Anyone tried out Nadacha yet?

One of the intentionally aged teas, Pu-Erh has a loyal following.


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Sep 15th, '08, 17:32
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by MarshalN » Sep 15th, '08, 17:32

Nada,

Thank you for your thoughtful response. As you may or may not know, I take a simultaneously dim and bright view of human beings. So, on the one hand, I feel that the distinction between Mainland and Taiwanese tea merchants is not nearly as great as you observed. I have found many nice, truly engaged tea sellers/makers in China, and quite a few "only there for profit" types in Taiwan. I have formed great friendship with some people in China who sold me tea, and on the other hand, there are shops in Taiwan that I will never, ever visit again, and people who I certainly don't want to see again.

Which brings us to the question of your shop. I certainly do recognize that somebody needs to be selling tea, and that, unlike some other blogger-vendor, your profit margins are not high, once you factor in the cost to ship the tea from Yunnan to where you are now, etc.

Perhaps I simply believe that a true tea lover should probably refrain from trekking down the path of the vendor. Once any sort of profit motive is involved, it is difficult to completely divorce that from one's own judgment. This is especially true for tea, where a lot of it rides on one's perception of tastes and smells.

Good luck in your tea (ad)ventures :)

Sep 15th, '08, 17:50
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by Proinsias » Sep 15th, '08, 17:50

The trouble is that I would like to purchase my tea from a true tea lover.

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Sep 17th, '08, 07:58
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by tony shlongini » Sep 17th, '08, 07:58

R-James wrote:I got my first gaiwan and cups and some samples from nada, great service indeed.!
Shouldn't you be taking a shave about now? :lol:

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Sep 17th, '08, 09:06
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by scruffmcgruff » Sep 17th, '08, 09:06

tony shlongini wrote:
R-James wrote:I got my first gaiwan and cups and some samples from nada, great service indeed.!
Shouldn't you be taking a shave about now? :lol:
So that's the other forum... I should have known. :D
Tea Nerd - www.teanerd.com

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by Salsero » Sep 23rd, '08, 18:28

OK, I have finally gotten around to trying 3 of these beautiful samples I got from Nada. First let me say that the size (32 grams), condition, and price of the samples is great ... as is of course the fact that you can buy just a sample without having to commit to a whole cake. Generally I would say all three of the following are light (but not as light as Mengku cakes) low astringency and sweet.

The usual warnings here: another taster may describe a completely different experience from mine. Newbies beware. I myself have bought all kinds of tea that someone else adored, but that struck me as mediocre and I have loved teas that others didn't care for. In short, don't place too much store on any one review.

2007 Yiwu "Yi Chang Hao"
The first infusion was sweet, smooth, buttery with a nice aftertaste. The next few turned gradually a bit fruity, and the later infusions reminded me repeatedly of a very light sencha, with the butter and vanilla aftertaste that I sometimes find in a light steamed sencha. Unusually, the first two infusions of this tea carried the biggest punch. It took me a while to learn to increase brewing times sharply for each subsequent infusion. I brewed ten infusions, the last being 5 minutes, before I called it quits. A very fine tea. Photo of spent leaves, dark color, a little red, mostly large leaf pieces, leaf stem systems, variety of leaf sizes:

Image Click photo for larger image


2008 Nada Nannuo Shan "Cha Chan Yi Wei"
This is the cake that Nada pressed himself, as detailed in his blog, A Felicific Life. Mine was a large, 32 oz, single piece sample that I was able easily to take apart with just my fingers. The dry leaves are beautiful. I found it to yield a light and clear liquor that was quite sweet, buttery, and a little viscous. The taste was of wood followed by mushroom and maybe a camphor finish. This is quite a nice tea, sold out now unfortunately.

2006 12 Gentlemen "Da Bai Hao"
Nada tells me that 12 Gentlemen is not a factory per se, but rather the name adopted by a group of puerh aficionados in Kunming. They oversee the picking, processing, and pressing of the bings that bear their name.

The dry leaves of my sample are quite lovely and the sample itself in excellent condition. Overall a light colored dry leaf with two tones: The light leaves are the color of plywood; dark ones, gray brown.

Liquor a dull champagne color. Started out viscous and floral, with a lot of chaqi. I got five nice infusions before it started to lose steam. Might need to up the leaf a bit in future sessions.

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Oct 1st, '08, 02:55
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2008 Youle Bamboo Wrapped

by Salsero » Oct 1st, '08, 02:55

These are darling bundles of lightly compressed, plantation sheng wrapped in a bamboo leaf. Nada says they are 50 to 80 grams in weight, but mine was actually nearly 90 grams, just the tea, not including the bamboo leaf. At about $2.75 US that is 3¢ to 5¢ per gram, very cheap tea. The bundles are small enough they would be easy to stash in the nooks and crannies among cakes in a pumidor or wherever you store your aging cakes.

Here is the bundle of sheng
1) as it comes, wrapped and tied
2) laid bare.
Image Image
(Larger images can be accessed by clicking on any of these photos and then clicking the pop up photo again.)

It was fairly easy to tease 5 grams of pretty intact leaves out of the bundle.
Image

I brewed it 5.00 g in a 120 ml pot , off boil: no rinse: 20 s, 15 s, 30 s, 50 s, 1:15 m, 2 m, 3 m, 5 m. The first couple infusions were the best. They were not rough, slightly sweet, almond taste, sort of meaty. A moderate aftertaste followed the early infusions. I had strong sense that I could imagine the aged tea already in these flavors. I think it will age into something very nice to drink with food. It is not subtle or floral. I would have liked it to brew 20 infusions. I would have liked it to build on the great flavors in the first couple infusions. I was a little irritated at the later infusions reminding me of warm ginger ale, but that may be more my mind playing tricks with me than the tea itself. What it does do is deliver a lot of full sheng taste at an extremely modest price.

This is not a bad tea now, not the centerpiece of a gong fu session, but a good tea to enjoy with food and I suspect it will be a great tea to have with meals or dim sum as it ages a bit. Well worth getting a couple to put away and forget in the pumidor

Nada's own photo of the liquor is nicer than anything I could do:
Image

Nada tells us that these are plantation leaves. They are mostly mid to smallish leaves, dark green, more on the thin than the thick side, a bit cut up but close to whole, quite a consistent color, with only a few showing signs of oxidation.
Image

As a final note, I see on Nada's site that he is closing it up early in November when he takes of for another trip to China. So if you want to order any Nadacha, you have about a month remaining.

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Oct 1st, '08, 03:08
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Re: 2008 Youle Bamboo Wrapped

by wyardley » Oct 1st, '08, 03:08

Salsero wrote:These are darling bundles of lightly compressed, plantation sheng wrapped in a bamboo leaf. Nada says they are 50 to 80 grams in weight, but mine was actually nearly 90 grams, just the tea, not including the bamboo leaf. At about $2.75 US that is 3¢ to 5¢ per gram, very cheap tea. The bundles are small enough they would be easy to stash in the nooks and crannies among cakes in a pumidor or wherever you store your aging cakes.

Here is the bundle of sheng
1) as it comes, wrapped and tied
2) laid bare.
Weird. It's like tea zongzi.

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Oct 1st, '08, 08:38
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Re: 2008 Youle Bamboo Wrapped

by nada » Oct 1st, '08, 08:38

wyardley wrote:Weird. It's like tea zongzi.
that's exactly what it is

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2007 12 Gentlemen Menghai "Wei Zhong Wei"

by Salsero » Nov 7th, '08, 01:36

I started a pot of THIS last night
4.00 g in 120 ml pot , off boil: no rinse, infusions: 25 s, 30 s, 40 s, 50 s, 1:15 m, 1:30 m

Continuing tonight with
4 m (oops! …), 1 m, 2 m, 3 m, 4 m . . . so far

My first impression last night was that this tea is unpleasantly sweet. Too much cloying sweetness is a negative for me. By the fifth infusion, however, it was winning me over with the sweetness subsiding and a nutty/apricot/gingery taste really filling in nicely, some pleasant mouthfeel, and a nice aftertaste. Astringency has not been an issue at all.

This exceptional tea seems to improve the longer you infuse. I am enjoying day two more than day one. I am thinking I will try it with a bit more leaf next time to really get to know it well.

It seems to be available at both Nadacha and Andao Tea, a bit pricey at $50 and $64 respectively for a 400 g cake, but it is the real deal. Both vendors offer samples.
Last edited by Salsero on Nov 7th, '08, 10:06, edited 1 time in total.

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Nov 7th, '08, 03:15
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Re: 2007 12 Gentlemen Menghai "Wei Zhong Wei"

by tsverrir » Nov 7th, '08, 03:15

Salsero wrote:I started a pot of this last night.
Did you forget to post a link?

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Re: 2007 12 Gentlemen Menghai "Wei Zhong Wei"

by Salsero » Nov 7th, '08, 10:07

tsverrir wrote: Did you forget to post a link?
Missing link added.

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