Crimson Lotus Tea

Another one from yesterday – sort of brewed western style for a few steeps. It was a good tea to keep me going over the day. thanks omgsrsly bit mroe of this left to play with gonfu someday :)

Wishlist tea from dexter holy we are being productive today. Tree down, house being dusted, vaccumed, floors washed etc while i work on release testing and copying all our CD’s over to digital. woot woot!

I’ve been sipping on this one for the better part of the afternoon – puerhs are great for busy house weekends i think because if you forget about what you’re drinking, just make another steep lol this is a really nice, smooth puerh. more to the woody side of things than earthy, sort of like hiking in the woods in vancouver ;) really enjoyed my time with this, and may have to put it on my wishlist, though i suppose it’ll likely sell out before i can get to it.

note: was able to do a significant number of steepings with my little sample from dexter – 10+ before it ran out of steam

Another great sample from Kieblera5. Thank you!

Brewed in a ceramic gaiwan. 10 second rinse. Steeping times: 10, 15, 10, 10, 15, 15, 20, 40, 120.

The dry leaf smells of leather, and in the heated bowl, of chocolate and blackberries. The leather and chocolate notes are strengthened after the rinse. The first couple infusions are sour and lightly colored. Beginning with the third, the liquor suddenly darkens to garnet. This shou is dense with a chocolately sweetness and creamy texture. Fruity notes appear at the end of the session. Like a dark chocolate bar with fruits! (berries, raisins).

Tummy is upset, possibly glutened at the pizza lunch today (there were special pizzas). It’s not too severe, so I’m treating with puerh and pineapple.

I finished my Special Dark off with a couple of really long steeps, to squeeze all that I could out of the leaves. And now I’ve moved on to this tea.

Om nom. So good. (PS. I measured my favourite kyusu, and it’s 145ml, though that’s with a tea that doesn’t expand as much. I’d get much less water in the pot with an oolong or a loose moonlight white.)

I rinsed, then forgot about it (I’ve gotta pack for tomorrow!), and now I’m doing steeps just until it “looks right”. Haha.

So good. It’s quite thick. A little wet wood tasting, but not much. Just what my tummy needs. I think it gets sweeter as it gets steeped. And I’m pretty sure it’d take a long steep if I really wanted to. And it’s a little floral, I think. And slippery. Interesting.

Honestly I don’t remember what I thought of this at the Tea Festival – only that it was tasty and I needed to buy it. I have no regrets!

I had three gongfu sessions with their sample. This review is based off of all three, mostly the last one. Brewed with a ceramic gaiwan. 10 second rinse. Steeping times are from the second and third sessions: 6 seconds, 10, 10, 12, 12, 15, 15, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 45, 60, 90; 2 minutes, 4, 8.

I paid more than usual attention to the aromas for this sheng. I didn’t think it would change so much over the course of two months. After I broke the seal and opened the packet, I left the remainder of what I took out inside. It’s been warm and dry in the house. The aroma of the dry leaf as soon as I opened the packet was buttery and vegetal. After the rinse, the leaf smelled of apricot, and then the wet leaf aroma had green grass and white sugar. One month later, there was vanilla and lemongrass in the dry leaf, blackberry preserves in the rinse aroma, and lastly apricot – followed by vegetal and smoky notes later – in the wet leaf aroma. By the third session, two months later, the dry leaf aroma offered vanilla cake batter and apricots. Smelling the wet leaf directly – apricot preserves. The underside of the gaiwan lid – citrus and vanilla. Of course, I had to move on to the real show as soon as the water came to a boil.

Crimson Lotus gives the name imagining that the “tea trees were close enough to hear the gentle voice of the sun.” The sheng produced from these trees seems to be the one that whispers. The liquor (very pale yellow) has a very light feel in the mouth, akin to Silver Needles. Gentle, pleasant, soft, laid-back – name the synonyms. There was some bitterness in the beginning of the first session, but by the third, there was none. Notes of sweet grass and apricots are consistent. As each session goes on, the sweeter the liquor becomes, and little fruitier, with slight tang. I’m still surprised at how light this sheng is. The texture is smooth. Silky ‘round the middle. As for qi, I didn’t feel much. Caffeinated for sure. Also a little relaxed.

I’ve had several sessions with this tea using a gaiwan. Dried leaves are in tact, varied shades of green, and have a subtle sweet apricot fragrance similar to the 2015 YS Qing Mei Shan. When brewed, the leaves release aromas of flowers, edamame, and grilled asparagus.

This is an atypical sheng. It doesn’t have any upfront strong sweetness or cha qi. Instead, I was greeted with tangy, vegetal, and savory flavors. I picked up notes of mustard greens, raw brussel sprouts, edamame, and wild flowers. It’s definitely the greenest sheng I’ve had in recent memory. It’s quite pure and clean tasting with no smoky or earthy notes. Sweeter flowery notes and a comfortable buzz sinks in after the 5th or so steep. This tea is very infuseable. I ended up purchasing a second cake to see how it ages.

Based on sessions with the good ol’ yixing, I noticed an increase in body and sweetness. Whether using a gaiwan or yixing, this tea is refreshing, has a nice mouth feel, and a persistent tangy flowery aftertaste.

This tea from Crimson Lotus Tea is in my opinion pretty good. The leaves look like good quality to me. From the looks of them I think there are a lot of buds on the outside of the cake. The taste is nice. There was a fair amount of fermentation flavor in the first few steeps. It was not fishy to my taste buds but perhaps not as nice as some. There was very little bitterness to this tea. It was think and dark in the early infusions. I would venture to say there were some notes of chocolate in there too. It was very sweet in later steeps. I’m not getting much qi off this cake. But you often don’t get any off of ripe. I gave this ten steeps and I am at my caffeine limit so I won’t go further although the leaves would definitely go another few steeps.

I steeped this ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. Overall I really enjoyed this tea.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_XURKvzDQnMKA75OwHN43grplbqd8P6Ob3dmg0/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea

I’m going to do a longer and more well thought-out review another time, but I just wanted to pop in to say how much I am enjoying this shu. It’s so different from others I’ve had. It’s sweet, thick, and rich, but there’s a note of pepper that hits the back of the throat much in the way a good olive oil does, and I just love it. I guess that’s a Bulang? There’s also a nice energizing buzz (qi or just caffeine, I don’t know which, maybe both). Anyway, I will probably end up ordering a lot more of this – I can see the 25g sample going quick!

This is a fairly tasty ripe puerh. It has a fair amount of fermentation flavor to it. According to Crimson Lotus this is a mix of new 2014 material and older presumably 2012 material. It definitely needs to age a bit. It was sweet from the start with very little bitterness. Crimson Lotus says this is Gushu material. I have no way to confirm this and can only take them at their word. I’m not sure if I would say notes of chocolate or not, perhaps I was not paying attention. It did develop a bit of a fruity taste in later steeps. The fermentation taste was a factor for an average of four or so steeps. Overall I liked this tea.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 11g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. Judging by the color of the tea in the tenth steep I’d say this would go a few more steeps at least.

A quick rinse and a five minute steep (no lecturing Tea Friends, I’m getting over the stomach flu – oh yeah, and this is normal for me).

Watching Leap Year, a movie (supposedly) about a woman going to Ireland on Feb 29th to propose to her boyfriend, because he’s got to accept. Old Irish folklore, supposedly.

So, I want to love this movie right from the start. Obviously, whomever wrote it has never been to Ireland, or Dingle – one of my favorite places on this planet. How do you fly to Dublin from Boston, end up in Wales because of a horrible storm (plausible, sort of), and then TAKE A BOAT to CORK, which gets diverted to DINGLE?! Seriously. Then, of course, the shore she washes up upon cannot on any planet be Dingle, or Ireland… until the shot pans, and then, I believe it, sort of, kind of. The writing however, takes me right back to Dingle, and all the oddities of a super small Irish town – including the way people call each other names (eediot, crackpaught), the pace of life, that’s it’s almost all men you encounter, that the landscape stuns beyond words, that North American’s preoccupation with labels and formalities means little elsewhere.

Gosh, I miss Dingle. Funny, considering I was deathly ill there, too… went for a walk, got stuck in a storm and nearly swept out to sea, ended up staying a week instead of a few days just to recover.

Thanks to OMGsrsly for sharing some of this with me! “May the rowd rise up ta meet cha”.

I’ve had this for some time, and I’ve never even tried it. I pulled it from storage and decided to give it a go. The dry leaf is incredibly compressed, and it gives off a sweet and fruity aroma. I placed a chunk in my warmed yixing and gave it a shake. The warmed leaf gave off a nice sweet aroma. I was picking up peat moss, wet wood, and some nectar. I washed the leaves twice and prepared for brewing. The steeped leaves gave off a much different tone that its previous aromas. I was able to get a distinct smoke scent along with some spinach and pepper. The taste begins slightly sour with smoke. The smokiness grows and becomes stronger with each steeping. The Bulang bite is present in the first couple steeping sessions. The qi can quickly be felt by the second steeping.The feeling begins in the head and neck and quickly flows through the body. I experienced no huigan with this brew. I’m glad I stuck with it (I’m not partial to bitter brews), for it became sweet by the fourth steeping. The Bulang bite still accompanies this sugarcane sweetness. However, this brew goes flat pretty quickly. I was able to pull about eight or so steepings from this tea. The sweetness was good, but it wasn’t lasting and it was too subtle for my taste. This is an okay tea, and I guess it would make a fair daily drinker. Personally, I don’t see myself reaching for it in the future.

https://www.instagram.com/p/-eNMLBTGf8/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

I saw most of the 2015 cakes have sold out at Crimson Lotus so I had to get a cake of this while it was still in stock. I was sure from the reviews that I would love it so didn’t bother with any samples—Just went ahead and bought it.

I was right. This is an excellent sheng. I used 5g in my gaiwan with 90C water. I got plenty of steeps from it (Maybe up to 6 or 7- that’s a lot for me). It had a fresh taste to it. Maybe that’s the “green” others are picking up. It’s not like a green tea but just has that fresh tea taste. I did not encounter much bitterness at all in any of the steeps. It had a slight creaminess with a bit of fruitiness. Not as sweet as some shengs but there was still a bit of sweetness. A really great tea for drinking daily.

Also want to add that this tea did not have too much energy kick to it. That’s another reason that makes it great for drinking plenty of steeps and having often.

So I am finally getting around to this shou which I purchased months ago. This is a great tasting shou. It is very strong but very smooth. Very woody with pretty much no fermentation to me. Rinsed this twice for 3 seconds. By the second steep,it was very dark. The aroma is very soothing. Like wet wood on a rainy day. A must have. I purchased a whole brick as should you if you enjoy great shou.

Pu’erh TTB 2015 Tea #8

I can’t even…
This is the first tea I have on my Christmas list (yes it’s about that time to prepare it)

Absolutely mind blown by the freshness of this pu’erh. It reminds me of Japanese tea in a way. Smooth with a hint of sweetness associated with the vegetable tones. Clearly this is a top notch pu’erh and I’m not looking at price until after it’s purchased

This is a sipdown, though there’s not a number change since I drank it before it was added to my cupboard…

Anyway; my first set of tea pets arrived today! I was really, really impressed with how carefully and thoroughly they were packaged as well. Seriously; so much bubble wrap. Since Crimson Lotus was kind enough to add this free sample in with my order, I felt it was only appropriate that the first thing I fed my two lovely teapets with was this tea! So, for a few hours, I just brewed this tea – every now and then feeding an infusion to my new dragons. They’re super cute; when you pour tea over them they blow little “snot” bubbles from their snouts – and my tea tray just looks and feel much happier and complete with their addition. How anyone could not have a tea pet to keep them company during a Gong Fu session baffles me.

Of course, you have to name your pets right? So when my little sister got home from school I had her help me come up with names for the pair. We initially were trying to come up with something Chinese but in the end we settled on “Zak and Wheezie” from the children’s show “Dragon Tales” because they’re brother and sister twin dragons.

http://dragontales.wikia.com/wiki/Zak_and_Wheezie Cute, right?

As for the tea…

I got a whopping 14 infusions from this tea before I felt like the flavour was really degrading past the point of my wanting to to drink it. I’ve been getting a lot better with resteeping tea, and drinking a lot more teas Gong Fu style but even still 14 infusions may actually be the most I’ve ever done of a single tea in one sitting? My Pu’erh knowledge is still fairly limited and I’ve definitely tried the least Pu’erh of any tea type (except yellow tea; but the difference between the two types isn’t actually a lot) so I know my palate is not as refined here as it is with most types. For me to break down the subtle differences between each infusion would be impossible at this point.

What I can say was that this tea was incredibly lovely and have an overall thick, and smooth mouthfeel and rich, full bodied flavour. While the notes present in each infusion changed ever so slightly throughout the session depending on the infusion the overall taste and prominent notes were wet earth, clay, dark baker’s chocolate, leather, smoke, and wet wood. Overall, just very dark and natural – like a forest floor, almost? But with a subtle sweetness and richness to it. Yummy!

I really, really need to put as much of an effort into Pu’erh as I’ve done this year with Oolongs because when I do take the time to have a long Pu’erh session I really enjoy it. It just seems like such a broad tea type to tackle. But I’m getting there, albeit slowly.

This was something I’ve been waiting to try. I let this settle for some time before breaking into it. The leaves are very dark from their time in slumber and carry an aged scent with some lingering bitter. I placed a generous amount in my warmed jianshui and gave it a shake. The scent was explosive! This aroma began as pertichor with some moss and parchment in the background. The scent deepened further into some raisin and date smells, and it further finishes with a wet tobacco tone. This was one of the most advancing aromas I’ve ever experienced. I washed the leaves once and then prepared for brewing. The steeped leaves keep a strong pipe tobacco and resin scent with them throughout steeping; however, I do note a steamed seaweed tone as well later on. The taste is slightly fruity with a drying sensation to start. The taste is a well mix of dried apricots and dates. The flavor kept this consistent drying tone for at least seven steeps. The qi began hitting me hard very early in the session. I did not like this qi. The feeling began in the stomach and quickly expanded to the eyes, temples, and top head. This made me very weak, blurred, and it upset my stomach quite a bit. This was a very powerful qi, and it did not falter even after a long pause. I think for next time I will be eating beforehand. The taste became phenomenal after the eighth steeping. This is a very fluffy brew. The flavors completely curbed and became sugary sweet. This liquor does actually taste like marshmallows; it’s amazing! The sweet syrupy drink kept flowing consistently for countless steeping. I’m glad I pushed through the dry and mixed fruit stage to get to this treat. I sipped on this tea for numerous hours before putting it to rest. The liquor actually grows opaque and tips off its color, but it still keeps that fluffy sweetness. This truly is the taste of the tops of clouds, and I really enjoyed this brew.

https://instagram.com/p/9WwGGazGYa/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Many thanks to Glenn and Lamu for the chance to sample this amazing sheng!

After twice rinsing the 7 grams of leaf I was struck with an aroma like balsamic vinegar and sweet steamed spinach. In the full bodied and mouth-drying soup I tasted the peppery start mentioned by others, as well as sweet edamame, with a little bitterness that faded with each steep. The energy was very pleasing and noticeable. If only I had more!

This sheng’s fruit favors are always surprising me, some days I’m reminded of apricots or a tangy green plum and other days it hits me with under-ripe or watery blueberry notes. This I think has more to do with my own palate than the tea itself.

I can always count on its vegetal aspects which make me think of fresh cut fescue grass, and my former career farming grass seed in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. There is a buttery aspect to the tea as well, which arrives with its full body and pleasing weight in the mouth.

I will hate to see this sheng disappear from my self, but I can’t stop drinking it!

This raw puer was slightly smokey, lucerne and honey sweet with a bright mineral finish in the last steeps. The bitterness came and and went quickly, lending itself to many sweet nectar-like servings. I drank this tea daily until the cake was gone, and look forward to picking up another soon!

I started sipping this one yesterday. I’m still sipping it today.
It is a lovely lovely lovely tea!! The first steeps were immediately sweet & fruity, and a few steeps in it developed a creamy marshmallow/vanilla mouth. I zipped over to crimson lotus thinking, “I need a cake of this one”, but there are no cakes to be had :(
Which is ok, because I probably shouldn’t be spending my money right now…
But it really is a lovely tea, just as lovely today as yesterday, with a lingering apricot aroma (the leaves smell awesome!) and taste, and a beautiful amber-orange color. I could drink this all day, and basically I’ve been sipping it for about 24 hours, so I guess I have!
Thanks so much Glen & Lamu for sharing a sample of this with me!

Final note: Today, in addition to still tasting sweet & lovely, it has that almost effervescent electric current of chaqi running through it, which is giving me a nice tea buzz from head to toe. Now I’d like to go take a nap…yawn…

First of all, a huge thank you to Crimson Lotus Tea for this sheng sample! Sorry it has taken me so long to write a note on it, I recall drinking the first half of my sample a while ago but trying to log it and the page not working on Steepster :( but luckily today it is working!

I didn’t have much left in my second half of the sample, but there was just enough for a gongfu session. After a short rinse of about 4s, I steeped for maybe 6 seconds in the gaiwan and poured into my pitcher then cup. The leaves smell nicely vegetal and slightly smoky. I used freshly boiled water left a few seconds to cool.

The first steeping is oh so mellow and smooth and sweet. It went down like nothing! A sweet aftertaste lingers, fruity, a mild apricot flavor for now. The second steep also smells lovely mmm, can’t even describe it it just smells good. The flavor is also delicious, even a bit sweeter I think, like a light marshmallow note with dewy leaves and a fruity aftertaste. It becomes a bit smoky as it cools, but nothing overwhelming, just tasty sheng-like tobacco notes. This is so good. It’s so easy to drink! I also haven’t had sheng in ages, so it is a very welcome change. I will continue to steep this throughout the evening, funnily enough, I chose a sheng hoping the caffeine would invigorate me to start cleaning. This tea, however, is providing more of the mellow flavors and feeling that cause me to relax, which is also not a bad thing haha. Maybe the caffeine will hit later :D

Overall, a delicious sheng, easy to drink and no strange notes about it, just clean, sweet tea with fruity notes. Creamy and light mouthfeel too, very light and fluffy. I recall enjoying the first half of my sample as well, so this is a winner in my books! Thanks again to Crimson Lotus Tea for the lovely sample!