Norbu Tea

Backlogging from yesterday. The leaves of this tea are staggeringly long and they smell fantastic – sweet, fruity and very intriguing. Didn’t have the time to brew them gongfu style yesterday, and that’s a shame. Their smell shows so much promise, and but brewing them western style simply flattens the tea’s taste. It’s still very tasty – sweet with no bitterness or astringency, full of fruit notes.
Will try to drink it gongfu style and post then.
Norbu is a wonderful company – super fast shipping, great site, good prices, fantastic packaging.

I will never really understand the Chinese tea-naming mind. I mean, I think this tea is supposed somehow to look like a water tortoise, but I keep thinking it tastes like a water tortoise. Shui Jin Gui is normally one of if not the greenest of the great Yanchas. But this one brews an amazing dark orange. The first impression is cashews and balsam. The roast is present and important but very subtle. There is a clarity and a complexity that rewards slurping and making your tongue go flat so that some gets to the sides of your inner cheeks. I am willing to bet that a golden water tortoise has cheeks. The other thing striking about this tea is the compulsion to brew two pots and pour them both into a larger cup rather than using a little cup. It just goes with the slurping propensity. But please don’t miss this: at the end, after the cup is empty, the sweet evergreen aroma lingers and is really worth paying attention to.

This tea (to me) has hints of pine, licorice and peach. I just brewed about a teaspoon and a half of these Ya bao buds in a small glass gaiwan. I’m new to Ya bao but i’m very interested in them now. This tea is great! If you like white teas and you like puerh I highly suggest this tea for you.

I just got this tea today. It is very lemony which is a very nice complement to the sheng puerh flavor. If you are a fan of Ya bao then you will most likely love this tea.

I almost forgot I had this tea – it’s delicate and lovely, light and pale, a little sweet and a little tangy. I think the taste is overall very mellow. If you like pungent teas, this might not be your cup, but I’m a huge fan.

I liked this, pretty delicate for a black tea without any bitterness. Other than that, it wasn’t mind-blowing, but definitely enjoyable.

hi , i tried once this tea , it was a great taste with aroma , how can i find it with a good price?

I wanted to try one of my favorite teas from a new source, wondering how much better it could be, and just the scent as I open the bag is intoxicating: vegetal, fruity, rich. Oh my.

The leaves are light green and lovely paired buds. I used 3 grams for my 3 ounce/100mL unglazed Petr Novak Shiboridashi.

1st infusion is a 180 degree flash rinse to ‘wake up’ the leaves: very dilute, hints of floral sweetness.

]

2nd infusion at 150 degrees, 30 seconds, light floral vegetal, still not strong enough, should have made it 60 or 90 seconds. Will do the next one longer.

3rd infusion at 160 degrees, 120 seconds, a little bit overdone, should have been 90 seconds. Still working this one out.

4th infusion at 70 seconds, delicious, but I stopped taking notes. I went out to about 8 infusions and water just off the boil pus several minutes’ infusions, but that last one was just sweetwater.

I think I need to give this one more time up front, and it will be brilliant—although I must doubt that it can truly match the astonishingly fine smell of the dry leaves.

Some photos of the tea on my flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/8060493477/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/8060494826/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/8060493948/

As with any purple bud, overbrewing can result in bitterness.

Enjoying a first set of infusions with this tea, which has a very lively, fruity aroma even as dry leaves, and a very typical silver needle appearance. I didn’t measure the leaf quantity used, but started with just a little, because I know these teas can be overwhelming if brewed concentrated. The wetted leaf takes up about 1/4 or 1/3 of the gaiwan.

The steeped tea (now on my 6th infusion) lives up to the promise of the leaf scent. Floral, fruity, sweet in the early infusions, a little more tart later one. Delicious stuff. I have taken it from about 30 seconds/150 degrees first infusion through a minute or two/195 degrees by the 6th, gradually increasing time and temperature, but this is such a good natured tea that I could do it casually without fear of bitterness or astringency breaking out.

This is in contrast to some silver needles I bought a while back at my local teashop, which tasted a bit musty from day one, and show a pronounced bitterness if not handled with a very light touch. This is a nicer grade of tea.

I almost forgot to add a very important feature of this tea: it pairs magnificently with small quantities of very intense, fruity dark chocolate, like Scharffenberger’s 70%.

Received a 7g sample of this wonderful (but pricey) tea along with my order from Norbu. The tea has delicate bright green leaves and somewhat resembles Anji Bai Cha in appearance and taste. Subtle sugar snap pea is definitely there, along with a hint of cinnamon that makes me think of Dragonwell-style Laoshan green. There is also a slight nutty or buttery quality present.

Overall I really liked this tea – it shares flavors with other greens I enjoy – but at $14+ for one ounce, it’s not in my price range. Luckily Norbu seems to put things on sale from time to time so I will check back.

I believe this tea came to me as a free sample from Norbu — at least I don’t remember buying this. At first when I saw it I thought it was some kind of a roasted oolong, but after reading Norbu’s notes I see it’s actually baked in the sun, which is pretty neat.

Steep #1: In the gaiwan for about 20 seconds, my tea liquor is a medium orangish-brown. I am getting a bit of citrus, for me orange. It has a medium sort of bitter-sweetness, and is earthy with some fruit in the finish.

Steep #2: Also for 20 seconds. Oddly enough this tea reminds me of a darjeeling. It has a similar color palette and some similarities in flavor. This steep is a bit sweeter than the first but still has a tiny bit of palette cleansing astringency. I am getting orange still but now a woody element seems to be entering the scene.

This tea is nice but I’m not compelled to drink any more of it. Definitely not going to be a favorite but it comes with quite an interesting story.

Sample provided by @Amy Oh

I was pretty excited to try this when Amy Oh offered to mail away 5g of her sample. I’ve never tried tea from Norbu before, but I have tried 3 other black teas from Guangdong, China. They all tasted pretty different, so I was wondering what sort of category this one falls into.

Sniffing inside the sample pouch, I’m picking up on cherry, earthy, maybe something kinda sour. The scent of sour and cherry is mouthwatering.

First steep reaffirms what the dry tea leaves suggested. Very earthy aroma with sour cherry, mild sweetness and roasted flavour. I can kinda also taste something that reminds me of chocolate, but it’s very faint.

Second steep brought out more of the roasted and sour flavour. The tea body itself is nice, there is a nice depth to it.

Third steep is getting astringent (borderline annoying), but all the other flavours are still going strong. The earthy, sour cherry flavour might not really describe what I’m tasting. But it’s the best rough description I can come up with.

Fourth and fifth steep lost some of the astringency, which made it more palatable. However the tea flavour is starting to weaken.

I decided to end on the sixth steep because the astringency was starting to rub me the wrong way. Sometimes I like that characteristic, but if it’s too prominent, the mouth-drying sensation is nice enjoyable.

Overall I like this tea, it’s pretty much the same as another one I tried from the same province (Feng Huang Hong Cha – Camellia Sinensis). Flavour wise, it’s pretty different from most of the black tea I’ve had the pleasure to drink. However it’s a great flavour that I couldn’t stand to drink all the time, it just ends up annoying me (if that makes any sense).

100ml gaiwan, 5g, 6 steeps (15s, 30s, 45s, 1m, 1m30, 2m)

I haven’t had this tea in a while, it’s been so long that I totally forgot what it was all about! I just went back to my old tasting note to find that my impressions are pretty much the same. This is a soft tea made from ya bao, it has notes of lemon and cream and is very gentle. I see Norbu doesn’t have this in stock anymore but they do have a 2004 ye sheng tea log that sounds kind of similar. I’m glad I revisited this again today. It’s really nice!

I got a sample of this tea from Norbu a while back, and decided to try it today after I was looking in the cardboard box that now holds my sheng collection. I read you shouldn’t keep these in the kitchen, but since I have a studio apartment there isn’t a ton of storage anywhere!

1st steep: in the Xiying teapot, and after a quick rinse I decided to steep it for 30 seconds or so. This is a very gentle sheng as it is evidently made from compressed ya bao tea. The tea color is very light and the aroma is that of clover with some very soft vanilla and lemony notes. The tea aftertaste is sweet and almost custard like.

2nd steep: similar to steep #1 but some thicker honey notes are becoming more prominent, this is very enjoyable!

3rd and 4th steep: I decided to combine them together into one nice cuppa. I’m still getting the lemony and custard notes as well as some banana. I don’t seem to be getting a huge energy boost from this stuff, but it is tasty! Overall, very enjoyable.

If you don’t like the standard shu type of pu-erh you might want to give this one a whirl, it’s very gentle…

Interesting tea here, I am not getting the chance to steep it gongfu style per the recommendation. I got a nice dark brown cuppa, which is a bit malty but also has the essence of red wine. By now I think I’ve figured out that Taiwan black teas are not my absolute favorite for some reason, this tea seems to have a hint of tobacco and bitterness as well although the top notes are very sweet. Not too bad overall, but not going on my list of things to repurchase.

This is a very lovely green tea, which is full of surprises. The long, needle like leaves are very green and smell delightfully fresh when you open the package.

I’m not enamored of too many Chinese green teas, but I did like this one. I steeped it for 3 minutes Western style and got a very light colored infusion. I’d say I used 4 grams of tea in an 8 oz glass cup.

The aroma of the tea is vegetal and almost floral like in nature. It has a very mild flavor like sugar snap peas, with a touch of orchid-sweetness and almost seems to posses a kind of rare purity. It’s very refreshing and smooth and has a slight sweet aftertaste that has a bit of macadamia nut yumminess mingling on my tongue. Makes me feel relaxed and delighted at the same time.

According to RateTea, this green has a high percentage of theanine which is likely responsible for the relaxing feeling.

http://ratetea.com/style/anji-bai-cha/110/

I would definitely get this one again and I’m not the biggest fan of Chinese greens – on the list it goes since all I got was a 10g sample, yummy yum yum!

I was really looking forward to trying this sample today, but also unsure of how to steep it. Norbu’s instructions recommend the gong fu method so I thought I would try it that way.

My first steep was for a 1 minute infusion in the Jingdezhen gaiwan pictured here: http://www.redblossomtea.com/teaware/gaiwan/gaiwan-spring.html

I got a nice organish-brown infusion which smells faintly of malt. Now that I’ve had a few dan cong oolongs I am really picking out that flavor in this tea, but this is darker, more robust. Really not sure about it, a bit on the side of bitterness for me.

2nd steep: 30 seconds. To me it smells a bit malty, I can’t find the honey flavors that others have described. It’s woody, sour & astringent. the other reviewers loved this tea but it’s leaving a bad feeling in my stomach, so out it goes.

Sorry Norbu, this one is not for me… evidently I am really picky about all things dan cong related :(

Please let me know if anyone wants the remaining 5g of this sample, the other reviewers loved it. I hate giving a bad review to a tea.

Shui Xian is definitely one of my favorite everyday oolongs and this is certainly a nice one. Someone in my office remarked on how good this tea smells! It’s very roasty and aromatic – if you like houijicha this would be a good one to check out. A traditional Chinese restaurant type of tea.

I did a slightly longer steep at around 2 minutes for my first cup. The flavor is that of burnt sugar, caramel and charred plums. Norbu claims the tea is bittersweet but I’m not actually picking up on much bitterness, I get a sweet honey like finish. This would be a great one to have with meals or for simply just relaxing. I definitely plan to get a larger size of this soon, it also resteeps nicely.

This is a very interesting tea! I got a 10g sample of it from Norbu. The tea uses jin xuan (milk oolong) source materials but is processed like a green tea. I wonder if this is how that other tea from the Bird Pick is processed too? Anyway, the leaves here are a bit longer and wiry and not rolled. There are some stems in the tea but that’s the way the Taiwanese drink it, I have heard.

I steeped this for about 3 minutes at 180F. This tea has a very creamy and fresh green flavor. I am also picking up on a bit of a floral quality here. It’s nice and gentle and pretty delicious! Breakfast this morning is a bowl of bananas and raspberries and this is a nice accompaniment. It’s not as buttery as the Bird Pick tea but I am finding it very pleasant. I think this would be a very popular tea if more people tried it – give it a shot! The samples from Norbu are a bargain.

This is a 10g sample I recently got from Norbu Tea. I more or less picked it at random but now after looking at it closer, I see that it’s a Pre-Qingming tea. I think this just means it was picked very early in the spring.

I decided to steep this Western style so I used the glass teapot for 3 minutes with water that was 180F.

The tea liquor is very mild and light yellow in color. It reminds me a bit of the pre-chingming Snow Dragon I was graciously gifted by ScottTeaMan. This is a very mild and gentle green tea, the tea liquor is very soft with some light vegetal notes of artichoke and perhaps a bit of cucumber.

It is nice but I generally prefer something more robust and flavorful. It isn’t bad, it’s just not my “thing”. I think I will try gong fu’ing the rest of this sample at a later date to see what difference that makes.

I’m not in a great mood today because it looks like the BF and I have broken up for good, I am feeling very sad but I think it is actually for the best if we just go our separate ways.

I have noticed one thing I enjoy about tea is the ability it has to ground me and provide me with something pleasant to look forward to. I’m revisiting this sample today and it is very light and pleasant. Somehow I am not feeling much bitterness in this tea, only a light floral taste with a hint of coconut.

Ajahn Chah has written a book called “Everything Arises, Everything Falls Away: Teachings on Impermanence and the End of Suffering”. It was a great book that got me through my divorce so I think I will spend some time reading it today and try to do some quiet things.

I might need to get more of this tea, just for helping me out through a painful time. ;)

I was a little nervous about trying this after reading the description “bittersweet” but I got a 10g sample and then I got a free sample with another order so I’m determined to like it!

I steeped this in the gaiwan and liked the look of long and slighly twisted dry leaf. I did a quick rinse of this tea and the aroma of the wet leaf is absolutely divine – magnolia blossom indeed!

Steep #1 – I meant to steep this for only 10 seconds, but I was fumbling around looking for my cups so it went more to 30+ seconds. I got a light yellow infusion with a floral aroma. The flavor is light, there is a definite slight bitterness present but then a few seconds after sipping, you also notice a sweetness on the tongue.

Steep #2 – This was for about 15 seconds. Difficult to get too much flavor out of it with such a short steep, but at least it isn’t bitter. It’s very floral and I’m definitely getting the coconut finish which is really interesting!

Steep #3 – 30 seconds. Similar to steep #2 – light and floral, a bit coco-nutty, a slight bitterness.

Fenghuang oolongs are always going to make me nervous as I am not a connoisseur of bitter teas, but this was fairly enjoyable and not too fussy. I will finish off the samples I have eventually but don’t think I’ll get anymore when they run out.

Finishing off this delicious sample I got from Norbu a while back. Every sip has such interesting flavors… evergreen, a hint of smoke, cherries, sweet malt. I had the 2011 spring version which is no longer available but they still have the 2012 version on their site. Very tempting!