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Small, wiry, and twisted leaves. About 1cm in length and deep brown in color with reflective golden hairs. The dry aroma is both sweet and salty with cocoa, potato, and longan fruit notes.

The tea liquer is a warm orange color. There’s some really unique (and kind of strange) soy sauce and potato sort of flavors alongside fruity, floral, and chocolate notes, as well as a tamarind/greenish tang. An interesting balance of sweet, savory, and tangy.

The spent leaves are a milk chocolate brown, very small and tender. A good tea with a very interesting flavor profile, though to me it was a bit strange.

Long and twisted grey-brown leaves with plenty of furry white buds. Leaf size is moderate for sheng. Slightly sweet marine aroma with notes of peach and clay.

This is a mild, friendly sheng with a light yellow infusion. Slightly brothy with umami, yet very clean and fresh. Slight floral daphodill flavor with clay and woody notes. Slight rock sugar sweetness.

By the third steeping the bitterness becomes more prominent, but is still pretty mild. Slight tobacco note, leather, peach, grain, and sandalwood. Good lingering aftertaste. The qi is mild, but very relaxing/sedating in nature.

After brewing, the leaves are long and slender. Olive green color with fairly plump purple-ish stems and prominent veins. A nice mild sheng.

My second Nannuoshan Wuyi oolong. The dry leaves are medium-large, smaller and slightly more roasted than the Ban Tian Yao. Deep brown with touches of red and green. Strong aroma with slight roasted notes, very sweet with raisin and spice.

Brewing the tea I’m hit with an amazing floral/cinnamon aroma. Delicious cup with a moderate mineral taste. Notes of walnut, cinnamon, vanilla with just a faint touch of floral greenness. Aroma lingers both in the cup and in the mouth. Later infusions give stronger peach and cinnamon notes, a bit of musk, moderate sweetness, and a nice sparkling quality. This one has less stamina the the BTY and begins to fade by the 7th infusion. However I’m left with a nice calming qi and tingles across the top of my head

The spent leaves are a fairly uniform brown and green, darker and more broken than the BTY
Overall an excellent oolong with full flavor and aroma, but somewhat lacking in stamina.

Very small and tightly curled leaves. Fluffy and chocolate brown in color with a nice mix of golden buds. Lightly smoky mesquite aroma.

Nice coppery liquer. Savory butter and smoke flavors balanced out by fruit and honey notes. Slightly floral wild flower finish. A fairly delicate black tea.
Later infusions give more lychee/longan fruitiness, a touch of cocoa and honey, clean leather, and lesser smoke with a floral background. The mouthfeel is clean and round.

The spent leaves are tiny and tender with a light brown color with twinges of green, many under 1cm. Considerable time and effort must be put into picking so many young leaves
Overall a nice tea with a lovely appearance. Like the Ban Tian Yao it was nicely balanced with a mild flavor.

First tea of my Nannuoshan tasting extravaganza!

The dry leaves are long and twisted and range of color from dark brown to military green. They give off a dry, musky roasted aroma with pine and fruit notes

First infusion gives a light orange liquer. Strong mineral note with lightly floral and citrus accents. Very smooth with just a touch of rock sugar sweetness. A sweet, warm spice/floral aroma is left in the bottom of the cha hai.

The following infusions begin to give a more pronounced sweetness with nectarine, vanilla, and allspice notes and a slight green tartness.

By the sixth steeping I begin to feel a subtle chaqi that imparts feelings of warmth, strength, and calm which I can feel along the top of my head and radiating through my body. Very nice, the strongest I’ve experienced in an oolong.

As the tea begins to fade I increase the infusion time and experience mild and creamy notes of linnen, sticky rice, peach, and baked goods. Ten good steepings overall.

The spent leaves are lovely and full, deep red-brown to olive green. Average around two inches with minimal stem. Overall a very nice tea with good complexity. Smooth and mild, only really lacking in intensity of flavor/aroma. A truly excellent first impression

I returnith! I’ve been (mostly) inactive for a while now due to turmoil and a general lack of motivation to post tasting notes. I’ve been trying to figure out my life, and have moved back in with my parents for the time being. Anyways, now that I’m settled in I’m looking to get a new start on things, including being more active here on steepster

I’d been curious about golden flower/fu brick tea, and when Yunnan Sourcing started offering this small sample pack I had to try it. The dry leaves are course and dark green-brown with lots of stems, dotted in golden specks of bacterium. The aroma is strong and very sweet, slightly earthy raisin and ginseng notes.

After three rinses (I admit I was more than a bit intimidated by the motley looking leaves) I gave it a sip and was greeted with a very smooth, mild honey-brown brew. Very sweet and mild with raisin, ginseng, and nut notes to match the dry aroma.
Later brews remained similar, but with a bit of bitterness and a touch of green kale-like flavor. Overall a nice, mellow tea that was far less intimidating than it looked.

This is certainly different than pu’erh, but bears some similarity. I expected it to be more shou-like, but the flavor reminded me more of a mild and slightly aged sheng

Not stellar, but good quality overall. Smooth sweet flavor with mild honey, fruit, and floral notes. Personally I’ve been unable to really get into white tea: “decent”, “good”, and “great” ones all taste about the same to me. I’m not sure which one of those this one would be categorized as, but I can’t imagine anyone thinking it was less than decent.

-Dry leaves: Deep dark purple/black leaves accented by a few reds and greens. Thick, musky aroma. Peppery, tropical fruit, touch of smoke.

-1st steep: Dusky yellow infusion common of purple sheng. Notes of caraway seed, camphor, honey, papaya, carrot, and fresh greenness. Mild for a purple tea, but not as mild as Mandala’s other offerings. Incredibly clean, fresh taste.

-5th steep: Calming, steadying qi sets in. Pomelo and pine flavors with a long lasting fruity/perfume-y aftertaste.

-Spent leaves vary in size, and colors range from dark green to reddish purple. Strong leaves with a slightly rubbery appearance common of purple tea.

Overall an excellent tea. Very flavorful, infusible, and not lacking in strength.

In addition to this tea, I also need to praise Garret’s almighty tea soak! For the past couple of months my stainless steel mesh tea strainer had hardly been letting any tea through (it would take about a minute to let 150ml through, on a good day). I’d tried boiling it in water, boiling it in vinegar, and scrubbing it to death with baking soda and NOTHING would help. I had already given up on it and ordered a new one. After soaking for about 20 minutes in the tea soak and then swishing it around it was like brand new! This stuff really is magical.

-Dry leaves: Medium sized leaves, warm brown with a spicy-sweet aroma. They’re covered in little silver hairs that give them an almost holographic look

-1st steep: Soft yellow infusion with a sweet and savory tastes that lingers in the mouth long after drinking. Unique taste that reminds me of green pepper, accompanied by mineral, molasses, and wet moss notes. Slight bitterness, but still pretty mild.

-2nd and 3rd steeps reveal more sweetness. Notes of muscadine grapes, rich soil, and something reminiscent of white cake.

-Around the sixth steep a menthol/cooling effect becomes noticeable, and a slight mushroomy flavor. Unfortunately the leaves are beginning to loose some of their strength already. I squeezed out ten infusions, but the last few were pretty weak.

-Spent leaves are slender and olive green. Plump stems with less defined veins. A good number of the leaves have browning/damaged edges

-Overall a nice sheng with a good amount of flavor and power, but burns through it’s stamina quickly. Like the other sheng that I’ve tried from Mandala it is fairly mild and has nice a nice cha qi.