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Oh wow! This is my favorite Tea Urchin yet… yes I think even better than Bulang Beauty. I almost didn’t want to write this review because it is on sale right now and I don’t have the money for it or shipping.

Per the description you really can smell the caramel while you drink this tea. The taste is a sweet flower and bitter stem sort of mix. This is not subtle or gentle like most of Belle and Eugene’s teas. It is a kick in your face, like the horse on the label suggests.

The after taste lingers and is wonderful and captures more of the caramel. I NEED more of this… one or two cakes assuming it doesn’t sell out before I bring home the bacon! This is so creamy and sharp at the same time. I Love it.

Om nom nom nom nom stumbles off into tea drunk bliss

TL:DR: The most elegant salted caramel you can eat on a diet. Gives you a serious punch in taste and energy. Reminds me of a dessert bulang.

I used to have a bath oil that was suppose to be “Butterfly Nectar” but was a bit sweet and cloying and artificial. This tea is what I bought that hoping it would smell like. A little floral, a little spicey, a little bitter, a little fruit… but all together light and ethereal! You need to pay full attention to the tea to really get all of the notes, and I wasn’t prepared for that on the first steeping. I had to have a lil bit of a heavy hand brewing this, but it is totally worth it.

Wow… and the second time brewing it… (I should note I had a cold for part of it, but was sharing with my sister) I was super surprised how much it blossomed after I would have thought it was long dead. In the late teens early 20s steeps… I am getting serious dark peach notes. And the taste lingers forever. This is the magic of GFZ and why people pay crazy prices… its after taste and steepings that get better and better and longer and longer…

I had to edit this and up my rating. I drank it again and it’s having a super good tea day… I upped the steeping time and leaf ratio… and the fruit is a lot more aggressive in a delicious way! it’s like biting into a peach, and lingers forever.

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.