Today is quite a sad day - I finished drinking one of my most favorite daily go tos. On the other hand I live by the philosophy “Drink it, while it’s there”. James from teadb also themed this in his videos. Puerh lovers tend to let their tea lay around for too long - sure everyone likes to do their little experiments in aging and wants to come back to the tea a few years later to be surprised how great it developed. But this blocks us from just enjoying the tea how it is right now. Still I am guilty in the sense that of course I also store some of my precious teas and only drink them for special occasions! :-)
Now to my favorite daily drinker. It is a tuo from the Nan Jian Tu Lin brand. The design with the phoenix on the wrapper holds a lot of memories for me.
I remember how I was introduced to that brand being in China, Hangzhou. At the time (2016) I was working for NetEase Inc. and many times after work I would visit my regular tea shop. I only knew a few chinese words and the saleswoman didn’t know a word in english. But still we could communicate with each other via tea. This may sound cheesy - but it really was like that. She took a lot of time to learn what teas I would like and then recommend me some to buy. With this tea she really hit the hammer on the nail. Lets get into it.
The strong sweetness is very present from the first steeping onwards. While still having some green freshness. Very subtle smokiness. Usually I disdain smoky notes in my tea - this is a rare exception. Since the tea was produced sometime in the 2000ish it might also be that the smokiness developed to some pleasant addition over the years.
Only after drinking the first cup I notice how much I still love this tea! Until now I only ordered that tea being in China directly, so I must look for a swift replacement.
I am not sure if I am biased due to the personal experience with that tea, but its really giving me a thrill! Also this tea encourages me to step off my usual loved traits in puerh. Whether sweetness nor smokiness are normally things I seek in a great Sheng, but this tea combines both in a marvelous way.
Sweetness, bitterness and smokiness remain very balanced also in the later steepings. I am not much into tea experiments, like drinking iced tea. But this one I could actually imagine being really nice as a cold beverage as well.
Considering the taste, my personal history and the low price of the tea (if I remember correctly it was something <100$; probably the price has risen by now) I can not resist but to give my first 5/5 here! I will try to find out where/if I can buy that tea and do highly recommend it to you. I’ll keep you posted
Rating
- 5/5
Tasting Diagram
Statistics & Reference
- Brewing time: From a few seconds to one minute. It’s hard to over brewing - so be bold and tickle out all nuances
- Purchased for 100$ as a 100g tuo
- Vendor & Link: Not available; will see if I find it somewhere in the web