The Essence of Tea

Many of you have seen – on occasion – me posting “For the rest of the day I will be drinking” posts…well…today is one of those days!

For the rest of today…I will be drinking an assortment of Green Teas.

Sometimes the body just needs certain things and my body is saying drink more green tea today! So that is what I am going to do :)

I have also been considering a detox – just trying to figure out which one is right for me, I suppose.

So…here is the first of my green teas for today. It’s so cold I can’t seem to keep my tea warm today. Oh well. Anyhow…This is very velvety and a clean green tea. It’s a little sweet but also a little vegetal and a little floral. YUMMY. I have had this one before and added a short tasting note regarding my first experience if you want to check that out as well :)

In the words of Jason Hawes from Ghost Hunters…On to the next :)

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This tea is just incredibly pure even the leaves look it. Very smooth and lite mushroomy citrus tastes a faint pleasant bitterness. A very delicate nuanced young sheng.

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Excellent The best young pu-erh by Nada That I have had the priviledge of tasting and up their on listmy best young pu-erhs I have ever tasted.

SIPDOWN! A very naturally sweet black! Delish! See other notes :)

good value everyday drinking puerh… no it isn’t as complex as a cake from the 80s would be and it is a fraction of the price! very refreshing, with real energy and a gentle bite

Real Lapsang – it is absolutely glorious and well well worth the cost… best brewed gongfu rahter than western

A nice even oolong. Slightly sweet and slightly floral. Not overly intense in anyway. More woodsy as it cools! Even a little brothy. Nice cuppa!

backlogging a cup from earlier today…it’s been a crazy one!

I’ll be sad to see this one go from my stash! It’s a goodie! Upping the rating! :)

Dry this smells like Zucchini
Post infusion it just smells FRESH!

It’s incredibly clean and slightly nutty.

Two Thumbs Up! YUM!

even sweetness and medium strength! 2 cups for today! See previous notes :)

Upon opening this bag of pu-erh it smelled gently sweet AND sour. As for the 1st infusion I found it to be mellower that I anticipated which was a nice surprise. The post-infused color was that of a white tea, almost. The texture was slightly buttery on the tongue and was a sweet-wood type taste. The after taste was also pleasant. I did notice the cooler it got at room temp the sweet it got. I will be doing multiple infusions for this one to compare but first impressions are good ones :)

Just when you think you can pin-point a pu-erh! (Say THAT 10 times fast!)

This is nice! It’s a bit mild and a little sweeter than most pu-erhs I have tried. Following those tastes it morphs into a very mild pu-erh earthy type taste…still nice tho! The flavor levels are even thru-out from the start of the sip well on to the after taste.

There is a hint of something else too…the only thing I can think of comparing it to is sweet basil or Tulsi/Holy Leaf…just a HINT of that in there…neat touch!

Okay…resip!

I truly LOVE the long and windy leaves of this tea! The color of these ‘black’ leaves are dark and stand sturdy! The flavor is hearty and partially smooth and partially sweet. There’s a hint of woodsiness to it too! This is a goodie!

Backlogging. This was a tad mellower than most LS’s I have had lately and – you know what – I like it! The pine and smoke flavors work well together and go hand-in-hand with the black tea and I appreciate that!

A Mighty-Fine Jasmine! A very soothing Jasmine! The pearls are perfect! Certainly one of the better Jasmine Dragon Pearls out there!

Backlogging a cup – I remember liking it…but I am going to review while sipping again soon!

Following my now-regular two session run, this morning I cranked up the leaf ratio to 7g in 80mL from the 5g I use when I try a new tea. What’s interesting about this is that from a potency perspective, there’s absolutely no reason to use more leaf with this tea. I spent yesterday afternoon in a jittery, over-caffeinated tizzy. Somehow, though, the flavors and textures significantly benefit from the extra leaf, amplifying the intense honey, apricot, and hazlenut flavors and deepening the balance between supple sweetness and gripping back-palate bite.

Generally, I’m not the biggest fan of bud-heavy, super-tippy tea, preferring the complexity, roundedness, and vigor of large-leaf pu’er. The Mannuo is incredible bud-heavy and I love it. For me, this tea combines the fleeting, ephemeral lightness of say the ’11 Nannuo with the intense, alkaline power of the ’11 Bulang in a harmony that makes it both eminently drinkable and completely intriguing. And unlike my experience with the other ’11 EoTs, the qi on the Mannuo is upfront, quick, and deep in a way that’s pleasing, enveloping and enjoyable. I believe this tea lives up to both the cost and the early-sell-out hype that it garnered. And, I’m not just trying to suck up in hopes of snagging another cake.

Full blog post: http://tea.theskua.com/?p=622

This tea is the darkest chocolate I’ve ever had. It’s also the most brutally potent tea I’ve ever had. The infusion timing for 5g in 85mL employed to prevent over-brewing was as follows: 3s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, 10s, 12s! I’ve never had a tea like this, although bulang bitterness is incredibly distinct, as it immediately reminds me of the nip of bitterness left in the 1997 Heng Li Chang Bulang. For me, the taste and texture experience on the front end of this tea is most akin to the finish on a 100% cacao super-dry, extra-dark alkaline heavy chocolate bar. Alkaline is really the absolute best word to describe this tea.

Full blog post: http://tea.theskua.com/?p=606

I just had a session with this tea.
My overall feeling is that this is nice tea, tastes like something I’d expect to pu’er from ‘90s to taste. Smooth, thick, slightly woody. Old tree deep inside of a dense forest, standing on it’s own in the middle of a forest opening.
Taste is quite simple, little too smooth for my taste. Presence of this tea is quite heavy, slightly disturbing in a way. Like that huge tree is blocking the sun, or something like that.
I’m currently looking for an affordable pu’er with at least a couple of decades of age, and this is one I am considering. I also have a sample of EoT Grand Yellow Label, waiting to be tested.
If you happen to have any suggestions of oldish sheng cakes that are around the same price category with this one, please hint me!

I sampled this one as part of a tasting on two different tea forums. I am drinking some of it again for the first time in many months. It was the strongest of the EoT three sampled in those tastings, and now, after just sitting in a sealed pouch in an airconditioned cupboard for a long time, it is sweet, spicy, anise, mellow, delicious. I’m drinking a lot of short infusions, water is variable temp (trying not to heat up the office too much by keeping water at boiling in the kettle), and it’s just delicious, and a lovely counterpoint to all of the green and green oolongs I’ve been drinking lately.

I don’t have any particular flavor or texture descriptors in mind to throw around. I found the tea fresh, bright, incredibly pure (one of my favorite aspects of EoT’s pressings) and light. I thought the qi from this 2011 Nannuo was less immediate and capturing than any of the 2010 tea’s I sampled.

It was good, but I agree with Hobbes, I don’t believe it’s US$72 good. I preferred the Mansai and that tea is ten bucks cheaper. Taking both 2011 teas into mind, I do think it’s fair to say that the quality of these productions has increased. I preferred them both to the three 2010 examples I sampled. At this point, my interest in trying the single cake of the sold-out 2011 Mannuo I managed to acquire could not be much higher.

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