2015 Yunnan Sourcing Nuo Mi Xiang

4g/80ml in a glazed gaiwan rather than a pot, because this stuff is pungent!

This is exactly what I wanted it to be. I love sticky rice herb. I’ve been keeping the cake of this on its own out in the open in its wrapper, as you could smell the sticky rice even through the ziploc bag the cake was originally in. Far away from my other puerh!

The shou here goes very dark fast and gives a nice thick carrier for the flavour, while otherwise staying out of the way. (File under sticky rice tea rather than shou, really).

Nom nom.

Drinking this during our self-care evening.

The cake smells very much like sticky rice, and chunks are separated from it easily. The liquor brews up fairly dark, and smells a bit like popcorn. It tastes a bit like buttered popcorn, as well.

The second steep is even darker, and the flavor carries through. The third infusion is the sweetest yet. I don’t get to spend much time with this one since it’s approaching bedtime, but I will definitely revisit it!

This is a tasty and interesting tea. It has a very hard to describe but sweet taste from the sticky rice herb. They don’t use actual sticky rice in this one but a herb that mimics it somehow. There was also a a fair amount of fermentation flavor to this tea. I’d say I noticed the fermentation for the first four or five steeps. It had muted a little since the was fermented last year. There was little bitterness to this tea. There were also no chocolate notes to this tea if anyone is looking for them. The sticky rice flavor pretty much takes over this tea. All the natural flavors of the puerh take a backseat to the sticky rice flavor. That flavor is quite nice actually. I think it is well done in this tea.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 120ml gaiwan with 11.4g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. The tea was not done at twelve steeps. I could have gotten a few more steeps out of it but I had had enough caffeine for one day.

When buying this I thought it was actually made with rice, not noticing that it was in fact a sort of herb. After tasting it, I’m glad it wasn’t because the taste is better than I could imagine coming from rice. The sweetness of the herb works well with the earthy background of the puer and it somewhat reminded me of the taste of buttered popcorn. I don’t count my steeps, but I was still getting some pleasant taste while the brew was starting to become close to clear. I look forward to try the other teas in this set, because this one made a great impression.

I started this steep later than I planned. I was hoping to get to this after the meeting with the caseworker today, but I had decided to enjoy a different cup of tea.

However, the aroma profile is quite unique. It’s mineral-y, woodsy, and earthy; yet, the flavor has a nice smooth, rich, and nutty taste. The mouthfeel on this tea is nice. It’s light on the flavor after the first few (25 second) steeps, but after I increased the steep time, it had a more solid flavor to it.

I really enjoyed this tea, but on the account that I have to be up early, I’m stopping at 5 steeps, and will continue drinking this tomorrow afternoon. It’ll be a good cup to start the day with, too.

After heating the Gaiwan and adding the tea, and letting it warm up as the water was re-heating, I noticed the smell of sticky rice, perhaps fresh popcorn.
The wash was a reddish amber color, clear and mostly clean (no little bits of tea).
After the wash the Pu-erh smelled a bit like wet earth.
1st Steep was about 10 seconds or so. With a dark red, or brown color. It reminded me of dark honey.
It had a really mushroomy taste.
The second steep the tea was pretty well broken up. This steep the color was really dark almost purple. I was reminded of dark amber ale.
It was during this steep that I noticed the taste of the sticky rice herb took front stage! The Pu-erh taste was still there, albeit very muted in the background.
The tea tasted like a nice creamy mushroom soup. I was thinking the whole time of rice and mushrooms.
The 3rd steep I was thinking that there was a hint of tortilla chips. Weird I know.
The 4th through 8th steeps were mostly the same as the 2nd and 3rd. That’s to say the Pu-erh taste was mostly muted in the background.
This Pu-erh is not bad at all. It’s a bit of a change and to me seems more like a novelty item than a serious Pu head’s tea.

Thanks kieblera5 for sending me a sample of this!

Gongfu session with a ceramic gaiwan. Fifteen second rinse.

Wow, so newb, very logic. I couldn’t tell how many grams I was sent (at least ten?), so I simply dumped everything into my 3-ounce gaiwan. There was a lot. The leaf nearly filled the bowl when it fully expanded. To not oversteep and make yucky cupd, I did a bunch of flash infusions in the beginning and then climbed up to 120 seconds in the end, with total of 15 infusion.

This session lasted for a day and half because I had a dentist appointment the first day and I am strict about my caffeine cut-off time.

The dry leaf, after staying in the heated bowl for a bit, smelled sweetly of stick rice. The wet leaf aroma is the same but much sweeter with an undertone of damp sand.

As one can imagine with so much leaf, the liquor was incredibly dark red at the very start. Also cloudy, but it cleared after a few more infusions. This is a simple shou. The texture and flavor notes did not change throughout the session. Basically creamy and tastes of sticky rice and mushrooms.

For $6 small cake, this is decent. OK tasting, very every day.