2015 Crimson Lotus Baiying 'Whispering Sunshine'

My love for mountains and cold weather draws me to high elevation teas and for no other reason than that (and the entertaining session on teadb.org with Crimson Lotus) I bought a cake of Whispering Sunshine. I’m glad I did—it’s a lovely tea to drink now with a pale pinkish yellow broth and a nutty, evergreen profile that coats the mouth and tongue with a light effervescence.

I pushed the middle steeps to about 30 seconds and was presented with a subtle smokiness that perfectly complements the rock candy sweetness on the tip of the tongue. The energy in the leaves is perfect: buoying but not overwhelming. An excellent tea at this price point and one I’ll surely reorder.

I drank Crimson Lotus Whispering Sunshine 2015 raw puerh for the second time. I’ll admit that the first time around, it missed the mark for me. It was too subtle for my liking, but i decided to give another try two weeks later.

The first time, as usual i couln’t help myself and drank it the same day that it arrived. Well I guess it needed some time to air after shipping cause this second time around is lovely!

Very clean as young sheng should be, but with very little astringency. There is a certain bite to it which i love but it’s very light. It’s grapey and apricoty, sweet and a little citrusy with a nice vegetal feel.

It also gave me a pretty strong head buzz which lasted throughout the whole session. I lost count of how many steeps i did.

Now i’m a little puzzled about something…i read somewhere that it was smokey. I am not a fan of smoke in general and trust my taste buds, i will find smoke if there is some to find. I got absolutely none in this, which was fine by me. Just a super clear and clean liquor.

I really enjoyed it and i’m glad I have a whole cake.

Pics:

https://instagram.com/p/4LKnoSQh5z/

https://instagram.com/p/4LLsuLwh74/

This is an excellent “drink now” pu erh. Very aromatic, and heavy on the pollen flavor. No astringency and very little bitterness, just easy going to the max. It is a great example of this style. I’m not sure I would want to hold onto this for aging, as it is fairly light. But who knows, I think the jury is still out on how well these young easy drinkers will age. The leaf quality is excellent, and I got many many steeps. Later infusions were a bit lemony. All in all, a great tea.

i got this sample for review – thank you so much Crimson Lotus tea.

When i opened the pouch it smelled smoky, grassy and sweet.
This tea is delicious. almost no smoke detected in a brew. just faint to make things interesting.
I enjoyed it a lot. many steeps yesterday and i continue today.
7g 80ml gaiwan 200F rinse/short steeps. few secs, i didnt time them. its easy to drink, no harsh bitterness often associated with young sheng, no astringency ( but again i kept my steeps short). lovely tea overall.

Im so glad i was able to try this tea, thank you so much Crimson Lotus Tea

PS no stomach issues i usually experience with young Sheng

Don’t buy this one…

Until I get paid and can buy a tong!

This has a jingmai smokiness, but is much greener. It is wonderfully complex, I can see how it is related to Hidden Song (which I didn’t get a good enough sense of in a serving to review bc it was so unique) but it is so much more complex! It is like Bulang and Jingmai has a delicious delicious baby together. There is the pleasant bitterness of Bulang with the subtle sweet smokiness of Jingmai.

There is a sweet lasting after taste. Mmm.

I have instagram pictures of the leaf and liquor I will post here later.

Edit:
Leaf- https://instagram.com/p/3kK0Kxyc-R/?taken-by=not_phi
Liquor- https://instagram.com/p/3kKj86yc97/?taken-by=not_phi

This is a great sheng. I will not say young as it is obvious. One would not think it is as young as it is just by tasting. It is pretty smooth and vegetal. It also develops some hints of sweetness. I feel I am not doing this tea justice in this review. This is a perfect sheng. I will definitely getting more of these cakes. Perfect name to it!

Breaking this one out tonight. Got this about 4 days ago and finally getting to it.
I got 8 grams out and warmed the gaiwan for this one. After a quick rinse I let this sit a couple of hours. The aroma after the rinse was a nice vegetal type.
I went back after resting a few hours to brew. The leaf is very green in this almost like a TGY leaf in color , very vibrant green. I hit it with some hot water and a nice honey aroma is coming off this one. The brew is a very pale yellow. Almost the color of a white tea. It has the lovely pine sap and a little tobacco with some bitter and a nice sweet at the end.
This is nice and active with a vibrant mouth feel to it. It will rattle around the teeth a bit. The really nice aspect to this one with the mouth feel is the fantastic sweetness it brings. I gave my better half some to try and she liked it as well. (I am trying to butter her up for my inbound stuff.) I have noticed a touch of the bitter mixing with the sweet at the end.
Nice enjoyable, well sourced and produced.
I feel so lucky that I found this site about three years ago. I have met wonderful people and have gotten to know these guys that work so hard to get this stuff to us.
Hats off to them all, Glen, Paul, Scott, Garret and all you guys that find all these hidden gems in all these tea shops. Lets not forget the newcomers giving us good tea as well. I found a couple of new ones you may know them. Wymm, Nannuoshan, What-cha and Tribute teas. All contributing to our site.