Planet Jingmai Ancient Tree Sheng

Basic notes, been pressed for time.

Honey with a very mellow sweetness, herbal, light mushroom, mixed evergreen and deciduous forest floor leaves. Texture was like fresh extra virgin olive oil – creamy-fluffy and thick to brothy – I focused a lot on the sound of my swallow. Like a cough drop, lubricating. Very light bitterness and astringency. Calming.

In terms of leaf, it’s bud heavy. The leaves were sticky and slick, super thin, tore very easily and had some disintegration with 200-212F water. Makes me think this might be best drank sooner than later? Idk. For now, it’s really good.

good tea <3

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

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.

Oh hot damn. On my second steeping I was already expierencing some body feels. It felt like puer tea oil! This tea is incredible and I’m glad I had the opportunity to try it.

The second rinse is drinkable; however, it is strong! To brew the tea, I followed my typical sheng puerh parameters of water just off boil, with flash steeps for the first 5 to 7 steepings and adjustments to taste. Planet Jingmai started off with a very pleasant honey sweetness. There was no astringency or smoke, this was a very smooth sheng. As the leaves opened up in middle steeps, the sweetness turned into more of a grassy flavor with a touch of wood. At this point, my mind was feeling extremely relaxed. A nice sense of calm came over me and I started to feel very warm. There is a term for this feeling called “tea drunk” or “cha qi”. I had only sensed this with a few teas, but on Planet Jingmai, the cha qi was strong! After about 15 steeps, I was very relaxed, and needed a break from the tea. The leaves were overflowing in my gaiwan, but there was plenty of flavor left in the leaves. I decided to continue the session the next day, something I had never done before.

Day two on Planet Jingmai and the leaves had completely unfurled and were overflowing in my gaiwan, so I transferred them to a 180ml yixing pot. I rinsed the leaves with boiling water for about 15 seconds and then continued my session. The tea was still full of flavor, and it seemed that the honey sweetness came back once the grassy notes subsided. The tea finally gave up around 20 steeps or so, and I took the leaves out to examine and found whole leaves! I couldn’t believe these were all wrapped up in a tiny orb.

Full review at http://www.tching.com/2016/04/blasting-off-to-planet-jingmai/

First experience with Crimson Lotus tea and pleasantly surprised. Straight up honeysuckle, honey, gentle sweet flavor, very pleasant to drink, nice longevity, but didn’t get any chi. I was confused how a 300 year old tree could have no chi? I’ll see if this changes in later sessions and update review then.

Lasting huigans, gentle bitter/astringency that converted to gentle sweet lingering honeysuckle which is one feature of shengs I love most!

I enjoyed this tea. it was entirely pleasant and mellow and you could tell made with quality material. I think these will age well. I will buy another 5-10 balls and see what happens to them over the years.

brewing: 2 flash rinses with reused rinse water, so water was cooler each time. Didn’t want to fatigue the exterior leaves while I tried to hydrate the interior. The interior was packed very hard and was dry even when the outter leaves were soaked and loose. After 2-3 rinses, I left lid on teapot for 1 hour 45 minutes and then came back and gave it another flash rinse with boiling water. Then when it cooled enough I used my hands to slowly and gently separate the ball leaf by leaf until it was completely loose maocha. Then I started my gongfu sessions.

From the Pu TTB

This is my first tea from Crimson Lotus. The tightly rolled tea takes a few steeps to fully open up. Nice floral and honey notes on the first steep. Moderately bitter and lightly mineral and fruity. HONEY! The honeyed taste only seems to become more prominent with further steeps. A very nice sheng that I would consider buying, though a bit pricey for me at $6/planet.

I made my first order with Crimson Lotus a couple of days ago; a little black jian shui pot! Did anyone pick one up from them last year? I look forward to trying it out and comparing to yixing

Grabbed one of these when I ordered some teaware from CLT. I’ve heard about its reluctance to open up so my first few steeps were long and included me steaming the ball in the gaiwan as well as manually trying to pry the damn thing apart. I managed to do so and then realized it’s much too much leaf for the gaiwan I was using. I think maybe you need a 200-250 ml container? I removed about half of the leaves to continue steeping later but then lost them in a tragic fridge accident that also managed to take a large chip out of one of my gaiwans :(

The first few steeps of this I got pure apricot. It was quite possibly the most apricot tasting thing I’ve ever had including most actual apricots. I was a little suprised by this as I don’t remember it being mentioned in anything I read when I decided to pick one up. The second steep was almost a bit smokey which was strange. Later steeps continued with the apricot along with some light drying astringency coming out. Then it mellowed out into honey. It steeped for awhile, but I lost count with all the fumbling around with the leaves and the mess I made. I’m steeping out the last of it in the fridge now to see if I can’t get a bit more.

It’s more leaf than I really need at one time for home use but I would love to see how this fairs in a travel mug for all day at work. I’m a little bummed I didn’t grab the set of five…one lonely planet indeed.

This is my first experience with Pu-Erh and I will definitely be back for more. This tea was so great! The leaves lasted for so long, and the flavor was evolving with each steeping. I can’t wait to explore the world of Pu-Erh tea. Regardless, this is a fantastic tea, and I would highly recommend it to anyone.