Don Mei: Hey teaheads! This is Don from Mei Leaf. In this video we are gonna be doing
our first session with "Canopy Flasher". This is one of two new 2019 Puerh cakes which are
fresh in. I had to choose which one I'm gonna do a video about. I've decided to go with
"Canopy Flasher" here, but if you're interested to hear about "Dream Scene Smuggler" then
I will be doing another video on IGTV. I'll put a link in the description below so you
can go and click to a little bit more of an informal tasting video. Let me show you the
wrapper [of] the "Canopy Flasher". [HOLDS UP CAKE] [The] first of our 2019 raw Puerh
cakes finally landed. Check out that wrapper here. [It's] a cheeky little fella' diving
down from the canopy forest with lots of fruit. And here you have just a peek [of] the pangolin.
[HOLDS UP CAKE] This is "Dream Scene Smuggler". As I said, I'll do a more informal video of
this on IGTV. I'll put a link in the description below. So if you're watching this you get
a double-hitter - two videos this weekend, [with] "Dream Scene Smuggler"; [a] really,
really interesting tea. You're gonna find out a lot more about that by reading about
it, and checking the IGTV. But today our focus is on this fella' here. This is "Canopy Flasher".
Right. Let's get straight in. This is a 2019 raw Puerh from Nan Nuo. [Finally], we managed
to bag a Nan Nuo Puerh. If you saw my video before, last year, all about "What is Gu Shu?"
you can see us visiting Nan Nuo, and we visited some farmers, and I really loved their tea
so much, but I couldn't quite get the deal done because it had all sold out. So we were
very, very keen this year to make sure we went into Nan Nuo early, [and] we did. This
is a March 2019 Nan Nuo. So [the] Season [is] March 2019. [The] Cultivar is the Da Ye Zhong
variety. The origin is Nan Nuo, in Yunnan, in China. Picking and Processing [is] classic
for raw Puerh - a bud and up to three or four leaves. And the Elevation here is about 1,400
meters. Let's open this up. [This is the] first time I have seen this cake since it's
been pressed for us. So we always taste as Mao Cha, we select, and then we ask for our
favorites to be pressed into cakes for us. This is a 200 gram cake, [from] Nan Nuo. [It's']
looking really nice. [There's] nice different colors. You've got a little bit of the sort
of yellow-greens, [and] a lot of that antique silver buds. You've also got more plummy browns
here as well. Okay, let's see how this opens up. [OPENING CAKE] Yes. Make sure you get
a nice Puerh pick like this - a nice fine Puerh pick. Oh. But even if you had a more
rough one you can see how easily that opens up. [It's] lovely. I'm gonna break myself
off a nice chunk here. [It's] the first tasting that I've done of this. We received this tea
around six [or] seven days ago - about a week ago. So, as always, [I] like to leave it a
little bit to rest - ideally, a little bit longer. But you know [that] I'm not the most
patient person when it comes to waiting for my tea. So let's take some of these leaves
[and] put them in here. You can get a good look of them. There you go. Now we're gonna
heat this Gai Wan up, and I'm excited to have a sniff of those dry leaves. [POURING TEA]
So as you can see, by the wrapper, you can probably tell that we felt that this one was
quite a wild, forest-tasting tea with a lot of fruitiness. But we never know how it's
going to change once it's been pressed, and with the passage of time. That's what's exciting
about all of these raw Puerhs, they will always change. They're always moving, [and] they're
always shifting. But there you go. You can check out the wrapper again, so you can see
the yellow fruits. We've got durian, we've got bananas, we had some Asian pears, and
that bat is swooping down from the canopy to share his findings up there - the "Canopy
Flasher". All right, let's pour this water away, and give this a smell. Let's see how
much leaf we're putting in. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do a full sesion here [with] a lot
of leaf. All of the brewing instructions are on the web site and on the wrapper. So you're
gonna see that my brewing instructions on the wrapper may be a little bit more conservative
than this, but I like for my first hit to [really] get a good sense of this tea. [SMELLS
TEA] [The] smell, [SMELLS TEA] Oh! [SMELLS TEA] [There are] three things going on here.
There are three things. There's [SMELLS TEA] a creaminess that starts - [a] toffee creaminess.
[SMELLS TEA] That moves into [SMELLS TEA] a sour fruitiness - [SMELLS TEA] things like
tamarind; dried tamarind. [SMELLS TEA] [There's] dried loquats, dried tamarind - so dried fruits;
concentrated fruits. [SMELLS TEA] And then there is also a herbal green note going on,
[SMELLS TEA] although that understated considering that this is such a young tea. Remember, this
was picked and processed in March this year, [so it's] very, very young. [SMELLS TEA] So
[there's] a little bit of a herbal note, but also you're getting those fruits - [SMELLS
TEA] things like tamarind, overripe bananas, toffee, [SMELLS TEA] and a slight floral note
coming through; maybe a very sweet floral, very tropical forest flower; things like frangipane,
and things like that. [POURING WATER] Okay, so, let's give this a rinse. [POURING TEA]
And now, see how the hydration of those leaves reveals eveN more complexity and flavor. [It]
usually brings out a little bit more of the fresher notes of the tea, as you'd expect.
[POURING TEA] The "tea pig" gets to drink before me. Right. let's get our nose into
these wet leaves here. [SMELLS TEA] Mmm! Okay, so [it's] actually accentuated two ends of
the spectrum here. I'm getting more of those warm toffee notes, [SMELLS TEA] but then I'm
getting this intensely zesty nose - things like orange juice. [SMELLS TEA] But [it's]
more like concentrated orange juice, or frozen orange juice. [SMELLS TEA] [There's a] very,
very concentrated [sour-orange] aroma. [SMELLS TEA] I'm getting gooseberries as well. [SMELLS
TEA] But definitely [there's] this combination of a little bit of a [SMELLS TEA] ... actually
it's a little bit more cocao than toffee. It's got a slight dark chocolate, and combine
that with oranges. [SMELLS TEA] If you are from the UK - [and] maybe in the US as well
- but you may know Jaffa cakes; [SMELLS TEA] that very concentrated orange layer mixed
with that dark cocao top. [SMELLS TEA] And there's a little bit of a biscuitiness there
as well, but gooseberries as well. [There's] very sour, very aromatic sour fruits, [like]
green mango, and gooseberries, and orange juice, with toffee and dark chocolate. [POURING
TEA] Okay, let's give this a brew. We'll brew for about 15 seconds, because I put a fair
amount of leaf in. I want to just cut down the brewing time a little bit. Normally it
would be about 20 seconds, and as always I have no stopwatch here, so that's 15 seconds
for me. [POURING TEA] Let's take a look at the color of this liquor. [It's] nice for
the first infusion. [There's a] good vibrancy. [It's got] sort of a cloudy deep, slightly
oxidized, apple juice. [It's] got a little bit more gold going on in there than straight-up
apple juice. [It's] very, very nice, [with] lots and lots of texture. I don't know if
you can see that in the camera, but [there's] lots of texture. Wow! We need to stick a torch
under this, and you'll see lots and lots of texture. It looks very thick and viscous.
[POURING TEA] Cheers everybody - Canopy Flasher, 2019. [SIPS TEA] Mmm. [The] texture [SIPS
TEA] [is] thick - [medium to] thick, [but] closer to thick. Immediately [it's] very lubricating.
It's got an interesting texture - something that moves from soft to dry - not too dry
- but there's a transformation very, very quickly. You can see, maybe, the bubbles in
this cup just hanging around on the surface. [It's a] really, really lovely texture. [It's]
syrupy, [and] taste. That's why I went, "Hmm??" before, because [it's] interesting - [a] really,
really interesting taste. [SIPS TEA] What am I getting? So again, it starts with a warm
note. I wouldn't say "creamy" so much, but a warmth, like [SIPS TEA] maybe like custard,
but a deep custard, [or] a cookie dough - that raw cookie dough taste. [POURING TEA] [It's]
very, very nice. Or even, not raw actually, [but] half-baked. So you're getting a little
bit of a baked cookie dough taste to begin with. [SIPS TEA] [It] moves into more of those
creamier fruits, things like bananas [and] a little bit of durian - which is what this
little Canopy Flasher bat is flashing to the world - [one] of the prized durians that he's
picked up from the canopy. I get a little bit of that - those sort of custardy, yellow
fruits. And then, once you've swallowed, [SIPS TEA] the overriding sensation is zestiness.
[The] bitterness is very, very light. It's there. [There's a] nice little grip going
on. And the aftertaste is [POURING TEA] extremely zesty - very, very zetsy. I would say I'm
getting grapefruit, to begin with - like pink grapefruit zest. I'm getting orange zest,
and now, now it's starting to transform to sweetness. [POURING TEA] And that sweetness
is not a floral sweetness, it's not an herbal sweetness. It is definitely more of the fruit
sweetness - things like Asian pears, [and] a little bit of banana-type sweetness going
on as well. But [it's] very, very fresh. [It's] extremely fresh [and] zesty. This is the kind
of tea that will really wake you up. [I'm] filming this in the morning here on a rainy
day in London. [SIPS TEA] [It's a] perfect, perfect tea to wake me up for this day. [It's]
really got that tropical forest note happening, but it's all above-ground. It's nothing earthy,
[or] nothing sort of mushroomy. It really is up in the canopies. It's those fruits.
it's [SIPS TEA] zesty oranges, [and] grapefruits. I'm still getting a little bit of tamarind.
I'm getting just a predominance of pink grapefruit and orange zest, but the beginning is warm
cookie dough - half-baked cookie doughs, [SIPS TEA] tamarind toffees, [and] things like that.
[SIPS TEA] Mmm! And I'm already - after just two infusions - starting to feel this energizing
effect here, giving me some warmth and some heat. [It] definitely has some power to it.
I notice, as well, an extreme physicality. This tea really has a lot of that tickly,
slightly prickly - almost like you've just drunk some carbonated water - that kind of
sightly prickly sensation on the mouth after you've swallowed. It's very, very physical.
[It's] really, really interesting how this plays on the tongue, and that means that it's
got some serious potency. And the finish is definitely, definitely sweet zesty oranges.
[It's] like sweet oranges and pink grapefruits. [It's] really, really got that incredible
zesty sweetness to it. [It's] really nice. [I'm] sure that this will last throughout
the day as well, so [SIPS TEA] even a couple of hours after you finish drinking you'll
have this lovely zesty flavor in the mouth. [POURING TEA] It's got a little bite. For
those people who are looking for Puerhs that have that little bit of a pinch - that little
bit of bitterness - it definitely has that there. [It's] really, really nice. I would
say that this is a sort of perfectly nuanced Bu Lang mountain tea. [POURING TEA] It really
shows off the character of this famous area of Yunnan, with lots of potency and power,
and a nuanced and balanced flavor. But [it's] always understated, [and] never, never too
much, even with this much leaf. [SIPS TEA] Mmm! [It's] more orangey. [It] keeps persisting
with this orangey note. [SIPS TEA] So the transformation [is] from creamy banana into
slight durian - but I don't want you to think of durian like the stinky fruit part of durian
- that sort of sulfurous taste. It is just that creaminess of durian and banana [which]
then moves into that zesty [SIPS TEA] aroma and taste. And now let's have a little whiff
of this empty cup, which judging by the effect that it's having in my mouth, [which is] really
tingly and then juicy - dry to juicy, and sweet and zesty - I'm going to imagine that
this has some potency even after a few infusions. [SMELLS TEA] Yeah. [It's] straight-up [SMELLS
TEA] banana bread. [It's] just overripe bananas and banana bread. [SMELLS TEA Wow. [SMELLS
TEA] With a slight oxidized apple happening as well. [SMELLS TEA] Imagine, sort of, [SMELLS
TEA] apple and banana bread. [SMELLS TEA] Mmm! [It's] delicious. Okay. I'm gonna keep
rolling through these infusions and I'll come back and let you know how this tea makes me
feel... Six infusions into this tea and I'm already feeling it. I'm gonna have to call
it a day after the next infusions, because this is a powerful tea. I could tell just
by the sensation on my tongue. [POURING TEA] It is a potent, potent tea. I'm feeling not
just energy, but I'm definitely feeling a sort of lightheaded, spacey, high feeling.
[It's] definitely a powerhouse tea. I think this is gonna be one that will get some people
out there quite tea high. [POURING TEA] [It's a] really, really potent tea. I'm definitely
gonna come back to this one this evening. Let's take a little look at these leaves.
You can see [that they're] very tender leaves - sort of "frog green", [or] "amphibian green"
leaves. [They're] medium-to-small leaves, I would say, but very, very tender, very supple.
Even these stems [are] extremely supple and tender. [It's] very, very high-quality pickings.
The sweetness in my mouth is really lingering, [SIPS TEA] and it just keeps coming with this
combo of creamy to zesty. There you go. Take a look at the cover, [with] Celine's illustration.
The "Canopy Flasher" - our first raw 2019 Puerh in cake form. We've released Young Gu
Shu 2019. This is our first cake, and just as a reminded, we've also got "Dream Scene
Smuggler" in, and I'm going to be doing a video all about this probably tonight - an
informal video on IGTV. So when you're watching this video you can head over and check out
a little bit more of an informal video about this really interesting tea. But definitely,
the Canopy Flasher is one to have your eye on. [It's] gorgeous, gorgeous, creamy-to-zesty,
[with a] sweet aftertaste [and] tingly finish, and definitely one if you want to feel a little
bit "tea lifted". That's it teaheads. Check out our other videos, [and] fire over any
questions, comments, or video ideas. Taste our teas wherever you are in the world by
browsing MeiLeaf.com. Other than that, I'm Don from Mei Leaf. Thank you for being a part
of the revelation of "true tea". Stay away from those tea bags, keep drinking the good
stuff, and spread the word, because nobody deserves bad tea. Bue [WAVING].