From the same tea garden on Nan Nuo Shan as the other Nan Nuo teas.

The trees don't qualify as 'da shu' or old tea trees, but the tea has many of the qualities of old tree tea: some decent body and some 'hou yun'. This tea was made from selected, larger trees within the tea garden.

The dry leaves have a fain't aroma reminiscent of stones. A little petrichor maybe. The wet leaves have notes of tobacco and ripe (fermenting?) fruit.

The 'bei xiang' has distinct notes of honey, fruits, flowers but also later a bit vegetal.

The broth is a light-mid yellow.

The 'ru kou' has some punch: it's slightly bitter but quite smooth. The mouthfeel is fairly smooth with a little puckerishness on the inside cheeks and upper palate. It produces a slight oily coating.

The fragrance in the broth is floral with petrichor notes somehow accompanied by grassy-tobacco notes.

The bitterness is distinct with a slight astringence. The tea produces a pleasant mouthwatering feeling (sheng jing) and it has enough 'hou du' to make it interesting. The 'huigan' is also good and there's some nice retro-olfactory fragrance.

This tea has been stored since pressing in autumn 2020. I only recently came back to it, so these tasting notes are for the four year old tea.

The tea was processed by the same tea farmer who has made the Ban Po ancient tree teas. Pressed in 200g cakes.

I keep returning to this tea garden/tea farmer as I feel it's not easy to find a tea with these qualities at this kind of price and believe it continues to offer excellent value.

Unless stated otherwise, all my Puer teas are hand picked, fired and rolled. They are then sun dried. Cakes are stone pressed.

Please be aware that raw Puer tea is in a continual process of change - over time, with the seasons, and the weather, as it oxidised and ferments - so descriptions of teas (and the accompanying photos) are a snapshot of a certain moment in time. I try to make sure descriptions are simple yet accurate and give a feel for how the tea was experienced at the time of tasting.