Sticky Rice (Nuomi) Ripe Pu-erh
Sticky Rice (Nuomi) ripe puerh is shou scented with nuomi xiang, the sticky rice herb, a fragrant Yunnan plant whose dried leaf smells uncannily of warm glutinous rice. A small amount of the herb is blended with ripe puerh, lending a sweet, creamy, rice-pudding aroma over the earthy base. It is a flavored, approachable style rather than a fine single-origin shou, and the balance of herb to tea is everything.
Dark ripe puerh, loose or compressed, with small amounts of the dried nuomi xiang herb blended in; the rice aroma should be present but balanced, sweet and creamy rather than overpowering or perfumey. Heavy-handed scenting that buries the tea, or an artificial-smelling rice note, signals a low-grade or additive-flavored product. The underlying shou should still drink as a clean, smooth ripe puerh.
A Yunnan specialty, blending ripe puerh with nuomi xiang (a fragrant Yunnan herb in the Acanthaceae family, not rice) grown and used locally. The herb carries natural aroma compounds that smell of glutinous rice. Because it is a flavored blend, the quality of both the base shou and the herb matters, and it is generally an everyday, accessible style rather than a collector's tea.
Gongfu: 6-8 g per 100 ml, 95-100°C, one rinse, then 15-25 seconds ascending, 8 or more infusions; the rice aroma is strongest in the early steeps. Western: 4-5 g per 250 ml, 95°C, 3-4 minutes. The herb's sweetness fades faster than the tea, so the later steeps drink like a plain shou.
An accessible everyday style: roughly €10-30 (about $11-32) per 100 g, with the cost driven more by the base shou quality than by the herb.
Prices reviewed June 2026
Young Shou (1-5 years)
The plain ripe puerh base, unscented; tasting it shows what the herb adds.
Xiao Qing Gan / Chenpi (Citrus)
The other popular flavored shou, scented by citrus peel rather than the rice herb.
Aged Shou (5+ years)
The rested unflavored shou, for what the base becomes with time rather than with scenting.
The sticky rice aroma comes entirely from the nuomi xiang herb, not from any rice in the tea; the plant naturally contains the same class of aroma compounds behind the smell of cooked jasmine rice and pandan. A pinch of the dried herb is enough to scent a whole batch.