311 Tasting Notes

93

another lovely day with this tea. I like a dilute brew, bringing out the sweet and spicy with little bitterness. Nice, nice stuff.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec

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95

Another stellar series of infusions today. Have to move the rating on this one up a little more again. So smooth, rich, mellow, anise/earthy/caramelsweet.

Should order some more of this with my next order from Norbu. Just don’t read this and buy it all before I get more!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec

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79

Opened this tea tonight, a free sample that has been waiting nearly a year for its debut.

Started with 3.5 gram in a small gaiwan (75mL), flash rinsed then sat 1 minute before first infusion of about 10 seconds, at 205 degrees. The first infusion is delicate, light, probably could have been longer—a little fruity, a little sweet, a little floral. Very nice. 2nd infusion 20 seconds, a little more earthy along with the same floral, fruity, sweet, anise. Strong bitterness comes out in the 3rd infusion, lost track of the infusion time, but can confirm that the infusion was quite dark yellow, and that the bitterness receded appropriately with a 2 fold dilution, and the sweet and strong anise/floral/fruity flavors returned.

A 4th infusion, about 15 seconds—this really needs very short infusions still due to higher than my usual leaf-to-water ratios, because the sample bit of beeng was rather large—and the typical young sheng profile is back.

A few more infusions later, it is clear that this is a nice young sheng, but it requires careful attention to keep the bitterness down to the low level I prefer.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec

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88

First try of this one again for a while. Delicious, floral, sweet, slightly vegetal, wonderful.

Using a little under 1 gram per ounce of water, in a small gaiwan, with water about 160 degrees and first infusion about 45 seconds or 1 minutes. Good reintroduction. I will keep treating this one as a green tea.

Preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 0 min, 45 sec

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93

Very nice session with this tea today, and shared some of the middle infusions—a little mellower than the first—with some of my tea-loving colleagues at work. I’m not sure the more aggressive early infusions are what I should be sharing with those mostly drinking jasmine and flavored blends…..but I love the spicy deep roasted flavor. Given how light and green the leaves are—I always am momentarily surprised by the deep wuyi/dan cong flavor profile of this one.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec

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82

Spicy with cinnamon notes, this is a neat oolong. The cinnamon notes fade a little quicker than the general spiciness, but not so fast as to suggest anything but natural flavors; I just note that I don’t get more than 5-6 infusions from this one gong fu style. It can get all the way to bitter if overpacked in the brewing vessel or if not watched carefully.

This is one I only brew gongfu cha, never the brew/hold in thermos I do so often with other teas. It’s just too subtle and tricky for that, but quite rewarding—really, Dan Cong-like—in this. I use enough left to fill the gaiwan about 2/3 full after the leaf is wetted—about 1/3 full of dry leaf. Sorry, haven’t weighed this one out for a while—maybe ever—for a formal tasting with pics.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec

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91

Working on a nice gongfu session with this tea. I do have to be a bit careful, as Greg suggests, to avoid bitterness, but most infusions are delicious, sweet, a little smoky, earthy, a little fruity, very nice. It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything but bulk brewing with this one, and it’s rewarding to discover it again.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec

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80

This is a tea that has been sneaking up on me. The first time I tasted it, I was a bit disappointed, thinking it was too dark, too toasted, not enough fruity sweet spice. But that was a gongfu session. But although it was not making me dance for joy, there was nothing particularly bad about it, so I set the rest of the sample aside for brewing thermoses of tea for the road.

I can’t really give proper brewing parameters, because I don’t measure out when I’m doing it for the thermos. But I put the tea in my 6 oz glass pot, strewing it across the bottom to cover lightly but not pile up—just a few grams of tea. Then I just start making infusions with hot water—195-212—until the thermos is full. How long or how short each is doesn’t matter too much, because at the end, they’re all mixed together in a quart of tea.

The first cups from the thermos are very dark, toasty, just a hint of sweet grain—rice? barley?—under the dark toastiness. Then, as it sits longer, it starts to sweeten, as though some of the deeper roasted flavor elements are being transmuted into lighter sweeter things.

I’ve noticed this effect—the seeming sweetness with long holding—in other deeply roasted teas, notably some Wuyis—but this one takes it to a whole ‘nother level. And I ended up buying more. Couldn’t stop with just the sample.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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87
drank Huang Jin Gui by Norbu Tea
311 tasting notes

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.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 1 min, 0 sec

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Bio

I’ve been drinking tea for 30 years, but only bought 2 brands of 2 different teas for most of that time. It took me almost 30 years to discover sencha, puerh, and green oolongs. Now I am making up for lost time.

I try to log most of my teas at least once, but then get lazy and stop recording, so # times logged should not be considered as a marker of how much a particular tea is drunk or enjoyed.

Also debunix on TeaForum.org and TeaChat.

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