Norbu Tea
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Had my best session yet with this tea this morning. I actually started with the water hotter, because I’d been considering starting the day with Dragonwell, and had the kettle already up to 160 degrees, and it was quite full, and I did not want to wait for the water to cool back to 145, or two play with adding cool water to get there. So I used the hotter water, 5 grams of tea in the 5 oz kyusu, and started with one very short infusion (started pouring at 25 seconds); then 20", 1 minute, and 5 minutes. By the time I’d gotten to the last one, however, the water, which was cooling slowly in the kettle, was down to 145 degrees. And all were sweet, fresh young asparagus and peas, very little grassiness, and no astringency or bitterness at all. Just my thing, and one of those accidental brewings that would be very difficult to precisely replicate again.
Preparation
Another day, another lovely infusion with this tea. I did manage a less-than-wonderful infusion a couple of days ago when I forgot a steeping, but it was easily rescued with a good deal of dilution. But as a rule it is very pleasant, and many infusions are quite lovely, even brilliant, with just a little care.
It’s climbing up my preference chart bit by bit as I work with it more.
Preparation
Yamakai Sencha – 2010 1st Harvest Shizuoka Sencha
One sniff and I’m already in love: the scent is sweet and rich. 5 grams of tea to my 150mL kyusu, prewarmed, water to 140 degrees per Greg’s brewing recommendation.
Brewing 2 minutes first steep, throwing caution to the wind…and it is sweet and rich.
30 second 2nd steep, delicious and sweet, a bit astringent and nutty too.
For 3 steep, heating the water to 150, just to play a little more, and steeping 1 minute—similar to previous infusion, but a bit lighter in body and richness—really think it’s done at 3.
I may play with it a bit more next time, because I am concerned that the very long first steep took a bit more of the punch that should have been left for the later steeps.
Overall, this is a lovely sencha. Without a head-to-head comparison, it’s hard to rank it other than saying it’s right up there with my top-tier senchas. Lovely for breakfast this morning with toast with honey-butter.
Preparation
I dug a sample packet of this tea out of my cupboard just now; I’m honestly not sure when or from whom I got it. Hmm.
It an interesting tea that starts out with a floral flavour when the tea is hotter and then as it gets a bit cooler it takes on a deeper, and more well-rounded flavour. The floral notes fade and the tea takes on a sweetly buttery flavour. The feel of the tea in my mouth is very smooth and pleasent. As the tea cools some more the floral notes come back slightly along with a honey-like sweet flavour.
The resteep (@ 5 min) is less floral and has more of that honey flavour. It was an enjoyable oolong and I liked that it wasn’t as flowery as some other green oolongs can be.
Preparation
Wooed by oolong’s song I once strayed from the puerh way.
Camphor and indigestible vegetable fumed frustration and dismay.
Reoriented by a strange tea’s measure, I have now returned to the treasure
Of Sheng Cha. Oh happy day!
LOL
Really, though, I had stopped drinking young raw puerh for a while. I had become confused by camphor and raw vegetables. I just didn’t know what I was looking for. The famous astringency had turned from interest and complexity to unpleasantness for me. In order to recalibrate I decided to focus my green cake puerh efforts on teas from two trusted vendors, Hou De Asia and Norbu, with two teas from the same year, 2006 — enough time passed to have mellowed out the teas a bit but recent enough to still be considered young. These two teas have led me back to the true path of sheng cha.
Both teas are from famous puerh growing region of Yunnan. The mountains of Yiwu (site of Hou De’s tea; please see my notes on that tea), are in Xishuangbanna prefecture in the very far south of Yunnan. Yong De County in Lincang prefecture (Norbu’s tea), is 500 kilometers across the mountains, north and west. I feel certain that someone who really knew the geological and climatic differences and similarities of these places would find a nuanced terroir or sense of place in the teas. I, however, can only pretend.
The first infusion (after a single rinse) of Norbu’s “Qi Cha” yielded a very pleasant taste that seemed a combination of bamboo shoots and sugar cane with just a hint of the presence of something else — woody, maybe balsam? Not the needles, not piney; rather more fragrantly woodsy, like the bark of the tree perhaps. The tea has a nice long oval shape that makes an arc from the back of my throat across my palate to the tip of my tongue, not spreading out much to the sides. Second infusion, yes, definitely woody and sweet underneath. I wonder if what I’m tasting is what Norbu calls the malty taste.
Maybe it’s just the season but I definitely feel a wintry festiveness in this tea — not quite jingle bells, but still… I think this shall be my holiday tea this year.
The spent leaves a surprisingly intact, given that I was working with a small sample, with some large, juicy stems and white streaks. I here pledge to stick with small-batch sheng cha. And I like the idea of “wild arbor” tea, but I must find out what that actually means.
Preparation
Wonderful Young Sheng:
1st Steep 7s: Delicate Pineapple Essence, smooth finish.
2nd Steep 15s: OVERSTEEP Pour Out
3rd Flash Steep: Vegetal, Leathery, Woodsy Musk.
4th Steep 7s: Less Leathery now with Peaty Undertone.
5th Steep 15s: Bittersweet aftertaste with the pineapple essence.
All in all a good young sheng probably needs some age, it is rather unforgiving (read: tastes like isopropyl alcohol mixed with shoe polish if you over steep like me)
Preparation
Steeped Gongfu:
1st infusion 10s: Slightly Roasty, Very Fruity
2nd 15s: More Roasty, Tropical Fruitiness Comes Out
3rd 25s: Roastiness not increased, Fruitiness with a warm palatal.
Very Fine Oolong!!! High Quality leaves, Tight Rolling, Excellent Aroma, Fruity and Just Wonderful!
Preparation
This is a tea that has been sneaking up on me. The first time I tasted it, I was a bit disappointed, thinking it was too dark, too toasted, not enough fruity sweet spice. But that was a gongfu session. But although it was not making me dance for joy, there was nothing particularly bad about it, so I set the rest of the sample aside for brewing thermoses of tea for the road.
I can’t really give proper brewing parameters, because I don’t measure out when I’m doing it for the thermos. But I put the tea in my 6 oz glass pot, strewing it across the bottom to cover lightly but not pile up—just a few grams of tea. Then I just start making infusions with hot water—195-212—until the thermos is full. How long or how short each is doesn’t matter too much, because at the end, they’re all mixed together in a quart of tea.
The first cups from the thermos are very dark, toasty, just a hint of sweet grain—rice? barley?—under the dark toastiness. Then, as it sits longer, it starts to sweeten, as though some of the deeper roasted flavor elements are being transmuted into lighter sweeter things.
I’ve noticed this effect—the seeming sweetness with long holding—in other deeply roasted teas, notably some Wuyis—but this one takes it to a whole ‘nother level. And I ended up buying more. Couldn’t stop with just the sample.
Preparation
Consistently one of my favorites—very warm Qi, Slightly astringent, very smokey and peaty palatal, finishes very nicely with a bittersweet aftertaste.
