2003 Wistaria Ziyin Nannuo Review

I bought 40g of this tea from liquid proust a few weeks ago and have had it once before. I very much enjoyed it then and am using international tea day as an excuse to have it sooner than I probably should be. Then again, for 50c/g it is only a $2.50 session. Since this review I have purchased a cake as there was a Wistaria Sale.

5g, 75ml High Fired Duanni.

1st Steep: Caramel, dairy aroma. Oily mouthfeel and very complex. The immediate taste is leather/old book smell that quickly becomes sweet and milky. Aftertaste is dark chocolate. Touch of young sheng vegetal note throughout with a slight astringency.

2nd Steep: still a flash steep but with a bit of a slower pour as the spout got clogged. Aroma has the same notes as last time just with a bit less intensity. The leather and chocolate notes have combined in this brew and end with a great huigan into brown sugar rummy sweetness. Mouthfeel continues to impress. I can feel this tea coat my mouth long after I have swallowed. There is a hint of plum in the aftertaste. This sour plum is extremely apparent in the wet leaf aroma.

During my tasting sessions I have been trying to decide what is different about the tea that I am drinking. I will probably write up a post about it but I think that it is my way forward in understanding sheng and what makes a tea good or bad. As for this tea, it excels in mouthfeel and taste up to this point.

Nice face relaxation and sweet empty cup.

3rd Steep: I do not know about the storage for this tea but it seems on the dry side. The aroma has now shifted into more spicy incense notes. Upfront minerality with a creamy leather huigan finish. Incense and a slight bitterness for the aftertaste. There should be candy that tastes like this.

Calming with a nice feeling in my forehead.

4th Steep: We finally get the fruit that this tea has been hinting at in this brew. On the nose there is cacao, grass, and a bit of cherry. The soup tastes like a cherry/plum chocolate bar that someone forgot about in a saddle factory. The mouthfeel and aftertaste really stick around on this one. As the tea cools in my cup it gets a touch bland and develops more of the musty old book taste.

I can feel my breathing in my cheeks.

5th Steep: Strong cherry wood aroma that reminds me of love forever. The fruit in the cup is lasting longer and longer before it morphs into the creamy musty vanilla profile that has been present in every steep so far. The aftertaste is almost coffee like. As in the aroma, I am reminded of Love Forever with this steep. This could easily be a great brew from that tea perhaps aside from the quality of mouthfeel that this produces.

Warming

6th Steep: Going to go a bit longer on this brew to try to get back some of the bitterness from earlier. It seems like I did not go long enough as this brew follows the same trajectory that the last brew suggested. One thing to note is that after a few sips of this brew I am immediately feeling heavier and tired.

Incense in the empty cup

7th Steep: This qi is beginning to feel very nice. It is warming, heavy and my whole body is sinking into my chair. I brewed for a long time on this one and that comes through in both taste and aroma. The liquor begins with a strong musty vanilla that blooms into a bitter dark chocolate along the roof of your mouth. I wish I had more of this brew.

I just realized my music had stopped right after steep 1 and I did not notice.

8th Steep: I pulled this one too early and it is a touch monotonous. Not much to say.

Still have aftertaste when kettle gets back up to temp with new water.

9th Steep: Extremely clean late steep aroma. Light fruity taste that morphs into chocolate bitterness. We are definitely in late steep territory now.

I am going to call this review here and if anything crazy happens I'll put it in the comments. This tea is definitely one that you should try if you get the chance. I think the same can be said for any Wistaria sample sizes that you see for a reasonable price. They are pretty hard to get in the United States especially if you do not want to blind buy a cake. This is a great tea that I might try to cake in the future if the opportunity comes up.