Essence of Tea 2010 Nan Nuo

You're probably thinking I've been soaking myself in that 2007 Douji I wrote about in the last post.  Sadly, that's not the case.  Instead of sipping tasty teas I've been laid out with steaming mugs of Theraflu.  *bleh*  But I roused myself this morning for another lovely tea session.  Today's tea of choice is a sample sent to me by The Essence of Tea -- a bit of their 2010 Nan Nuo.

mmm.. I guess this is what they mean by "tea porn."  What's not to like about those furry, meaty, ropey leaves?  Really a couple of lovely chunks in my sample packet.  Upon opening the envelope I was greeted with plenty of green aroma but expected as much given the recent pressing.  The cake was nicely compressed, coming apart easily with just a little encouragement from my fingers.  The leaves still had some pliability to them which I'm assuming is due to the newness of the cake.

I continued with my water experiments for this session, brewing up two separate gaiwans.  On the right below is plain tap water and on the left is a brand of bottled water called Crystal Geyser, said to be "alpine spring water, bottled at the source."  Unlike the Fiji water there's no information about mineral content other than a vague reference that it contains trace minerals, but similar to the last experiment the bottled water pulled more color (plus taste and mouth feel) from the leaves --

The initial taste showed bitter at first but soft on the tongue.  A pleasing lightly slippery quality to it.  The bitter note was more rounded with the Crystal Geyser water, with some butter in the nose and taste.  The mouth feel is again slippery and full.  The tap water tea is much thinner by comparison, with a more one-dimensional taste. As I poured the second infusion with the Crystal Geyser water (10 seconds for the first, 12 seconds for the second) the air filled with a floral aroma.  The fragrance from the wet leaves confirmed it.  The soup and leaves with the tap water on the other hand showed only hay and grasses.

Clearly the tap water does little to enhance my teas so I won't go on and on about how it doesn't measure up.  We'll just stick with the tasting notes from the bottled water.  This 2010 EoT Nan Nuo kept me interested with some bite and roughness on the top of my tongue and mouth, but kept things nicely balanced.  Never overwhelming.  The floral quality in the aroma returns again on my breath, in the nose and throat.  The tea has a penetrating quality to it, warming my upper chest.  I even felt quite perspire-y as the session lengthened but I can't really say if it was the tea or my flu-addled condition.

By the fifth infusion the aromas in both gaiwans were starting to settle.  The tap water experiment finally started to reveal some floral notes while the bottled water one seemed to maybe give off hints of what the future might hold with a bit more age.  I had fun pulling out a sampling of the spent leaves.  A few tips, a few stems, with plenty of leaves of varying size and maturity, including some thicker meatier ones with strong spines --