Crimson Lotus Tea

I heard a few mixed reviews on this tea. I’ve heard people saying it’s 100% damn good, and others sayin nah. I’m sorry to say it, but I am leaning towards the latter. The leaves are long darkened tendrils with a strong aroma of buckwheat honey and apricot. I brought out my shibo and warmed it up, and then I placed some leaves inside. The aroma moves about and expands into some fig newton with an undertone of sour kale. I washed the leaf once and prepared for brewing. Now the taste is what drove me away. Quick anecdote, a loooooooong time ago I acquired some “rare” tea from a foreign friend of mine. They instructed me how to brew said “mysterious tea”, and that after I brew it I can sun dry the leaves and resteep this “mystical” tea. Me, giving benefit of the doubt, believed my foreign friend and did just that, I brewed the tea, drank, and then put the leaves outside to dry, so I can steep again. I feel you can see where I am going with this if you know tea. The “rare” tea was bad, and the sundried version was not good as well. The taste was foul, sour, and badly fermented. Now, back to the review, this tea’s background notes taste just like that sundried pre-steeped leaf. The forefront is heavy honey tones, but the base and undertones are sour and cloudy. I’m not sure what it was, but when you taste what I’ve tasted you don’t forget a tone. Maybe it was a bad sample, maybe someone gave me their steeped leaves, maybe it was poor storage, I don’t know….

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

6-7g leaf (did not weigh it), 93 *C water, brewed in my 155 mL yixing-style pot (not true yixing clay, but an unpolished clay teapot that brews my tea just fine).

Rinse (5 seconds)

Steep 1: 7 seconds (way too long, had to dilute it half and half)
Extremely bitter, but smells amazing. No fungus or storage flavour, but way too bitter to be enjoyable.

Steep 2: 3 seconds
Extremely bitter, but also notes of sweetness and lots of tea flavour/tannins. I find this quite drying in my mouth due to its astringency.

Steep 3: 3 seconds
Still bitter, less in your face bold and a bit more mellowed

Steep 4: 3 seconds
Nice clean raw pu’erh taste, a bit of lemon rind, notes of pine bark and forest floor. How do people drink/enjoy this? Still bitter, I’m not doing to keep going because I don’t do bitter teas. I gave it a try, but it isn’t going to happen. I hate how the bitterness lingers as a strong aftertaste.

17g 200ml

Rather easy to brew to be honest. Nice undertone of wood and fleeting moments of old fermentation. No unique notes to set it apart, but the aspect that this brews out cleanly for multiple infusions without changing drastically makes it a worthy shou if one drinks shou frequently.

Ooooooh yeah. I’m really liking this tea tonight.

Got this tea in the Sheng Olympiad. I had heard there was a lot of cha qi in this and it does not disappoint. It’s more of a calming effect though and not a “bouncing off the walls kinda loopy” effect that I’ve experienced with other teas.

The taste is absolutely wonderful too. I brewed it per the suggestion at almost boiling and kept to around 10s steeps. I tried to increase the time but I noticed some bitterness creep in so I’ve been dialing it back. The tea is flavorful throughout though even with some of the bitterness. Nothing too terrible as long as you keep the steeps on the shorter side. Very smooth. A little astringent. I wouldn’t say it’s an incredibly rich pu-erh with a lot of flavors but it’s an enjoyable taste. Not having to choke this down like I have been with others.

I could definitely buy a cake of this.

Got a sample of this as a gift from a tea friend, thank you!

The dry leaf smells of woody oak and pine. It’s very sweet smelling, like a cigar. There’s even a tiny bit of smoke, as though someone is BBQing ribs over a pine fire miles away.

The brew is mostly like the smell. It’s a clean, woody pine forest with a little smoke. The mouthfeel is smooth like velvet. It seems long lasting for a shou.

I think one of my favorite shous so far.

Brewed in a zisha at boiling. This tea opened up with lots of tropical fruits on the nose which slowly became an interesting savory herbalness. The brew is a thick golden color. Lots of honey sweetness which sits in the back of the throat and lingers on and on. Nice thickness with a good amount of slickness. Very slurpable. Good tropical fruit flavors with apricot and mango sticking out for me. QI is very energetic, strong, and heady. Lots of huigan on this with a lot of cheek salivation as well. Bitterness starts off non-existant and then slowly creeps in. Very dense, lush, and primal. Jungle like herbal and floral notes float around. One sip and my mouth is filled with floral perfume and never ending notes of honey, this sweetness lingers on and on causing lots of salivation. Cooling sensation is light. Good minerality and a hint of black pepper on the front palate. The qi almost bowled me over for a bit. For the price I’m a big fan of this tea. fresh notes of tropical fruit, lots of florals, jungle like savory herbal notes with lots of huigan and salivating, qi is very strong.

Here beneath the leafy green,
A hidden song you’ll surely sing….

Review to follow soon….

Sample from my amazing secret Santea (thanks, twinofmunin!), but I’ve also had the pleasure to try it briefly at Floating Leaves Tea with Glen and Lamu. I didn’t take notes then, but this was just as clean and deep forest floor as I remember, with virtually none of that shou funk and all of the lovely thick texture shou tends to give (although that’s compared to sheng, this is actually not super thick on the shou spectrum).

I really dislike shou fermentation funk, so I’m finding I really enjoy aged shou that has cleared, the more completely the better, like this one. I only gave it the one, normal rinse as opposed to my usual two long ones once I get a whiff of the leaf and it still came out nice and clean. I went with around 8g to a 100ml in ruyao gaiwan, boiling water. It’s a little thin at the very start due to my being too lazy to do more than throw a condensed chunk in the gaiwan, but already has a heavy up front flavor of old wood core and forest floor. As it opens up, it gets thicker and sweeter, with a subtle camphor cooling quality throughout (I noticed it by steep 2, but I had also been choking on it from trying to talk and drink at the same time, so I doubt I would have noticed it for a while longer if it hadn’t been numbing the sensitive tissues of my vocal chords, heh). A mineral mossiness takes over the wood flavors towards the end, around steep 6 or 7.

When steeped with a very light hand, this kind of reminds me of coffee in character without the bitterness with the mellow yet prominent wood flavor that lingers. Steeped more to my standard slow flash steeps, it’s predominantly thick and rich and tastes like if I cored an ancient tree and boiled it in water for an hour or two and maybe threw a handful of some of the equally ancient forest floor in for good measure.

There is a certain lingering quality to this tea, however, that I’m hard put to describe. There’s a review on their website of this as having indescribable ‘emotion’ and I would have to agree—there’s a certain taste to it that I can’t put words to, but evokes the smell and memory of my favorite aged (now deceased) grandma, despite the fact that she smelled nothing like this tea. It simply tastes like nostalgic old age to me underneath the very upfront wood, minerals, and sweetness. Coupled with a very relaxing, grounding (as in, it feels like all your muscles are being dragged to the ground) qi that was quite strong for me, I really enjoyed this. I got 11 steeps out of it, but could have probably pushed it for more if we didn’t have another tea lined up for the day.

Tastes like sheng! Vegetal, grassy, astringent, a bit bitter.

I swear, I only have one more sheng left.

Bought this quite a while ago and am just getting around to trying it. It got lost among my puerh but got found last night. This is a fairly nice tasting ripe puerh. I agree with Rich that it is an earthy, woodsy type of puerh, although the fermentation flavor eventually faded and a nice sweet note was left behind. Not sugar sweet, hard to describe but it is good.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 160ml Solid Silver teapot with 14.7g 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 would have gone a few more steeps, the leaves were not done yet but I was.

Drinking more birthday tea! Starting the year off with some shou. Used 10 grams, did two washes and started enjoying this one immediately. It steeps up nice and dark in the first steep, but the darkness of the liquor really shines in steep two.

This is good stuff. Both rhinkle and I enjoy it. It’s nice, deep, earthy, super smooth and has an appreciable hint of creaminess. Very calming qi. Sweetness really starts to emerge over time.

This seems to be have been thrown in as a sample with the order rhinkle made for my birthday, so I’m excited to get to try it, as it was something I wanted to get at some point.

Steeped it according to the gaiwan brewing instructions on the CLT site. When I first came across this one I had some reservations regarding whether I would like it or not, as I don’t like very strong florals in my tea.

But the balance of flavors in this tea ended up being very nice. It has a fresh, fruity, floral aroma that translates well into the liquor itself. The floral is not overpowering at all, and the fruity sweetness comes through clearly. There is also a good bit of camphor in this one, resulting in a nice cooling sensation.

Overall, very enjoyable, and one I would definitely like to have again at some point!

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.

Another one from the group buy, also in orb form. This tea is very clean and really green tasting for puerh, even more than I would normally note with young, first year tea. Not really my thing, personally, as I don’t drink much green tea, but it does have a bit of puerh herb-y complexity with the sweetening after taste that starts to pop up in later steeps and a tiny bit of astringent citrus that gives it a very bright/golden kind of feel.

The energy is uplifting, but not overpowering. It has quite some endurance, though, as I drank it out over the course of two or three days. Overall, very green, very clean, and very light. Too much so for me.

This was a good solid sheng with strong bitterness for about four or five steeps after it opened up. Somewhere around steep eight it began to get sweeter. You might almost call it a sugar sweetness in the sense that it seemed to be a sweet note without a fruity element or other note. I would not call it literally sugar sweet. It was good. I will try it again in another six months and see if it is aging at all in my storage. I have no room in the pumidor so it will have to be dry stored. This storage seems to work out better for my shou than my sheng. I think sheng is more susceptible to low humidity than shou. This was a good tea.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 9.1g 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. The tea got a little weak in the twelfth steep but I do think I would have gotten two more steeps out of it. This one would not go twenty steeps.

This one was a pretty nice tea from Crimson Lotus. The dry leaf had a pretty light straw-like aroma. After a rinse though, I smelled a lot of sweetness on these leaves, mostly honey with maybe a bit of tobacco.

The first three steeps have a good mix of slightly citric, but still quite sweet, fruitiness with a softy honey finish and slightly creamy texture. The citrus was not sharp or acidic, so it was more like the flavor of lemon icing or something like that.

After those initial three steeps, the fruitiness remained, but no longer tasted at all citric to me. The rest of this tea was mostly sweet fruity honey in flavor. The astringency did pick up just a touch towards the middle of the session, but it never lasted long or anything. The tea had a pleasant silky thickness to it, and a gentle qi which I noticed only sometimes. One of the most honey-tasting teas I’ve had yet. Pretty tasty!

Got a very nice sized free sample of this with my last order to Crimson Lotus Tea. I brewed this in a solid silver teapot which I think brings out all the flavors of the tea. It seems to do this more than a Yixing Teapot would do. This tea started off sweet. Once the leaves opened up a bit a bitterness crept in. The bitterness lasted for a few steeps, maybe four and was eventually replaced by a sweet note again. I am not entirely sure what to call the sweet note of this tea that developed. Just calling it apricots seems a little off but I really did not pin it down. There was also a mild astringency to this tea. Overall over twelve steeps this was a very enjoyable tea. This is definitely an example of a sheng that is good to drink now. There was also a slight bitter aftertaste that persisted with this tea. This is one I would definitely consider buying if I put in another order with Crimson Lotus Tea. I don’t even know the price of this tea. I think it is one of their higher end teas but I could be wrong. In any case I have enough of the sample left for another go at it. Next time I won’t use the silver teapot but see how it is in a gaiwan. I think some flavors are much more pronounced in the silver pot.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 160ml Solid Silver Teapot with 10.2g 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.

The amroma of the dry leaves is heavenly! Smells almost of marzipan it’s so sweet. Maybe that’s just the holidays. Think candied plums, peaches, apples and dates. Awesome!
Wet leaves smell a bit more vegetal but the fruity sweet notes are still very upfront.

Steep/Time: Notes
1/5s: What an odd first steep! Highly vegetal with a bitter finish yet the taste of fruit is very apparent while the tea is in the mouth. Interesting mouth feel too. More body than I’d expect on the first cup. Still, the bitterness is very upfront. Perhaps too much leaf in my little pot or too many broken leaves? What’s weird is how sweet the tea is in the mouth to end so bitter. It’s just about the exact opposite of what I’d expect with a sheng. I had enough tea for just under a half cup so I topped it off with hot water and got something more along the lines of what I was expecting by way of vegetal broth with fruit soaked in. Clean crisp finish. Lets see how later steeps go.

2/3s: Vegetal, sweet, oddly fruity, with a bitter finish. Pretty much a flash steep.

3/5s: That bitter note is agressive and persistent. Taste otherwise the same.

4/3s: Bitter, sour, vegetal, fruity. Sooo damn weird. The interesting thing is if you cut with water you get something that’s actually quite good. Makes me feel like I used too much leaf. Cut with water it becomes quite palatable with the sour taste receding the bitter note softening into something almost pleasant.

5-8: Same as steep 3. Just taking the bitter head on.

9/5s: Just doesn’t quit with the bitter/sour notes. A tad more manageable at this point. Cha qi is a nice punch in the face though.

10/5s: Same as previous

11/8s: Vegetal note peaking back in over the bitter/sour note. Sour is more noticable than the bitter

12/10s: Guess the leaves were just waking up on that previous steep. Bitter note back up front, but better blended with the sour and vegetal notes.

13/10s: Hmm… bit of sweetness showing up in the mix of bitter, sour and vegetal.

14/12s: Sour note is tapering off, bitter still very present. Vegetal note will blended, but I’m also picking up a bit of fruit in the background.

15/12s: So obviously this tea has lasting power. Also great qi as 5 steeps in I’m feeling it again. Bitter and sweet mixed throughout, even at the back of the throat and in the aftertaste. Vegetal and fruit notes still present. What an interesting tea.

16/14s: Wow, sticking it out pays off, LOL! Sweetness has finally overtaken the bitterness in the mouth. The sweetness lingers on the tip of the tongue, but mid way back to the back of the throat the bitterness is prominent. Still about to pick out the sour note in the background

17/14s: Ok, this would be the first up of this tea that I can say tastes good. Only a tiny taste of bitterness and no sourness detectible. Sweetness is now upfront and the taste leans more fruity than vegetal. Qi felt in the head, sort of relaxed but energized and very alert.

18/16s: Fruity note is upfront now. Still bitter at the back of the throat, but less so. Vegetal note has mellowed to something almost hay like. No sour notes apparent now. Probably need to push the next steep to get more flavor.

19/22s: More mellow but similar to the previous. Really quick drop off there. I’ll push the steep time a bit more.

20/30s: A bit more vegetal and the bitterness is up just a touch. I think the leaves are done here. One more for fun.

21/35s: Oh there’s a mouth full of bitter and fruit! LOL! At this point I can’t decide if it’s a good or bad thing, but the qi is definitely up.

22/45s: Man, gotta love having the mind of an experimenter. Decided to take this a step further. Moved the tea leaves from my 90mL teapot to my 300mL teapot with the thought that it would better allow the leaves to expand and might give up a bit more flavor and perhaps a different flavor profile. The taste is now brighter though there is a small amount of lingering bitterness in the aftertaste. The most noticable difference is the mouthfeel. Previously it was very dry, almost puckering to the mouth. Now it has a very creamy sort of feel. More sweetness at the tip of the tongue too. Still has a very dry finish. And man does that bump the cha qi WAY up! Of course that may be because I’m downing 300mL pretty quickly, LOL! Much more palatable here though some of that likely has to do with being so

23/90s: Fruit and vegatal notes are gone. Tastes more of hay. Sweetness has mellowed, but for the first time is more prominent than the bitter note. Not much left in the leaves at this point.

I REALLY wanted to like this tea, but the bitter/sour notes in early steepings was just too overwhelming and completely contrary to the sweet, fruity aroma of the leaves.

The early steeps of this tea seem to be on a mission to disprove the notion that you wouldn’t know bitter if it slapped you in the face because it walks up and introduces itself by slapping you in the face. Hard.

If I had more of this tea I’d spend a bit of time playing around with water temp and the amount of leaf to use , but as it stands I’ll be setting this one aside for a couple of years to see how it evolves. It’s quite possible that the very things that make it unpalatable now will make it amazing in a few years.

A pretty solid tea. Very strong floral notes, but not a whole lot of mouth feel or texture. I think this one will be better to drink sooner rather than later as far as aging.