Yunnan Sourcing

Needed a shou hit this morning. Searched for something I had tasted before since I did not feel like any surprises -2007 Gu Ming Nan Nuo mountain tea. The tea is comfortably woody and robust with an undertone of honey. All in all a very easy ripe tea to enjoy. I picked this cake up at Angelina’s Teas for a mere $21 and I think it is still available. If you are looking for real Nan Nuo mountain leaf at a very reasonable price, I would highly recommend it.

A pleasant cup of earthy warmth. I enjoyed its very smooth deep oak flavor with a rich dark brown clear liquor and I detected a touch of dark chocolate and honey. Double 3 second rinse and then I combined (4) six second gaiwan infusions into one sixteen ounce travel mug and hit the road. This was part of a very generous sample which accompanied the 357g cake I recently purchased. The cake is for aging a year or two but I look forward to continuing with the sample very soon.

This has been a lovely lovely tea drinking day!
I started with a gongfu session of this one. IMO any other way of preparing it just wouldn’t do it justice. A friend came over for breakfast, & I shared cups of this one while I was cooking. This tea has a refreshing quality to it, the taste is sweet like a plum sake (I’ve never had that, but it is as I imagine it would be), also savory in an herbal kind of way. There is also great energy, somewhat like a sheng.

I have quite a few teas here that I’ve never tried, and this is one of them. It was included as a free sample in my most recent Yunnan Sourcing order, which was back around black friday, I think.

Sometimes I get caught up in just going with easy teas, you know, steep 1 tsp for 3 min, or whatever. I forget how much better these full leaf teas are in a gongfu session. So today I went with 5G + 4oz (rinse) X 15sec/30/45/1min…etc

OH, the Chaqi, oh the lovely mellow feeling, oh the delicious tea.
Herbaceous & sweet, love in a cup.

Pulling this out after some time in the pumidor.
I remember some about this from the last time. The color seems to be about the same. The tea itself is coming along. It seems to have some more oomph in there. You can get the light notes of the camphor floating around in there along with some evergreen and the punch of the bitter is a bit more pronounced. The bitter hangs on the tip and sides of the tongue and subsides to a savory almost herbal note with just hints of sweetness to it. I have done 2 different sessions in the last 2 days of this one. It seemed I couldn’t put it down or maybe I was too full of turkey to get another out.
Good drinking none the less.

Looking over this tea when breaking it. The cake seems to have some “white” tips in it. the first brew was very pale considering the age of the maocha the tea was made with. It brews clean and bright with a pale yellow color. The notes I get right away are musky and floral with a touch of smoke and bitter. it causes a slight numbing on the tongue that stimulates the saliva glands. A little “piney” note also shows up. it is deep and complex with the darker “aged” color coming after the second steep. This is a really nice tea with a mix of heavy hitting and soft notes rolled into one. The dryer and fruity notes seem to come after the first infusion. I would suggest a “double” rinse to allow this one to show its true nature. a real deal for what I paid and i can’t wait to see how it matures down the road. Very hot gongfu method short steeps on this one.

Definitely wanted to try this one! Thanks so much CharlotteZero! I went with two teaspoons (I tried to follow Teavivre’s Dian Hong instructions!)

Steep #1 // few minutes after boiling // 2 min
The fragrance is lovely! The flavor seems to be between Teavivre’s Golden & Full Leaf Dian Hong’s. It’s neither sweet potato or chocolate… somewhere in the middle! This is very nice, but I feel like both of Teavivre’s are better because they aren’t in the middle. One is super chocolate, one is a ton of sweet potato. This blend also has some fuzzies that are usually on white tea that likes to bother my throat.

Steep #2 // just boiled // 4-5 mins
I might have let this one steep too long, but the flavor isn’t bad. This cup is very similar to the last cup. Very nice, just not as nice as Teavivre! They don’t have tiny fuzzies. The flavor isn’t as full as I’d love it to be. I will gladly drink the rest of my sample though!

This is a nice loose compressed cake that broke apart easily. It has a slight mineral taste with a touch of bitterness on the tongue. It has a very thick mouthfeel to it that is followed by tongue tingling after drinking it. I have done 9 infusions so far and it is carrying on well. A pretty nice young sheng with a nice floral aroma.

A full flavored sheng pu-erh this sample features robust leaves with a light orange soup, pronounced, long lasting flavors (my wife says “spicy”) which I think are a bit intense at the moment, but will be interesting to follow over time. A good, interesting treat.

Second sipdown of the year and another tea that is welcome back in my cupboard anytime. :)