Norbu Tea

No notes yet.

Very good. Definitely get a floral taste. Got two good infusions from 3g in about 250-300ml water.

I didn’t take notes during my first session with this tea—I was too busy doing several other things at the time—but a discussion on another forum about Da Hong Pao came immediately to mind, where someone had said that a good DHP “…should be as crazy as combining hard rock music (intense roasted notes), with gospel (floral finish).” This tea felt just like that—overtones of bittersweet chocolate, earthy/toasty/deep/dark grounding the high fruity/peachy/floral notes. Wonderful stuff, accompanied by many deep happy sighs.

2.2 grams of dark twisted leaves, with little aroma, in a small porcelain gaiwan, with water at 205 degrees for the first set of infusions with about 60-75mL water per infusion.

Dropping the leaf into a preheated gaiwan, some fruity/peachy odors become more noticeable.

Just because I’m a tea-wimp, I started with a 10 second flash infusion just to get a sense of the tea. Even this overly dilute more or less rinse is a little fruity and sweet—peaches and honey. Very nice start.

A more proper 45 second infusion continues the sweet fruitiness, more intense, and very subtle almost grassy undertones without a trace of bitterness.

Another 45 second infusion is similarly sweet, right up front, little different from the previous.

1 minute infusion has a little astringency or spiciness starting to come through as an aftertaste, but the first and middle of each sip/swallow continues to be dominated by sweet and fruity.

1 minute 15 seconds, similar to previous.

90 second infusion, tart, fruity, sweet; spicey/astringent still mostly as aftertaste.

2 minute infusion is rather weak—the leaves appear to be reaching the end. Still sweet, fruity, and the astringency was virtually gone, but the sweetness and fruitiness were less intense.

4 minute infusion (note that the infusion temperature will have dropped quite a bit over 4 minutes in this thin porcelain gaiwan)—definitely the leaves are done. Only faint sweet/fruity/floral traces are left, and the dominant note is astringency/bitterness, although still quite mild.

This is a lovely oolong tea, quite delightful in the early and middle infusions, and brewed at this concentration, it promises improved staying power for multiple infusions if brewed more agressively—the fully hydrated leaves, which remain thin and twisty, occupy only about 25-30% of the volume of the gaiwan. I’ve mostly been brewing similar teas more concentrated, to fill the brewing vessel 1/2-2/3 full or more. At that concentration, this tea compares quite favorably to other ‘commercial’ Dan Cong style oolongs—notable not so much for endless infusions, but for mellow deliciousness that has too often been lacking in similar teas.

I love to play with the seeping time of Ya Bao. I thought that Verdant was the only one to sell this tea, so I was pleased to see that Norbu did At $4.75 for 50g it was hard to pass up. Since this was just picked I can notice differences between this and a more aged Yao Bao like Verdant’s. This has a sweet cedar taste to it. It seems like the aging of this tea brings out more fruit notes.

Wow! Received this as a sample and it is great!. Honey floral notes all around :) Lite astringency on the tongue, but still sweet. Norbu always delights me with a great sample.

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

Still delicious after being in a small plastic bag in my tea cabinet for the past two months.

The dry and damp leaves have a very subtle scent of distant flowers. I kept expecting a bolder aroma, but it’s as though they were content with reserving their floral qualities for the liquor.

Each infusion (I got about 5 before I decided to stop) was roughly the same, but in a fantastic way. I started with 90C water and about 30 seconds, increasing about 15 seconds for each subsequent infusion. The color was dark gold and tan and while the aroma of the cup continued to be light, the taste was full bodied oolong. My taste association with this tea is (at least today) sweet toasted bread and an equally sweet minty quality that confounds my taste logic. It’s not really minty in that sharp way that peppermint has, nor quite the potency of a spearmint (although that’s better). If you’ve ever noticed a minty quality to Tulsi basil, that’s closer to the mark. Anyway, it is very refreshing.

Definitely a a great tea to have on hand.

I infused this in my dark oolong yixing pot.

This was…interesting? I’m not a fan of pickled anything but this was actually not half bad. It was surprisingly mellow with a mild citrus tang at the end of each sip. The smell of the wet leaves was a bit of a turn off though.

I haven’t been able to reproduce the awesome-ness of the first time =( Or maybe I got used to it or something.

This was one of my favorites from my Steepster Select box last fall. This is, simply put, a delicious Tie Guan Yin. The flavor is sweet, floral, smooth, just slightly grassy and creamy. There is no aftertaste; no bitterness. Underneath the floral oolong flavors is a basic “tea” flavor similar to a high quality white tea. It’s fascinating the way the flavors seem to be almost “layered” in this tea. Anyway, it’s such a wonderfully good-tasting tea that I’m going to have to seek it out and buy some more. I’m not usually a huge Tie Guan Yin fan, but I could drink this every day.

Today I expanded the range of this versatile tea by brewing a small handful of it overnight in my thermos. It held nicely for a long morning’s drive, not quite as wonderful as it can be hot, but still, tasty stuff.

YUM! I do love me some Oolong! This is a remarkable Tie Guan Yin. Very rich and flavorful – brothy even! Sweet, floral and buttery.

An exceptional Tie Guan Yin … Norbu is one of the very best when it comes to Oolong!

No notes yet.

This one just didn’t work for me. I just taste charcoal when I drink it, whether I brew it very lightly with a light quantity of leaf, or pack the pot with enough leaf to fill it when wetted and expanded. I’ve tried varying temperatures and times, tried steeping several times before I start to drink the infusions, and airing it out for a few weeks in an unused pot without improvement in my drinking experience. I’m a bit puzzled because I’ve had some lovely deep-roasted Taiwanese TGYs and other teas from Norbu before, some requiring quite a light touch with the brewing to find my sweet spot, but I can’t find a sweet spot with this one. Bummer.

No notes yet.

Round II: out of curiosity, and because I had an open pouch already of the ‘White Oolong’ (spring 2011 from Jenai Township, Nantou County, Taiwan), I compared them this evening. I used a little less tea so the leaves wouldn’t be pushing up the lids of the gaiwans.

3.5 grams of tea on small gaiwans, about 75 mL per infusion, kettle set to maintain 205 degrees throughout
The Tsou Ma Fei has a richer, more floral scent; the White Oolong is sharper. TMF has larger leaves, and the dried leaf balls are a little paler sage color.

15": probably could have been a little longer, and the white oolong is distinctly lighter here too—even with only 15" infusion, the TMF is sweet and though not yet deeply flavored, it has more depth than the lightly sweet and grassy WO.

30": Very similar to the first infusion distinction: both sweet, spicy, but the TMF is definitely richer, deeper, sweeter—a stronger flavor at the base. The WO is delicious, but in a more delicate way, and it shines better when I sip it first, enjoy the lighter tea, then drink up the TMF.

30": Similar distinctions, both very similarly sweet and floral and spicy, but definitely a deeper richer oolong-ness in the TMF, and a grassier, more delicate white-tea-ishness in the WO. I understand better now why Greg calls the WO ‘White’ ‘Oolong’.

30-45": delicious again, such a nice ‘comparison’, where the teas are each so nice, but so distinct.

Several minutes (forgot!): still delicious, and both forgave the long infusion

1 minutes: this time, a little light—although normally this would be a good infusion length at this point in the series, the long prior infusion took a lot out of each of the leaves.

Almost 3 minutes: more delicate, but still delicious, floral and sweet both, but distinct

5 minutes: still a difference between them, but both are now floral, sweet, and the astringency and spiciness are mostly gone

I think I missed at least two infusions towards the end here, long infusions where I just ignored the gaiwans for a while and then poured and drank. They were also good. A lot of people might have stopped before this point, but the leaves were still yielding an improvement over plain water, so I enjoyed them. And interestingly, the flavors of both lasted to this point about equally well, with the same consistent flavor profile difference maintained to the end.

5 grams of tea in a 100mL gaiwan, with about 75mL water per infusion, water heated to about 205 degrees. The leaves are quite large rolled up, and large and lovely unrolled, deep green with reddish margins.

20": elegant, floral, spicy, sweet—a wonderful starter infusion.

30": spicy sweet dominates the floral a bit in the first sip. There is a hint of astringency in the last few drops, so I will decrease the next infusion time.

20": rich, spicy-sweet, floral and deep. It reminds me very much of the ‘white oolong’ from Norbu, but they are not quite the same. I will need to do a head-to-head to figure out why there are not.

30": a little more astringency and spiciness, with the sweet lighter—more apparently if I slurp with a lot of inhalation. It’s not the grassy astringency of a sencha, but some drying on the tongue, a woody/herby/spicy quality.

20": shortening again, as the unfurling leaf has filled the gaiwan with long, deep green leaves with red tinted edges, so full that I realize its a LOT of leaf, and the shorter infusion is, indeed, very unlike water: a little lighter than the first, but still spicy-sweet in that wonderful Ali Shan way, mmmmm.

25": such a fantastic spicy floral scent—sweet, but not cloying, hints of cinnamon and almonds, and I just want to sniff and sniff. Eventually, a sip proves just as lovely, but more of the spicy flavor is dominant.

40": (last infusion was a little thin) sweet, floral, spiciness receded a bit for mellower feel this time

45": (lost track of time) we’re mostly at sweetwater here, but very delicious sweet water with hints of flower and spice.

10 minutes (lost track of time again): spice, warmth, some hay/caramel base but still light, floral notes mostly gone but a little sweetness remaining

about 5 minutes: warm, light, sweet with just a little warm depth to it, better than the last one, though thinner, because the sweetness was better balanced

about 5 min: warm, sweet, delicious but light.

Had at least another 3-4 infusions like this, long, slow, just mild and warmly sweet for the end of the evening

I did prepare a thermos full of this tea earlier in the day, and one of my regular tea-buddies said of it, “really high class, that one !” It does stand out.

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

Finished off this tea while traveling, brewing under not quite optimum circumstances, and it was flexible and forgiving enough to permit many splendid cups despite more distractions and less conducive setup than at home. Delicate, vegetal, floral, springlike, it has many of the features I like best in Long Jing and less of the nuttiness that often overwhelms them.

I liked it best when giving the leaves a ‘hot start’ with a flash rinse of water at 180 or 190 degrees, before starting regular infusions at about 160 degrees, and slowly working back up to water just off the boil after 6-8 infusions.

I was hoping to taste more mace or spice in this tea but as pleasant as it is, it is not much of anything in particular. The leaves are large and clearly plucked, processed, and packed with care. I recommend trying it to satisfy one’s curiosity about the Burmese x Taiwan varietals but with managed expectations. This is a good tea- mild, friendly, inviting, but not an exceptional one. Steeping for about 4 minutes seems ideal to get all of the potential into the cup.