2011 EoT Nannuo Puerh Tea

The smell of this cake is wonderful : woody fragrance, light leather, and surely many other things that I am absolutely unable to list. For sure, the tasting session begins before pouring boiling water into the teapot.
Rinses, brew : in the second sip, this puerh whole package the ENT sphere and distributes its flavors in the throat and warms the esophagus. The liquor is a very light yellow, but immediately dense, fresh and richly flavored. I really like it.
Next brews : a very immediate presence in the mouth, and a very fine quality aftertaste. Retro-olfaction is frank and rich ; in short : everything is OK.
Over the brews, I navigate between the herbaceous vegetation and woody vegetation, my mouth is constantly under the influence of the spicy freshness (a kind of hot freshness, if you see what I mean ...). In just emptied cup, the smell is gorgeous, I find myself literally breathing into the cup.
Last third of the tasting, I found something more "standard" for a year could erh, a very fine liquor but which has lost its luster. Perhaps it is not possible to maintain the excellence of the first brews throughout the tasting. The first five or six brews were fantastic, the end remains very correct. (Posted on 26/11/2011)

When it comes to young pu-erhs, I am a noob so I can't put this tea in perspective and review it compared to many other teas of this category. But compared to the few young pu-erhs I had from other vendors, this one is awesome. The bitterness of this tea was very surprising: initially when you drink a cup, the throat is covered by strange bitterness but moments after this it transforms in a huge variety of tastes that I am not sure how to even start describing. Another noticeable feature is the length of aftertaste - it is very long! (Posted on 13/09/2011)

The tea opens quietly and takes 3-4 brews to be really flavorful.

The tea is much like Hekai area teas in that it's of a heavier and mushroomier Menghai bent than other Nan Nuos I've had before. There isn't much of a lasting strong aroma, and what there is of it isn't that floral. In comparison to the '10 Nannuo, it has substantially less of the darjeeling green/first flush character that I associate with young puerh of a floral/fruity bent in either the aroma or taste.

In the taste, there is, and always present, a background of herbs in the darkened fringes of the flavor themes. As the session evolves, and there is a great deal of evolving that goes on, most cups have a very deep complexity that is fairly light in flavor, so this tea rewards attention. It's not chunky like Pa Sha area teas, but very, very elegant. There is not much fruit, mostly being like yellow fruits/sweet mushrooms, and the structure is provided by different light herbal and floral touches.

The mouthfeel of the tea is exceptional, and never stops being exceptional. Both thick and pleasantly textured, and moves from celadon to lips in such a fashion that one *notices*. One of the defining features of this tea.

The bitterness is stronger than in other Nan Nuo teas I've had. Instead of being heavy, like EoT Man Mai and Man Nuo, this is a very thin and sharp bitterness, elegant pain, without the kind of feathery feel of the EoT Man Sai. The huigan is kind of two part. The first is a big floral boom, like Bulang huigans. An early brew generated a strong and pure sense of plumerias. There is typically a part two, after the flavor/aroma stops rising, a kind of yun-ish sense of general tropical fruits. Many, if not most, infusions generated huigan, but if the brew doesn't have bitterness, it doesn't really have a huigan, unlike with some teas. There is more and better huigan than with the Man Nuo.

The qi is very strong, but a bit more subtle than the Man Nuo. This one is enervating in the head, and more softly whole body.

Durability is very good, and bears the classic mark of true gushu, in that late infusion is sweetwater + theme taste + mini-aftertaste.

Overall, this is essentially on the level of the Essence of Tea Bulang, and one likes more or less depending on the preferred emphasis. I haven't had very many Nan nuo (fewer than I can count one hand), but I don't really think this is all that much like most Nan Nuos, though it does carry the classic traits.

This is a touch boring, if insufficient attention is applied to the session. Aging will be needed for a more dynamic flavor.

Definitly good for the quiet moments... (Posted on 06/09/2011)

Complete review (in french) here : http://vacuithe.blogspot.com/2011/06/eot-nannuo-2011.html (Posted on 29/08/2011)

This is a tea that is worth paying attention to, there are a lot of subtleties to the flavor that you might miss out on if not giving it your full attention. The main flavor that grabbed me was a crisp almost citrus flavor. While I was not blown away by the qi of this tea compared to other EOT cakes it was definitely present. I prefer the 2011 Mansai to this but I believe it is much nicer than the 2010 Mansai (which was my favorite 2010 eot bing) (Posted on 25/08/2011)

An excerpt from my blog post here: http://tea.theskua.com/?p=573

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. I do think I prefer the Mansai. (Posted on 25/08/2011)