Yunnan Red Tea
Note Profile
About
Yunnan red tea is Dian Hong, the black tea of Yunnan province. Chinese practice calls it red tea after the colour of the liquor; the West calls the same leaf black tea. Two tea retailers describe the aroma and both lead with flowers over malt. Tea Guardian names "its fresh, floral aroma, with the typical black tea malty base". Path of Cha reads "flowers and vanilla" in the aroma profile and lists graded lots as floral and malty, fruity and floral, chocolate and prunes, sweet bread and orchid. So the note is a malty black tea with an unusually loud floral top and a soft vanilla-sweet edge.
Scent Profile
Tobacco_hay is the malty, dried-leaf base that both sources name and that every published black tea carries: assam-tea and black-tea are both at 0.60 and Dian Hong is the same leaf class. Floral is nearly level with it, and that is the point of the note. Both sources lead with the flowers, not the malt, and Tea Guardian says the tea out-performs other fine black teas in aroma. Sweet_vanillic comes from Path of Cha reading vanilla in the aroma profile and describing one grade as sweet bread. Fruity is the honeydew and prune character named for two graded lots, kept well under darjeeling-tea at 0.70 because no source names muscatel or grape. Coffee_cacao is the chocolate note, scored low because it belongs to one named grade rather than to the tea as a whole. Below the line, honeyed and dry_woody carry the brewed-leaf body, mineral is the inky quality Fragrantica names, and smoky is held far under a lapsang reading because neither retailer describes smoke.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
Origin
Made from the large-leaf Camellia sinensis var. assamica grown in Yunnan, withered, rolled, fully oxidised and dried. The best grades carry a high proportion of golden buds, which is why the tea is sold as Golden Tip or Dian Hong Golden. Grade changes the aroma: Path of Cha gives a different descriptor set for each named lot. No essential oil or absolute of Dian Hong was found, so the note in perfumery is a reconstruction of the brewed leaf.
Usage in Perfumery
Attested twice on Fragrantica and absent from Parfumo. Fragrantica files it under greens, herbs and fougeres and describes it as "inky, bitterish, aromatic, tonic". It sits in the heart, where the other tea notes in this vocabulary sit. Perfumers use it as a warmer, more floral alternative to a plain black tea accord.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Yunnan Red Tea
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Yunnan Red Tea appears prominently.
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