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Another sample I selected from Nannuoshan. Picked this one mostly for its age. This is another one with no cakes, only different sample sizes. And I can’t find any cakes elsewhere of this one, either :(((. Though, given it looks like an 800 g cake, I probs couldn’t afford one anyways haha.

Very large and whole leaves in this sample. Fairly dark too for its age.

Their website says aged in Hong Kong, though it does not taste at all like traditional “Hong Kong storage” a la Yee On Tea. This one is also incredibly sweet, like the 2011 Bingdao, though not quite to the same degree. The main thing holding this tea back is that the initial intensity and sweetness falls off fairly steeply after 3-4 infusions. Still an amazing tea and with longevity exceeding 12-15 infusions, but not as good as the Bingdao.

I think that at this point, Nannuoshan is my favorite vendor of puerh. I now want to sample every single puerh on their website as these have been absolutely phenomenal!

Location: Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China
Producer: Hani Ancient Tea Factory
Cultivar: Da Ye Zhong

Hot damn, this is yet another CRAZY good puerh from Nannuoshan! Like LBZ, wanted to try another famous region, Bingdao. This tea is phenomenal from the beginning, and certainly the BEST semi-aged (< 20 yo) sheng I’ve had.

This one is incredibly sweet from the beginning; it is the sweetest puerh I’ve tried by far. The mouthfeel is very juicy and viscous. Longevity is 15+ infusions.

There is one infuriating thing about this tea – the website is out of cakes (or never sold them?). They say the factory is “Mengku Mengdai Tea Factory,” but I cannot find mention of these cakes or indeed that factory period anywhere else online, including taobao. If anyone has any info on how to find a cake of this, I would appreciate it so much!

Harvest: Spring, 2011
Location: Bingdao, Shuangjiang, Lincang, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China
Factory: Mengku Mengdai Tea Factory
Cultivar: Da Ye Zhong

Got this one because I wanted to finally try a puerh from LBZ. I was a bit underwhelmed, tbh. I guess people mostly do this style of tea for the cha qi, though I didn’t get a potent one from this. The flavor is just very vague and subtle and not worthwhile.

There is some apricot in the nose of the dry leaves. Moderate astringency comes in the middle steeps. A bit of sweetness in the later steeps. Just not much to latch onto in terms of flavors.

Harvest: 15 March – 10 April 2023
Location: Laobanzhang, Menghai, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China
Elevation: 1600-1700 m
Cultivar: Menghai da ye zhong

Just decided to throw this yellow tea into my basket with the rest of it. Only the second yellow tea I’ve had, and this one is very different from the first.

The nose of the dry and wet leaves is very full of roasty/dark notes like coffee, chocolate, and a touch of sweetness. The brew is a fairly light yellow like a white tea.

The flavor is immediately sweet with a potent hui gan that has incredible legs (3+ mins). Mouthfeel is nice and full. More chocolate notes in the brew, but otherwise cannot taste the roast in the broth.

My conclusion from this tasting is that I need to try more yellow teas!

Brewed 4g/100mL at 185 F in my new glass pot for 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 second steeps.

Harvest: April 18, 2024
Location: Jinjishan, Dahuaping, Huoshan, Lu’an, Anhui, China
Cultivar: Jin Ji

Dry leaf: Coffee, chocolate, roasted
Wet leaf: Coffee, chocolate, sweet, fruity
Flavors: Chocolate, sweet, nutty, brown sugar

The least interesting offering from this brand yet, but still quite good! Just not as much going on with this one overall. Still very soft and with a mild sweetness, but without much in the way of concrete flavor or character to latch onto.

Another banger from Yi Chang Hao and Nannuoshan! This one is sold in little 100 g cakes and is about $0.68/g. I would say it is also worth it! Not as phenomenal of an experience as the Gedeng, but still a wonderful tea!

Also very soft from the first steep. No bitterness or astringency at all. Has some cooling mouthfeel like eucalyptus. Medium sweetness. Lasts 16+ infusions.

Keep the great teas coming, YCH!

OMG I’m in heaven! What is with this puerh?! I guess there’s a reason why Gedeng is one of the famous tea mountains.

I wanted to try some Yi Chang Hao teas given some recommendations from other online teaheads and their relative cheapness for their age when I searched for them. It also gave me an excuse to try Nannuoshan’s teas haha. I was not expecting this quality, so I am very pleasantly surprised!

The leaves of this cake are very well preserved and of decent size. They are predominately a medium to dark brown, but some bear yet some chlorophyll. The brew is not appreciably dark, and resembles the orange of the writing on the wrapper. The lid aroma is quite intense with this one.

The mouthfeel is the striking aspect of this tea. Simply otherworldly from the get-go. The website’s “velvety” description is one of the most insanely accurate tea notes I have read. This mouthfeel makes the tea feel both hot and cold at the same time, but not in the fake cooling sensation of menthol, but more like a velvet blanket coating the roof of your mouth insulating it from the heat that rises from below.

The aftertaste is similarly wild. Normally, hui gan is present in the back of the throat only. That is certainly present here, but it is accompanied by both the aforementioned, numbing, velvet blanket on my collective palates and a saliva-generating sensation across the tongue (and somehow very prominent at the front).

No notable cha qi that I get, though I don’t care about that tbh.

Lasts 20+ infusions.

Is this worth $0.80/g? ABSOLUTELY. Will I buy a cake, though? I have never been more tempted to stab my wallet in the back…

Dry leaf: Leather
Wet leaf: Wood, hay, green apple
Flavors: Wood, hay, sweet, velvet

Very nice sample of this well-aged tea from my first-ever order from Nannuoshan! This one is very sweet from the beginning and only has a touch of bitter in some of the middle infusions.

Strangely enough, the smell is almost absent from the dry leaves. Lasts 18+ infusions.

Tightly compressed cake.

This one is just…okay. Like nothing bad about it per say, but not much in the way of pleasant distinct flavors and fairly disappointing overall. I found it as a free sample from last year that was deep in my tea stash and I hadn’t tried it yet haha.

Harvest: Spring 2023
Varietal: Ben Shan
Location: Daping Village, Anxi, Fujian
Elevation: 1000 m

Another great choice from Yunomi! This is such a smooth and delicate matcha. Perfect balance of flavors and wonderfully subtle sweetness with intense creaminess.

Harvest: Spring 2024
Cultivar: Samidori
Location: Wazuka, Kyoto