Today’s review/tasting is the 2002 Nan Jian Tu Lin Te Zhi Tuo. Let’s break that down for a moment, armed with babelcarp and a little basic puerh knowledge.

Nan Jian Tu Lin is a tea factory originating in 1983, located in, you guessed it, Nan Jian County in Dali, Yunnan.

Nan Jian is known for producing teas similar to Xiaguan tea factory, which is also located in Dali and uses much of the same raw source material. Anyway, moving on…

Te Zhi simply means “Special Manufacture” and is a popular line of Ripe and Raw productions from Nan Jian Tu Lin.

Now to drink some tea…

This ripe production, like many from Nan Jian Tu Lin, is made from Lincang and Wuliangshan material. It’s compressed (lightly) into a 100g tuo and costs $16 on the Yunnan Sourcing US site.

The dry aroma of the leaf is earthy and slightly sweet. The sweetness is all but gone in the aroma of the wet leaf and what’s left is earthiness and minerals. A note about the aroma of ripe puerh: when I was younger my family raised sheep and alpaca, and spent plenty of time at other local farms and county fairs. That being said I am quite familiar with the “barnyard” aroma and taste that many find in ripe puerh. Off-putting to some, but to me the smell brings a wave of nostalgia.

Within two flash steeps this tea is already brewing completely black, but remains remarkably smooth. For shou drinkers that like earthiness, this tea is a good candidate for a daily drinker. There’s a hint of sweetness, but for the most part this tea tastes like a generic description of aged ripe, in a good way! Being from 2002 there is no discernible fermentation flavor, and the basic flavors of ripe puerh have been given time to mellow considerably.

After 9 steeps the tea drops off and only responds to very long steeps. The body is significantly lighter but all the same flavors remain.

Personally I’m putting this tea in the daily drinker category. It doesn’t blow my mind, but it’s easy to drink and has little to no negative qualities. At $0.16/g it’s not the cheapest tea available, but it’s certainly not going to break the bank for most tea drinkers. Like most of my daily drinkers I probably wont buy another tuo after this one is gone, just to add some variety to my daily routine. It mostly depends if you’re set on drinking something over 10 years old. If age doesn’t matter too much, and with ripe it generally doesn’t, you might be happier with something with a bit less age at a similar price, like the 2008 Bulang from Crimson Lotus.