Norbu Tea

I did a comparison between this tea and one I’ve been drinking from Wing Hop Fung today, my first time opening the package of the Xi Hu. The Xi Hu is a 2011 tea, and the one from WHF was not so fresh—probably a 2010 harvest—but the tea tasted as I remembered it immediately after purchase.

The leaves are a pleasant bright green, smelling sweet and a bit floral. I started with water I did a comparison between this tea and one I’ve been drinking from Wing Hop Fung today, my first time opening the package of the Xi Hu. The Xi Hu is a 2011 tea, and the one from WHF was not so fresh—probably a 2010 harvest—but the tea tasted as I remembered it immediately after purchase.

The leaves are a pleasant bright green, smelling sweet and a bit floral. I started with 2 grams of each in gaiwans with 75 mL of 160°/71°C water to start, 30" first infusion, and the XiHu was sweet peas, very light on the nuttiness compared to the WFH tea, but nuttier than the average green tea. 20" second infusion again sweet and vegetal, lightly nutty. The 40 second 4th infusion was nuttier and less sweet. I increased the temp to 177°F/81°C for the fourth infusion, 1 minute, and the tea was notably lighter, mildly sweet. I did another similar infusion before upping the temp again, 193°F/89°C for the sixth infusion, 2 minutes, and the first sip was sweet, delicious, and it kept on as somewhat nutty sweet water, pleasant. Again upped the temp to 205°F/96°C for the 7th infusion, 4 minutes, just to see if there is anything else left in the leaves, and again, it was sweet water, a little bit vegetal and a little bit floral, very mellow.

This is a very nice tea.

Fuller review with photos
http://www.well.com/user/debunix/recipes/DragonWells.7.11.html

Finally got to this one—have been on a tasting kick this week. I read another review comparing this one to berries and chocolate—and I agree, the dark leaves have a unique scent that is reminiscent of raspberries and dark chocolate. The leaves are also a very surprising deep purple-black when dried, and purple-green when wetted. I’ll edit again to put a link to photos on my web site shortly to show what I mean.

The tea itself does fulfill the expectation of berry in a deeply tart fruitiness. The chocolate, however, does not come through. I understand the difficulty Greg had writing the description because this is not a typical puerh. But while the first infusions can be a bit tricky—there’s some bitterness to work around, and the next time I might start it with slightly cooler water—the later infusions, as it fades towards sweet water—keep that berry and sweetness delightfully. A very nice tea.

Should have added: steeps were flash rinse, then 10 seconds apiece for a good while before increasing to 20", 30", eventually a minute or so.

Dry leaves
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/5992938178/in/photostream/
Wet leaves
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/5992938764/in/photostream/

As anticipated, this one also makes terrific iced tea. I used about 3 grams in a 10 ounce up, cool tap water, and refrigerated it. 12 hours later, rich and floral and fruity with a bit of something not bitter, but a bit of a counterpoint to the sweet fruitiness. Mmmm.

(Another free sample with the current order from Norbu)
90mL shiboridashi, preheated, with 3.1 grams of tea, delicate intact leaves, with sweet delicate scent

160°F/71°C, 90 seconds
Peaches and honey, flowers and fruit, delicious.

160°F/71°C, 2 minutes
Peaches receding, still honey, fruity, flowers, and delicious

180°F/82°C, 2 minutes
Vegetal grassiness to the fore now, still some floral overtones, fruit/peach essence gone now

186°F/86°C, 3 minutes
Floral, sweet, vegetal, pleasant, but I think the leaves are mostly done now.

This is a lovely tea, very reminiscent of Bai Mu Dan, and should be delicious iced. I’m going to prepare a cup of that to drink tonight—will update when I do.

My anticipation was great this morning as I opened the newly arrived package of this tea from Norbu. A sample of this tea gave me one of my best tea experiences ever when I first tried it a month ago, but between then and now, my beloved shiboridashi broke, and my first attempt at brewing the same tea in another vessel was slightly disappointing compared to the first transcendent experience. My first attempt at repairing the shibo was not entirely successful—there was a slow leak—but I decided to try it this morning for the GZZS anyway, because it was a SLOW leak, and magic happened again…..I am drinking a meadow of spring flowers.

Had a not quite so fantastic session with this one in a different pot—a tokoname kyusu—then finished the sample again with a session in the same shiboridashi that I started it with, and it was again, simply stunning. Wow.

3 grams in 3 ounce preheated iron-rich clay shiboridashi

170°F/77°C, 30 seconds—weet, vegetal, grassy, a delicate floral note too. VERY NICE!

170°F/77°C, 30 seconds—sweet, and the floral is stronger this infusion, fantastic

170°F/77°C, 45 seconds—wow, how does this one go on like this? I am drinking a meadow of spring flowers—THIS is the “honeyed quality of some Chinese green teas” that I read about in one of my tea books, and haven’t ever properly tasted in tea before. I’ve had some fine green teas that have had hints of this, but usually tempered with nuttiness or astringency or bitterness when the tea is pushed a bit, or just lower-key with the floral elements, and here there is nothing roasted, just sweet, floral, wow.

190°F/88°C, 30 seconds—still that astonishing sweetness, and my tastebuds are dancing.

185°F/85°C, 1 minute—oh my….I am in love.

190°F/88°C, 2 minutes—still delicious, the floral richness a little less intense now.

(remaining infusions between 190°F/88°C and 200°F/93°C)

3 minutes—enough sweet floral flavor remains to encourage a 4th infusion.

4 minutes—mmmm, a little lighter now, still pleasant.

5 minutes—closing in on sweet water, done now.

What a marvelous tea!

Enjoying this one as a cold-brewed tea, and the depth of flavor is just fantastic this way too. Mmmmm!

This was my first gongfu cha tasting of this one, because I opened the package for the first time while traveling and without proper gongfu setup. It just wouldn’t get bitter or lose a rich sweetness no matter how I abused it. I was bulk brewing it in my thermos and really impressed with the results under those harsh conditions, and became very eager to see what it could do when more carefully brewed at home.

2.3 grams in porcelain gaiwan, about 75mL water—1 gram/ounce
Water 205°F/96° C

1st, about 30 seconds
Sweet and rich, floral, delicious, marvelously pleasant

2nd, about 20 seconds
A little more spiciness in addition to the floral sweetness

4th, forgot at 2-3 minutes
Splendidly rich, floral, spicy, but no hint of bitterness

5th, also quite a long infusion
Less sweet, but amazingly floral and still very rich, deep flavor

6th, shorter infusion
Lighter and sweeter, deliciously floral

7, 8…and more, out to about a dozen infusions, probably could have been longer if I hadn’t overdone the middle ones so much.

I really like this tea, and particularly the staying power both when brewed gongfu cha and when I’ve bulk brewed it for my thermos—it still has wonderful flavor hours later, not to be compared to the fresh brewed, of course, but far better than most green oolongs I’ve tried for that use. I just ordered quite a bit more, anticipating a lot of afternoons at the office with the thermos full of this one.

2.3 grams in porcelain gaiwan, about 75mL water—1 gram/ounce
Water 205°F/96° C

1st, about 30 seconds
Sweet and rich, floral, delicious, marvelously pleasant

2nd, about 20 seconds
A little more spiciness in addition to the floral sweetness

4th, forgot at 2-3 minutes
Splendidly rich, floral, spicy, but no hint of bitterness

5th, also quite a long infusion
Less sweet, but amazingly floral and still very rich, deep flavor

6th, shorter infusion
Lighter and sweeter, deliciously floral

7, 8…and more, out to about a dozen infusions, probably could have been longer if I hadn’t overdone the middle ones so much.

I really like this tea, and particularly the staying power both when brewed gongfu cha and when I’ve bulk brewed it for my thermos—it still has wonderful flavor hours later, not to be compared to the fresh brewed, of course, but far better than most green oolongs I’ve tried for that use. I just ordered quite a bit more, anticipating a lot of afternoons at the office with the thermos full of this one.

The mood was green this morning, so I just picked first and best unflavoured green out of the basket. This process was made a lot easier by the fact that I’m not so set in my ways with greens as I am with blacks. Had the mood been for a black tea this morning, choosing one would have involved a whole lot more dithering.

Anyway, this sample contained, I think, just about the right amount of leaf for my brewing preferences and the leaves were large and a nice, bright green colour. They looked happy and lively, and made me expect a flavour with lots of pizzazz in it.

It’s surprisingly light in colour though. Even after a whole minute’s steeping, it’s still very pale. Most green teas, at this point, will be very yellow in my experience.

The aroma is quite light as well. It’s very difficult to find it, even when sticking my nose so close to it, it’s almost getting dipped. When I do find it, though, it’s quite fruity. I’m reminded of pineapple and green apples, and not really finding any of the vegetative grassy notes.

It’s incredibly delicate in flavour. It’s so frail and shy, I almost expect it to blush when sipping it. Unfortunately, the fruity notes that I found in the aroma are not carrying over into the flavour. Shame, I had quite looked forward to a naturally occurring pineapple note. Some of the apple-y note is still there, but it’s not in any really significant amount.

It’s a rather floral flavour, in a not scented to death sort of way. Naturally occurring little flowers that nobody is paying attention to because they’re just weeds. It doesn’t really have any significant grassy notes. There is some of it there, but it’s so delicate that it barely registers. These are some great notes, but I should have liked for them to be stronger. A little less shy and blushing and a little more ‘look out, world! Here I come!’

This is not really a tea that one can easily pick apart like this. It doesn’t work like that. A flavour this delicate should be viewed more in the big picture, which is lightly floral, mild and sweet. Not really suitable for a morning tea, however green the mood may be, but later in the day it would be a really nice choice. Imagine coming home from work, tired and stressed, and then sitting down with a cup of this tea. Just quietly sipping a cup without paying attention to the rest of the world for a few minutes. Zen.

Another day, another tasting. I opened this bag planning to enjoy a rich floral sweetness like the 2009 spring version I’d bought before, and this didn’t disappoint. It might not be quite as rich as the spring version was, but it is fantastically floral, and lasts for a moderate number of infusions quite delightfully. Compared to the Diamond TGYs, it’s not as durable through multiple infusions but it’s rich, smooth, and sweet in its own right, quite a bargain.

I posted a combined review of this and a few other Alishans from Norbu on my teapages. Unfortunately, the one package of this that I had was opened a bit early, and suffered some loss of freshness and ‘zing’ before the review. So I can’t really rate it properly.

http://www.well.com/user/debunix/recipes/AlishanOolongs.html

I like this tea. A lot. It’s a tea that has a lot going on, complex flavors but all intertwining. The flavors kind of pop in your mouth, just when you think you know what your tasting, some other flavor reveals itself.
There are not many teas of this type out there that has this kind of quality, it does have floral tones, a wee bit astringent, an almost nutty flavor and a sweet aftertaste.
I gave it a 50 s. steep time and used one teaspoon for every six ounces.
I have bought this tea twice and the next time I buy it, it will probably be a 2011 pick.
Norbu is a very attentive company and answers all questions quickly.
Enjoy!

This is a nice late in the day cup of oolong. The color is beautiful, the color of pale celery, lime and a touch of yellow. It is a very mild tea, doesn’t not burst with flavor like the diamond grade, but lingers ever so nicely. It is a sweet aftertaste to which I am partial.
I think the next time I drink it I will drink it iced, I think it will be a very good ice tea for summer.

This is a shared with the boyfriend pot. He requested something green that wasn’t flavoured, and I suggested a green type oolong because it was the first one I came across when diving into the Bits and Bops Basket.

The dry leaf had a citrus-y note to the aroma but after steeping the aroma is wildly floral to the point where you would think it was scented with something or other.

The flavour seems to be a bit weakly and watery, but I’m not sure I can really count on that, since I’m brewing (because it’s a shared pot) in a different pot than I’m used to and I’m not sure I really had enough leaf to get the strength that I prefer and am accustomed to.

Apart from that weakly beginning the first bit of the sip is something smoothly vegetal, kind of asparagus-y and a bit spinach-y. It has some floral overtones as well, but not nearly as much as the aroma would lead me to believe.

There is a strong feeling of citrus as well, sort of an umbrella note, covering everything. Not really a flavour of citrus, but sort of like you can sense the presence of a lemon-y note being in there somewhere. The flavour that doesn’t really show itself much but is secretly pulling all the strings behind the scenes.

It’s quite nice, but I’m getting more and more convinced that I’m really outgrowing this type of oolong. I can definitely have one and say ‘this is a good oolong’ and I could even have one in the collection (unflavoured), but it wouldn’t be one I’d be reaching for very often. As close as we get to green in the Standard Panel, after all, are flavoured green oolongs.

Greetings Steepsterites.

I am celebrating the fact that I’ve washed my floors by having a good cup of tea. In fact I have actually withheld said tea from myself until after the floors were done. They are now done. For bonus effort, I have de-crumbed the boyfriend’s toaster.

Now, the first time I had this tea, I was at a complete loss for words. Just… no inspiration at all. I shall try to do better this time. Considering it’s the last of the leaves, I certainly hope I will. Back then I described it in very basic terms. Typically Yunnan-y qualities, but of a raisin-y note to the aroma, quite nice on the whole.

The aroma of this cup does indeed have a slight raisin-like quality to it, but that’s far from at the forefront. The first thing that actually struck me about it, was this unusually sharp note. Very fruity and pepper-y, but with a surprising sting to it. Being prepared for that sting, however, it seems a little less pronounced. It just sort of jumped me from behind and tried to jam a pick up my nostrils. Pretty violent, eh? I’m on to its game now though, and the loss of the ambush advantage has calmed it down somewhat, so that I am capable of concentrating on the notes that lay thickly beneath.

As mentioned it is indeed quite fruity. It’s sort of warm juice-y, or perhaps warm wine. Yes. It’s best described as having a cup of mulled wine in a barn surrounded by fragrant hay. I find that spice-y hay-y note to be quite standard from Yunnan teas. It lends a very characteristic profile to the teas from that region.

It’s amusing, however, that I once thought Yunnan teas to be quite smoky, naturally. I can find none of that smoke today. I eventually found my perception of the note developing into something more pepper-y. There is not a lot of pepper in the aroma of this one though. The hay note, however. The hay note is alive and kicking both in aroma and in flavour. It’s a very deep golden coloured flavour, exactly like a bale of straw.

I mentioned above that I could only find pepper in the flavour but not in the aroma. To make up for this, it seems like there’s about three times as much pepper in the flavour as I was expecting. Once again the tea got the upper hand on me, giving me a mouthful of pepper and holding my nose so I’d have to swallow. That too, however, I managed to subdue by letting the cup cool to a more managable level.

Back in control, the pepper is still strong and it leaves a fair amount of astringency behind. The whole mulled-wine-in-a-barn idea that embodied the aroma is a little lost to me at this point. I think it’s all the pepper. Imagine that barn with fragrant hay and having your mulled wine in it, only to discover that someone emptied the pepper mill in it when you weren’t looking. At first there’s shock, then curiosity and then to your enormous surprise, appreciation.

In spite of all the above it’s a rather nice tea, but it’s not a tea for weaklings. You have to be able to take some flavour with your cup. It’s strong and forceful and you can’t really trust it. Turn your back for a moment, and you will likely as not receive a firm kick in the rear. Ill behaved and borderline feral, that’s this tea. But once you have tamed it, it’s very enjoyable.

Gosh, what a cup. Is it tea or is it a wrestling match? Either way it put up a damn good fight.

Goodmorning Steepster.

Today, a Yunnan. I’m experiencing a loss of words today. I can smell the aroma but I can’t for the life of me come up with the words necessary to describe about it. It’s just… an aroma. Nothing really stands out to me in this cup, but I don’t know if it’s the tea’s fault or if it’s just me. It’s very standard Yunnan, spicy and peppery and with a strong note of raisins.

Taste-wise it’s the same problem. It’s a Yunnan. It’s spicy and peppery with hay notes like Yunnans just are. There are only small traces of aforementioned raisin note. But again, that’s it.

That doesn’t mean that it’s not a good tea. It’s very suitable for this morning hour with a nice strength and were I in a different, more alert mood I might even have been able to actually describe it.

I don’t think I’m in the right sort of mind-frame for writing Steepster posts. Too tired. I shall enjoy this with some Stargate instead.

This is a lovely green tea. I started with a small sample of it, and these were my tasting notes from last fall:

1.9 grams of tea (was aiming for 2.0, but got tired of adding & subtracting little bits) in small gaiwans, about 60-75mL water

And I took photos this time, watching the unfurling infusion by infusion: flash rinse barely started to unfurl anything

Started timidly, 30" at 160 degrees: warm, vegetal, sweet but the infusion is a little too short/dilute

1 minutes at same temp: vegetal flavors of peas, grass, lightly floral background, no hint of bitterness, much better match of infusion time and tea. Used the aroma cup set for this, and it was fun, sweet fresh mown grass odors.

90" third infusion, sweet, vegetal, delicate, love it love it, the best yet

2’ a little hotter, 170 degrees, slight astringency but still mostly vegetal

3’ 180 degrees, and better than the previous, sweet, vegetal, such a nice tea

5’ 190 degrees, and the tea is done: barely more flavor than hot water.

Large lovely leaves are now mostly unfurled, but I couldn’t get them to completely flatten long enough to shoot the picture

Next time, 1 min, 90", 2 min, 3 min, 8 min?

I was lucky enough to get some of the spring version of this tea, and quite sad when I went to reorder it and found it was sold out. This is an entirely worthy successor.

It’s been a while since I drank this tea, but what was memorable was how it was just as good as the spring tea but subtly different, mellower, a bit less sharply spicy and distinctly floral, but a little richer in that flavor that I think of as rich summer hay.

Today I’m just working my way through the ‘cupboard’ realizing how many teas I haven’t logged but have already drunk!

Not quite as rich and lasting as the spring version of tea, but this is a gorgeous tea nonetheless.

I have already drunk all that I had of this tea, and never logged it. So silly that it slipped through without getting the rating it deserved.

Another amazing Ali Shan oolong from Norbu. Very rich, floral, buttery, spicy. Yum.
Full review to come, but today I’m just working my way through the ‘cupboard’ realizing how many teas I haven’t logged but have already drunk!

Okay, second steep of this is incredibly thick and creamy. It’s almost like actually having some sort of tea-flavoured cream, clinging to the inside of the mouth, smooth and viscous. It’s rather too much, really.

This wasn’t at all what I wanted either, but I was fricking desperate, and these leaves were still in the pot from this morning.

Don’t ask about my day. Seriously.

From the Bits and Bops Basket. This is another one with a name that sort of appeals to the imagination, isn’t it? You may remember that I previously had a tea, procured in the same way, by the name of Ancient Forest which gave me a similar experience.

Apparently this is a black, which sort of surprises me becuase the leaves are unbroken. They’re large and pretty and rolled a bit and all in all look identical to a dark type oolong. A little further investigation shows that in the Steepster info from Norbu itself it says the tea has been 70% oxidised. Well, there you have it. It is in fact an oolong and Norbu doesn’t have a proper grasp of the tea types. Tut tut tut. Norbu, for the record, if it’s not a 100% oxidation, it’s not a black tea. Regardless of the colour of the leaf. Oolongs do actually come in other shades than green.

Now that we have that settled let’s move on. The aroma of this is quite surprising. I’ve come to expect cocoa notes primarily from dark type oolongs, but this doesn’t have that at all. It’s sweet and a bit malty, but also sort of broth-y somehow. It’s a small note but it’s there all the same, lurking at the bottom of the aroma profile. Odd. That’s definitely a first for me.

The flavour profile is a bit odd as well. It’s sort of weakish and strong at the same time. The different notes in it doesn’t quite seem to mesh which gives it a watery thin topnote and something darker and stronger below. Like a sauce that separates. Given a little more time to develop, everything seems to come together again and I get a fuller flavour. That’s a bit easier to work with.

It still doesn’t have any of those cocoa notes, though. It has retained the sweetness from the aroma and a touch of maltyness. It’s not entiremly impossible that there’s a touch of raisin on the aftertaste, but it isn’t really much. It’s more an association than an actual flavour note. The jury is out on whether or not it’s there or I’m just hallucinating.

Norbu says that there should be a mild, pleasant astringency in this cup, and I can sort of catch the hint of a glimmer of one. If there is astringency to be found here, then yes, it’s certainly mild. So mild, in fact, that it’s almost not there. Not quite gone, but not quite there.

I’m finding this quite different from other dark oolongs I’ve had, and I wonder if I’ve hit upon a regional difference here. This one comes from Taiwan, where all other dark oolongs I know generally comes from China. This is the oolong that makes me wonder what the result would be like if someone in the Assam region decided to make a dark oolong. Or someone in Sri Lanka, for that matter. And what would happen if those two were blended?

In conclusion, it’s not the best dark oolong I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s a fully functional one.

It’s been a long long time since I last had a Tie Guan Yin of any sort, so when I was looking through the sample basket for something interesting, that’s what I decided to do. After all, I need to drink all these samples so that there are less stuff to move with. :D

The dry leaf had a sort of floral aroma to it, sort of scented and bizarrely a not of something curry-ish. I don’t know where that came from, but it’s possible it’s just one of those floral notes that are showing up weird to me.

It’s a fairly pale yellow cup, but the aroma after steeping is strong. It carries significant notes of steamed spinach and again something floral-y sweet. Like a bouquet of wildflowers.

The flavour is heavy with asparagus notes. It has asparagus notes to the point where I went O.o and double-checked the sample wrapper. I’ve found this sort of green vegetable note before many times, but this particular tea is extraordinarily strong on the asparagus. A person who didn’t like asparagus would not like this tea.

Once the worst of the asparagusness has dissipated, ever so slightly dusty floral notes are coming out again. I could almost believe that this had been lightly scented with something. They’re not jasmine-y or rose-y, they’re sweeter than that, but it’s definitely floral.

I’m not getting a huge amount of aftertaste on this one, but I suspect it might be one of those that will build up as one drinks. At the moment what I am getting is thankfully free of that sourness that typically bothers me in non- or lightly fermented teas.

This seems very nice for its type, but somehow I’m not sure I’m really that into TGYs anymore…

(Also, looks like someone’s tasting note has become mixed up with the product description. If you’ve posted about this tea before, you might want to see if it’s yours)