2011 Tulin Phoenix 'Fu' Tuo (Sheng) 336g

A premium tuo made by Nan Jiang under the Tulin brand in an oddball 336g size. They also make several 250g cakes that this reminds me of (namely the 25th anniversary ‘Feng Huang Tuo Cha’ from 2010). Material is allegedly 1-3 year old spring materials from Wu Liang mountain (elevation of 1000 to 2000m) at date of pressing. Tea trees here are around 100-300 years old. I’ve rarely had sheng from Nan Jian before as they’re more famed for their ripe/shou stuff.

I brewed this in a 120ml Yixing pot with boiling filtered water.

Not too much of a challenge to break apart, medium compression I’d say. It helps that it’s a larger size tuo.

The dry leaves are quite fragrant and when wet they are quite verdant. The leaves are fairly large and have a consistent grade throughout the tuo.

This is a rich and deep tasting tuo that brews to an amber consistent with what I’d expect from its age. The mouthfeel is pleasant and refreshing and there’s a pleasant honey/floral after-taste. Very slight hints of fuit (peaches I think) and spice, which I would expect it to drift toward as it gets older.

It still has a touch of raw astringency in the first few brews (even though it’s 9 years old). It tastes like it has decent ageing potential. The compression isn’t as tight as something like a Xiaguan tuo.

A nice sweet huigan and the tea gets sweeter tasting about 4 brews in. If brewed gong-fu style, this will keep giving out flavour for about 12 infusions or so and has some nice variation.

Very pleasing – a ‘4-star’ tea in my book.