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Norbu Tea
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Finally figured out the best setup for drinking this tea. My best yixing teapot (which is also my largest, and so the huge huge leaves have plenty of room to spread out in), a large thermos (to save my lazy self from having to go and heat up more water), and 20-40 second steeps (starting from 20 and progressing onwards). I made 9 (!) steeps out of about a tablespoon of leaves, and the leaves were still not running flat. Their lovely fruity flavour just makes my day every time, and so I rushed off today and bought out all of Norbu’s stock. :) Beautiful tea, and undoubtedly my favourite so far.
I love this tea more and more with every steep. It is very fruity and sweet and rich and smooth with a slight astringency that rounds it off. I’m drinking it after a long hard day, gongfu style (I’ve dedicated my best yixing teapot to it), and the taste just doesn’t seem to end. This is a tea that simply makes me happy.
Drinking this gongfu style while doing some reading for my thesis. This is a strong and earthy tea, good for dozens and dozens of brewings by the look of it. It mellows down and grows sweeter with every brewing, but I still probably wouldn’t recommend it for people just starting out into the world of pu’erh. The leaves, both dry and after brewing, are on the long side, with no sourness or much astringency to them. I was very tired when I came home from work today and brewing several rounds of this made me sit up and take notice! This won’t be an everyday tea for me, but I can see myself drinking it at times like these. A perfect study tea for me!
Tea of the afternoon here, I’m finishing off this sample I got from Norbu Tea a while ago. It isn’t the sweetest white tea I’ve ever had, it borders more of nutty/sesame flavors. It’s a beautiful day here and a great day for white tea! This stuff is nice but I won’t go out of my way to get any more.
Meditation for the day: detachment is knowing that other people’s criticisms are really about them.
Another 5 rounds of this fantastic tea, coupled with really good Chinese takeout. A great way to end a tough week
Finally got to brewing this tea gongfu style (got five brews out of it before it started going flat), and it just became my favourite tea. The leaves are extremely long, and smell wonderfully fruity – like a good fruit cake. The tea brews a bright amber, and the first infusion smelled strongly of fruit – almost like a watered down hibisucsy like fruit tea. I did not feel any citrus in the blend – more ripe sweet plums, and there is little if no bitterness to it and hardly any astringency. Fantastic!
A hectic and somewhat fruitless day ended on a high note with 6 brewings of this tea. I’m very new to the world of pu’erh, but I love how this tea changes with every brewing, and I particularly like it from the third brewing on.
Great great great! I made 7 rounds (gongfu style) of tea from just a few grams of this tea, each one fantastic. The first few were strong, earthy, rich, slightly smokey. The tea mellowed down from the third round, and a certain sweetness emerged. There were a few more rounds in this tea, but I ran out of hot water and was too lazy to boil some more. Worth every penny.
Backlogging from yesterday. The leaves of this tea are staggeringly long and they smell fantastic – sweet, fruity and very intriguing. Didn’t have the time to brew them gongfu style yesterday, and that’s a shame. Their smell shows so much promise, and but brewing them western style simply flattens the tea’s taste. It’s still very tasty – sweet with no bitterness or astringency, full of fruit notes.
Will try to drink it gongfu style and post then.
Norbu is a wonderful company – super fast shipping, great site, good prices, fantastic packaging.
Medium roasting – not too strong to overpower the flavor of the tea, but enough to get the added Wu Yi smokiness. Very strong smell of cinnamon =)
I will never really understand the Chinese tea-naming mind. I mean, I think this tea is supposed somehow to look like a water tortoise, but I keep thinking it tastes like a water tortoise. Shui Jin Gui is normally one of if not the greenest of the great Yanchas. But this one brews an amazing dark orange. The first impression is cashews and balsam. The roast is present and important but very subtle. There is a clarity and a complexity that rewards slurping and making your tongue go flat so that some gets to the sides of your inner cheeks. I am willing to bet that a golden water tortoise has cheeks. The other thing striking about this tea is the compulsion to brew two pots and pour them both into a larger cup rather than using a little cup. It just goes with the slurping propensity. But please don’t miss this: at the end, after the cup is empty, the sweet evergreen aroma lingers and is really worth paying attention to.
This tea (to me) has hints of pine, licorice and peach. I just brewed about a teaspoon and a half of these Ya bao buds in a small glass gaiwan. I’m new to Ya bao but i’m very interested in them now. This tea is great! If you like white teas and you like puerh I highly suggest this tea for you.
I just got this tea today. It is very lemony which is a very nice complement to the sheng puerh flavor. If you are a fan of Ya bao then you will most likely love this tea.
I almost forgot I had this tea – it’s delicate and lovely, light and pale, a little sweet and a little tangy. I think the taste is overall very mellow. If you like pungent teas, this might not be your cup, but I’m a huge fan.
I liked this, pretty delicate for a black tea without any bitterness. Other than that, it wasn’t mind-blowing, but definitely enjoyable.
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Tea of the morning – NOM!
This stuff is truly delicious and tastes great either plain or with soymilk. It is such a nice morning tea – see previous notes for more info.
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hi , i tried once this tea , it was a great taste with aroma , how can i find it with a good price?
I wanted to try one of my favorite teas from a new source, wondering how much better it could be, and just the scent as I open the bag is intoxicating: vegetal, fruity, rich. Oh my.
The leaves are light green and lovely paired buds. I used 3 grams for my 3 ounce/100mL unglazed Petr Novak Shiboridashi.
1st infusion is a 180 degree flash rinse to ‘wake up’ the leaves: very dilute, hints of floral sweetness.
2nd infusion at 150 degrees, 30 seconds, light floral vegetal, still not strong enough, should have made it 60 or 90 seconds. Will do the next one longer.
3rd infusion at 160 degrees, 120 seconds, a little bit overdone, should have been 90 seconds. Still working this one out.
4th infusion at 70 seconds, delicious, but I stopped taking notes. I went out to about 8 infusions and water just off the boil pus several minutes’ infusions, but that last one was just sweetwater.
I think I need to give this one more time up front, and it will be brilliant—although I must doubt that it can truly match the astonishingly fine smell of the dry leaves.
Some photos of the tea on my flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/8060493477/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/8060494826/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/8060493948/
As with any purple bud, overbrewing can result in bitterness.
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