Nada Cha 2009 Nannuo Old Plantation

This tea comes from an old plantation in on Nannuoshan a mountain in Yunnan. The trees of the plantation are said to be 60-80 years old, and located about 1500 meters in Altitude.

I must say first preheat the gaiwan then add the propper amount of leaves and let it sit with the lid on a bit, and then smell. I thought the dry leaves of this one had a rather insipid aroma compared to the other 2009 Nada pressings. But with a little bit of heat and water vapor it comes alive. Into a grassy, zesty, and fresh aroma.

So a quick rinse, and then lets see what this is like.

After the rinse the aroma has a bit more of a bite, almost bitter aroma to it, somehow it reminds me of very strong orange and lemon zest.

1: Boiling 10 seconds.

The color is pale yellow, and the aroma is bland, considering how the leaves smelled, I was expecting a much stronger aroma form the brew. But its still there like a spring rain on a soccer field, a little hint of perspiration mixed in with the fresh grass, and mud.

Hints of orange, and a light grassy astringency, with perhaps even some banana. But smooth quite smooth. Its got a good sweetness to it, that is the primary part of the finish, just a lingering sweetness.

2: Boiling 15 seconds.

Slightly darker brew in terms of color.
It seems to be getting more hints of strength to it, but still somewhat bland but decently fruity.

Now it has a bit more strength, a strong orange peel like flavor, that lingers in the finish, with a slight astringency. Hint of Hui Gan but not a whole lot.

3: Boiling 30 seconds.

The aroma is still very plain, slightly sweet, but very plain, with hints of banana's and grass.

It seemed to have diminished slightly in strength this brew, Its still there, but it doesn't have the orange peel power to it. Quite a nice taste to it, and I need to taste more young sheng, as I was under the impression they were usually quite powerful, but this is nice and peaceful.


I think I may pick up a cake or two of this One as an aging test, and the other to drink now. Though I hear Nada's other Nannuo tea, was far better, sadly it along with the other 2 (Bulang and Naka) have sold out, and this is the only one remaining.






Edit July 1st 2010

The cake certainly looks slightly darker (blacker and definitely not rusty/reddish). Though it seems to have lost a little bit of its dry leaf aroma, as all I really get is a nice melon like sweetness. It has been roughly a year and while I have very fond memories of this cake, It just shows how little I drink puerh, as this cake is still less than 1/4th consumed.


color of the first infusion is slightly golden, with a clean fresh smell. The aroma is slightly fruity with possible hints of a mint to them. Its amazing as while the tea is rather hot breathing in the fumes just makes my nose feel cold.

The taste is very nice, banana, and pineapple, with a nice sweet finish. I know Nannou-shan puerh is rarely exceptionally bitter, but I am detecting a rather reduced bitterness compared to how I remember it last year.

As much as I still like this, I feel like its lost a large part of what really made me like it to begin with, perhaps I will just need to put the cake away into a more permenant storage and come back to it in many years.

I find it odd with Sheng I tend to like it 10+ years in age, or very young. I have not found many cakes in the 1-9 year old range I really like.