Norbu Tea

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: see my flickr set here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/sets/72157625151330461

The 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.

Meaty, metallic sheng with a nice buttery mouthfeel and smokey-sweet, citrus hui gan. There is a slightly wild bite at the end and an underlying asparagus flavor that gives depth. Subsequent steepages bring the bite to the forefront and develop a nice, mild sweetness all the way through. A perfect progression from the Dan Cong appetizer I started with today.

So today has been interesting. I had a slow day at work, but with a full tip jar! (bought How To Cook Your Life by Dogen, a very interesting read, and a mini Munny to color with Sam [the girlfriend] when she gets back from CT….just from tips!). Anywho, I came home to discover 1….2….3! Three boxes on my doorstep! I knew one was my Moroccan Mint tea from Davidson’s (review up later!), but what were the others? Oh wait, it’s this tea from Norbu and my new gaiwan from JAS eTea!

Norbu was kind enough not only to send me my order very neatly packaged, but also included a free sample of 2009 Norbu Lao Mansa! I was excited to try both, but for now let’s stick to the Yi Wu.

The leaves in this are really nice dry, they look just ready for the brewing. Rinse, dispose, pour in more water. 30 seconds-ish……omg.

This is amazing. I love this, it’s sweet and delicate but has that blunt woody finish that I know from the other Pu I’ve tried. Kind of like someone hitting your tongue with a hammer made of marshmallow.

Second infusion: Just as much amazing. This one added a lot of astringency at the end of the taste, at first I didn’t care for it, but it quickly grew on me.

Third Infusion: A liiitttlllee less flavor here, but not much. The astringency dropped back down to only a little.

Fourth Infusion: I had to answer the phone during this infusion, so I goofed it. Woops!

Fifth infusion: very light crisp earth taste, like wet sweet leaves. Started to get that kinda hay-ish taste. I wanted to try the mint, so I tossed the leaves after this infusion.

Overall, this was an amazing experience. Highly recommended! Now to go write on the mint :p

I find myself getting excited about puerh more so than any other tea now. It’s that same inner excitement I used to get as a kid when I would unwrap some new video game (the ones that rule your life) or like now when I get some new machine to make sounds with. Yay. The excitement is easier to hide with age but the inner working is still the same.

I have been particularly looking forward to trying this type of tea for a while and finally grabbed some while ordering a new gaiwan. I opened the package and smelled it when it came in but I didn’t cup it right away. The inner excitement built without me really noticing and proves further that good tea is a very simple, healthy pleasure. Simpler and much, much healthier than video games. Cheaper than music equipment. Amen to that.

The initial wet leaf smells like apricot fruit-leather and piss; bright, sweet and yeasty. Bear with me now. The color of the liquor is a deep, translucent goldenrod. An aroma of collard greens comes up in subsequent infusions and also provides depth to the taste of the liquor. This is by no means a bottom heavy tea, however, as there is much more going on in the mid to high range of flavor. Dandelion, butterscotch, canned green beans. Turkish kebab. Bergamot, cocktail bitters. What’s funny is that I am not doing this tea justice right now. I absolutely love it and just said it smells like piss. Cupped eccentricity. Do not let my descriptive deficiency fool you, this tea is delicious, easy to drink and more than the sum of the parts that I have given you to work with.

Let me also say that it is very energetically invigorating. Qi or no qi, call it what you will, there is a tangible effect that’s nice and admittedly a little off-putting. Electric floatyheadedness, tingling hands and slight perspiration go along with a vigorous heart-rate.

So, to recap: it smells like pee and gets you high. Book it.

Haven’t slept all night had a cup for breakfast… still wonderful

Love. Love. Love It! Smokey Sweet with hints of Coconut and Honey that warms the Tongue.

Made it the powdered way as I have begun to enjoy shu puerh in this manner. Briney with a dry wine-like palatal. Very interesting the way grinding brings forward these tastes.

Very deep, dark amber liquor smells of wet hay and ocean breeze nothing on taste yet I made it weak.

I had a bit more than a cup’s worth of tea leaves but not enough to make two, so this time around the tea is a little stronger. Its smell makes me think of puff-wheat cereal or maybe those puff-wheat dessert squares.

Despite the large quantity of leaf the bakey and nutty flavours don’t take on a charred quality like many of the roasted teas I’ve tried seem to. This tea has a lot of ‘substance’ to it that gives it a slightly malty quality as well.

The second steep tastes a bit greener but there’s a bit of a bitterness that creeped in as well when no one was looking. Hmm.

The third steep is a little bit weak and watery – it doesn’t seem to have as much staying power as other oolongs. Right now it’s just a slightly nutty, unremarkable tea taste. Now this might be because I’m not brewing it gong-fu style (as stated in my previous tasting note) but yeah, I’m a little disappointed as I can usually get three or four good, solid steepings out of most green oolongs.

I got my hands on this tea courtesy of TeaEqualsBliss – she was a sweetheart a sent me a box full of teas to try a couple months back, and I still haven’t gotten around to sampling all of them.

The steeping instructions seem to indicate that this tea should be brewed gong fu style – unfortunately since I don’t really have the tea or the tea ware to do it that way I just stuck with the usual 1 teaspoon per mug of tea.

The brewing tea smells distinctly bakey and it lacks the light, floral scent I remember from the last ali shan oolong I tried. The flavour of the first steep (@ 3 min) is bakey too – bakey and toasted, like a piece of toast that just on the very verge of burning. This steep also has a slightly nutty aftertaste.

The second steep (@ 3:45) is less bakey and a much smoother cup altogether with hints fo sweetness as the tea cools, though it isn’t as nectar-sweet as some green oolongs can get (I’m not really sure if this qualifies as a green oolong or not). It also has faint nutty nuances throughout.

A lovely gongfu cha session with this tea today—sweet, floral, still, arm, sunny. Not as many infusions as the best TGYs, but still wonderful.

Sharing this tea around my clinic workroom this afternoon, raves all over. My acupuncturist colleague feels a particularly relaxing effect with this tea, more than any of the other green oolongs I’ve shared with him. I just know that drinking it makes me feel happy.

Just opened this one, and it is lovely. First impressions are sweet, floral, delicate, with less caramel than an Alishan and yes, less sharpness than a TGY, but these changes bring the sweet and floral notes front and center. Wow.

Using a small porcelain gaiwan, about 2 grams of tea in 60mL with water 195 degrees, about 30-45 seconds per infusion to start.

I’ve had some very pleasant additional sessions with this tea since I first wrote that, but today’s note is about this one brewed cold (ok, room temperature). I prepared a reasonable quantity of leaf—the amount I would infuse 2-3 times in a vessel of the size of the glass mug, and added a couple of Chrysanthemum blossoms. Steeped about 5 hours before drinking. Quite tasty, sweet, with their camphorousness intact, mmm. Will try for a 2nd infusion.

First try with this new tea today. They look thin and delicate compared to the Ya Bao buds I have used before. They smell of peaches and peach blossom.

2 grams of buds to 2 oz water in a small gaiwan, about 30 seconds first infusion. The tea is as promised by the scent, sweet, floral, fruity—again, notes of peach and sweet stone fruit blossom, but lighter and milder on the camphor than the Ya Bao buds. It’s closer to a silver needle, which happens to be what I was craving this morning, but didn’t have around.

A 2nd infusion, also about 30 seconds, is still very sweet, but with less of the floral and fruity notes.

Trying for a 3rd infusion, but upping the water temperature to 180 degrees, and time to 1 minutes, to see if higher temp can unlock more flavor. It does, and there is a pleasing fruitiness returning, a little tart, but overall I suspect this tea would be better brewed as a single longer infusion, to best get the fruity and floral maximized together.

Trying again, another 2 grams, but this time in a 6 oz teapot with water 170 degrees and for 5 minute infusion: this is what the tea wants, I think. Brighter floral flavors, deeper sweetness and fruitiness, the fruitiness has receded a bit, but the overall impression is better. I do think the leaves are done after this first infusion.

This is a very nice tea.

On the recommendation of TeaEqualsBliss I steeped this for 4 mins+ today. 160ml yellow pot with maybe a tablespoon or so (I don’t have a scale) of dried leaf-balls, which had expanded to fill the pot by the third infusion. What the longer steep brought out for me was more definite veggies plus a mild citrus I hadn’t detected before — like green beans barely splashed with lemon. Roast is still mild but more present in first infusion. Absolutely no bitterness.

I’ve noticed that several people enjoy the fall and summer Alishans from Norbu. I think we should try to do a comparison of all the different Alishans there. But now I have only this 2008 winter version (which BTW is 35% reduced in price).
It’s difficult to add to the notes from the vendor and what TeaEqualsBliss has already posted. I would simply join in the enthusiasm for Norbu’s Taiwan teas.
This Alishan is from the same cultivar as the Norbu Old Plantation Qing Xin. I think this must be an exceedingly complex plant, given the experience of these two teas. And while in Taiwan this would be considered a certified organic tea, Norbu can’t market it that way because of different US laws. Nevertheless, the care that has gone into the making of this tea is very much evident in the tight dry rolls, but even more in the finished leaves, which are beautifully purply green and intact.
There is very little oxidation, I think, so the florals really come through. They are not as intense as other Alishans, however — more sober, more solid, more restraint. But the richness is amazing. It just rolls around in your mouth. There is a sweetness that makes you think someone has slipped in honey to your cup. The roast (notwithstanding the label “medium”) is very mild, much less roast that the Old Plantation Qing Xin. It’s really interesting to taste the difference that processing makes to the same tea cultivar. The same floral, veggie, and roasted notes as the Old Plantation are there in this tea, just arranged in a different chord. Very gentle but substantial. D-minor, I would say. Later infusions loose the complexity but not the sweet fullness. Pretty amazing.
I find this tea more meditative than other Alishans. It’s a tea you can stay with.

Okay, I bought this through YunnanSourcing so I could technically post mine as a different tea since storage conditions are different, but I feel that may be “cluttering” the list. It is the same manufacturer, year, wrapper, mass, and even most of the description. A little more than $7 cheaper even after shipping is totaled in…

This is my favorite organic certified shu bingcha I have on hand. Okay, it’s the only certified organic ripe cake I’ve got at the moment. My bing purchases tend to be sheng puerh, but this was a deal and the price does not reflect the quality at all. I have my $15 cake of this sitting next to a $150 shu from the same year but displaying far less balance. Now, this isn’t big on complexity – sure, there are levels of favors but I don’t foresee this ever blowing me away with range. But it’s durable as all hell and easy to brew. Laid back ripe tea and comforting. I reach for it when I’m drinking alongside food and expect the tea to be the major element of the meal (for instance, I went and got some pot stickers, chow fun, and steamed rice ‘cause I felt like drinking this tea and wanted something to go with it).
I bought this March of last year. It has smoothed out a bit, losing some of the leathery edge it once had and the primary heady stained wood note is now mostly just in the aftertaste on longer infusions. The cake has nice flexibility for a youngin’ – it isn’t very difficult to wriggle free intact leaves or chunks without breakage. Not quite as much give/sponginess as something that’s spent some time in the Xishuangbanna area or Hong Kong, but still soft for only a few years old. This time around, I used a biiiiiiit more leaf than I normally would for casual drinking. Used a solid chunk plus about 2g of loose bits that came off with it.

Used 30g with 200ml in a seasoned shi piao style zi ni yixing teapot. Single rinse to separate a little bit… probably should’ve done two. I feel a little guilty going at this concentration with so few infusions, but boy does the tea taste good at the high end. Used 90ish degree C water for the rinse, 88 degrees for the 1st infusion, 85 for the 2nd, 78 for the 3rd. Back up to 85 for 4th-6th infusions. Steep time was approximate and ran 30, 30, 50, 30, 45, 30 seconds. If I had continued, I would start reducing infusion time to 15 seconds by the 9th infusion since the leaves are only starting to break up from compaction on the 6th brew and a touch of astringency is noticeable in the back of the mouth and throat.

Dry leaves are rich chocolatey brown with the fragrance of leaf litter in a woodland and dry bark. Wet leaf aroma is spicier – stained hardwood, cinnamon, birch, willow, redwood, and rich loamy soil over the leaf litter and mossy base. There’s a wet granite note that pops out saying “Ima gonna be a crisp tastin’ tea!” but contradicted by a prune note that suggests smoothness. Leaves are dark brown to the point of near blackness and leave a reddish stain surrounding themselves. Liquor is clear orangey brown honey color for first infusion, steadily getting darker to an infusion that allows nearly no light through and deep dark brown with reddish reflection in last couple brews. Unfired wet clay aroma to the liquor.

Sweet and smooooooooth. Hearty body. Not quite so thick you could stick a fork in it, but close. Feels like a 1:2 honey in water dilution in mouthfeel and lingering crisp sweetness. Nice florals pop out of the baseline black wild long grain rice flavor. I’m not a big fan of wild rice but like when the flavor presents in shu puerh or some red teas. Florals are mostly in the aftertaste, but include violets, tulip, chamomile, and impatiens. Toasty wood notes – mostly hardwood, but theres a smell of redwood planking being warmed by the sun, buckeye wood and foliage, dried ferns and moss, scrub oak, wheat bread toast, and bay laurel/faint eucalyptus. Right at the end of a draught I get a brief rough patch in my throat and a pruney-cherrywood flavor accentuated by a note of Japanese Maple and tobacco leaves in the nose. Aftertaste is a light woody currant-sweetness and faint but very long lasting honey-and-butter-on-multigrain-toast characteristic. Afteraroma is warming and follows through with the wet granite that the leaf aroma advertises.

Nice noir-ish tea. Really evokes the spirit of a hardwood-bedecked P.I. office, backwater docks in the misty pre-pre-dawn darkness, and cobbled alleyways. Not dirty or dank in any way, but only a little step from it. This tea isn’t really foresty… At lower concentrations and longer infusions it can be like a woodland, but really this puerh is a fairly clean example of a ripe tea.
Satisfying, rich, and mouthwatering.
Nom nom nom.

I did a head-to-head with this tea and a similar tea from Yunnan Sourcing today:

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

In the end, both were lovely teas. Oddly enough, given that the BYO was end-of-bag with more broken leaves, it took the 2nd infusion to start showing the spiciness and full flavor that the YSOB gave immediately. The BYO, however, seemed to hold that lovely flavor a little longer, but by the 5th infusion, both are starting to thin out, pretty much done. I have only had one Taiwanese Oriental Beauty, and that was a rose scented version that was quite unlike roses or like these lovely teas. A high quality Taiwanese Oriental Beauty is reputedly quite hard to come by, but these teas are quite satisfying, and not too pricey, so I don’t feel any particular need to try the genuine article.

1.9 grams of tea
about 4 oz water (larger gaiwans, not preheated)

1st 195 degrees, 45 seconds
2nd 185 degrees (too impatient to wait for full reheating), 30 seconds
3rd 175 degrees (ditto), 1 minutes
4th: 195 (more patient this time), 2 minutes
5th: water just off full boil, 1 minute
(stopping because of diminishing marginal returns)

2009 Fall Bai Yun Oolong—Yunnan Oolong Tea from Norbu
Leaves: thin, dark twists, with sweet fruity tea scent
1st infusion: sweet, fruity, floral
2nd: spicy flavor there now, still fruity and floral
3rd: still spicy/sweet/fruity/floral, but starting to thin a little esp in the fruity notes
4th: a little thinner, but still quite enjoyable; holding up better than the YSOB
5th: thinner, still a little fruity/spicy
Wet leaves: dark red leaves with hints of green; scent is sweet/tart

Let it be said that the ability to describe the tastes of sheng puerhs has always evaded me, like those dreams that seemed so pleasant but you can’t really remember just what they were about. All the roasty-toasty oolong vocabulary just doesn’t work. So my task now is destined to fail, but must nevertheless be undertaken. Because this white-bud sheng from Norbu, which I tasted for the first time today, produces a pretty amazing experience.
Routine brewing in a tiny pot. First sip seems to make a small explosion in my mouth, like the tastes are shooting sideways across my palate and tongue. I taste steamed yellow squash, very precisely. But almost none of the characteristic sheng camphor. There’s something else that I can’t quite say: maybe caramel, yes, or maybe really good whole wheat toast eaten outside near a honeysuckle bush? But the amazing thing is how sweet and how full the nectar is. Does tea have sugars in it like wine or milk?
Second infusion. I think I actually shivered. Second infusion is even better. Camphor just whispers but not medicinal like other shengs. This one would be undetectable except that it’s camphor wrapped in sugar. And the liquid is now even richer. A tiny bit of earthiness, not loamy like old puerth, just fresh earth and a tiny pinch of grass clippings.
I think it does an injustice to say this is a good starter puerh; I think you have to have struggled with sheng first to see how different this is. I look forward to more time with this.
But… I have only a small sample. And Norbu is out of it (lifts the back of his hand to his forehead and sighs). The stuff of dreams.

Steeping about 5 times letting the water I was using cool as I went starting at 212.

Tea wear use was all ceramic.

This tea seemed to me to be lacking in smoothness, a bit bitter, the taste was indistinct and the aroma seemed flat. This is my first Pu erh tea so I may change my rating after brewing it a few more time. For right now I am unimpressed. I have had Pu erh tea steeped for me once before at a tea shop and I loved it but for some reason this just does not stack up.

Another very nice session with this tea today. Mellow, delicate, floral, delicious. A good start to the day, with about 6 infusions.

Drank this in a gongfu session yesterday. Best yet brewing of this tea—mellow, sweet, a little fruity. Mmm.

Can’t be sure what made it better—didn’t measure the tea quantity beforehand, used cool water per usual, bit longer first infusion, maybe?

First try with this tea.

First infusions about 1 gram of tea in a 2 oz gaiwan, water 160 degrees, 30 second infusion. It is a little more floral and less vegetal than the Tai Ping Hou Kui I was just drinking, and nothing like as fruity as the Yin Zhen silver needle from the Cultured Cup that I recently tasted. It is a little milder than the Yunnan Mao Feng I’ve been getting from Norbu, as expected for a white tea made from the same general source material. The floral taste is decreasing after the 3rd infusion, but some mellow sweetness remains through a 4th at least.

As anticipated, it is a less refined and more camphorous tea than the versions I’ve had before from Fujian. It is sweet, mellow, but not bitter. A nice tea, but not spectacular.