Most plantations are cuttings from the same bush. Your earlier
statement didn't mention flower or fruit just leaves. A picture is
worth a thousand words so flower on the left and fruit on the right:
http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty...m_sin_5740.jpg

So far the concensus is the sheen is caused by a glue of some sort.
Two of my three samples I never tasted so they could be caramelized
with *bird sh...* for all I know. The TKY nugget taste like orthodox
TKY. I like the theory if I could taste what it was coated with. I
guess you could coat the leaf with a neutral glaze which I assume would
enhance multiple steeps which is the only claim I see made by the
vendor. I like your suggestion the entire leaf is coated and not just
the surface. That would explain why I never see anything breaking away
from the surface of the shell as another claimed. It is a fun style of
tea I think perfect for gongfu but I'm an agony of the leaf fan and
never wait for the chicken eggs to hatch. It is a good style to drink
straight from the cup because the seeds,pods,nuggets sink to the bottom
with time release liquor.

Jim

kuri wrote:
> "Space Cowboy" > wrote in message
>
> > Don't make me rise up from Davy Jones' Locker if I ever discover that the
> tea bush is allowed to
> > flower in Japan for whatever reason.
>
> What do you mean ? Tea bush do flower and the rest of the flower becomes
> seed...or they don't get any seeds to plant new teabush or to show to
> visitors of the * tea museums*.
> > The larger pod and nugget is definitely rolled leaf and hard beyond belief
> with a completely
> > smooth sealed like surface.
>
> That can be they took a leaf with an attached young leaf not yet opened.
> They put them in that *glue* (the stuff made of "maybe" ginseng powder)
> before rolling, and coating it again. Then the chunk of glued leaf is the
> hard object and it's so well stuck that it never unfolds in your pot. Did
> you try to open the seed ?