Nov 30
Troy’s Teaview Snapshot
 | "If you like Young Puerhs buy, if you like to age puerhs buy, if you like novelty shower curtains... may the gods have mercy on your wretched soul."
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I'm not entirely sure what Lao Mansa means, I've googled, and Binged, and yahooed my fingers off but all I can find are references to this tea, vague references to a Hindu god maned Mansa Devi, some mention of an ancient african king named Mansa something-or-other, and not much else. Maybe its the village, a village google maps and Wikipedia know nothing about, maybe its the name of a Factory, maybe its something the Owner of Norbu Tea made up on a drunken binge, but the tea is good so this can be forgiven.(EDIT: As corrected in the comments, Lao Mansa is where the tea came from, somehow I missed the Map right on the product page. Revel in my mistake.)
This tea is so young you should probably check its ID before bringing it home to prevent legal issues. Young is not a bad thing, in fact if its to your taste it can be a very good thing, I find them to be the "green tea" of puerh and really appreciate their sharp rich vegetable flavors. Being this years harvest, and not having been subjected to artificial "ripening" this puerh still holds on to its green tea qualities, and lacks the earthy quality of older/riper puerhs.
In all the cups I was able to get from the chunk I sampled, and they were many, expect at least three good steeps from it, the tea remained strong and vegital, not in a buttery way, but in a lightly blanched broccoli way. It was both sweet and sharp, and will disappoint if thats not your sort of thing, but it most assuredly is mine. I like Raw Puerh, unapologetically. You could age this, and the vegital and tannin qualities would seem to indicate that it would taste amazing, and perhaps a little floral, with five or six years under its belt.
— To purchase Norbu Tea 2009 Lao Mansa Sheng Pu Erh Tea, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular blend, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.
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Troy Teaviews.com Reviewer » Read more about this reviewer on Troy's profile page. » Find a list of recent posts by Troy. |
November 30th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Hey Troy… I’ve been buying more and more from Norbu in the last six months for a few reasons: the quality of his products, his seemingly genuine gratitude/customer service and the fact that he’s an open book with information about his products. The latter is something that I feel is very important. I want to know where my tea comes from as much as I want to know where my food, wine and anything else on which I spend my hard earned cash.
This being said, I would like to point out a few things to you:
1) Lao Mansa, which you supposedly spend so much time looking for, is right here: http://www.norbutea.com/09_Norbu_LaoMansa_Cake?category_id=48 It’s a mountain. There’s a map. I suggest you use Norbu for more than his free samples…use him for his knowledge.
2) I also live in Texas and back in September, when I was in Dallas for work, I met up with Greg from Norbu once to pick up an order. I offered to take him out for a beer and get to know him. It turns out he doesn’t drink…at all. I don’t want to speak for him, but if I didn’t drink (which I do, heavily) I wouldn’t want someone on the internet blogging about me being drunk and making stuff up. Just a thought.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Point 1:
“Crappy Scholastics Batman!” Totally missed the map on his site, I was talking of the 20 minutes of running various web searches I did that, oddly, didn’t turn up the verysame map. Thanks for that.
Point 2:
If he’s anyone worth asking out for a beer he has a sense of humor and would understand that I was making a Joke, not actually insinuating that he was out on a bender.
Also, is Irish your actual name? I”ve only ever known one person by the name of Irish.. its not very common as a surname, don’t know why, its a perfectly serviceable first name.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
I have no clue why I said surname there…