2006 Nan Jian "Wu Liang Phoenix Tuo" Raw Pu-erh Tea

What first springs to mind is how easy it is to break into this relatively low-compression tuo! Ending up with mainly intact leaves in your gaiwan makes for an enhanced taste experience, which is often difficult to achieve when it comes to tuos.

This semi-aged tea delivers a lovely, crystal clear, deep orange tea soup, steep after steep. Good bitterness is at the forefront during the first 3 to 4 steeps. This fades into the background, later on, giving way to the typical Wu Liang orchid taste. There are also traces of sweetness and hay/straw detectable. This tea goes for many, many rounds. I manage to get about 12 steeps out of it, and even with a steeping time of 2.5 minutes +, the tea doesn't lose too much flavour and the colour of the tea soup is still a deep orange.