Bulang Shan Imperial Grade 2008 Shou/Ripe Puerh

Tea provided by Crimson Lotus Tea for review

For my second and final sample, I wanted to wait until it was raining outside so I could enjoy the Shou puerh with the nice scent of rain and not feeling hot and sweaty in the summer!

First sip had a bit of sweetness along with the familiar woodsy, earthy, deep shou puerh flavours I love.

Second through fourth were consistent in flavour, getting a bit of a deeper earthier flavour with a hint of menthol.

Fifth steep was my fav, it became much smoother and had the best balance.

I ended on the ninth steep, which was still quite dark and retained fruity and menthol flavours.

Overall Bulang Shan Imperial Grade 2008 met my expectations. I didn’t have any fuss steeping it, or noticed any off putting flavours. It was nice to try a shou puerh with a bit of a sweeter side than most of the bold earthy ones I seem to always get.

Dry – Sweet, thick, creamy, red dried fruits, faint bitterness.
Wet – Thick, fruity, bittersweet, rich, burn-sugar sweet.
Liquor – Red-ish brown to a coffee-brown.

Initial Steeps 1-5 Are thick, creamy, bitter to bittersweet notes with apparent richness and full body. The liquor is thick and becomes smooth going down while turning sweeter, but retaining some of that rich bitter-sweetness. Hints of dried dark and red fruits in the sweetness that stays behind.

Mid Steeps 5-7 Still thick, though not as thick as the first few, it holds its ground pretty well with the similar notes of a Bitter to bittersweet front that has rich and tart notes, coating the tongue with a thick layer before transitioning into a sweeter and smoother note. The sweetness lingers in the tongue and throat if you allow time between steeps. Some minor astringency shows up at the end.

Final steeps 8-11 The first steep here still has some body to it, but this declines with each steep, thi is the collapsing portion of this tea (which is REALLY damn good for a shou). The steeps begin to get ‘cleaner’ with less body and even barely retaining any bitterness, just holds on to enought to not make it just sweet, this steeps are still pleasant and satisfying, but in a more juicy way than filling.

Final Notes
A very satisfying every day shou. I would recommend drinking this one next to W2Ts 2005 Bulang Maocha. Its not fair to do a 1:1 comparison due to age and possibly storage factors, but you can get an idea of how loose leaf/maocha vs compressed Puerh behaves in terms of taste. Both great shous to have in your collection.

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.

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!

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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Steeps up kinda lighter for the first 2 infusions, but it was dark dark dark for the rest of the session.
Found this to be an easy everyday drinking ripe like crimson recommends.
I found it has enough complexity that it doesn’t get boring and lacks any fermented aromas or taste.

Early steeps are dark and sort of earthy with a light sweetness. Later steeps become much lighter and sweeter with no earthiness. Hopefully by the time my tea box is no longer overflowing I may be able to get another brick of this and some more of their other Bulang shu. That might be a while, though.

Steeped this in a clay teapot my uncle gave me a few years back— I don’t remember if it’s yixing or not and I may have previously used it a few times for black teas, but I’ve reseasoned it for shu pu’ers now. I recently rediscovered another two clay teapots that were gifted to me by my relatives but disappeared amidst moving chaos last year. One’s now seasoned for shengs and the other oolongs (primarily roasted ones, I’m thinking). Hopefully I’ll be able to find some time this upcoming semester to use them every so often!

i’m so glad i picked this tea during BF without trying first. i trust my Puerh buddies reviews !
Its good. Very rich and soo smooth. very easy to drink.
7g 100ml 212F
rinse/ pause/5/3/5/5/7/7/10/15/20sec
I even brew it the next day. pretty potent for a shou.

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Enjoyed this sample last night from a friend. I haven’t been reviewing as many teas as I’ve been drinking lately because I’m trying to be productive and spend less time on Steepster so I get some things done, lol…

At first I tried steeping this for 30 seconds, but after reading a couple of the other taster’s notes I went to one minute with this one. That yielded a darker and more sweet kind of brew. I steeped it that way for about 4 -5 times and really enjoyed it. I am not enjoying tobacco flavors lately in shu and this was devoid of those as well. I got more earthy and cocoa notes. Glad I got to try this as I’ve been dying to have something from Crimson Lotus.

Overall this is a definite good shu, I wouldn’t say there’s anything about it that made it stand above others I’ve had but it’s a nice, smooth tea. Might want to pick some of this up for my cupboard!