Nannuoshan

So I am not generally a white/green/oolong tea fan. Whites in particular tend to taste like sweet water to me. I opted to brew this one western brew for about 3 mins. The taste here reminds me a little of wild monk from mandala but not quite. there’s a sweetness here that is really tasty and something that could almost be smoke..but that isn’t. I am a fan! I might even consider picking more of this up in the future…which says a lot for a white tea :)

Small, wiry, and twisted leaves. About 1cm in length and deep brown in color with reflective golden hairs. The dry aroma is both sweet and salty with cocoa, potato, and longan fruit notes.

The tea liquer is a warm orange color. There’s some really unique (and kind of strange) soy sauce and potato sort of flavors alongside fruity, floral, and chocolate notes, as well as a tamarind/greenish tang. An interesting balance of sweet, savory, and tangy.

The spent leaves are a milk chocolate brown, very small and tender. A good tea with a very interesting flavor profile, though to me it was a bit strange.

Long and twisted grey-brown leaves with plenty of furry white buds. Leaf size is moderate for sheng. Slightly sweet marine aroma with notes of peach and clay.

This is a mild, friendly sheng with a light yellow infusion. Slightly brothy with umami, yet very clean and fresh. Slight floral daphodill flavor with clay and woody notes. Slight rock sugar sweetness.

By the third steeping the bitterness becomes more prominent, but is still pretty mild. Slight tobacco note, leather, peach, grain, and sandalwood. Good lingering aftertaste. The qi is mild, but very relaxing/sedating in nature.

After brewing, the leaves are long and slender. Olive green color with fairly plump purple-ish stems and prominent veins. A nice mild sheng.

My second Nannuoshan Wuyi oolong. The dry leaves are medium-large, smaller and slightly more roasted than the Ban Tian Yao. Deep brown with touches of red and green. Strong aroma with slight roasted notes, very sweet with raisin and spice.

Brewing the tea I’m hit with an amazing floral/cinnamon aroma. Delicious cup with a moderate mineral taste. Notes of walnut, cinnamon, vanilla with just a faint touch of floral greenness. Aroma lingers both in the cup and in the mouth. Later infusions give stronger peach and cinnamon notes, a bit of musk, moderate sweetness, and a nice sparkling quality. This one has less stamina the the BTY and begins to fade by the 7th infusion. However I’m left with a nice calming qi and tingles across the top of my head

The spent leaves are a fairly uniform brown and green, darker and more broken than the BTY
Overall an excellent oolong with full flavor and aroma, but somewhat lacking in stamina.

Very small and tightly curled leaves. Fluffy and chocolate brown in color with a nice mix of golden buds. Lightly smoky mesquite aroma.

Nice coppery liquer. Savory butter and smoke flavors balanced out by fruit and honey notes. Slightly floral wild flower finish. A fairly delicate black tea.
Later infusions give more lychee/longan fruitiness, a touch of cocoa and honey, clean leather, and lesser smoke with a floral background. The mouthfeel is clean and round.

The spent leaves are tiny and tender with a light brown color with twinges of green, many under 1cm. Considerable time and effort must be put into picking so many young leaves
Overall a nice tea with a lovely appearance. Like the Ban Tian Yao it was nicely balanced with a mild flavor.

My last Nannnuoshan for today. I’ll save the oolongs for tomorrow. ;-)

Oh my goodness, I love this one. It’s smooth and buttery with a light sweetness and a delicate sugar snap pea flavor. I felt like I was drinking something decadent as I sipped, and I can honestly say I’ve never thought that about a green tea before. This tea definitely took me to my happy place. The quality of the tea is excellent, and it resteeps very well (a big bonus in my book).

Another one for my wishlist. Thank you, Nannuoshan for the chance to sample such a nice tea!

This is a good one. There’s lots of malt, bread, chocolate and smoky notes, and they’re all very well balanced. It’s not a heavy tea, but it’s a full tea – if that makes any sense. I like the amount of smoke in this tea as it enhances the other notes in a really nice way. To be honest, everything about his tea is really nice. It’s just super tasty, and it’s going on my wishlist.

This is another sample sent to me from Nannoshan. Thank you!

The first thing I noticed was how incredibly well sealed the Nannoshan sample packages are. I had to pull out my heavy duty scissors to cut through the packaging. Once I did get the sample open I could smell a nutty/vegetal scent from the leaves. I also noticed that the dry leaves were long and a beautiful bright green.

Once steeped the flavor was not as strong as I was expecting given the smell of the dry leaves. Instead there was a soft nutty flavor and a light sweetness. There was also a bit of a mineral note at the finish. The tea tasted clean and very fresh. Even though the flavor was soft it had a brightness to it as well that I really like in high quality Long Jing.

I kept wanting to say there’s a floral note in this tea, but there’s not. The natural sweetness of the tea along with the over all softness of the cup gives the impression of something floral-like. Overall, a very nice cup.

First tea of my Nannuoshan tasting extravaganza!

The dry leaves are long and twisted and range of color from dark brown to military green. They give off a dry, musky roasted aroma with pine and fruit notes

First infusion gives a light orange liquer. Strong mineral note with lightly floral and citrus accents. Very smooth with just a touch of rock sugar sweetness. A sweet, warm spice/floral aroma is left in the bottom of the cha hai.

The following infusions begin to give a more pronounced sweetness with nectarine, vanilla, and allspice notes and a slight green tartness.

By the sixth steeping I begin to feel a subtle chaqi that imparts feelings of warmth, strength, and calm which I can feel along the top of my head and radiating through my body. Very nice, the strongest I’ve experienced in an oolong.

As the tea begins to fade I increase the infusion time and experience mild and creamy notes of linnen, sticky rice, peach, and baked goods. Ten good steepings overall.

The spent leaves are lovely and full, deep red-brown to olive green. Average around two inches with minimal stem. Overall a very nice tea with good complexity. Smooth and mild, only really lacking in intensity of flavor/aroma. A truly excellent first impression

Another sample from nannuoshan. The directions on this one warn not to steep for longer than 5 secs unless you can handle the intensity. This is probably what i’m least a fan of with this one :) I accidentally steeped this one for about 10 sec and it was too bitter for me. While i didn’t mind the taste of this one…it’s a little finicky for me as far as a puerh goes. that being said, if you DO steep this one with the short steeps, it’s a pretty smooth puerh and worth the time spent enjoying it. it’s refreshing, slightly sweet and enjoyable! thank you again gabriel!

this was another free sample from nanuoshan. This is very similar to other tea of the same variety that i’ve had before. brewing this gonfu, at gabriel’s request. I don’t love this one as much as others that i’ve tried, but it’s not a bad tea. I’ll have to try this one again before i reserve judgement. Gonfu, i’m not a huge fan. Western, i might be more amenable to this one. either way, i genuinely appreciate the sample from nannuoshan.

Another sample from Nannuoshan….this tea was on my wishlist so i was SUPER excited to get it as part of the samples that were sent out to folks. Funnily enough, i was excited to try it because of the smokey notes that people were finding…but when i had this, there were none to be found for me. Instead, i want this tea to have tea babies with me. Seriously…I have NO idea if this would taste as amazing brewed western, but while the aroma of this one is pretty bleh…tasting it was like a party in my mouth. i could not get enough of this tea. In fact the leaves are sitting there waiting for me to come back to them to make sure i’m not imagining things.

This was oh so deliciously chocolatey and malty for me. Now i’m on tea hiatus, but i DID go look on the website to check out the price and bookmark is..and it’s not there! So confused…where has it gone!! Because seriously? i want more… MOAR!

Edit: NM it’s there i’m just blind.. lol

oh man. This was a sample from nanuoshan – thank you SO much for tyhe opportunity to try some of your teas! Honestly, i think if i hadn’t tried this along side one of his other offferings, i’d have been over the moon with this one. First off, the aroma of this one is amazing….i poured it and was like OMG is that the tea!!!
That being said, this doesn’t taste like the aroma haha. It’s stilla lovely tea but funnily enough, while the smell is like a sweet caramel, the taste is more like a creamy, fruity, slightly cocoa like tea. There’s no smokiness to be had in this one. I brewed this one gon fu – with probably the latter steeps being my favourite as the tea really started to have that heavier feel to it. Initial steeps were almost creamy in their lightness. Overall, this is a nice tea and i’m curious as to how it would lend itself to a western brew. I may just pick some up in the future to check it out!

Thank you Nannuoshan for this sample!

After reading a brief description of the teas from a card Gabriele included in my samples box I thought this sounded like a nice late morning tea. The dry leaves are thin and wiry and smell like dry hay with a slight cocoa note underneath. The tea steeped to a much lighter color than I was expecting given the four minute steep time, but the results were lovely. There was a nice toasted grain flavor with hints of cocoa slipping in and out as I drank. As the tea cools there was more of a bready note at the front of the sip, which was nice in combination with the other flavors. Even with its lighter color I’d say this is a solid medium bodied tea, and I enjoyed having it in the late morning, but I also think it would be great as an afternoon tea.

The Rougui , the famous tea of the rocks is in my cup this morning and brightens a little this bad weather morning .

I strictly respect the recomandations , 4 minutes in a water at 90 ° C.

The leaf doesn’t fully unfold , it’s true that instinctively I would rather use a water at 100 ° but it does unfold very well at the second infusion.

The liquor is very red , of a dark amber .

This is a very balanced Rougui between mineral and roasted notes . Some sweetness emanates from all this light liquor, a bit enveloping .

This is exactly what I was expecting from this tea and I’m delighted : it has a real personal touch and releases its own aromas in a successive and distinct manner. Gabriele thank you so much for this sample, it is my type of tea.

Some pics are available here : https://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/rougui-nannuoshan/

I decide to start my day with a Pu-erh and Nannuoshan 2013, a Mao Cha which seems very appropriate.

I am first impressed by the swollen and the green and brown colours of these long folded leaves .

Let’s leave these beautiful leaves unfold in their bath at 100 ° C.

They unfold perfectly in less than 4 minutes and also reveal their bright green and an incredible length.

This is a spring tea , a Mao Cha is a form of Pu-erh loose leaf, uncompressed cake , which accelerates the aging process.Mao Cha is the stage preceding the compression of the leaves to make a cake.
The liquor is an extremely pale yellow , almost transparent.

Regarding the taste, this Pu-erh is excellent,the liquor is lively , refreshing, fruity. I detect hints of plum and apricot. I have not noticed a strong astringency , just a small touch that accompanies all the tasting, from the beginning to the after taste and brings an undeniable personality to this pretty Pu-erh . I love it.

Gabriele thank you for this beautiful selection.

You can see pics of the dark green leaves here : https://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2015/01/31/nannuoshan-2013-mao-cha-nannuoshan/

No suspense, I say it right now: I love this black Yunnan tea.

It smells very good : dried fruit and it looks beautiful with its golden tips.
Let’s go for 5 minutes into a boiling water.

The taste is very malty with very present earthy notes, really strong. The nice points with this Dian Hong is its soft, mellow texture and its fruity peach and apricot notes, which downplay the earthy and rocky side.

The fruit soften all the beverage and make this tea almost greedy.

The first steep was a very pleasant one but the second was much lambda without real interest imo and with a lack of body compared to the first one.

I really enjoyed the first steep, this is the main information. I’ll probably buy some of this one.

Pic are available here : https://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/jin-si-dian-hong-nannuoshan/

I prefer oxidized Oolong , this is one, on paper.

The smell is very herbal , vegetable-y : a bunch of spinach . I do not smell too much roast .

Come on, Tie Guan Yin would magic operates? Pictured without special effects , this tea plays like a diamond …

The liquor smells spinach , too. And the wet leaf is a spinach leaf ! very very well imitated …

The liquor is a translucent pale yellow.

From my taste , oxidation is not the most obvious. This Tie Guan Yin remains much vegetable-y, not very creamy .

Much on the floral and unoxidized side IMO.

This is a good Tie Guan Yin but insufficiently creamy and oxidized to persuade me to buy it and store it in my permanent collection.

Pics are available here (with the diamonds in my tea leaf…:) ) : https://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2015/01/27/anxi-tie-guan-yin-roasted-nannuoshan/

Nannuoshan is a recent tea company based in Berlin. Gabriele , seen on Steepster , founder of Nannuoshan,adorably sent me some samples to permit me to get an idea of ​​the quality of his teas.

Today I wanted to start the day with a black tea , with this high grade Keemun . I began by not respecting the indications Gabriele gave me … yes … I did not prepare this tea in a Gaiwan , I did not rinse the leaves etc … I prepared my tea Western style but in a Japanese teapot with a big volume. When a tea is good it must be also Western style. This is my first principle anyway.

The leave is thin , thin and curly , almost frothy and swollen. It foolishly smells malt and bitter cocoa.

I respected the recommended temperature and time to maximum infusion.

The liquor is very dark and exhales malt and smoke scents.

Come on, I taste … .I do not know what to expect … this is my first tea from this company .

generous full-bodied,even strong. Clearly a morning tea , very malty , it will awake the most sleepy one without any problem. First : this is on a fine note,light but then the body of the tea is revealed , as its strong notes of cocoa , tobacco and leather. The aftertaste makes a great tribute to smoky notes , frankly smoked.

This is a tea with a strong personality but very easy to drink. A nice selection . I love it .

Pics available here : https://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/yi-ji-qi-hong-xiang-luo-nannuoshan/

Happy Sunday, my tea frens. First tea of the day comes from cookies and Nannuoshan. This looks different from the other Tanyang I’ve tried, from TeaVivre. That one was a more tippy tea, whereas these leaves are very thin and jet black in color. Dry scent is musty hay (I seem to be getting that a lot from black teas these days).

The steeped tea smells sweet and thick with honey and bread notes. This is a yummy one. It’s malty and thick with flavor – it has that intensity that almost verges on bitterness but doesn’t quite get there. There are tasty honey notes (one of my favorite notes in tea) as well as dark wheat bread. I can also taste just a touch of savory which rounds it out nicely. Perhaps a bit of the musty hay from the dry scent. Overall, it’s tasty and smooth. :)

This sample came from my holiday package from cookies. I love Dian Hongs, and I’ve definitely tried my share between Yunnan Sourcing and AliExpress. Yunnan teas were really the first straight black teas I got into when I joined Steepster a few months ago, and I still really love them, especially now that I’ve discovered that a lot of other black teas have astringency. Anyway! This appears to be a pure bud tea, though the buds are smaller and less puffy than other similar teas I’ve tried. Dry scent is slightly earthy with apricot notes.

This is pretty good. It doesn’t quite compare to the pure bud Yunnan teas I’ve had from Yunnan Sourcing, but I think the overall taste here is somewhere between pure bud and regular leaf, so it’s not necessarily comparable. There’s a nice earthy base, on top of which are malt and slightly savory notes. I can also taste some of that Yunnan-y stonefruit flavor, especially near the end. It does have a rather strong mineral taste, which is not my favorite here.

This was a gift from the dear cookies and a complete surprise.

I found it sweet and smooth. I didn’t get peppery, though.

Delicious. Thanks so much, cookies!!!

I have been drinking Da Hong Pao and Tieguanyin with my grandfather for long time. They reminds me my childhood :)
I got a sample of this tieguanyin together with other two from nannuoshan.org
My grandpa used to drink only this old-style tieguanyin. I like also the fresh ones, but admit having a weakness for the roasted one. Maybe just because my body type is cold, so I prefer warm teas.
This tieguanyin is full, warm and pleasant. I like the sweet note in it, although I cannot really describe it. It is long present in the month but not dominant. So, how to say, well harmonized with the rest of the tea. Lovely, I could drink it long time without having enough.