Crimson Lotus Tea

I received a free 20g sample of this with a teaware order a couple months back. It has sat in my pumidor since then and now was finally time to give it a go. My sample was practically just a single large chunk from the cake with a handful of loose leaves at the bottom of the wrapper. Doing my best to try to maintain leaf integrity, I separated 9.5 grams from the sample for my trusty 140ml gaiwan. It was difficult to make out much aroma from the dry leaf, but in the preheated gaiwan I did pick up a scent that came across as somewhat darker to me than in some other young raws. After a brief 10s rinse the scent was very reminiscent of the white2tea 2017 “f*ck what u heard” that I reviewed last time. Once the leaves cooled down, the aroma did change. It was perhaps more sweeter, I don’t know if I’d use the word floral.

I’ve been in the habit of drinking some of the rinses lately, and despite filling the gaiwan almost full I did drink this one as well. It was very light as is to be expected. Green, buttery, with something else in there later on that I can’t put my finger on. Perhaps it’s some sort of floral sweetness of some kind, but I can’t really say. There was some body/mouthfeel to the tea already and it made my heart start beating noticeably harder in my chest as well as made me feel significantly hot. It also made blood start pumping into a certain key region in my lower body, which was interesting and an entirely new experience related to tea.

At this point I gave the tea my customary ten minute rest before I proceeded to the first proper infusion. In this time the large chunks soaked enough water and loosened enough for me to make the leaves come apart by just poking at the clumps a little with my finger. I proceeded to do a total of ten infusion, for 7s, 7s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min. and 3 min. The first steep had a light flavor of cream/vanilla infused with green. The body wasn’t that heavy, but the mouthfeel was nice and noticeable. After my initial observations about the taste, I actually forgot about the taste entirely as the mouthfeel was such that it just really grabbed all your attention. Even though, apart from the even stronger pro-erectile effects than before, the direct effects of cha qi were subtle, you got the sense that there’s energy in this tea. This was the last I noticed during my session though.

The second infusion still had some body to it, but the nice mouthfeel from before was gone. The taste was your typical green young sheng flavor, but slightly more mature/developed/elegant with perhaps some underlying sweetness of some sort to balance it a little. You could still notice hints of the creamy vanilla from the prior infusion. There wasn’t really any noticeable astringency to the tea yet, but it did leave the surfaces of your mouth a tad sandpapery. The third steep had a very “clear” taste to it. There wasn’t that much of the green or astringent character, but they were out there somewhere. The tea is hard to describe beyond that. It didn’t simply taste like water, nor did it have a particularly mineral character to it either. The body was light and the tea did leave the roof of your mouth a bit more sandpapery than before, but not your tongue.

The body became even lighter in the fourth steeping, barely surpassing water, although it was still not poor. There was more astringency now, and at times you could get an almost metallic finish. There wasn’t much greenness to the taste and instead the tea had more of an astringent taste to it. The fifth steep produced a darker green flavor than I’m used to experiencing in young raws, with this time not very much astringency at all. There was an interesting balance to the rather simple green flavor, with the balance coming from something darker lying underneath that might’ve also been almost savory in nature. The steep was surprisingly filling, leaving me feeling sated after finishing my cup even though the flavor itself was nothing to write home about. The tea left a green aroma lingering in your mouth and nose even though there wasn’t really a lingering aftertaste to accompany it. There was also slightly more body, even if it remained light.

While I don’t think that the sixth steep was a weak infusion, there weren’t really any flavors there to grab onto. There was some typical green astringency that you expect, of course, as well as a sort of weird vibe I got in the finish that reminded me of manure, but all in all there wasn’t really much flavor there. The seventh steep did rectify this somewhat by presenting a green taste that differed from the green taste I get in a lot of young shengs. It reminded me of a sort of semi-passable lower grade green tea. While there wasn’t much astringency, it did leave your mouth a bit sandpapery.

Somewhat surprisingly, while the eighth steep was relatively light in terms of viscosity, it did have an okay mouthfeel. The taste was now that of your typical young sheng, green and slightly astringent. After lengthening the steeping time for the ninth infusion, I found that the tea was starting to taste unenjoyable to me. I expected the tenth infusion to only get worse, but it was actually better than its predecessor. It wasn’t something I enjoyed, but it wasn’t too unpleasant to drink. While I suspect this tea could have probably gone on, I decided to stop here because I did not want it to get nasty.

After really liking Crimson Lotus’s Lucky Cloud which is allegedly also Jingmai material, I was interested to try out my first raw pu’er from the region. All in all, to a still relative pu’er newb this came across to me as a midrange sheng, which is also how it’s priced. If there’s one word I would use to describe it, I think it would be “balanced.” I don’t drink very many blended raws, so I don’t know how much this being a blend has to do with it, but this tea, while still very young and in my opinion not something I would drink now, rounds off some of the rougher edges you tend to see in my experience in material that comes from a single family, etc. I don’t think those things mean very much now, but ten years down the line it would be interesting to see how they affect the overall profile and balance.

While this tea did seem to have some cha qi – even if very front-loaded – decent texture that will hopefully improve with age, and seemingly okay longevity, nothing about it struck me as particularly special. As this is a tea that I would not drink now, if I were to invest money and time into a cake, I would want something I have a good feeling about. While this will likely be a very good tea in ten years’ time or more, if I’m going to make that sort of commitment, I don’t just want a tea that I think will be good, I want a tea I think will potentially be amazing, even if it doesn’t turn out that way. I want either something really high quality or something really special and unique. I feel this tea is neither of those. If you are looking specifically for Jingmai material to age on a budget, then try a sample of this to see if it’s what you’re looking for. Otherwise, if you’re going to be sitting on a cake for 10+ years, I’d save up and invest in higher grade material like the Midas Touch. If this tea were drinkable now, it’d be a different story, but in my eyes it’s neither interesting, rewarding or enjoyable enough in its current state. Your mileage may vary of course. If you’re looking for the best bang for your buck, then I think there are better value propositions out there. If you’re looking specifically for Jingmai and you really love Jingmai, then there are less. It is not my intention to try to sell this tea short as it has quite a few promising attributes and probably has potential to be a very tasty tea, it’s just not there yet.

I received a free sample of Bitterleaf Teas’ 2017 In Bloom with a recent order and will likely be ordering a sample of the 2017 Midas Touch to try out as well, so expect to see reviews of more Jingmai teas in the not too distant future. Those are of course different vintage than Jingmai LOVE, but I’m interested to see how they compare nonetheless.

good tea <3

Not on the website yet, but its the same as last years, a blend of different sized trees from Jingmai, same trees as the 2008 maocha.

Perfect example of puerh je ne sais quois. It has young floral character but balanced with a depth of flavour helping keep it in the neutral zone. Soft and welcoming, lacking the sweet juice of the 2008 but I can taste some of the elements of the fruitiness that the older sheng has.

Really quite nice, I love it when tea has that something you cant put your finger on, but like.

Also i noticed different flavours being extracted when brewing at different temps, the joy of drinking blended tea. It is less forgiving than the 2008 though, as to be expected from the younger leaf.

edit* Warning – creates earworms of a well known 80s midnight star track

its back in stock. I am so happy.

This is, for me, the kind of time when the puerh gods are at peace & the flavour planets align. The huigan combines in my throat, mouth & head to form a wondrous taste. I mean seriously, this stuff has returning fruit game.

This is a perfect example of how sheng can taste once in the mouth, and then transform into something else a few minutes later. It is really soft & juicy, forgiving, even a hint of smoke or tobacco (and I hate that profile usually) but balanced in such a way it makes them all work.

I am grateful to a bad pasty for sharing a sample with me in the first place, and I would also like to thank the fact it was out of stock when I went to buy some after said sample, which caused a great low that made this high even higher -

I emailed Glen a couple of weeks ago saying how much I liked it and he informed me they have bought more and its in stock again.

Delicious stuff.

I want more of this tea. It’s outstanding. Glen sent a sample in the spring and I read reviews of how undrinkably bitter it was so I began with cool 75 deg steeps for like 5 seconds and ramping up the time and temp. Using this method I was able to get aggressively bitter tea that was balanced by honeysuckle and apricot flavors. It truly reminds me of a new school west coast IPA. The qi of this tea made me more aware of my surroundings and boosted my creativity while I had a permanent smile. Can’t wait for the 17. If anyone wants to trade some of this I’d be willing as C lotus sold out.

This is a cute sheng with a lovely soft sweet profile and a lightly creamy body. It is floral and fruity, with always a looming astringency threatening to happen if you steep it too aggressively.

I did 200F and got 8 infusions, with the final being very astringent. This is not a tea to forget about steeping and a good test of your steeping technique if you go higher on temperature. You can play it safe on a lower temperature, but also keep in mind this tea is pressed super tight – so it’ll take awhile to open up.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2016-space-girls-sheng-puer-crimson-lotus-tea/

This single serving spent a week in my pumidor in a humidity just shy of 70% RH before the session. I believe this was my first time drinking raw pu’er as mao cha. The dry leaves were impressively large. To honor this special tea, I drank it together with my mom using a full set of a fine silver teapot, cha hai and cups. The 120ml size of the teapot was perfect for the eight grams provided, although there was barely enough room to fit all the leaves in and the largest one I had to soak in some warm water to bend it enough to fit it in without breaking it (it was absolutely massive). As for most of my tea reviews, I used bottled spring water for consistency.

I gave the leaves a typical 10s rinse, but since this was such expensive material we of course drank the rinse (might as well call it the first infusion). It was the most sublime rinse I’ve ever drank! White chocolate! Definitely white chocolate. Absolutely stunning. In a league of its own. Far above any other tea I’ve had and this was only the rinse. Rich, divine, euphoric. An overwhelming multi-sensory experience. I could have sworn even the liquor in the cup smelled like white chocolate, but it could have also been the cup itself (warm silver smells like bliss). The wet leaves themselves had a pretty typical greenish scent, with perhaps some creaminess in there, but that could have again been the silver.

At this point I gave the rinsed leaves a customary 10-minute rest before resuming with the brewing. I proceeded to do a total of fifteen more infusions, for 12s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 50s, 85s, 2m 15s, 3m 15s, 4m 30s, 6m, 8m, 12m, and 20m respectively according to my mental clock (and later cell phone). The “first” infusion was quite similar to the rinse. Soft, delicate, gentle, maybe a bit floral, with a hint of green perhaps in there somewhere. All in all the rinse was better though. The next infusion was stronger, greener, with some mild astringency. This did not change for the next several steeps. The tea continued to brew out soft, delicate, green, slightly astringent. A pattern I’ve experienced many young raws fall into after the first few initial steeps, before sometimes proceeding into sweetness. Where this tea differed from the others I’ve had was the softness and delicacy to this essentially bad green tea taste, although I’m not sure if this is an attribute of the tea or all the silver used (this was my first time brewing sheng in a silver teapot). I noticed perhaps some very, very mild vegetal sweetness in some infusions as well as a “cleaner” taste in some of the later infusions. For a few steeps I did experiment with some slightly cooler water as I’ve heard some people brew young sheng at below boiling, but it did not have a significant impact on the flavor. The greenness and astringency were perhaps diminished to a very slight degree, but the overall flavor was weaker as well. No real changes in the flavor profile.

It took till the tenth infusion (this was also when I returner back to boiling water) before the greenness and astringency started weakening and the flavor profile shifted back towards the early steeps. The leaves were showing no signs of losing steam at this point. The overall experience became softer like in the beginning and eventually the greenness tapered off completely while the very mild and manageable astringency remained quite constant. One steep produced a mild cooling effect in the mouth as well as a relatively weak but reasonably nice aftertaste. The tea exhibited perhaps some very minor (often vegetal) sweetness in the very late steeps, but not nearly to the degree than many other young shengs. At no point was there any kind of mineral flavor. The very last infusion I did was the only one that felt significantly thick in the mouth. Prior to that only a couple random steeps had displayed some light body to them. For the fifteenth infusion the flavors had taperer off quite significantly and the astringency had shot up for the first time, although it was still manageable. The tea soup also came across as somewhat creamy, but that may have just been the texture. The leaves could have probably gone on for a couple more steeps, but based on the trajectory of this tea I did not expect it to improve from this point onward and I also didn’t have the time and patience to start doing hour-long infusions just to see if what came out would be drinkable or not.

At the end of the session the brewed leaves were a very pale green, massive, and extremely soft and tender. If I’ve ever seen leaves that I could believe were gushu based on looks, these would be them. This being mao cha no doubt helped preserve the integrity of the leaves, but examining the big, stout leaves after brewing does not fail to make an impression.

All in all I’m not sure how I’d rate this session as a whole. The rinse was the absolute highest quality cup of tea I’ve had the privilege of consuming and the longevity of this tea is probably the very best I’ve seen in a raw pu’er, but after the first few initial steepings the flavors became extremely basic and not particularly enjoyable even if they possessed a very soft quality to them. Back when I first started getting into young raw pu’er some nine months ago (still haven’t progressed to aged or semi-aged, although I have a couple samples on the way), the very first sessions I had were very dynamic in terms of flavor and always hit me with very noticeable cha qi. Since the beginning of summer, all the sessions I’ve had have lacked cha qi and have either deteriorated after the initial steeps to the bad green tea taste I experienced in this tea in the mid steeps or started off that way from the very beginning, even teas I’ve drunk before and had totally different experiences with. I don’t know if the summer has something to do with it. Maybe I’ve just gotten lucky with the very first teas I drank and they have since all advanced to an awkward state in their development all at the same time. In any case, what I’m saying is something about the way I’m storing my tea or brewing it might be affecting it negatively, unless the experience I had with this tea falls within expectations. I’ve been avoiding raw pu’er for most of the summer due to the bad experiences I’ve had, but I’ll need to get to sampling more of the teas I have to see if I’ve just had bad luck or if there truly might be an issue. The next sample I receive I’m going to try out right away and then drink again after it has spent some time in my pumidor to compare.

Anyway, the first two cups of this were sublime. If stored correctly, I could see material like this being extremely nice in a decade or two. My own experience leaves me somewhat unsure if I can wholeheartedly recommend purchasing a sample of this to experience a tea of this caliber for yourself, but if you love tea and love pu’er and this isn’t your first rodeo, then consider it an investment into growing your own tea appreciation.

Is Ban Zhang truly the king of pu’er? I dunno, but you can serve me the rinse from this tea any day. Look forward to my next pu’er review hopefully very soon.

Tasted this side by side with Yunnan sourcing 2016 Hai Lang Hao LBZ and not surprisingly got quite tea drunk. While I find most of the LBZ I’ve tried to o be monolithic (in a good way like Lagavulin scotch) this tea had an amazing complexity that evolved in each of twenty some steeps. I’ve also reviewed the HLH here and found it to be like a mighty warrior. Thus far I’ve had 5 LBZ teas and all have a distinctive backbone of this smooth bitterness, camphor and perhaps a bit of cocoa. This tea has this but it’s in the background. While the HLH beats you over the head with these flavors, the Crimson Lotus tea uses them as a subtle backdrop. There are also a myriad of floral, stone fruit, almond and forest floor flavors that I haven’t experienced in an LBZ tea. Had I been given this tea in a blind tasting I’d have a difficult time believing this tea came from one region much less one tree. Yes it does have that LBZ background flavor but it sports jasmine notes I’ve had in high end Yiwu like Puerh-SK gushu rareness and apricot notes like a good young Naka. There are countless other flavors that unfold as well. I recommend you chase that dragon yourself. As for the qi, forget about it! I drank a 4g pot of HLH and an 8 gram pot of this and found myself dancing on my left ear for hours like a stoned roadrunner.

In the vintage guitar world, when comparing prewar Martin acoustics, one author likened the tone of a 14 fret model to a cannon and the 12 fret model to a silk hammer. That’s how I can best compare these teas. The Hai Lang Hao is a cannon. The Crimson Lotus is a silk hammer. Thanks to Glen and Lammu for making this available. Had I obtained a mere kilo of this tea I’d be tempted to keep it for myself…

Brief note: Smooth, neither bitter nor astringent. “Light” texture and profile, but once I had increased the temperature, it seemed to progressively increase in strength.

I’m going to be blunt: I love this tea.

It’s sweet, bitter, sour, fruity, and floral. After watching Glen’s YouTube video (Click Here), I bought a beeng without sampling it, and it was the right move, 100%. At $50.00USD/200g, it’s literally at the cut-off of what I personally consider to be budget-friendly: $0.25USD/1g.

(I’m in the process of creating a post to establish this blog’s price brackets, hopefully I’ll have that posted by this weekend.)

If I had a larger budget, hands down this would be in my daily arsenal. The quality of this tea speaks for itself: the leaves have incredible endurance and appear expertly-processed: I’m hard-pressed to find any burnt edges. In a nutshell, this is an incredible choice for all levels of drinkers. This is the perfect choice for drinkers who are no longer beginners, and are willing to pay a bit more to see what the next price-bracket of teas have to offer without breaking the bank…

Read the full review at: https://shenggut.wixsite.com/shenggut/single-post/2017/08/16/Crimson-Lotus-Tea-Beneath-an-Emerald-Sea-Spring-2016

This is the first Crimson Lotus tea that I’ve tried (I’m waiting for the 2017 sheng to come out). I’ve had the cake sitting in my pumidor for a month or two as I like to give pu’er plenty of time to make themselves at home. The bing itself is quite nice looking, with minimal amount of dust and debris sitting at the bottom of the wrapper. The cake is satisfyingly soft and easy to break thin, intact chunks from, but does not totally come apart on its own like the Yong De Blue Label I reviewed earlier.

I used 11g of leaf in my 160ml Jianshui clay teapot, giving the leaves a brief 10s rinse followed by a 10 min. rest before I began brewing. I did a total of eleven steeps, for 13s, 13s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 50s, 80s, 2 min., 3 min. and 4 min. according to my mental clock. Like with the dry leaf, the wet leaves didn’t have a very strong aroma. Following the rinse, they had a smell of dark, sweet hay, which is within the typical shu pu’er spectrum.

As I was using primarily chunks that were about the size of a coin and didn’t rinse the tea for that long, the color of the first steep was still somewhat pale as was to be expected. It did have some body and a surprising amount of sweetness for a first infusion. At first the tea came across as a pretty typical shu pu’er, but as I was sipping my second cup, I felt there was something different about this tea. Part of it had to do with flavor, but more so it was about the sense I got from the tea. Hard to say if I was imagining it, but it felt to me like the tea may have had a slight cooling sensation and perhaps even made you feel slightly good. Especially for a first infusion, the steep was actually very nice.

The second steep produced a much darker liquor as one would expect. There was also more body and hints of coffee and maybe a bit of chocolate in the taste, with the tea leaving a dark chocolate bitterness lingering in your mouth. A nice infusion. The following third steep was almost totally black, with only a slight red hue revealing that it was in fact not coffee. The tea had much less body now, while the flavor had shifted back towards a sweeter profile with some of the coffee/chocolate still going on. There was also something in the aftertaste I didn’t quite recognize. I also noticed that the tea made your saliva taste sweet in your mouth.

The fourth infusion remained nearly as dark, with the tea having more body again. There was less sweetness and the flavors had shifted towards a darker part of the spectrum. I tasted slightly roasted and nutty flavors, with still small hints of the coffee/roasted coffee bean going on. I quite liked this infusion. It had a nice body and was very pleasing to drink.

The color of the fifth infusion was still quite dark, but not quite as dark as before. There was also less body than in the last steep, but still some. It kind of felt like the tea caused your saliva the thicken in your mouth. It had a different kind of sweetness to it than before, and as the tea cooled down a little it got even more sweeter and almost syrupy. The next infusion was still a fairly dark brownish red, but by this point the liquor was getting noticeably lighter. The taste now had a much more noticeable mineraly character, which even extends to how I would probably describe the sweetness. Again, I did not really spend time confirming this, but it felt like there may have been some mouth cooling going on. The tea was still performing well, but based on past experience, I got the sense that we were probably exiting the middle steeps and entering the late steeps now. The flavors were coming across as perhaps somewhat thinner without being watery or necessarily weak in strength. I have no complaints about this infusion, even though it wasn’t necessarily as solid as earlier steeps. The aftertaste was again somewhat mineraly in the beginning and developed into something quite nice over time.

Surprisingly the following infusion was still about as dark as the last one and it still retained a bit of body. The flavors changed again. I’m not sure how to describe the taste, but I liked it. While the tea tasted great, at the same time for me personally this infusion felt like it was more about things besides the flavor – how it felt and how it made you feel – attributes that I appreciate most about great tea. I must say this infusion was really darn nice, especially for a this late steep. Even though this tea offered many excellent infusions, I would say this one was definitely my favorite from this session.

The next steep was the eighth. It had a much lighter color. Despite this, the tea still maintained a very stable strength. Again the sweetness present in the tea was slightly different from before, although this infusion wasn’t predominantly sweet. I might describe it as a slightly berrylike sweetness, but I’m not sure. The flavors became darker in the next infusion. Less sweet, while still maintaining a good amount of flavor.

I happened to take a smell of the leaves before drinking the tenth steeping and they had a surprisingly pleasant smell to them. After some pondering I came to the conclusion that they smelled like nectarine, or at least I believe that’s the correct fruit. I haven’t had it since my childhood, but I’m talking about a fruit with a fuzzy skin and not an entirely sweet taste to it. The liquor itself had a considerably lighter color to it now, but in terms of flavor it hadn’t lost that much strength and it was still very drinkable. The tea had a prominent fruity sweetness to it now and it was quite surprising how sweet the tea actually was. The aftertaste that the tea left in your mouth was most definitely nectarine or whatever fruit it was that I smelled in the leaves. The tea may have still even had some body to it.

I did try doing an eleventh steeping, but although the taste wasn’t necessarily watery, the color was very light now and the flavors were starting to thin out considerably. There was however a huge amount of sweetness to the tea still, although the aftertaste wasn’t necessarily the most pleasant. I probably wouldn’t recommend stretching this tea too far, but your results may vary so experiment.

Overall this was a really excellent tea, and I’m really happy to say that about a shu pu’er. So far I’ve had trouble developing an appreciation for shu pu’er and finding a tea that I genuinely like, but this tea was a very pleasant surprise and excellent from start to finish. The tea is dynamic, interesting, rewarding, and the longevity is about what you’d expect from a ripe pu’er, if not slightly above average. I try to reserve the “Recommended” stamp to only teas I would buy more of myself if I ran out and I’ve only given it to one tea before this, but I’m happy to say that Lucky Cloud now joins that group. I will have to try out more ripe pu’ers to see what I like, but unless I find other teas that I like even way more than this one, I’ll likely be ordering at least a cake or two if not a whole tong, provided it does not sell out before then. Crimson Lotus did an excellent job sourcing this one and now I probably have no option but to sample their other shu pu’ers as well.

A few weeks ago, I was shaking the water out of my beautiful little 70 ml (an awesome size!) xishi Jianshui clay pot from Crimson Lotus when I lost my grip on the down stroke, and I basically did what amounted to throwing my pot into our porcelain farmer sink in the kitchen with quite a bit of force. As you can imagine, it shattered into many pieces. These are wonderfully crafted pots, and I highly recommend them. I don’t recommend slamming them onto hard surfaces. :-( I immediately ordered another pot, and included with the replacement pot was a sample of 2013 Lucky Cloud shou pu’erh. Hopefully this “lucky cloud” will shade me for awhile, so I don’t ruin any more teaware. The sample provided was high quality, outer edge cake, nearly completely intact with very little loose tea leaves.

Below is the teapot:
https://crimsonlotustea.com/collections/teapots/products/jianshui-zitao-clay-teapot-xishi-style-red-70-110ml-free-shipping

Smooth and creamy is how Crimson Lotus describes this shou pu’erh, and that is an accurate description. This would make an excellent daily drinker, and I think it would appeal to many new shou pu’erh tea drinkers, and maybe some experienced ones, as well, depending on what taste profile is desired.

Dry leaf aroma was earthy, leaf pile, and subtle. It required getting the nose right on the leaves to pick up any aroma. Wet leaf smell is classic shou pu’erh — earthy, mulchy, life pile, forest floor.

I brewed this in a very small ~50 ml porcelain gaiwan. One rinse with boiling water, another quick rinse with just off the boil water, and a first steep of 10 seconds. Liquor was dark brown on the first steep. First infusion was mellow and so smooth. No bitterness. No astringency. No fishiness. No throat feeling. Very little aftertaste. Mouth remained wet. Faintly sweet.

Second infusion was for 30 seconds. Liquor now very dark brown with some slight redness. Taste remained much the same.

Third infusion was also for 30 seconds. Liquor remained the same dark, reddish brown. Taste changed to sweeter and some maltiness.

Four infusion of 40 seconds has more sweetness. I’m getting a small amount of mild mouth drying after about a minute. Astringency and perhaps some bitterness (if that’s your thing) may be able to be pulled from this shou pu’erh with long infusions. I’m on the fence on trying it, because it is so good in this mellow form. Oh what the heck, let’s go for it.

Fifth infusion. 3 mins. I’m surprised. I thought it would be more bitter and astringent, but this is the 5th infusion. It’s there. There is some astringency at first on the back of my tongue and then the front of the tongue as some time passes after each sip, but it isn’t a strong, chalky drying action. It is slight. Bitterness is so slight at this longer infusion, it’s hardly worth mentioning. The maltiness is still there.

Sixth infusion. 45 seconds. Color of liquor now a medium brown and I can see the bottom of my teacup. Sweet, mineral, no bitterness, no astringency, mild earthy note, no maltiness now in the later infusions if the steeping time is kept short.

So, I said that I think this would appeal to new shou pu’erh drinkers, and some experienced drinkers. This shou pu’erh is a very good drinking tea. It has no negative qualities. For some experienced drinkers, I think there is often the desire to find something unusual and new, layers of complexity, even if some of those layers aren’t what one would normally think of as delicious traits. This tea delivers a smooth and delicious shou pu’erh experience that remains predictably consistent across many infusions. It is tolerant of wide steeping parameters. I experienced no chi, no increase or decrease of body temperate, and had no visions, but I consider myself lucky to have started my day with the delicious Lucky Cloud.

Good tea, unique flavour, steeps well various types of water. Recommended!

Decided to pull this out of the cabinet and try it again this afternoon. This is a very generous tea, giving up repeatedly tasty and aromatic liquor. There’s a sweet smokiness to it with a lingering mouth feel I can’t quite describe. There’s a coolness that lingers after drinking this tea, but it’s not at all minty. I still like it, but I wish I’d have made a pot of black tea instead.

This is the first Sheng Pu-erh I’ve knowingly sampled, so bear that in mind as I offer this review.

I carefully measured 5 grams for my test. After a quick rinse, my first sample steeped for just 6-seconds and rendered a beautiful amber cup.

I would describe it as light-bodied with a pleasant note of smokiness. Something about it reminded me of the mouth feel I get when I am working with dense or dark woods like Rosewood or Walnut. Very pleasing, very smooth, with an easily unnoticed effect from caffeine.

This tea is stout. I did a rinse, then a steep of 20 seconds. Bam! Flavor was off the charts, intensely bitter but not astringent. First few infusions remained rather intensely bitter. I kept dropping my time back until I was at 10 seconds. The liquor then took on a sweetness, but still has plenty of bitterness and a bit of sourness. It produced a creamy mouth feel. I’d like to taste this one in 10 years. I admittedly have a hard time describing young shengs. I saw one of the flavor notes someone posted was warm grass. That’s a good description of what I experienced with this tea. It’s the Fourth of July, and I feel like there are fireworks going off in my mouth with this one.

Planet Jingmai from Crimson Lotus is the down sleeping bag of teas. There is a lot of material compressed into this little orb of raw pu erh. After the first rinse, the tea has floral and hay scents. It takes a little work to get this ball to open, so for the second rinse, I poured just off the boil water from high. This helped open the ball. You can watch air bubbles rising as the water penetrates the tightly packed leaves, and the dark little orb begins to turn green and open. After two rinses of about 30 seconds each, I no longer detect the hay scent. Now, it’s floral and vegetal. The first infusion after the rinses is done for 10 seconds. The liquor is pale. The first sip is sweet followed by just a touch of woody tannin bitter, but proper bitter. The second infusion, I let it go to 30 seconds when I was momentarily distracted. The leaves are opening up nicely. They now are at the half-way mark on a 150ml gaiwan. This was a bit too long of a steep for me, but if you are looking for a punchy bitter sheng, 30 seconds will give it to you. Third infusion, I try 15 seconds. Sweet honey immediately followed by bitter and now astringent toward the front of my mouth. Fourth infusion, and that first sip is sweet again. It is the sweetest it has been, and as long as the tea remains in the mouth, it remains sweet, but as soon as it is swallowed, the bitter notes begin to appear, and soon after the mouth begins to dry. It certainly has a nice push and pull balance to the tea. Fifth infusion, keeping it at 15s, and this is nice. Still that hit of sweetness on the first sip, honey and apricot, still a bit of wet wood, but this infusion remains wet, creamy, and smooth in the mouth. A touch of bitterness is still on the finish, but almost no astringency. Interesting. Others described smokiness. I get no smokiness in my Planet Jingmai, not even a trace. I’m doing this on a practically empty stomach, first thing in the morning. I had a small cookie before this session. I feel relaxed, calm, but I tend to remain calm even in extremely trying situations, so maybe it is more my personality than the tea. I took the temperature down a bit and did a longer steep of 25 seconds. Sweetness is still there but has faded. Bitterness is more immediate. Smelling the leaves in the gaiwan, they are still floral, but it doesn’t come through in the liquor now. I’ll keep going, but I suspect this tea will remain about the same as it is now through additional infusions. Now in my 8th or 9th infusion—I lost count—the sweetness has continued to fade and more vegetal comes through. I detected no mustiness or earthiness with this sample. I will order a couple more of these to see how they will age. I enjoyed this and would recommend it. For those wanting to try a raw pu erh for the first time, it’s a convenient way to try it, and not overwhelming.

Fresh, moderate sweetness and vegetal notes. Taste is a bit light but long lasting.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2015-bai-ying-hidden-song-clt

Thick and balanced with a nice, moss-note.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2016-beneath-an-emerald-sea-clt

As the 2015 version of the Slumbering Dragon very bitter and wild. Great Tea!
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2016-kunlu-slumbering-dragon-clt

Extremely bitter but in a nice, fruity and fresh way. Love wild tea!
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2015-kunlu-slumbering-dragon-clt

I was drinking this tea yesterday evening while having a live session on Instagram. I thought that I needed a ‘special tea’ for the occasion; which this one definitely had been.

The tea started with a sweet apricot flavor, with a bit of honey sweetness; following (after 5 steeps in) a leather-y flavor. As it progressed, it became more mouth-drying, which had ceased this morning. I definitely found that with each steep, this tea had changed, so no steep was the same; making for a wonderful session.