2014 "Cloudy Days"

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.

I’ve had 2014 Cloudy Days from Crimson Lotus in storage for a few years and decided to try it for the first time this morning. Since I did not taste it when it was first produced, I read the other tasting notes, and it sounds like it has not changed much over the years except to continue to mellow out as one would expect. There are zero negative qualities to this tea, now. It is ready to drink. I brewed this gongfu style in a clay teapot with quick seconds-long steeps progressively extending the steep time. Cloudy Days is a really smooth and balanced shou pu’er. It is initially quite sweet. There is a warm hay like quality with the typical earthiness and nutty flavors. There is a small amount of bitterness in the aftertaste. I initially wrote no throat feels, but I am now getting a little deep in the throat. There is a little mild chalkiness on the back of the lips after the finish. I think a lot of people would enjoy this. It would be an excellent introduction to shou pu’er. The 2014 Cloudy Days is sold out, but Crimson Lotus has reproduced this tea in a 2016 version that is still available.

Addendum: Don’t be afraid to push this tea hard in later steepings. I got distracted and left the leaves steeping for several minutes, and remarkably the tea was perfect with no initial bitterness. Wow.

I’ve purchased A LOT of pu erh samples recently and been trying them. This is definitely my favorite ripe so far.

It’s sweet and gentle with a nice aftertaste that makes me want more. I’m glad a bought a cake (it was on sale!) and would definitely repurchase.

After trying a cake of Cloudy Days, it wasn’t long before I re-ordered it as my first tong.

Clean, creamy, smooth, nutty, sweet and earthy. The tea is a well balanced very enjoyable Shou.

It’s a really nice and rounded Shou Puer, probably good entry/introduction shou puer.

It’s very well balanced and rounded and no taste takes over too much but remains rather subtle and smooth. It has a nice earthyness and nuttyness, with a bit of more subtle mushroom and wet wood and a very nice sweetnes that sort of rounds off tea very nicely making it very smooth and easily drunk.

It’s like a nice stroll on a well used path in a beech forest on a lovely day with a clear sky and the sun shining through the leaves.

Solid ripe. There’s a reason nobody has rated it below 90.

This ranks in my top 5 ripes that are on the sharp notes with fermentation as opposed to the woodsy/dirty ones.

Highly recommend purchasing it, but feel free to read reviews and contemplate all the ripes out there; but know that this is one of the best options out there for the higher end pu’erh. The price of $22/200g is wonderful as well

Quick Note:

I’ve been drinking this for nearly an hour now, with an occasional break from the tea to drink water. I’m pretty tea drunk, I must say.

Anyway, this is a nice sweet mushroom/honey-esq tea. Definitely a great tea to have on a daily basis, or if you’re trying to wake up, but getting extremely giddy while doing so. I’m on steep six, but I had to stop for a moment to gather my senses (however, how I feel momentarily isn’t bad, of course). My wife’s tea-loving friend is stopping by later, so maybe I’ll continue the session with her.

I used 6.5 grams for a 120 ml Yixing pot. I steeped this for 15s, 20s, 30s, 30s, 35s, & 45s.

Also, it’s hot inside the house. The AC crashed, so I’m having to sit in front of a fan while drinking the tea. The landlord said that he can’t get here until Thursday to fix it, so I’m going to have to make several trips around the block to cool off….That, or go ahead and buy that kiddy pool I’ve always wanted for the backyard.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BH7ekX8hbcl/?taken-by=s.g_sanders1

This is a very tasty shou with a moderate amount of fermentation flavor. The fermentation flavor is not unpleasant or fishy. There was little to no bitterness to this tea. This tea was mildly sweet from the start. Somewhere along the line it got listed as having a mushroom flavor. That is not out of the ballpark. This tea is quite good. This is one I am tempted to buy more of to age, we shall see. It’s good enough to warrant a tong of the stuff.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 150ml yixing gaiwan with 10.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. It was pretty much finished at twelve steeps but I think if I upped the time I could get a couple more steeps out of the leaves.

Wow this tea is good! Broke off a bunch and threw it into the new Crimson Lotus dragon egg Jian Shui teapot 100mL. 2x rinse. First three brews were a bit “dusty” with muddled flavors, needs probably 3 rinses next time.

Steeps 4 and 5 this tea started to wake up. A slight mouth buzz developing, sweet aroma, but not so much sweet taste, hint of nutty/chocolate undertones, wet wood, no astringency, no bitterness, slight wodui fermentation but in the background. Lots of golden tips in this cake, and very clean. Rich, thick, full bodied, creamy mouthfeel but no cream flavors. If a tea was chuggable this one is chuggable. Easy on the stomach. Not too complex, but not bland or cloying either. Not getting caffeine jitters, so for the price, this is a great daily drinker. I see myself buying at least another cake and drinking lots of this in the future.