2014 Crimson Lotus Bulang Shan Tribute Tea

5g, 100C, 100ml.
1 rinse, and the wet rinsed leaf already smells potent like applewood smoke, ever so slightly sweet.
Steep 1: bitterness up front, but no astringency. Not quite full in the mouth but not thin either, this is on its way to developing a great texture. Already some huigan just after the first 100mL of liquid…well that was fast >_>
Steep 2: sent chills down my spine upon sipping , this has some crazy energetic qi. Still bitter but you can tell it has calmed down from when it was first pressed in 2014. There’s a little bit of umami here…
Steep 4: Sour but smooth. Super high energy, I feel like I’m vibrating. Loads of huigan, but unfortunately the taste of the tea liquor itself is not good to me at this steep.
By Steep 7, became very hoppy. Like…VERY hoppy and bitter. Great huigan but not worth the bitter hoppiness to me.
Steep 12+: died out tooth achingly sweet for a few steeps before being done.
Overall not something I would have been interested in getting even if it was still in stock, but I can see how some of y’all that like hoppy beers would like this. The shining things for me were the 1) qi and 2) huigan

Sample. Light aged aroma, bits of earth, basement, and older leaf. Cloudy first few pours. This is highly astringent, paired with some throat scratchiness. Medicinal is a good way to characterize this tea. However, I feel like it takes forever to wash down to the characteristic Bulang qualities I look for, the camphor, menthol and clean balancing bitterness. This is a bit rough on the edges. The theanine content is highly and pleasantly brain dampening. Overall, though, it seems to have gone through some advanced aging, only being 3-4 years old…perhaps the maocha sat around a bit before being pressed? Time may really help this tea, but it’s a little awkward right now.

My second sheng. Highlights for me: apricot appearing in second steep and lingered 10, 15 minutes, longer? (However, I notice other reviews do not mention apricot, so I would at least reconsider things next time). Aroma of horse stable first few steeps. But, already steep 4 was a casual affair for my amateur palate. It was a good experience, part of the educational sample package, but I prefer the other sheng in that package: 2005 “Top of the Clouds,” and I hope to find others, too. I learned that astringency adds dimension and I can open myself to appreciating it along with the flavors.

Steep 1
Aroma: wet hay, horse stable, sweet grass.
Taste: no smokiness, some astringency but not overpowering. Green tea, aftertaste of dried fruit, apricot? Smacking tongue. Pineapple?

Steep 2
Aroma: Even more horse stable.
Taste: gripping astringency, fruit moves forward, enjoyable. Enter apricot. Last 5, 10 minutes or more.

Steep 3 and beyond: gradually fades, steep 4 is already what I call a more casual drinking experience since I am not yet able to distinguish a lot at this point. Maxed out at steep 8 (8 grams/120 ml, one rinse).

Surprisingly orange already for a 2014 sheng, the wonders of humid storage, I guess? Opens up with a hint of smoke and a distinct trace of Chinese medicinal taste that I think will grow stronger over time. It has a good amount of throat coating feeling as well as returning sweetness, although not initially sweet at all (unless you let the liquor drop to almost room temperature).

I brewed this gently at 205 degrees (prewarmed everything and one 5 sec rinse) which pushes out some noticeable astringency, but also a stronger medicinal taste if that’s your thing. I dislike astringency above all, so I opened the lid while brewing and after to cool down the overall temp and that dry teeth feeling. Not much bitterness and nice depth to explore with a leathery taste and feeling as the main character. I think this will be interesting to try again in a few years but it is quite drinkable now, although more dry feeling than I personally like.

Free sample with my last order, thank you CLT. I used it to test the effects of one of my jian shu teapots compared with a gaiwan, and honestly, prefered it out of a gaiwan.

The teapot stole some of the sharper higher notes, and in this case the higher notes made this tea better. This tea is very clean, no off-flavors and no fermentation. I don’t remember any smokiness or bitterness as others have reported. Perhaps those notes are already transformed and this tea has moved on?

Classic sweet date flavor, mildly complex, and the aftertaste wasn’t too long, but there was a little. I preferred this much more than the 2008 Bulang shu which I bought a brick of, don’t get me wrong the 2008 is good but I like this 2014 vintage better. The brick still has more fermentation whereas this 2014 version has none.

This tea agreed with me and was easy on the stomach.

I don’t remember any chi from the first day I drank this. But the following day I mixed the tea from both gaiwan and teapot and grandpa brewed it and experienced a strong wave of energy and goosebumps, power, and strength. It was invigorating.

Decent longevity, it outlasted me and carried over to a second day. If there’s any left, I’ll be adding a brick to my next order.

right now im drinking the last of this bulang. i have about 4.99g for my raw yixing ive dubbed, Enkil, the ancient vampire of anne rice’s books- the vampire lestat, and queen of the damned. i just love those books, so i thought id honor my pots and her characters, making Enkil my sheng pot, and Akasha my shou.

ya anyways.. after a quick rinse, the tea has loosed lots and is giving off a strong sort of sweet-hay smell.

first steep, and the brew is light, sweet, strong and palatable, with a light yellow liquid.
with just a few sips, the tea qi is already oozing out of me, and i feel soft like a pillow, ha. i wonder if its just that im excited to be back at my gongfu table.. maybe im getting a contact high..

second- the liquor has darkened and the smell is somewhat smokier now which i love, however its not a burning wood smoky, but more like a burning field. the tea has become richer and heavier feeling in the mouth. lots of the initial bite you would expect from a young sheng has actually given way to a rounder, more complex brew, with some astringent activity part way through the sip.

well the tea has come apart in this third steep. i love the strength of the aroma.. this is astringency i like; rounded with some sweetness, but very in your face. < that is from the pot. the cup is less in your face, as you would expect. some bitterness digs at the middle of my tongue and stays there when i sip. the heat & the bulangy-ness is making my feet sweat and i fear my tongue is drying up.

fourth steep- im picking up some cedar on the nose. less astringent, still very flavorful and a little sweetness to balance.

this tea is really great and i think ill be ordering more in the future, as i am now out of it. it always helps me wake up when i feel groggy. i love how this is active in the mouth and tart as f***.

im feeling wide awake and hot and kind of fidgity.. strange how fast the qi hit. im going to drink on, but the review ends here.<

-nycoma

This was my first real taste of puerh and I enjoyed it very much. I was struck by how smokey the flavor was, it was not exactly what I had been expecting, but it was not bad either. I am still working through brews.

I wanted to drink tea before work this morning. I usually make a single cup of something “basic,” but I figured it’d be a treat to have something complex and unique since I was going in later than usual.

The first few steeps (1-4) were smokey and slightly astringent. However, it was pretty satisfying. The best thing about a sheng is the astringency, I think. This one was full of it within the first few cups. However, as the next few came along (6-9), there was no longer any astringency, but the smokiness lingered on, following a sweet (honey?) note in the aftertaste.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIsL21uBRxB/?taken-by=s.g_sanders1

Been a while since I have had some time to post. Summer work schedule has been a bit brutal lately and the heat. I think most know it is that time of year.
I remember this when I first got it. I bought it untasted and then grabbed another after it got here.
I got about 10 grams of this to brew tonight. I have been doing it for 3 days but I wanted a fresh from the cake portion to start with.
The wet leaf after the rinse has a bit of smoke in there with a sweet aroma. The tea on the first brew has some sweetness in the beginning and the BuLang comes in. This one come in on the middle of the tongue. A bit of the oily coating come in on the sip. There is some tingle on the tongue. It is coming across as bitter and punchy. Smacking the taste buds around. The color of the tea is coming through as a more golden color. I remember it being a bit lighter and greener in color when young. I don’t know if it is the pumidor aging or a combination of both. This is warming , salty and with a nice bitter punch to it. There are wisps of some smoke and sweetness but the BuLang is the potent factor here. It is a nice blend and seems to be punching above its ticket for me. I have brewed this all week and I am glad I had a break to post on it.

So I’m new at pu’ehr—bear with me here…
This is part of a sample pack I got from Crimson Lotus (who, btw, has amazing packaging!)
This is one of my first shengs, and the first one I enjoyed. I think it’s delicious, and so interesting.
There’s a hint of smoke, some oddly mouth refreshing bitterness, and a bit of cooked asparagus. On the second steep, there’s a bit of tobacco. But the mouthfeel is the shiz! It’s refreshing, cooling and pleasant. Not minty, but cooling nonetheless, and it lingers after the tea is gone. The water I drank afterwards was even more refreshing and cooling than usual.
I don’t know how seasoned pu heads like this tea, but I think it’s fascinating and delicious.
My stupid iPad won’t let me rate this, but at this point I’d say 90? I really dig it.
EDIT: I’m 4 (5?) steeps in. Just wanted to say that this is bitter, so if you don’t like that, this won’t be your fave.