Bulang Shan Imperial Grade 2008 Shou/Ripe Puerh

Needed a shou today and I decided to pick this one. Very glad I did for it really hit the spot in my effort to balance out all the sheng I’ve been drinking over the past ten days. This one is so very easy to drink. Just enough complexity and a nice balance of sweetness with light bitterness. Flavor profile is a bit of everything – creamy, fruity, earthy, woodsy, tobacco – but not one of these dominates or overpowers. No fermentation found. Reasonable durability to my liking – I believe I had 10 decent steepings. A big recommendation from me!

This is a great shou from Crimson Lotus. Early steeps are dark and thick with complexity and a good ratio of bitterness and sweetness. Eventually the tea starts to lighten up considerably and the sweetness takes over resulting in a tea you can drink for a long time while still providing plenty of flavor. This tea matched the early morning for me today, starting off nice and dark but becoming lighter and sweeter as the morning progressed and the sun became brighter. Highly enjoyable!

Thank You Mr Mopar for this sample. This is excellent ripe puerh. It is very earthy and thick and sweet. It has a fair amount of fermentation flavor left. I definitely recommend it to anyone who can handle some fermentation flavor. It hasn’t developed dates notes yet but it is good. The earthy ones don’t seem to have developed those notes.

I steeped this five times in a 207ml Taiwan Clay Teapot with 9.5g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, and 20 sec. This is a strong tea and it didn’t need long steeps at all, short was good. There were earthy flavors throughout all five steeps. This is a tea I would consider buying eventually as it is available for a good price.

Thank you so very much, Glen and Dawa, for including this in my order. The experience is so similar to a shou that I had a week ago and enjoyed thoroughly…(No strong sweetness, good earthy notes, strong, medium body, pleasant throat) I’m considering buying a brick of this. It is just an all around pleasant shou to drink . It could definitely be a daily drinker.

I started a session with this last night at a friends house. Making a tea at a non-tea-drinkers house just isn’t the same. But I really wanted to try my sample of this so I improvised.

6g, 8oz water, boiling water. Two 8 second rinses. 15,30,40 second steeps.

The first two steeps I drank at the friends house. I was distracted while drinking, but I do recall it being a more wet earthy, almost smokey, puerh. Not as sweet and chocolatey as the 2012 puerh I had from them the other day. I also noticed some leather-like notes. This is an almost manly tea.

Third and forth steeps were at home, today, after work. Ahh, so much better making to at home. These steeps are much like the last, but less smokey and leathery, and with an almost fruity note.

The next six steeps, the tea becomes more sweet and fruity and almost molasses like, while still staying true to the manliness of the first steeps. The tea reminds me of a bad boy, all leather and smoke and manly at first, but as you get to know him, he becomes sweeter and softer.

Trying my third Shou from Crimson Lotus today. This is one of the best shou’s I’ve had. It is very deep and rich, a little earthy, very hearty, and quite smooth. A touch of astringency and sweetness balance the flavor. It lasts and lasts. It has a high kick factor. It has all of the qualities I like in a Shou, and it’s harvested from trees from the Bulang region so I’m not too worried about chemicals. It’s currently $30 for a 250g brick, so it’s not terribly expensive. I’d highly recommend giving it a try! I am gaining a lot of respect for Crimson Lotus. They have excellent taste in ripes. You can watch a little video about them and this tea here:
http://crimsonlotustea.com/products/2008-bulang-imperial-grade-shou-ripe-puerh

This is an interesting tea of depth and complexity with bright, well balanced flavors and a deep sweetness. Good earthy flavor, hints of tobacco, and perhaps even a whisper of cherry and forest in the flavors, this is quite a good tasting tea. Just a hint of astringency in the long lasting flavors. Quite enjoyable (from a sample).