Crimson Lotus Tea

Brews dark
Sweet

Brews dark medium-heavy body
Strong caffeine

Grandpa Style!

This was the best shou that I’ve had in a long time. I drank it grandpa style over the coarse of multiple work days because it was taking forever to brew out and I was enjoying it so much that I just didn’t want to toss the leaves before they’d given up all their flavour.

It was incredibly robust and full bodied with very, very dense and heavy notes of forest undergrowth and wet, rain soaked earth. At the same time as it channeled these strong forest flavours and camphorous notes it was also quite savory and brothy. My manager caught a whiff of it at one point and said it smelled so incredibly mushroomy to him in the best sort of way. Mushroom is always a very tricky flavour for me to identify because I’m allergic to it, but with how much umami was packed into this cup and what I know of mushrooms I would say the comparison makes perfect sense.

Anyway, it was just a fucking brilliant tasting shou!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CgP-NpROgXL/ (The fifth pic)

This was taken as it was finally beginning to totally brew out, so it’s not as thick and oily looking at it once was. Initially this was almost a pitch black looking brew.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uzjb2IOSC4

Gongfu – in the shou dedicated yixing pot.

I was craving shou and I’ve had this for a while without trying it so I thought I’d brew it up. I was shitty and didn’t take notes, but I liked it a lot. Hard to capture exactly what I was feeling in the moment by memory but I recall the liquor being so thick and smooth, and the flavour incredibly earthy in all of the ways I love! Wet earth/petrichor, damp wood, forest undergrowth, leather…

Just, like, all the good things!

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/B60mZ9gA_uR/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywZuL7QAR0I

Sipdown

It’s snowing, so I’m bringing out the ripe puerh. I’ve been drinking this one for a bit…I ran out of water twice already.

It has a thick body, lot of mushroom/wood notes. Definitely getting a strong head high from it, which is odd with a ripe puerh. I wish it had more depth in the flavor. I just get the same notes throughout the session (at least that’s all I noted during the first round of the tea—I was in the middle of deep discussion during the session). It’s good, but I’m glad I only got a sample of it, rather than a full cake.

I have to echo Ubacat’s impression of this one – Jade Rabbit is not a tea for me. The main problems I have with it are the ill-defined profile, acrid aftertaste, somewhat light body and the fact that it is quite heavy on stomach. It is fairly unique, but not a tea I’d like to drink ever again.

Its aroma spans the range of metallic, plant seed, yard, and wet earth scents. I also got an interesting tingling sensation in the nose while sniffing the wet leaves. The taste is mineral and mushroomy with a salty, cooling aftertaste.

I can see the tea changing quite a bit throughout the session, but honestly I find it hard to pay attention to it.

Let me start this by saying I’m newer to puerh and the tea world in general, so my review won’t be as descriptive as most. However, this is by far my favorite tea I’ve had. I brewed this in my gaiwan with 10g leaf to 150ml water. This is a VERY dark tea, but one that I found extremely flavorful. The first steep was a brownish-gold, with each subsequent steep getting darker and darker until about the 7th steep. That’s where it seemed to reach its maximum dark and was almost like oil in the cup.

Let’s talk flavors- this is the best shou puerh I’ve ever tasted. It was a very thick, dark brew that had notes of burnt sugar, hay, and grass, but in a good way. It went down extremely smooth and tasted sweeter than any other shou I’ve ever had. The leaves smelled like a dark, chocolatey coffee when placed in a warmed gaiwan before adding water.

This tea keeps on going. I managed to get 14 steeps and would definitely like to see if I can push it any further before it totally gives in. I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a good experience with a shou, especially if they’re a beginner like I am.

So far, Dark Depth is my most favorite tea – only being rivaled by Crimson Lotus 2008 Bulang Imperial Grade Shou (which is long long gone).
As a coffee drinker, this tea comes as close to a ‘coffee replacement’ as reasonably possible.
This is my daily wake-me-up go-to tea. The flavor is quite rich and the soupy mouth feel nice and thick; it’s sweet and flavorful (and wow is the soup dark!!).
You get your moneys worth out of this tea – it steeps over and over again while maintaining that rich sweet nutty flavor.

“Trip to Changtai, vol. 5”

Seems like every time I’ve had this sheng, my sniffer hasn’t been in proper working order.

Very balanced tea with some strong energy. This time around I’d best sum it up as smooth, tonal and coating with a good bitter-tannic bite, kind of musty books, apricot-golden tobacco, walnuts, dates, camphor, spicy. Marshmallow root type of body and sweetness. Good longevity and responds well to forgetfulness. These mid-aged Guangzhou-stored Changtai puerh are generally solid teas.

Honestly, I can’t smell anything or taste much right now. It’s actually a great time to focus on the general impression of a puerh and the way it feels in my mouth and body rather than my default mode which is to get lost in tastes.

Despite my schnoz not working well, I am able to pick up on aged puerh smell and forest floor in the rinsed leaf along with yeasty and bready qualities. The liquor has an oily thickness to it that when combined with a general tartness and minerality gives the impression of a lighter-bodied tea. Seems like it might taste of tobacco. The initial infusions feel great going down my throat and leave a thin and cooling camphor coating. There is also a bit of throat drying early on along with slight bitterness that does grow stronger but it is complementary. A light returning sweetness presents, seems date-like but combines with the back of the tongue bitterness to give a bittersweet lingering. I do notice some roughness and numbing of the tongue.

The energy is notable for me in the regard that it gives me a general sense of well being and positivity and it makes me dance. I much prefer this feeling to heady teas since I’m always thinking anyway.

On that note:
Album pairing: Paul Simon - Graceland, found in my housemate’s record collection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGEz7fwcmlY&list=PLgD_2-Ds0_gpHnMOnyYpuVCdAJ_9Olkv&index=1

This is a solid aged sheng, one I could see keeping as a daily drinker.

Notes from 9/2/19.

DISCLAIMER: I’m STILL trying to develop my puerh chops. “Hidden Song” (2016) seems to be a good innocuous introduction to young sheng puerh tea. I’m looking forward to trying the others. Maybe one day puerhs will finally resonate with me (outside of a few outliers), but in the meantime, I use samplers to get a feel for what I do and don’t like in puerh.

This is a very mild, easy-to-drink tea, insofar as I find young sheng puerhs.
The flavors work together, but it’s innocuous as flavors go. It’s kinda of a middle-of-the road for me.

FLAVOR-WISE: There’s a bit of smoke, cooked vegetal flavors bordering on corn/nori. I think this needs at least 2 rinses, as the first infusions were very mild in flavor. Later infusions were much better. There’s a good viscocity and smokey aftertaste. Very mild astringency.

Brew info:
- tea 5.22 grams
- water 150 ml
- temp:200 deg
- brewing : 15s, 30, 45, 60

Thick, good huigan and mouthwatering sensations. Balanced bitterness that is somewhat aggressive without being overpowering or harsh. Very floral in early steeps in a perfumy way instead of honeyish, like sticking your face into a patch of lillies…not my thing when it comes to tea. I much prefer my florals to be of a honey rather than perfume character which is why I’m not wild about Jingmai teas but if you like perfumy teas you should try this. I’m hoping it ages out a bit bc I’d like it more a little less pronounced. Oh yeah. The qi is impressive too. I found it nicely energizing and euphoric. Slightly calming as well. There you have it. If you like flowery tea with good energy you should try this. Don’t think I’ll cake it but glad I tried it.

He Kai is one of those areas I’ve always been interested in, but never really gotten around to exploring proper. When Crimson Lotus came out with this tea, I was immediately interested to try it. The gorgeous artwork also helped.

I brewed this tea in my standard manner: seven grams in a 100ml gaiwan. The aroma of the dry leaf in a preheated gaiwan is surprisingly pungent. In contrast, the rinsed leaves present very little in terms of aroma. The wash itself was very strong, very pungent, quite creamy. After a few minutes of rest, I followed up with twelve proper infusions, the timing for these 7s, 7s, 5s, 7s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min. and 3 min.

Right out of the gate, Danger Zone starts off with a big body and a really rich but balanced flavor. The aftertaste is also quite strong. The first several steeps are like this, growing thicker and thicker with each infusion, presenting a very dense and rich but also smooth and balanced taste. While the soup is packed full of minerals, strength and plant matter goodness, there is no one single characteristic that ever starts to dominate the tea. The tea can be quite sweet at times, also presenting some playful kuwei here and there, but avoiding any real harsh character throughout the session.

At its thickest, the He Kai gets absolutely ridiculous with its brothy goodness which becomes almost difficult to swallow. The soup is oily and coating, with a hint of bitterness and citrus in the finish. The word I keep coming back to is ‘smooth’. Despite the infusions having strength to them, the tea never even begins to approach becoming overpowering or dominated by any singular characteristic. The bitterness and astringency do start building up toward the end of the session, but they are always playing off of the sweetness.

Overall, I was very pleased with Danger Zone. The material is clearly high quality and it has a unique character that sets it apart from your typical generic sheng offerings. For a high-end tea, the He Kai is much more flavor-focused than most, albeit still not a tea where the flavor profile is the main attraction, like with other types of tea like most hong cha and wulong.

The thickness is totally nuts and the strength very deceptive due to the tea’s smoothness and balance. There were only really two areas where the He Kai fell a bit short. The first one was the aromatics. Aerating the tea in my mouth presented me with virtually nothing to play with. Since this is still a very young tea that hasn’t necessarily had time to develop aroma, I’m willing to give it a pass for now. The other area is more of a personal preference, but for my tastes the tea was a bit lacking in bitterness. As a fan of Bulang teas, extremely spicy food, etc., I do prefer some more backbone to my teas, but overall Danger Zone was still a tea that I find very easy to recommend. The fact that I ended up ordering a cake after the session should speak for that.

I am not a coffee fan but imagine if I was I would also love this tea. It’s smooth, full-bodied and absolutely delightful. If you are in the mood for a rich, earthy flavor with no bitterness, this would be a great one to reach for.

When I tried this tea more than a year ago, I thought it was nice – as a green tea. It really smelled and tasted like a Yunnan green tea, had a lightly coloured green/yellow liquor, very green leaves and little bitterness. Maybe only the wet leaf aroma was a bit distinctive in that regard, with notes such as sage, manure, and freshly cut grass.

Since I’ve heard that pu-erh processed on the green side doesn’t age well, I decided not to finish my sample but rather keep it around to see how it progresses over time. After today’s session, I can definitely say that the tea has not improved in one year – quite the opposite. While before it had the bright, crisp and floral character with sugar peas sweetness and notes of green bell peppers, apple skin, or lemongrass among others; now it just tastes like a stale green tea. The liquor is still lightly coloured for a 3 year old sheng, although a bit more on the brownish side. The main problem is that the taste is very muted and lost most of its edge.

There is some nice huigan for sure, but the aftertaste is also affected by this taste of stale green tea underlying it. In terms of cha qi, I feel like the tea hasn’t lost anything and it is probably the main aspect that would differentiate it from an old green tea. In particular, it induces a strong throat-warming sensation and makes me feel full of energy.

My preferences for shou don’t seem to agree well with this one, despite the praise it has garnered. Its most interesting aspect is the aftertaste with notes like brown sugar, soy sauce, and cloves. Otherwise, I found it to be fairly mediocre. The aroma is mild and woody with a hint of petrichor and gasoline. Taste is also somewhat flat and savoury. The main flavours I noticed were those of nuts, wood and cola. Body is medium at best and the liquor has a creamy, warming mouthfeel. All in all, not a tea I will be looking to purchase more of.

I had the Moon Princess for the second time today and I liked it a bit more than before. It seemed more fragrant in particular, I wonder if it could be due to the very dry air that is inevitably linked to Canadian winter. I recall hearing people talk about how short term dry weather brings out the fragrance of sheng more.

In any case, this tea is good but not spectacular (like most of what I sampled from CLT to be honest). I like that the bitterness is strong, but it’s not that interesting. A dominant note that keeps coming back both in aroma and the taste is that of honey, the dry leaf smell especially is really honey-like. On top of that, there are scents of sweet grass and ale, with a strong (matured) Camembert cheese note in the empty cup.

The taste is crisp, fragrant, and floral with a mix of sweet, umami, and bitter (think quinine) flavours. There is a bit of grassy and bark note as well. Aftertaste is dominated by a long-lasting floral sweetness in the mouth (rather than the throat). The body is medium to full and the mouthfeel is coating, slick, buttery and somewhat tongue numbing. I didn’t notice any cha qi in the two sessions I’ve had with it.

This is a nice, mellow ripe puerh with a smooth body and flavor. I only had a sample from a friend so I did not have as much tea to use for the session as I would have liked, so the flavor may be richer if the proper amount of tea is used! This would be a good daily drinker for ripe puerh fans.

Black Gold is a semi-aged shou with a woody profile that’s not really my jam. I also doesn’t last very long, I can barely get more than 150ml/g of interesting infusions. However, it does have a very nice mouthfeel and a strong aftertaste.

The aroma is quite weak and has notes of wood, forest floor, and honey. Taste is then very woody, sweet and bitter with flavours of roasted hazelnuts and cocoa beans. After swallowing I can further taste mushrooms, honey and various spices.

The mouthfeel is thick, buttery, and slightly constrictive. The full-bodied and lubricating nature of the liquor is truly the highlight of the session. Around steep #3 I also noticed a more bubbly texture to it. There is a calming sort of cha qi, but nothing to write home about.

This tea is very light coloured despite being 3 years old, but it tastes more aged than it looks. Overall, I found it to have very little astringency and bitterness. I agree with derk’s evaluation, this is an easy to drink sheng that has no obvious drawbacks, apart from maybe being somewhat boring for more experienced drinkers.

There isn’t much of note in terms of aromas. As for the taste, it starts out light and balanced with a grassy character, but quickly turns into a fairly smoky tea with notes of leather and green beans. It has a medium body and a cooling, silky mouthfeel.

The aftertaste is maybe the most interesting aspect of the tea, and indicative of good quality material. It has a fruity sweetness and a sour note. It soon gets quite vegetal with notes like lime leaves and then turns savoury towards the end of the session. This is definitely not a tea to drink when you are looking for cha qi or huigan though.

Sipdown. Backlogged to 9/1/19
One planet in my 100ml gaiwan, 212F
Short steeps – 8s, 8s, 10s, 10s, 20, 30, 30, 30 etc

Overall – mellow , sweet and juicy. a tea that produces a lot of salivation. Green apple.
I tried this in silver and the cup cut the sweetness and the depth I was getting in ceramic.
I liked this planet a lot. I tasted this tea for a long time – I went on a 1 hour walk and could still taste it!

So light on the first steep that I felt as if the leaves didn’t infuse, so pumped it up to 15 seconds and got more of the flavor, then 20. I got more bitterness than sweetness from steeps 2 and 3. A nice enough tea, but as I am not a fan of bitter flavors, it’s not my taste.

Did several steeps with Cosima and found a significant difference between 10, 20, and 30-second steeps. On 10 it’s light in color, refreshing and crisp, with a lovely astringency. 20 is my favorite steep as it brings the flavors out a little more but is not bitter. On 30 the flavor is darker and leaves a bitterness in the middle of the tongue.