Nahan 2014 Spring

Velvet smooth and slightly spicy with a fresh-bitter note.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2014-nahan-tu

Hahah, this tea is something else. I real surprise for me. The leaves have slightly tight compression and give off a sweet squash flower and lemon grass aroma. The leaves are bright and cheery. I picked this up due to the words “early reserved trees”. I trust Eugene, and he is one of the few vendors I do trust. That being said, I put my wallet where my mouth is and trusted that these trees were the bees knees. Anyways, I warmed up my gaiwan and placed some inside. The aromas were nice and bright with some berries, fruits, grass, and sugar. These are all relatively common tones being sweet, tangy, and nice aromas. The flavor was maple candy sweet and lively. I noted some bitterness and viscosity along with butter and cedar. The taste became mildly sour along with some citrus tones. Then, it happened. The reason why I had put my trust in this vendor. The qi approached me. The qi looked me up and down and decided around steep three to take a 2×4 to my face. This qi was strong, and I mean young Hulk Hogan strong. The tastes became sweeter, the aromas became stronger, and the stars seemed brighter; I was lit. I experienced severe ringing and buzzing in my ears between wooden plank wacks. My notes state “…enough power to drive you to the sky”. I feel that this is suiting. To conclude, the flavors are decent and the tones aren’t bad, but I wouldn’t drink this for those reasons; I’d drink it for the power. This has a great punch and fair acidity, and I will be grabbing more.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJItcWCAKmg/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

For a key to my rating scale, check out my bio.

Young and punchy.. This is too bitter for me to enjoy right now. I’m partial to middle aged sheng unless it’s a young jingmai.

Thanks for the sample Marzipan!

I really enjoyed drinking this tea all day at work. It is definitely my kind of young sheng. Bold, punchy, strong cha qi and nice pleasant bitterness to sweetness balance. Creamy and floral too. The only thing that would have made it more perfect is if it had some fruity notes and a little bit more sweetness. I enjoyed the heck out of it though and would happily drink it again some day!

I had a crazy busy day at work and I’m serious, the tea definitely helped me! I get like a calm energy from sheng sometimes that is super perfect for stressful days at work where I need to be energized but not jittery or overwhelmed. Very centering/balancing :)

I was a bit nervous drinking such a young sheng as I prefer a tea that isn’t too powerful. The initial two steeps surprised me by being mild and subtle, though with a strong, silky feel in the mouth. There was also a very strong cha qi

The dry leaves were very dark, almost black. Yet the tea was a light straw color. After a few steeps I noticed that the wet leaves are now green.

The power only became apparent later, as the 4th and 5th steeps were very strong and woody. I wound up shortening my steeps, which produced a very approachable tea. The dominant flavor is still wood, but it isn’t overpowering. By the 8th steep, the cha qi and taste are both still quite strong. Wood isn’t my favorite flavor, but this tea is otherwise very much to my taste: it was smooth and flavorful, with reasonable complexity. I suspect it might age well, given the power, but I can’t really predict that.