Crimson Lotus Tea

Thank you Crimson Lotus Tea for this sample. This was very tasty. I am more of a shou drinker but I enjoyed this a lot. It was slightly bitter in the early steeps, took about three to four steeps for the bitterness to go away. There was no hint of smoke that I noticed. It developed a flavor of apricots just like the best young sheng does. I gave this tea ten steeps and I’m sure I could have gotten four or five more steeps out of the tea at least, but ten was my caffeine limit for today.

I brewed the entire sample, about 7g in a 100ml teapot with 200 degree water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.

i got this sample for review – thank you so much Crimson Lotus tea.

When i opened the pouch it smelled smoky, grassy and sweet.
This tea is delicious. almost no smoke detected in a brew. just faint to make things interesting.
I enjoyed it a lot. many steeps yesterday and i continue today.
7g 80ml gaiwan 200F rinse/short steeps. few secs, i didnt time them. its easy to drink, no harsh bitterness often associated with young sheng, no astringency ( but again i kept my steeps short). lovely tea overall.

Im so glad i was able to try this tea, thank you so much Crimson Lotus Tea

PS no stomach issues i usually experience with young Sheng

Don’t buy this one…

Until I get paid and can buy a tong!

This has a jingmai smokiness, but is much greener. It is wonderfully complex, I can see how it is related to Hidden Song (which I didn’t get a good enough sense of in a serving to review bc it was so unique) but it is so much more complex! It is like Bulang and Jingmai has a delicious delicious baby together. There is the pleasant bitterness of Bulang with the subtle sweet smokiness of Jingmai.

There is a sweet lasting after taste. Mmm.

I have instagram pictures of the leaf and liquor I will post here later.

Edit:
Leaf- https://instagram.com/p/3kK0Kxyc-R/?taken-by=not_phi
Liquor- https://instagram.com/p/3kKj86yc97/?taken-by=not_phi

This was a second sample I got from Glen and Lamu. How nice of them!

When I opened the packet, I was amazed at how sweet this tea smelled on its own. And it really is. It’s probably the greenest tea I’ve ever had, and definitely the greenest sheng I’ve ever had. It tasted really green, but also sweet and kinda almost creamy. I really enjoyed it. It’s very energizing.

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I’m pretty certain this is the right tea – I received it as one of three free samples from Glen at Crimson Lotus Tea. I am pretty excited about it because Crimson Lotus is one of the “hot” companies around here that I have been wanting to try but couldn’t yet justify an order. Now I’ve got an opportunity to try a couple things and see if I will dip my toes further in.

At random, I selected this sample to try tonight and on first sniff it seems a good choice. One thing I noticed is that I have a bit of fannings/dust but I am thinking that is rough handling by Canada Post as the intact chunks look to be good sized leaf. I’m using the full 7 g sample in my ~120 ml gaiwan with boiling water (minus ~1g that was too small and I worried would escape the gaiwan in a pour). Two quick rinses per the recommendations on CLT’s website, and then a 10 second steep.

The leaves are VERY awake at this point. The beau smells dirt, but dirt after a fresh rain. I get wood, leather, smoke, and other dark and delightful aromas. The liquor isn’t very dark, but it didn’t have the chance to get dark. The flavours are muted compared to the aroma but still full bodied and giving the impression of a thick brew. No off aromas here, and nothing fishy. Just dark and rich and yummy.

Second steep at 15 seconds yields a very dark brew. More what I expected right off the bat. Clearly the leaves weren’t as awake as they seemed. This is fairly brown and opaque. I can barely see the grain of the table through the cup. Aroma has moved over to what I frequently refer to as barn-like. And, as always, that is a positive. Sweet clean hay and something earthy and organic to take it darker and deeper. The flavour is very different than first steep. I get sweetness and almost a bit of astringency with a little bit of a dry mouth. It’s “earthy” and sometimes the beau and I each get a bit of a fruity taste. Maybe like a fruit leather or dried apricots.

Steep 3 at 20 seconds is also quite dark, the sweet aroma is gone and it’s really rocking some smokey aroma right now. The flavour is less earth, more sweet and smoke morphing into each other. It feels like the tea is coming into itself with this steep. I always seem to enjoy the third the best. Is that common?

4 at 25 – less dark in colour but aroma settled in nicely with damp earth and a hint of smoke. Flavour is starting to mellow out. I’m searching a littler more to detect anything new. Sometimes it sips in sweet, sometimes a bit smokey. There is still a bit of a dry mouthfeel and a slight cooling sensation at the back of the throat. I may have abused the tea, or that might be part of it. I’ll never know!

5th at 30 seconds is starting to lose its aroma. Maybe I should have upped the ante a little bit on this steep. The flavour is also a bit lacking. Needed more time! I think I’m going to use the leftover leaves for a western style pot tomorrow morning with my breakfast. I’m getting a lot of tea out of these leaves.

All in all, this was a nice session. I wasn’t particularly wowed – there was no “OOOH, Chocolate!” the way some of my favourite backs can be but it is definitely an easy drinking shou that I could use to teach people what pu-erh can be like. Definite positives, and no negatives, just not the wow factor that gets me to keep buying something. I’m really glad to have been able to try it though, and I look forward to sipping on the other two samples.

I was just reading other reviews and saw someone mentioned fermentation flavour. I wonder if that is what I mean when I am talking about earth/barn. Starting to think so! I like it, just never know how to describe it.

Oh this is yummy.

So, Glen and Lamu sent me a message a little while ago, asking if I’d like some samples in exchange for reviews. I’m always open to that, especially if the tea is good.

And boy, is this tea Goooood.

I wanted to take all kinds of pictures and such, but my phone decided this morning to take a crap for me. All locked up for hours before I sorted it out. While drinking tea. Good tea. It helps a stressful situation be less stressful.

Anyway, this tea. It’s rich and delicious. Sweet. Chocolaty. Tasty. Amazing. It lasted through several infusions. It would have lasted longer, but I was distracted at work on the second infusion, and instead of steeping for about 10s, it was more like 90s. Oops.

I’m adding this tea to my wishlist now. I’m sure I’ll order some soon.

Thank you, Glen and Lamu, for providing a sample to review!

Had a gongfu session. Prepared with a ceramic gaiwan. Did two 3-second rinses. Steeping times: 5, 10, 20, 45, 75, 120.

Letting the dry leaf sit in the heated gaiwan really brings out its aroma: a very sweet sugarcane, then sticky rice, and then cedar. The wet leaf aroma smells more like damp earth and wood – an old forest perpetually wet – and like cherries.

When sitting in my makeshift sharing pitcher, the liquor resembles whiskey, having the very dark amber color and the clarity of an alcohol. The texture of the liquor starts off as smooth and then becomes creamier, almost soup-like somewhere in the middle of the session.

The leaf still has yet give away its entirely in the first infusion, which tastes mostly like wet wood, weakly. The second infusion is where it really got started. My first impression is wet wood, again, but allowing the liquor to sit in my mouth, I taste black cherries, finishing with black coffee. Bread aftertaste. The third and fourth infusions are even sweeter, but only initially. Cooked mushrooms take over, followed by a bitter note of baking chocolate. The sweet and the bitter are simultaneous and balanced. Infusions five and six are still sweet but mellower in intensity. Alongside earth and coffee, sugarcane makes its reprise.

This was a pleasnt shou to drink, especially since it matched the weather today – cool, then humid, then stormy, then cool again – and the petrichor-filled smells that came with it. It was definitely the shou influencing the weather and not the other way around!

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Yum! Rich and earthy shou! Very creamy and clean tasting too. Slightly sweet. This is a shou anyone could enjoy I think.

Thanks again to the good folks Crimson Lotus for letting me taste your teas! They were all extremely enjoyable.

I was SO happy to finally get to try this tea yesterday! I was shocked at how tightly packed and dense this little planet is.

I took many photos on Instagram https://instagram.com/p/3TyUHvRh1S/

This is what it looked like after the first rinse https://instagram.com/p/3TzRuZRh3r/

This was the first steep I actually drank https://instagram.com/p/3T2Lj3Rh-I/ And it was so delicious! Soup was very thick. Pleasantly bitter in early steeps but never astringent. Super creamy. The honey scent and flavor built with each steep…glorious stuff!

https://instagram.com/p/3T-S—xh_5/ This tea gave me such a great sheng buzz all afternoon yesterday. Really good sheng puts me in a GREAT mood! These planets might seem pricey but they are definitely worth it as a special treat. I’m putting more in my shopping cart for sure! Thanks again Glen and Lamu :)

Drinking this shou reminds me of walking through a damp forest. Notes of damp earth/soil, mossy and sweet. My first couple of infusions were my favourites since the forest flavours were most prominent.

The latter infusions were lighter, with hints of cocoa and woody notes.

Very enjoyable and a perfect pairing to this damp rainy morning. Thank you for the sample Crimson Lotus!

Many thanks to Glen and Lamu providing this sample to review!

Gongfu session with a ceramic gaiwan. 3 second rinse. Steeping times: 6, 10, 10, 20, 15, 20, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120.

The dry leaf smells of smoked salmon. Get the bagels and capers! Letting the piece of cake sit in a heated gaiwan also brings out a bit of stonefruit. Following the sixth infusion: apricot!! What I love in sheng aroma.

This sheng yields a darker color than I’m used to – a dark honey – and has consistently smooth and thick texture. Clear at first, the liquor becomes cloudy towards the middle of the session. The first infusion is mellow and tastes like it smells (smoked salmon). The second tastes of tobacco. There is a slight bitterness, and a musty aftertaste that turns into apricot jelly fifteen minutes later. Following this infusion, the sheng really strengthens in flavor. The mustiness continues in infusions three and four, which have a fruity aftertaste. Infusions five through fourteen teeter between bitterness with an underneath fruity note, and fruity flavors with an underneath bitterness. It is around the ninth infusion I’m able to pry the leaves apart with the gaiwan lid. They were fun to play with!

I can’t tell if it’s my lack of experience with sheng in general – hence my untrained palate – or if this sheng is still young. I was expecting it to evolve from the bitterness and become sweeter as the session went on.

The qi made me feel a little loopy after drinking four infusions in relatively quick succession. Also, I have a quiet stomach-ache (meaning “eeeeeeeeeeeeeee but I’ll get better soon no worries”) that I’ve had since infusion three (which was four hours ago).

Last night session.

I am not a fan of young puerh. its always bitter, astringent, many times smoky. tastes like hay and tobacco. No matter how careful im about temps and steeping time. plus it gives me stomach aches.

This tea is magnificent. it totally changes my view on young sheng. its buttery smooth, clean and sweet. like faint fresh peas and so creamy. at the same time it does tastes like sheng. i had many steeps and saved leaves for tonight.

I do not recommend you to drink it on the go. It should be savored. Each sip.

And i was soo tea drunk. i could barely type on my iphone. Giggling all the time like child. i call this tea Happy Tea. it didnt make me stoned. its not like Naka when i couldnt move. it just made me very happy. All my troubles disappeared.
I need this tea.

Thank you so much Crimson Lotus tea for the sample. This tea goes on my shopping cart.

7g 100ml gaiwan 200F
rinse/ 3/5/5/5/7/7/10 sec etc

I dont rate teas but on a scale of enjoyment its solid 100

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This is a great sheng. I will not say young as it is obvious. One would not think it is as young as it is just by tasting. It is pretty smooth and vegetal. It also develops some hints of sweetness. I feel I am not doing this tea justice in this review. This is a perfect sheng. I will definitely getting more of these cakes. Perfect name to it!

Thank you for the sample Glenn and Lamu!

I don’t think I have ever had a sheng this fresh before. The dry leaf scent reminds me of a fresh green with just a hint of that fruity vibe shengs can have.

Early steeps are like a cross between a fresh green and a sheng. Nice and sweet and vegetal with a shengy tanginess. It leaves a long lingering taste in the back of my throat. Definitely tastes like spring!

I might be imagining it but I got the FAINTEST hint of smoke from an early steep. Really enjoyable and gave me lots of energy today :)

This tea is good. The only problem I had with this tea was I was using a new teapot that was supposed to be 100ml. The teapot turned out to be bigger, probably closer to 140ml. What would have been a good amount of tea for 100ml was not enough for 140ml. Still, the tea was good. It had a nice color to it. This was no yellow sheng but had a nice orange color to it. There was a fair amount of bitterness in the early steeps but not a young sheng bitterness if you know what I mean. It dramatically mellowed out over eight steeps. The next time I make this tea I will use more tea. The tea had a nice aged flavor to it, I’m not sure how to describe the specific notes but it was good. This is not a cheap tea. I think it goes for $30 for a tuo but it is worth the price.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 140ml teapot with 5g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and let the leaves rest for about ten minutes. I steeped the tea for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, and 1 min. Had the teapot been the size listed in the description I think this would have worked out just about right.

Another one from Veck’s box of magic… I hadn’t tried until today (which has been self designated as CLT tasting note day).

This one tastes ancient! It isn’t quite as sweet or fruity as the 2005 top of the clouds, or nearly as intense of a color.

While I use floral as a note, it isn’t tropical flowers like I get off of some other teas, it is more of your garden variety western type. I keep picturing pansies, like the kind from the salad, but not as bitter. Or maybe an iris, elegant and brisk.

The after taste on this one lingers, and almost reminds me of an ancient library. Like the sensation of opening an ancient tome. A lot of the classic Changtai note is pretty muted, I guess by so long in wet storage. It’s very Yiwu in character, but not as powdery as I found the 2005 Changtai Yibang I got from Puerhshop to be. The leaves are small, but maybe a bit bigger on average than a yibang.

It was very interesting. Other than the 90s Hong Kong Storage this is the oldest tea I’ve had. This is good, and I could see some Yiwu fans swooning over this one. But unlike pretty much everything else from Crimson Lotus I don’t feel the need to stock a life time supply of this.

I want to own a 2kg brick of this and dress it up as spiderman and/ or Gandalf

The first few steeps of this are definitely the best and really emphasis it’s sweetness. I always think druid latte’s when I make this, but after sending some to the Last Dodo, she told me it tasted like Lindt Dark Chocolate Chili… and after she told me that I can taste that if my imagination cap isn’t on. But it’s totally chocolate creamy wood… I imagine elves living in a forest and going to a Treebucks to get a cup of this!

It doesn’t steep out quite as long as I’d like… but that is likely because I turn it motor oil colored to feel like I am drinking lattes :P I am sure if you flash steeped this it would go longer. It is soooooo sweet for the first 4 or so steeps. But I love this shou so much I would buy it no matter how long it lasted.

It is a great starter Shou… a bit more complex than the other intro one I use (Mandala’s Special Dark). I’ve sent many raves about this one to Glen, and he tells me it is because most ripes aren’t done intentionally, but this one is.

TL:DR: Stock up on 2 kg bricks and start a Treebucks for the druids in your area.

I’m not sure why this one wasn’t on Crimson Lotus’s page!

This was a sample sent to me by Glen with my mini order right before they went to China. I have been out of this tea for a bit, but was encouraged recently (but other steepsters I know) to start writing more reviews on the Crimson Lotus tea I so frequently doomcart

This was the tea that turned me on to my obsession with Changtai. It has that smokey/cowboyness that all Changtais have, but a really complex aroma of peach and minerals along with it. The color of the brew is gorgeous as well, a dark colorful orange! This is a really well done humid storage tea, where the storage added complexity rather than just drown the leaves in that weird mineral smell.

I remember the taste very vividly months later, and someday a cake will be mine! I salivated very much at the instagram photos of the giant crate Glen got of it while they were in Yunnan (bike delivered and all).

TL:DR: Very good starter example for humid storage. Very delicious fruity tea. Will start a life long changtai obsession.

I first tried this tea (and most of my Crimson Lotus experiences) because of Mr. Veck’s epic pu starter pack. Kunlu is a bit of a different offering, I saw it was really valued in the ancient times, but from what I gather it isn’t marketed as much these days because the leaves aren’t as pretty as some. While literature says that, I don’t believe them. I think Glen’s cakes look just lovely!

Kunlu reminds me a bit of bulang, but more astringent. I have had this tea many times and I keep getting: muted classic bulang bitterness, pineapple and tuberose flowers. No one else I’ve talked to who has had this tea has found those notes… so I must be on some kind of Kunlu mega high.

I’m really excited about the 2015 Kunlu, because if the really young trees this was made from had those types of flavors… imagine how gushu will capture them!

TL:DR: For me, Kunlu = Bulang on a Beach. I’ve sent samples to a few other people who haven’t gotten that, so your milage may vary.

I’ve been challenged! So here is my first review… So I had high expectations of this tea before it was available again, Mr. Veck on the Steepster Chatroom would occasionally wax on about his fond memories of this tea and how he wished he had more than a single serving left, because it was such an enjoyable Shou. So when it was around again… I bought one to split with him as a surprise, later to find out he got one himself! Long story short, this tea came with expectations and some improbable buying. I wouldn’t have normally picked up a Shou in this price range.

This is good! There is that sense of depth one gets from CLT Bulang Gushu Shou, but coupled with wood rather than sweetness. This is one shou I actually prefer with shorter steeps. It is balanced in the same way the Dayi 2011 Centennial Shou is, and definitely near that quality, but perhaps a little earthier. It still has some of the dirty notes associated with shou.. but if you are a shou drinker a cup wouldn’t be quite complete without that hint of dirt.

This tea is something Lord of the Ring’s Ents would drink. It gives me a great sense of calm, it’s very earthy in the most elegant of ways. It brews forever and ever and ever… I am still drinking the gaiwan leaves I started last night. Flash brew shou definitely goes further. I feel like since this one has a lot more to it than sweetness that the flash steep brings out more of it’s elegant characteristics than turning it into motor oil (like I do with my beloved Bulang Gushu- druid lattes ftw) and also makes it last a lot longer. While this might be an expensive shou per gram, the flash steeping makes it last about twice as long as most of my ripes.

Point being: I’m glad we both have a cake Veck, and we need more Kunlu Online Tea Parties! Also Glen, you must find more of this!

If you’d like a more complete review, Teadb has a video review on this one where they meet with Glen and his lovely wife to drink it.

Wow, I’ve been terrible about writing tasting notes lately. I’ll try to be better.

I decided to have this one this morning, and I’m glad I did. It’s a nice, comforting shou pu. Rich and deep creamy in color. Enjoyable. I’ll definitely have this one again.

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Breaking this one out tonight. Got this about 4 days ago and finally getting to it.
I got 8 grams out and warmed the gaiwan for this one. After a quick rinse I let this sit a couple of hours. The aroma after the rinse was a nice vegetal type.
I went back after resting a few hours to brew. The leaf is very green in this almost like a TGY leaf in color , very vibrant green. I hit it with some hot water and a nice honey aroma is coming off this one. The brew is a very pale yellow. Almost the color of a white tea. It has the lovely pine sap and a little tobacco with some bitter and a nice sweet at the end.
This is nice and active with a vibrant mouth feel to it. It will rattle around the teeth a bit. The really nice aspect to this one with the mouth feel is the fantastic sweetness it brings. I gave my better half some to try and she liked it as well. (I am trying to butter her up for my inbound stuff.) I have noticed a touch of the bitter mixing with the sweet at the end.
Nice enjoyable, well sourced and produced.
I feel so lucky that I found this site about three years ago. I have met wonderful people and have gotten to know these guys that work so hard to get this stuff to us.
Hats off to them all, Glen, Paul, Scott, Garret and all you guys that find all these hidden gems in all these tea shops. Lets not forget the newcomers giving us good tea as well. I found a couple of new ones you may know them. Wymm, Nannuoshan, What-cha and Tribute teas. All contributing to our site.

From the Sheng and Shou TTB.

Only 4g of this tea was left in the TTB when it got to me, but I’ve been wanting to try this one so bad, so I grabbed it!

Caramel shou…that’s all you really need to know. Smooth, delicious, caramel shou. Cocoa notes appeared in later steepings. Man, I wish I had more! On the wishlist it goes…wait, it’s already on there! ;)