Puerist Dragon Ball Blind Sample #1

Dry ball smells of subtle smoke reminds me of Menghai sort of hay odour definitely some creamy sweetness in there as well.

20second rinse, then 20 second first infusion for a slow opening session…

First infusion 20 seconds has a woody hay taste some sweet straw taste.  The wet leaves smell of creamy almost citrus orange and hay like odours- sweet fruity.  Smell like a few years aged leaf.

Second infusion 15 seconds has a woody creamy almost orange blossoms woody taste. Reminds me of Ban Po Lao Zhai a bit but not quite- seems like Menghai area.  Nice Long cool creamy sweetness almost peachy icing sugar with a very faint ghostly astringency.  Deeper chest feeling Qi.

Third infusion is 10 seconds it has a peachy sweet with almost dirt and creamy sweet almost citrus flavours.  Soft mouthfeel with some subtle stimulating faint building mouth stickiness.  Strong deep slow chesty uplift. Faint lingering astringency.  Subtle deep chest Qi.  Strong energetic beats.  Spacy stoned mind feeling is building strength.

Fourth infusion is 5 seconds wet leaves smell a sweet peachy orange.  The sweet orange and peachy almost dirt taste with e subtle astringent icing sugar orange sweet finish. Strong energy is building.  Peach oranges icing sugar edges with faint dirt.  Strong energetic stuffy heavy head with temples feeling.  

Fifth is a flash infusion and has a woody orangey peachy taste.  More woody with some potato dirt faintness.  Sticky mouthfeel.  Not as much sweetness in this infusion.  

Sixth infusion is a cool throat woody with faint astringency a not that sweet almost grains almost orange sort of taste. You can feel it in the chest and energetic mind.

Seventh has a grainy cereal feel with a woody dry base and some potato and bland some puckering sweetness.  Something about it reminds me of an Aunumn Gua Feng Zhai but is definitely not sweet enough to be YiWu.  The grains woody cereal taste makes me think it could be Autumal materials.

The eighth I put into an overnight thermos an hour in I try a sip and it’s overpowering dry woody astringency that beats up the stomach pretty hard.  It will mellow out overnight.  The next morning is a bit faint oranges sweetness with a grains cereal finish.

Guess: A few years old 2019/20 Menghai Autumal Gushu.  It feels like Nannou/ Ban Po Lao Zhai. I have also tried some Lincang which meets this criteria as well especially with that orange flavour and astringency!

Wrapper Reveal: it looks like it says A’21 NQS???  Looks like the date and it being Autumal was about right but I still don’t know what it could stand for…

Mark Turner’s Reveal: A '21 NQS is the 2021 Puerist Meng Song ($91.00 for 200g cake or $0.46/g). So it's got some of that 'seems like Menghai, but somehow different' character. It's actually Spring 2021.

The NQS comes from a couple of small areas within the tea garden at between 1700-1800m. The trees are all fairly old - I would say at least 300 years or so. The immediate environment is quite good. There are a couple of wild jasmine trees and another variety of tree (that I can't now remember the name of) in the tea gardens that are both rather fragrant and were flowering at the time the tea was being picked.

Peace