Norbu Tea

This is a very buttery and mild green tea. It’s utterly delicious, however. The liquid is medium yellow and the taste is vegetal but not as strongly so as some green teas. Overall, I think that this would make a great introduction to green teas for those who hesitate: it’s got some veggie but not too much; it’s got quite a bit of butter, and it’s not at all fishy. Overall, it’s delicate and discreet, but not a simpering wallflower.

I would most certainly consider this to be a go-to green tea and will invest in a larger size.

Another day, another lovely thermos of Yi Wu. It deserves better, perhaps, than my bulk brewing and drinking, but it is so good even so, and not many other puerhs can touch it for class under abusive conditions. Mmm.

A lovely tea put through a tea torture test today: Fill kettle with water. Pour some (cold) over chunk of tea in kamjove. Let sit a few seconds, pour off rinse water. Add more water, now slightly warm. Let sit while doing things in another room for 45 minutes. Return, pour off first cold infusion into thermos, add boiling water, leave for a 1 hour meeting. Return, pour off the long steep into the thermos, and pour hot water through the leaves several times while tossing papers together for afternoon clinic on another floor. Thermos filled with water, all of which has touched the leaves, at least. How can it possibly be good? And it is!

Gotta love this stuff.

I brewed up a fabulous batch of this tea a few days ago—thick bodied, rich, sweet, earthy, spicy, with that deep caramel undertone that is so silky smooth—and it was so well received by everyone else in the clinic workroom that I didn’t get enough of it. I’d hoped that maybe I had enough life left in the leaves to do a few more brewings when I got back to the quiet of my office that evening, but while I did get a little more tea, it was not the same.

This was a bulk brewed batch, 2 pieces of the tea cylinder, about one and a half inches long, brief flash rinse, infusion water 195-212 degrees (started as the kettle was still heating up, and kept up as it cooled down a little), total infusion volume just over one quart (filled my thermos and I got a bonus cuppa). Wow. This infusion was pretty close to perfect.

Another lovely thermos full of this tea today. I shared it with a coworker who said it was just ‘creamy’ and so nice, and I agree. Sweet, caramel, just a hint of earthy and enough sense of something herbaceous and bitter lurking nearby to add an interesting depth and roundness to the flavor, but never enough to be in any way unpleasant.

So very very good.

This is a mellow, sweet, gentle young puerh. It is perfect for introducing new tea drinkers to puerh, because it is not only mellow and a little earthy, but the sweetness draws them in. I keep a pouch of this one at home, at work, and at the satellite office.

First time logging, not first time drinking. This is a lovely, mellow, forgiving tea that steeps and steeps. I have infused a few grams of tightly furled balls and filled up my 1 quart thermos today, and there is still more to get from these leaves. Sweet, floral, haylike, beautiful.

Can’t give grams or ounces or exact temps today, because I’m brewing in the office with a kamjove and the other tools are elsewhere. But it is giving wonderful results even without that specificity. A good general starting point for me is about 1 gram per ounce, so 2 grams for a small 2 ounce gaiwan, and the wetted leaves will fill the cup.

Finally finished off my stash of this, the last package gone. It was rich with a quality that I am having trouble describing—a bit like cantaloupe, perhaps, almost a hint of umami, not just floral and sweet nor caramel warmth, but rich and fruity. Sigh. Are the jassids biting this year?

Drank some of this for the first time in a while, and it was terrific, rich, spicy, sweet, delightful.

Can’t believe I never wrote this one up. It’s awfully good stuff. I’m not sure my taste buds are up to distinguishing the specialness of the jassid-bite effects, but it is terrific.

For those who are interested, I should point out that more is available, on end of harvest sale, vacuum sealed and still lovely, from Norbu.

Once again, it delivers superbly. Today, just a tiny amount of leaf, maybe a teaspoon at best, infused up two full quarts of delicious tea. Just amazing. Almost done with it and then it will be time to break out the 2010.

Today opened one of my last packets of this tea, and brewed up a bit gongfu style.

The leaves open up to nearly fill the gaiwan, after starting out as a sparse little layer on the bottom of the cup. The expected sweet and floral start is incredibly intense. Somewhere about 6 or 8 infusions in there are a 2 or 3 in a row that are very spicy, then that fades away again, and it’s back to sweet and floral until the kettle is empty of hot water. Wow.

Can’t wait to try the fall version, but I am trying to be disciplined and finish the spring first. Yet, if I do that, how will I ever compare them properly?

An amazing, rich, sweet, floral oolong tea. I have steeped this one about 12 times, when using a small amount of the tightly rolled leaves to cover the bottom of a yixing pot or gaiwan, which unfurl gradually to nearly fill the pot by the end of the session.

Infusions from 30 seconds to 3 minutes by that 10th or 12th.

Probably my favorite tea since I first tried it. It stays sweet and rich longer than the lovely AliShan oolongs also carried by norbu. After trying both of these teas, I immediately bought many more little pouches of it, and squirreled them away for holiday gifts. Now that I’m running out of what I reserved for me, I’m hoarding it a bit. It’s that good.

I’m having another fantastic session with this tea today, part II of one that began yesterday. It started a touch bitter, as usual, but I kept the first 6 or 8 infusions to pour-in/pour-out flash infusions, and the bitterness was kept to a touch. And the reward for sticking with it is infusions that keep going and going and going and going—sweet water, yes, but Lao Ban Zhang-flavored sweet water, and it is delicious. I’ve been doing a little trick—pouring a tiny bit of cold water in each infusion as soon as I pour it out of the pot—so no waiting for it to cool, which can itself let a bit of unpleasant flavor develop. Happy camper, here! Another one of those couldn’t-be-better sessions with the cheapo little yixing, and Michael Coffee’s wonderful little shino cup, so perfectly sized for the small infusions. Mmmm.

I owe this tea a lot, because I was afraid of it when I first read about it—“bitter” in the description put me off. But I tried it as part of a tasting, and figured out how to bring out the qualities I love, and ordered some, and got bolder in choosing sheng puerhs. My only problem with this tea? I’ve got a finite quantity—I only ordere 50 grams, what was I thinking?! so I only drink it occasionally. Sigh.

Another day when I needed a tea lift, and this LBZ reliably provides it. It’s sweet, herbaceous, and has a wonderfully long aftertaste. Mmmmm. As long as I keep the infusions very short—and this little yixing pot doesn’t pour that quickly, so immediate pouring of flash infusions basically means I’m doing 10 second infusions—it’s marvelous stuff.

Compared this to two other loose puerh Mao Cha from Norbu today.

2010 Shi Tou Xin Zhai Mao Cha, Nan Nuo Shan, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan
2009 Lao Ban Zhang Mao Cha from Xishuangbanna, Yunnan*
2009 Wulian Shan Mao Cha from Dali Prefecture, Yunnan

I have been enjoying the Lao Ban Zhang Mao Cha for several months, so with my last order from Norbu, I tried a couple other Mao Cha, to see how they compared. This was my first brewing of other two young shengs. As expected, these are all wonderful teas, with more capacity for infusions than I have space in my bladder, even with the very small gaiwans, so sometime after 10 or 12 infusions, I stopped drinking the full infusions, and did a series of longer steeps, discarding the liquor, and then did a final infusion, which I estimate to be about the 20th for each, so I could finish the tasting, get the photos of the spent leaves, and go to bed!

Overall? I love all of these. The Shi Tou Xin Zhai is the most approachable in the early infusion, and is one I’ll take to work to share in some one on one meetings with other tea lovers—it’s less likely to bite back if I get a bit distracted. But at the however-many-it-finally was infusion, when all were pretty dilute and mostly had just a gentle sweetness left, I found a little more depth or complexity in the LBZ in than the other two. So….if you’re anxious about bitter, start with the Shi Tou. If you’re already a connoisseur of young sheng, and want the maximum complexity, go for the LBZ. And if you’re undecided, get the Wulian, or better yet, enjoy all of them.

*Actually, turns out the LBZ is sold out. Greg tells me that the Lao Ban Pen Mao Cha on the site is very close, and maybe better. I have a hard time believing anything could be better, but as good, maybe….

2009 Lao Ban Zhang Mao Cha from Xishuangbanna, Yunnan

Dry Leaves: long dark twists of intact leaves with some stems, scents of mushrooms, soy sauce, darker than the Shi Tou Xin Jai
Liquor, 1st infusion: light tan liquor, sweet and vegetal
Liquor, 2nd infusion: spicy, sweet, with that smooth earthy depths, and hint of bitterness
Someplace about the 8th or 9th infusion: sweet, earthy, lovely as usual, but the astringency of the aftertaste is definitely present and noticeably more than the Shi Tou or the Wulian
Liquor, many?-th infusion: sweet, dilute, earthy
Wet Leaves: olive green leaves of uniform color, sweet, spicy, asparagus scents

http://www.well.com/user/debunix/recipes/ShengMaoChaTasting7.31.10.html

Drinking it again after a break, and loving it again so much. I was reading a typically excellent article by Harold McGee in the NYT (link http://tinyurl.com/24rs3zw) in which he discusses the power of dilution to enhance flavor. I think this may be a tea where that really holds true. Many many very short steeps bring out a sweetness and richness of flavor in this tea without the bitterness that can overwhelm with shorter steeps. Works for me!

An amazing tea. After a couple of fairly long rinses, 2 × 20 seconds, 1 gram of tea per oz of water yields a series of amazing sweet wonderful infusions—5 to 10 seconds apiece, too short to be captured by the steepster graphics. . Herbaceous and vegetal flavors, little that is earthy or smoky like older or compressed puerhs. A remarkable tea.

The Leaf: The dry tea, beautiful curls of tiny tips, has a surprisingly fresh aroma. After enjoying 3 good steeps, a close look at the wet leaves revealed that a bud, or a bud and one small leaf, were picked to make the tea.

The Liquor: Round, malty flavor enlivened by subtle notes of black pepper. Smooth, full body with nuances of baked yams and damp wood. Clean finish with a delicate dryness. I added soy milk to the latter half of one cup, with a squirt of agave, and the tea flavor came through nicely, bringing it’s stimulating, spicy element along.

TTB strikes again!

This smells like heaven and tastes twice as good. I’d almost be tempted to chew the tea leaves, if I didn’t know that I could resteep them at least a few more times and have more of this lovely, lovely tea.

The smell is intoxicatingly ethereal. It’s a bit vegetal and floral, as everyone has said…but what they haven’t noted is that it smells like a lush night-blooming garden in the heat of deepest summer. It’s not cloying, but it does surround you and infiltrate every sense. It may even permeate your skin, I’m not sure. Since I’ve been sniffing at it ever since I opened the bag, I’m hardly an objective judge! ;)

The taste is light, full, and tantalizing. It’s a bit like you’re drinking summer.

Norbu is apparently having a sale right now on this tea, too. End of Vintage sale, 25% off any quantity. Oh holy monkey, do I need some. .

Oolong! It’s been a couple of days since I’ve enjoyed Oolong – I’m overdue!

So to make up for it, I chose one of my favorites. This Oolong is amazing. Buttery, rich, floral. Almost jasmine-esque but not quite… maybe like a cross between jasmine and orchid, and maybe even honeysuckle. So… amazing.

And… already gone. I need to steep again!

YUM! Oolong!

The flavor of this Oolong is intense. Floral, buttery, divine! There are only a few tastes that can elevate me to this sense of divine feeling – a superb Oolong such as this, a vanilla bean chocolate truffle from Moonstruck, or a perfect carrot. :)

Smooth, rich, beautiful. I love this tea.