brand (I purchase at my local health food store) is my preferred favorite Yunnan to date. With no smoke flavor at all.
5
Bright and Lovely
Posted by Samuel Godsey on 16th Jan 2017
This tea is wondrous! Very bright but yet so so smooth!
5
Affordable, High Quality. Taoist-Approved Tea
Posted by John on 22nd Nov 2016
I am quite discriminating when it comes to my teas, due to my background in gong fu, taiji, and Taoist medicine. I must say this is undoubtedly a quality tea, and quite affordable at it's price. With a complexity in its aroma and malty taste, one can tell this tea comes from ancient trees with a maturity only nature can match. If brewed strongly, it always comes out to a pleasant almost ruby red color, as it should. Instantly warming to the stomach and veins. Several layers of flavor. I am brewing the meanest kombucha SCOBY I have ever seen with a batch of this tea and a bottle of High Country Kombucha original flavor. I anticipate the highest quality homebrew kombucha I have ever made. The SCOBY looks like the Wilt Chamberlain of SCOBYs. It also brews a good tea wine as well. Try mixing 5/8 Wuyi Oolong and 3/8 Yunnan Black. Also, this tea is great for circulatory effects, especially in the winter if one has cardiovascular issues or trouble staying warm. This is my go-to tea during the cold months, and surprisingly my preference for gong fu tea ceremony despite the fact it is not an oolong. Also my go-to tea if I'm having any oral issues or bit my mouth recently. Seems to especially promote oral health. One of my 3 all-time favorite teas. Buy this. It will make your Qi strong and your Shen bright. It tastes like dessert.
5
Mmmmmm!
Posted by Kara on 28th Apr 2016
This is a rich, dark, strong black tea. It reminds me of vaguely of Irish breakfast tea. Overall, I'm quite pleased with this cup. It blows Lipton's black tea out of the water.
4
delicious flavor but not concentrated enough
Posted by Unknown on 16th Apr 2016
I agree with Benjamin Hartwick's earlier review: this tea has a delicious flavor that I love, but it tastes sort of watered down even when brewing with extra tea.
5
One of my favorite black teas
Posted by Unknown on 30th May 2015
This tea is so nice, it is silky and well rounded without the bitter or astringent after taste that some black teas have.
3
It's okay, maybe good for people who don't like strong tea
Posted by Gail on 22nd Apr 2015
This is one tea I was not excited about and I won't be ordering more. It is an okay black tea, but it nothing I look forward to drinking. I think I prefer stronger brews, my favorite black tea is Irish Breakfast (which is often too strong for some people) and I am really enjoying the Earl Grey as well.
4
Two perplexing qualities
Posted by Benjamin Hartwick on 1st Apr 2015
From the first time I tried this tea, it had perplexed me in two ways, one that captivates me and one that leaves me unfulfilled. The captivation begins for me upon simply smelling this tea before it is brewed. I have never smelled a tea as alluring as this. Others come close but don’t match it. I won’t even try to construct an effective string of adjectives to accurately describe it because that would be tricky. I might even have to resort to poetry. I’ll just say sweet but not floral. The captivation for me continues upon smelling the brewed tea and then continues even further upon taking the first sip, and the captivation centers around something beyond flavor. It centers around texture, and I don’t mean hot and wet. I mean actual tactile texture in the conventional sense of the word. It’s as if this tea is some kind of velvet in the mouth. It’s strange and enchanting, but a few sips into a cup of this is when the a sense of being unfulfilled emerges for me. I want more intensity. Whatever it is that gives this tea its strange and enchanting flavor, I want more of it, a higher concentration of it. I want it to be the same, I want it just as it is, but I want greater amplitude. The obvious solution is to brew it stronger with more tea (not brew it longer). I first brewed it with 1-1/4 teaspoons per cup. It was better but not good enough. Then I did 1-1/2 teaspoons per cup, and the flavor seemed to cross a threshold and began to become discordant. Finally I dropped back to 1-1/4 teaspoons per cup, and I guess I will just have to learn to live with it like that. The flavor (and smell) of this tea are so unique that I will continue to order it, but I still wish there were a way to tweak the plant, reengineer it in a benevolent way to amp up whatever its secret ingredient is. If that could be done, I would give this tea more than 5 leaves, but until then I can only give it 4.
3
And now, a voice of dissent...
Posted by Jonathan on 24th Feb 2015
First off, this is not a bad tea by any means. Maybe my tastes are just different from the rest of the reviewers on here, but I found this tea to be pleasant, yet nothing out of the ordinary. Like all the Fair Trade/Organic teas I've tried from Arbor in the last month, it tastes good. But I didn't find it to be all that special. It sort of just tastes like black tea. If that is what you're after, this is a great tea for you. Personally, I'll be ordering more Organic Lychee!
5
Simply the best black tea I've had
Posted by Jeremy on 1st Nov 2014
I've always wanted to drink strong black tea in the morning, but have been put off by the astringency of typical English Breakfast teas, although I heartily enjoy them. I decided to try a "higher" grade of loose-leaf tea and, already enjoying Chinese green and oolong teas, gave Golden Yunnan a try. Now it's quite simply my favorite black tea. It's a bit more money-per-cup than some of the other offerings, but its taste is worth it! Slightly earthy, can be brewed to be strong, but will not easily become astringent. I bought the giant package, and will continue to keep it in my tea drawer!
5
excellent black tea
Posted by Lawrence on 17th Apr 2014
Used to be a coffee drinker. Now, I start every morning with this tea with a little milk. Smooth, very tasty, and aromatic.
5
Good Stuff
Posted by Phil on 6th Feb 2014
My favorite yunnan black that I have tried to date. I would like to confirm the aroma, flavors and mouth feel described below. This leaf will remain in my cabinet as long as it is available
5
Rich and tasty!
Posted by Lauren on 20th Mar 2013
This is a great, full-bodied black tea that definitely wakes me up in the morning. It has a sort of creamy aftertaste to it, even without any added milk. This may become my everyday morning tea - yum!
4
Yunnan forever
Posted by Joseph Paulson on 7th Nov 2012
The dry leaf darkest brown. With the eponymous golden strands flecked throughout. In hand, it does feel like a treasure. The aroma gives up some pleasant leather and smoke. Not scary smoke. Hint of smoke. The liquor brews dark, dark red-brown. This tea possesses an exquisite mouth-feel. So much body, so much briskness, has never been so smooth.
5
This tea is inspirational - poem
Posted by Jeff M. on 21st Jun 2012
The thought of this tea / waiting for me / in my dandy Arbor Teas canister / helps me get out / of my bed when I should / though I still don’t slide down the banister.
5
Favorite Black Tea
Posted by Unknown on 22nd Jan 2012
Arbor Teas golden yunnan is my go-to black tea. It has a delicious rich, malty flavor but the highlight to me is the mouthfeel. Even when taken black this tea is so creamy and smooth that it's hard to believe there's not some milk in there. I don't know how they do it. I love a cup of this tea first thing in the morning.
5
Rich, complex, wonderful
Posted by Sean on 11th Dec 2011
My favorite black tea. It has a full flavor (oakey/spicy) with a bit of a soft feel in the mouth. Pleasant, very faintly honey-like aftertaste. I can sense a touch of cinammon in the aroma. Great overall experience in other words.
5
right on
Posted by Todd on 22nd Mar 2011
This is the best so far I've tried. It is really worth the price. It has the most flavor with no problems. If you want to see what black tea is all about this is it! Worth the extra dollars over the less expensive black teas which are all good. So good that no sweetener is needed.
5
Amazing!
Posted by Ben Schuchard on 27th Feb 2011
This is one of our favorite teas ever! Love the copper color and buttery finish of this tea! Highly recommended!
5
Great tea
Posted by Go Blue! on 26th Mar 2008
This is my daily tea. It is malty and deep yet not overpowering. It is also a tea that everyone who visits seems to like.