2009 Nadacha Bulang

Referring to Nada's site on this cake. It should be interesting in terms of the very strong ku as the Nannuo's were rather soft spoken, and very easy to drink. The only one of the cakes nada himself pressed this year that is still available is the Nannuo old plantation, of which I have on comming in the mail, as its still a good cake though the other Nannuo puts it to shame.


The dry leaves smell sweet and slightly floral. While after a rinse they smell of camphor, and smoke, quite strongly too I might add.

Now I've had teas before where "Ku" is the only way to describe them, I've even seen ku described as "Choke Throat" its that strong and bitter. Perhaps its just becaue I was told it had ku but I think this smells rather like you don't reallly want to drink it camphor, with hints of citrus peel, and a slight tobacco smoke essence to it. To taste... wow, well at least these are sold out, as I think the only hope for this is to age it and hope fro the best. Yet it has a surprising Hui Gan to it (sweet aftertaste), but perhaps just having your mouth return back to normal after something so bitter, would seem sweet. It tastes like chewing on a lemon peel, without any recall hints of lemon, just that strong bitterness. But the dry finish, has a subtle hint of a malt like character.

As the infusions of this tea progress, it seems a constant battle is being under taken to brew it weaker and weaker, as it was evident from the previous infusion that it won't have gotten weaker enough on its own. Yet as unwelcome as the taste is, there is something comforting about it in retrospect, possibly cause the finish is rather enjoyable.

Treating this tea with a delicate hand and it is still quite drinkable and enjoyable, this just requires much finer attention to detail, along with a desire to power through the first couple of steeps. I'd actually say My steep times for this started off at 15 seconds, and now On the 7th or 8th I'm at 5-10 second steeps.