2014 Shu Pu’er Nuggets

There's a fantastic fruity bread smell on the dry and wet leaf after the rinse.

Infusions

1. After the first infusion, there's now a melted marshmallow and graham cracker kind of smell on the wet leaf. The liquor is rather light still as the clumps have not had time to unravel yet. Papers, mushroom broth, biscuits, and chocolates. The finish is very minty.
2. Creamier with a heavier body. Still solid on the graham cracker. Lots of typical clean & smooth shou flavors like vanilla and baked goods. Medium strength in the camphor finish.
3. The leaf has opened up a ton now and the body is thick and dark as a bear. Warm winter spices, log cabin, hazelnut. Throat catching feeling on the finish but outweighed by the smoothness. Kinda hard to assess the empty cup aroma since my office's goin hard as hell on this mf snickerdoodle air freshener for our little socially distanced office holiday party. I did choose this one as a complement to the day though.
4. Wet leaf smells spicier. More vanilla pod, holy basil, tad bit numbing of the throat. Chocolate pudding, cream puff.
5. The liquor is like straight-up black coffee now. A very savory and spicy baked sweets note. The throat cooling and numbing are more intense. Not a major fan of that numbing feeling since it feels almost scratchy but isn't. Big fan of everything else this tea has to offer though.
6. Sweeter custard or pudding, everything else is the same.
7. Super pleasing and comforting with just a tad bit of interesting spices tied in to make it stand apart from your standard clean shou. The holy basil is more noticeable here. I find that interesting because it grows all throughout the tea gardens this material is harvested from. Getting an interesting herbaceous twang in the top notes.
8. Still the same, maybe mintier.
9. Has a ton of life left in it, probably past 20 infusions. But this feels like enough words for now.