Crimson Lotus Tea

I have read the notes and well I have to say, it isn’t much pleasing read. Hopefully my experience will be different, and maybe even better. Thank you derk for sample!

I decided to brew 5 grams (mostly very loose leaf) in my 125 ml gaiwan. I did 10 seconds rinse which I have dumped. The wet aroma isn’t much pleasing. It smells quite sour and maybe with stonefruits. A bit of meadow flowers.

1st steep, 8 seconds.
Pretty much mild, a bit on sweet-honey side.

2nd steep, 15 seconds.
Oh, much rougher. And pretty much boring. Very drying and astringent too. Not my cup of tea.

3rd steep, 20 seconds
Hm. It’s not bad, but there isn’t much noticeable, but Togo ’s note says about herbals and vegetal. At least a bit smooth.

4th steep, 25 seconds
Oh well. Another same cup.

5th steep, 30 seconds
I guess I will try a few really long steeps to see any difference. There is nothing different in those steeps. It’s not even interesting in wet leaf aroma. Maybe hints of apricots.

6th steep, 2 minutes
It didn’t help.

Gongfu!

This is such a powerful feeling ripe pu’erh with such an intense, earthy body to it even in those early steeps where the leaf hasn’t perked up as much. The liquor is oily and jet black, giving off this almost supernaturally glossy obsidian kind of vibe. I find the undertones so compelling: pleasantly numbing spice notes of clove and cassia with a brothy thickness and even more of that rich woody earthiness. It’s a tea that kind of surpasses simply being grounding feeling and, instead, feels like it’s actively reaching out and pulling you closer to the earth. Deep, heavy and soul-soothing.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C97wwJSuqF3/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02T1qTnc3rI

Gongfu!

Snuck in this early afternoon session yesterday before I’d completely lost all natural lighting in the apartment. I feel very unmotivated to Gongfu when there’s no natural lighting, so I quickly powered through the tea before it was totally black. Eight or nine steeps in about half an hour; I got wicked tea drunk and very drowsy/sleepy afterwards from how relaxed I was feeling. Ended up having a two hour “nap” shortly afterwards…

This shou is deeply earthy and camphorous, with notes of petrichor, molasses, wet wood, potting soil, and dried Medjool dates. Very, very clean and smooth though; with a great coating sensation down the throat. Exactly the kind of profile that I love most in a shou.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJYoSU8gI0g/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERA4lD-Wlfg&ab_channel=Jakey-Topic

Pretty nice; almost spicy. Definitely some bitterness. Has a honey-like sort of scent, and some floral notes. Slightly tart on later steeps. It’s an interesting tea; I like it quite a bit, for a young sheng (which is not usually my preferred tea type).

This is a very mellow and approachable young sheng, one that I have been burning though because it really seems best drunk sooner rather than later. It’s a pleasant contrast from the 2019 autumn Lao Man’E cake I bought along with it, which is a promising but powerfully bitter tea that will need to do some hard time in storage to temper it. Individual flavor notes are hard to pin down, but the texture is silky and perfectly astringent and the hui gan is very pleasant.
My order came with a 20g sample of the 2018 version of this tea, which I have not yet tasted. I’m curious to see how that one handles aging further.

Half of the sample that remains. This one is yummy. Fragrant. Juicy. Sadly sold out, but CLT provides many options.

captain’s backlog teadate 26-may-2020

dry leaf smells like strawberries and chocolate with an undertone of apricot
warm leaf has a deep fruitiness like overripe strawberries mixed with syruped apricots
rinse is the same with the addition of forest floor

the tea is difficult to describe beyond being smooth, mellow and bitter. alkaline with a light sweetness and a light fruity finish.

third infusion: MEL-LOW. light menthol in chest

fourth infusion: properly zoned out

Smooth and settled but obviously not in an aged way, maybe a bit muted, deceptively heavy, savory and alkaline. Moderate young bitterness and mild green astringency are there, increasing with each steep after maybe the fifth. Didn’t brew this one out due to the combination of total relaxation and growing astringency.
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I’ll be coming back to this cake very soon.

captain’s backlog teadate 25-may-2020

i was spotted in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest by my friend
but it wasn’t me
i was drinking tea the first night at work father’s house

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[7g, 110mL clay pot, boilingish]

Super floral wet leaf! The tea has that wild profile with a clear bitterleaf-hay base accented by light woodsy, musky and grape-berry fruity flavors. Turns sour later. Light, buttery mouthfeel early. Good thing I’m drinking right after dinner. The heavy alakalinity hit my body hard. It took a while but that chest-thumping energy finally hit. Not finding it to be heady at all.

Like some other Chinese wild teas I’ve tried, I’m not finding this favorable in terms of body effects. I’m hoping to one day find one that works for me.

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tonight i had a modest 4g in a 60mL gaiwan while cooking fajitas
i recently finished off a bag of Whispering Pines’ The Ranger, a blend of yesheng hongcha (wild tree black tea) and lapsang souchong. what a bangin’ tea. it got me super pumped to drink through the variety of yesheng puerh in my collection, which is what i’ve been doing this past week. i’m awake and feelin’ just fine. Slumbering Dragon and other yesheng are very kind to my sensitive nature when i listen.

One of the last samples from a tea swap with derk. I am not sure why it got unnoticed for so long, but I dug it up at a good time, as I’ve been drinking various Lao Man E samples recently.

Compared to huangpian from the same village sold by Bitterleaf Teas, this one seems quite a bit more oxidized. It is one year older of course, but that can hardly account for such a stark difference. It is quite smooth overall, both in texture and taste, and has distinctively more herbaceous profile than other Lao Man E teas I’ve had. Of course, the trademark bitterness – creeping, long-lasting, and lacking abrasiveness – is there, but I find it less reminiscent of grapefruit skin here.

At this stage of my sample, the tea had no discernible aromas, I am unsure if that is indicative of the tea in general though. The taste is a bit fruity at first, but quickly becomes very herbal. Later infusions are more mineral and somewhat yeasty as well. The body is medium to full and there is a cooling mouthfeel. I found the cha qi to be a bit sedating and defocusing, which makes the tea less suitable for casual brewing than it otherwise would have been.

Starts off with a great mouthfeel, very viscous, rolls around. It feels on my tongue like what I used to call a ‘sea cucumber’ toy felt in my hand. Unfortunately I can’t find a picture online of the toy. Leaves a clean swallow followed by lots of side-tongue tingling that later turns pleasantly metallic. Astringency is controlled. Overall, very mild vegetal-dry grass like taste accompanied by bitterness that is also controlled, though it does become more pronounced. Soft and yeasty, honeyed plum-melon aftertaste is light and short. It reminds a bit of some Yiwu flavors. Peppery warmth in throat. Thin stevia-like returning sweetness sits at my sinuses. I feel in the future a lot of camphor will come out in this blend as I can in its young age already feel it in my ears, throat and chest. Sweating, calm, tight feeling in my head like there are dry florals hiding in the tea. Edit: That tight feeling later developed into a headache. It’s a good tea that in its current state doesn’t jive with my constitution.

As far as the leaf, one is still olive green; another noticeably browner, my guess is aged or autumn leaf or maybe even wild material. Some leaves, like oolong, possess oxidation along the serrated leaf edges. It all looks healthy and somewhat stemmy.

Delicate in taste yet strong feeling in the body (acidic in the gut), certainly a clean tea. Good tea for stepping up from more introductory sheng. Not my bag but I’m happy to sit on the rest of this sample for several more years. Realistically, it won’t last that long.

Fun fact: one half of the wrapper art is tattooed across my shoulders.

An amazing example of what heavy storage can do to sheng puerh. I’m very averse to “dank” notes but brewing 8g in a 240ml nixing pot seems to mute these entirely. Thick and oily liquor, sweet, smooth, earthy, beetroot aromas. I would note beetroot in the flavors below but steepster sadly doesn’t have it yet. Later steeps reveal slight vanilla. Despite being smooth and easy to drink, this tea still seems a bit controversial; my mother hates it, she thinks it tastes dusty, while my friend loves it.

For once, my palate seems to fall in line with Togo’s. No sense in typing up my impressions since I find his review markedly similar to my experience.

https://steepster.com/Togo/posts/391724

Of all the sheng I’ve tried so far from the extinct sampler pack I purchased, Jingmai LOVE strikes me as one of the most agreeable (along with Hidden Song) despite the strange combination of aromas and tastes. Lots of characteristics to play around in if you want but nothing is so complex you would walk away overwhelmed by any one facet. In other words, a nice, safe sheng for explorers.

For me, the dry meadow florality is one of those things that doesn’t agree with me. And the energy I associate with sheng of that floral nature is difficult for me to handle. It feels anxious.

Oh. That’s nice.

I can be pretty sensitive to perfumey teas. Really dry florals in a tea can give me headaches, whereas pungent, heavy florals like citrus blossoms and bulb flowers can be wonderfully intoxicating. Based on the reviews of Moon Princess, I wasn’t looking forward to trying it.

I did not find this tea to be perfumey in the slightest. Highly fragranced, yes, as autumn teas are said to be, with impressions of tobacco, lemon, honeyed plum and jasmine. The taste is weaker but still satisfying, kind of like dry grass with dark honey that comes in and out. Nothing dominates. The swallow leaves a citric, lemony aftertaste that lingers and even an appreciable cooling sensation. The medium body deposits a soft, oily bitterness that coats the tongue, eventually leaving a numbing sensation. Later, the bitterness reminds me of blueberry skins and lavender. At first, I wasn’t feeling much energy but I later notice it, calm and defocusing. Its delayed presentation is well accepted.

I’m so far enjoying my first session with Moon Princess. While the fragrance is stronger than the taste, the liquor overall has a good balance for a young sheng, lacking the penetrating bitterness and lashing astringency that might turn away more timid explorers. Nice oolong-style daily drinker that reminds me something along the lines of a lavender-infused dark honey lemonade with blueberries, jasmine and a hint of mint. I don’t think any sheng has ever given me such a detailed impression as this one.

I preferred the Shou to the Sheng of the Simple Family, but this is still a great deal! It reminds of W2T Daily Drinker except for a few things:
Heeeavy Compression
Bit More Bitter
Great Huigan
I’d recommend a big pot for one of these slices; it really tones done the bitter and allows the chunk to open up better. This is another great travel tea and it works for people new to puerh. There is a lot of fresh grassy tones along with some floral qualities. The best aspect is on exhale, it’s sweet sugarcane and jasmine! I blow through these travel cakes quick, for you just pop some in a hot thermos and BOOM you got grandpa style puerh for the hike of the day!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8MWeorg1Cu/

I was actually impressed by how nice this tea was. I find that the lesser offerings from these west puer-veyors to be pretty great (Milk&Alcohol, Daily Drinker, Whispering Sunshine)! The “pie” comes in easy break away chunks. The compression is a little too tight for my taste, for it takes a loooong time for the tea to break apart in the pot. The flavor is straight-forward and clean. For me, I always look first for a clean direct tea in shou puerh; theres a lot of funk out there! This is one of those cocoa woody puerhs, and I think it does best on the road. This is a no fuss brewer that you can make on the go and share with new friends without them giving you the “ugh” shu face. Cheers to Glen for making an easy-goer!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B68uM30ALQb/

OK well… this is a weird tea. Remember, I’m new to different types of pu.

This tea is one of the best shous that I’ve ever drank except that its a sheng!! Here’s the story.

Glen also stated that aged sheng is supposed to taste like this, which sort of makes sense as the wodui fermentation process for shou is intended to make shou imitate aged sheng. However, I have yet to taste another aged sheng that comes close to the taste of this sheng. Hopefully the tuo tastes as good as the sample and I can find more aged sheng as good as this one.

I’ll add more comments on flavor when drink from the tuo.

Bitter dandelion roots with a high amount of astringency. Strong color, thick mouthfeel, and the craziest tea drunk I’ve ever found myself.

It. Does. Not. Let. Up.

Side note: My White2Tea order has finally arrived to the USPS facility near my house. My guess is that it’ll be here tomorrow!

Sipdown

Drank this during a virtual tea session. I wanted to break in a new gaiwan/cup set…I figured that since the gaiwan holds 80ml, the 4 grams of leaf was plenty for the gaiwan.

Light floral notes. I had to increase the water temperature/steep time after the 5th or 6th infusion, but I ended getting about 10-12 steeps out of it. It’s an easy sheng to drink and forget about…Not so bitter nor astringent.

New to puers and reviewing. Just being upfront.

First question I had when I drank this tea is, why is it called “Simple Shou” is it because the taste is rather simple with little complexity, or is it because the 50g bing comes impressed with indentations for simplifying breaking off a section of the bing? The world will never know. Unless someone emails glen.

I rinsed and let the tea sit for several minutes before I oversteeped the first infusion not by much and not intentionally. The color was a nice dark thick brown which I appreciate in shous. The nose… first thing, maple. Not maple syrup, but the smell of peeling green bark off of a maple branch. Sort of a sweet woody smell. Taste, sort of a sweet woody taste. :) A late aftertaste that lasts quite a while. Reminiscent taste of being in a barn, hay, animals, but not the bad smell of barns. Subsequent steeps bought at more earthy flavors as the tea opened up.

Giving this an 80 more so for the value. It’s a good shou for a starter kit or for someone wanting to taste different shous, but more advanced palates might want to try something else. However, I would buy again for the right price.

My first review. Only a couple months into drinking real puer. Would be interesting to come back to this tea and review in a year to see how my opinion has changed.

Ok. I like this tea. With that being said I don’t think I’ll ever give a tea a 100. If I do give a tea a 100. I’ll go out and buy ALL of it before I write the review. An 85 to me means I like it, I appreciate it, I’d buy it, I’d buy it again. It’s solid. Anything above an 85 is better than this. Anything less than 85 is well not better than this.

Nose on the first few steeps is definitely chocolatey. The taste has hints of vanilla, as well as cacao butter. There’s a creaminess in both taste and texture to this tea. The liquor brews up to a nice dark color. Not picking up on any of the earthy overtones that accompany most of the shous that I have tried.

While the color remains, the flavor does not survive a large number of steepings as some other shous do.

Brews thick
Sweet
Still has some wet pile taste