Shui Xian 2011 (Norbu)

I had long had my eye on Norbu's Shui Xian, but at $29.00 for 100 grams I was hesitant to try it.  When it went to half price to clear out the 2011 stock, I sprang for it.  Normally I avoid "old" tea, but heavily roasted and properly packaged Wu Yi teas can be just fine after a long rest.  Here's what I found.

The dry leaf smells quite fresh with a pleasant hint of dark cocoa. While you can clearly smell the roasting, it's not as strong as I expected. The leaf is moderate in length, dark brown-purple, and covered with a nice matte frost.  Everything about the leaf suggests high quality.

Once wet, it is apparent that considerable care was taken in the picking and processing of this tea.  There are many whole leaves, very few stems, and a nice uniformity to the rolling.  Leaf colors suggest that this tea received a moderate amount of oxidation and roasting.  

The tea liquors up a moderate-to-deep amber, with a nice and moderately strong aroma.  The aroma has a characteristic Shui Xian varietal core, overlayed with sweet, fruity, and floral hints, and just a whiff of smoke.  There is also a wild, slightly herbaceous note in the aroma that I've smelled in other Zheng Yan teas, and that I have associated, wrong or right, with mature-bush leaf. 

From the first sip, you know this is neither a light-roast Ban Yan nor a strongly processed and resinous Zheng Yan.  It's clearly a Zheng Yan that's undergone clean, moderate processing followed by a long and gentle roasting.  The taste of the roasting is very noticeable in the first infusion, but subsequent infusions show primarily varietal flavors.  It's moderately flavorful, with a nice blend of the roast and characteristic Shui Xian flavors, and even though it's seen considerable roasting, there's still some floral character. It's smooth on entry, fairly soft, and quite full-bodied for Shui Xian. The tea's forte, however, is not so much its up-front flavor, which is modest, but it's mouth feel and aftertaste.  It leaves an exceptionally strong coating in the mouth after the swallow, and a long-lasting aftertaste that is seemingly stronger and more focused than the tea liquor.  These are characteristics I associate with genuine Wu Yi tea.

As mentioned above, this tea has an impressive aftertaste.  The minutes-long aftertaste has strong Shui Xian varietal elements, and a pleasant hint of cocoa and roast.

The dry cup aroma is rich, strongly varietal, and sweet. 

You can get several infusions from this tea.  It has more longevity than many Wu Yi teas I've tried, but it's not at the top of that list.

Overall, this is a very nice example of real Wu Yi Shui Xian.  It has a great mouth feel and a wonderful aftertaste, but it's not quite as forthcoming, complex, or multidimensional as some others that I've tried.  As is often the case with fuller roast Zheng Yan tea, the leaves of this tea unfurl somewhat slowly, releasing their essence over several infusions.  This results in a tea without quite the up-front intensity of the popular light-roast Shui Xians, but one with greater roundness, sweetness, and durability.