Crimson Lotus Tea

Very nice, reminded me of an early morning in the deep forest.

Nice soup, sweet and earthy.

Another very nice tea from Crimson Lotus. The leaves had a grassy and vegetal aroma. This one was pretty forgiving, so I was able to brew it either in a gaiwan or in my Jianshui pot.

The first steep had a hint of spice to it, followed by a crisp vegetal note, like peas or celery.

I didn’t get any spicy notes after the first steep, but the vegetal remained, followed by a fruity, perhaps citrus flavor. It’s a kind of flavor I’ve only encountered in one other puerh, Yunnan Sourcing’s 2013 Wu Liang Ye Sheng. There are differences in the flavor, but when I got that distinct hint of citrus, that’s immediately where my mind went. This flavor profile went on for about seven steeps or so. The citrus sometimes intermingled with a creamy floral note and the occasional hint of caraway. It’s hard to describe the floral flavor – it reminds me of a few things. First is lemongrass, partially I’m sure because that flavor is listed on Crimson Lotus’s website. At times it also made me thing of Elderflower – which has a citric/floral/fruity flavor. Finally, it sort of reminded me of Starfruit, an interesting fruit which I haven’t had in years but with a distinctive and memorable flavor.

The fruity citric flavor dropped off for the most part in the second half of the session, though the floral aspect remained in the finish. The mouthfeel got pretty interesting at this point. I think part of it was the remnant of a slight citric inclination, but it reminded me a bit of pinesol (without all the cleaning chemicals). Like my mouth had been oiled with a citrus flavored furniture cleaner. As weird as that sounds, it was good! This interesting texture dropped off a few steeps later, and the remainder of the session was characterized by smooth and light vegetal and floral notes.

This was a very interesting and tasty tea. The texture wasn’t notable for most of the session, and I also didn’t get any noticeable qi off of this tea. I think this one is more based on flavor and aromatic qualities, which it has in bunches. A fun and interesting tea to drink, but at the same time easy drinking and a forgiving steeper. I don’t think it would have really been possible to make this tea come out bitter.

5.5g, 100ml gaiwan, 212F
Overall, I felt this tea was too new, too raw for me. I think it needs a little more age to knock off off some of the bitter elements I tasted.
5s – citrus, sharp, thick, finest edge of bitter/sour
5/10/10s- citrus, thick, oily, hint of dryness, green. Energy to head already.
10/20/25- didn’t like drinking this very much so I stopped. Could be I increased time too fast, could be it needs more time to mellow. I have more sample, so I’ll try again later.

So this is the first of my samples from Crimson Lotus, just trying a few things out.
6g, 100ml gaiwan, 212F
Rinse- citrus, bright
10/10/15/10/10/16/16/20/30/30/40/40/1m/1/1/1/1/2/3/4/8
Started off soft and green with just the edge of bitter, bright and lemon. Middle moved to bittersweet, mouthcoating. I really felt the qi in these steeps – floatly and a lot of energy in my jaw.
Once I was past the flash steeps, sweet and green. A little bit drying, sweet, smooth. I lost time here.
Sweet, citrus and bittersweet continued until the end.
I like this one, probably better with a little more age though.

Surprisingly orange already for a 2014 sheng, the wonders of humid storage, I guess? Opens up with a hint of smoke and a distinct trace of Chinese medicinal taste that I think will grow stronger over time. It has a good amount of throat coating feeling as well as returning sweetness, although not initially sweet at all (unless you let the liquor drop to almost room temperature).

I brewed this gently at 205 degrees (prewarmed everything and one 5 sec rinse) which pushes out some noticeable astringency, but also a stronger medicinal taste if that’s your thing. I dislike astringency above all, so I opened the lid while brewing and after to cool down the overall temp and that dry teeth feeling. Not much bitterness and nice depth to explore with a leathery taste and feeling as the main character. I think this will be interesting to try again in a few years but it is quite drinkable now, although more dry feeling than I personally like.

Probably a good sheng, but it tastes like sheng, so…

Not astringent at all, which was nice. There was a sweet vegetal taste to it that was pleasant. Then there was the bitter sheng flavor.

I still have a few more sheng samples to try, so you may be seeing more of these reviews.

Free sample with my last order, thank you CLT. I used it to test the effects of one of my jian shu teapots compared with a gaiwan, and honestly, prefered it out of a gaiwan.

The teapot stole some of the sharper higher notes, and in this case the higher notes made this tea better. This tea is very clean, no off-flavors and no fermentation. I don’t remember any smokiness or bitterness as others have reported. Perhaps those notes are already transformed and this tea has moved on?

Classic sweet date flavor, mildly complex, and the aftertaste wasn’t too long, but there was a little. I preferred this much more than the 2008 Bulang shu which I bought a brick of, don’t get me wrong the 2008 is good but I like this 2014 vintage better. The brick still has more fermentation whereas this 2014 version has none.

This tea agreed with me and was easy on the stomach.

I don’t remember any chi from the first day I drank this. But the following day I mixed the tea from both gaiwan and teapot and grandpa brewed it and experienced a strong wave of energy and goosebumps, power, and strength. It was invigorating.

Decent longevity, it outlasted me and carried over to a second day. If there’s any left, I’ll be adding a brick to my next order.

I thought this was nice, but I am really no judge of puerh. At 15 second steeps they all taste the same to me, mildly sweet and mildly earthy. Still enjoyed it though.

Last session with this sample. Old Warrior feels appropriate for the times.

This is a smooth ripe with a hint of smokiness. I enjoy that. So much so that I pulled out a sandalwood incense to burn while I drank this. Upon further reflection, I am obsessed with pairing things.

But truly, a well done entry into the ripe catalog. Enjoyable and not too intrusive. Something to drink while focusing your mind and meditating on the Old Warrior within.

I purchased a sample size of this to try it along with a brick of the 2008 Imperial Bulang, a 220ml gaiwan, and a Basset Hound tea pet.

The dry leaves have a very clean scent. Almost non-existent. After a ten second rinse, the leaves have an earthy fermentation scent often associated with a ripe. There is definitely a wood scent as well.

First steep, the color is a lighter brown. Cinnamon caramel brown, perhaps. The taste is very light. You get just a hint of that woody flavor that relates to the scent of the wet leaves. Smooth too. Slides right down the throat.

Further along, the color deepens a bit. The flavor intensifies as well. I am a man who works with wood often. I cut and chop wood. I burn wood. I walk among the woods. This is very much a woody puerh. Think about walking in the woods and finding a tree that has been downed for a bit. Use a hatchet to split it open along the grain. Lean your nose in to that freshly cut wood. That is what I’m getting here.

Clean, earthy wood. I think that sums this up nicely. I don’t get much that says sweet but it is very smooth.

I believe this tea is pretty much my introduction to Jingmai sheng. I tried it both in my gaiwan and Jianshui teapot – I think it was better in the gaiwan. In this instance, the slower pour from the teapot didn’t do the tea any favors and it got some bitterness to it. So this note is really just going to be for the gaiwan session.

The first two steeps surprised me with their strong fruity notes, followed by a bit of a grassy finish. I couldn’t really place the fruit, though it was slightly reminiscent of apricots.

After those first two steeps, the fruitiness faded to a degree, with a grassy/hay flavor taking the fore. These next three or four steeps had a light and crisp flavor, with an only slightly thick texture. They were very refreshing.

The tea got a little bit lighter in flavor for the remaining steeps, though still nicely drinkable. The flavor became more grass/hay with fruity and floral echoes in the aftertaste – not the kind of aftertaste that completely fills the mouth really.

This is a pretty good tea – I think it would be especially awesome during the summer. Pretty simple – not a whole ton of change throughout the session (this is not a bad thing really), with a lighter texture – seems more about the high notes to me for sure. I didn’t notice a great amount of energy from this tea personally.

This is the 2016 orb edition:

This is my shortest note, and I was not impressed by this tea at all.

Dry: Nothing
Warm: Wet wood, grass
Steeped: Bitter, Kale
Taste: Bitter and grass, not good. I didn’t make it too far in the session.

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

I liked this last year, so I was excited to try again.

The leaves are long and lightly compressed. I take a deep inhale and identify sweet and woody tones with a back draft of smoke and very faint blackberry. The leaves carry dark and heavy scents. I warmed my teapot up and placed a fair amount inside. The warmed leaf gives off fragrant aromas of wet wood, nectar, crystallized honey, dough, and some bitters. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The brew begins sweet and very tasty. I can instantly pick up strong floral characters, for I can even smell flowers in the liquor. The brew is potent and thick with a brief huigan and some slight sour tones. This tea is quite good. The qi is instantaneous with calming and an alert feeling. I call this type of “talk tea”, for I suddenly had the urge to converse, haha, My friend and I had a political debate while I was drinking this which fueled the qi even more. The brew warmed and settled my stomach and refreshed me. I was quite happy while drinking this brew. The later steeping yields almond tones with some honey. The qi beautifully developed further and further and caused caught a zooming sensation. I liked this.

Note: My second session was not nearly the same. The tastes were off and muddled. The qi was more aggressive. The aromas were faint. I don’t know what the problem was. It may have been storage conditions, for it became much colder than my first session.

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

This tea is a bit more compressed than the rest of the 2016 lineup. I can hint at a light aroma of sweet wood, some green bean, and light honey with floral characters wafting off the leaves. I warmed my gaiwan up and placed a bit inside. The scent expanded to asparagus, some smoke, and a slightly sour tone. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The first steep has some minor sour characteristics, faint smoke, and a heavy vegetal base. This is a very bright tea, for the later steeping brought about an incredible amount of lemon flavor. I can take in some basil and other herbaceous tones. The huigan is swiftly brief but potent. The brew continues in this manner and doesn’t develop much further. The sweet aftertaste lapses between sips. I liked this tea, and it reminds me of spring. It’s a decent easy sipper. I did not note any qi apparent in this session.

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

I really don’t know where to start with this review, and this tea has me perplexed. It was my favorite of the 2016 offerings but nonetheless, I cannot describe it very well. I just enjoyed it a lot.

Aroma of leaves was green, fresh hay, a tinge of lime zest, and the freshness you experience from fresh cut pine or cedar or even mint. There has to be some phenol or natural alcohol in this tea giving that effect.

Gongfu brewing, gaiwan, flavor matched the name “whisper”, there was an ethereal quality about this tea, a softness, like a whisper. Imagine the feeling sitting in a quiet room, in the late afternoon, gazing out the window, as the heaviness of the sunlight fills the room and warms the air. You start to see the little particles of dust floating around in the sun beams. Its that complete stillness hugging you as you simply sit and just “be”. Literally, not waxing poetic, the name is totally befitting for this tea.

Again, why I like this tea I cannot articulate. Not much in the way of flavors, but there is a full body, velvety, thickness to it that is all pleasantness. It was relaxing, not sedating, and it made me comfortably dose off and fall into a gentle sleep at my desk, but I was not tired or feeling sedated.

This is a GREAT evening tea, its not intense, flavors are muted, its nice. The flavor is akin to smoke, not ash, but a gentle puff of smoke.

After about 10 steepings I started to push it and got more greeness and flavor, started becoming a bit drying in the mouth, but still pleasant. There is a gentle cleanness in this tea.

I didn’t even realize how much I enjoyed it until the next day and I wanted to drink it again. I approached this tea searching for specific qualities but this tea caught me by surprise. It didn’t have anything I was looking for, but I enjoyed everything it offered me and ordered a cake.

Not often I repeat the same tea two days in a row. Each other tea over the next few days just didn’t compare, there was something ethereal missing in those other teas that Whispering Sunshine has. I don’t know what it is though. It just kept calling me.

This tea reminds me of a jingmai pearl I once had from 2015.

The leaves are large, dark, and slightly aromatic. I pick up soft tones of Sichuan pepper, peppercorn, spices, and an underlying syrup sweetness. The Sichuan pepper note immediately brought me back to the jingmai pearl. I warmed my teapot and placed a fair amount inside. The scents changed into a roasted green, smoke, and bitters aroma. This tea brings about spice. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The taste begins heavy on the smoky side. This brew is fairly meaty with some grainy textures. The brew moves into some bitters, vinegars, and faint background of sweetness. Personally, I am not one for pungent tea or smoky. It’s just not up my alley. So, I did not continue my session. The aftertaste was odd, and I couldn’t quite place it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKvekc_A7Zk/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

I still really like the packing of these samples. I like the idea of reusing them to wrap random chunks of puerh I have in jars.

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

I had this tea quite a few days ago and was not impressed. I tried many different infusions of it and each infusion kept tasting like dirty socks. Just not my cup of tea.

FINALLY getting into my samples from CLT’s 2016 lineup. I feel like I ordered them months ago, but I’ve been out of state, so only got to unbox them about a week ago. I’ve been meaning to try some of their stuff basically since I got into puerh. I’m glad to report that this first one does not disappoint! The leaf from this one was pretty nice looking, and had a sort of floral hay aroma – I think I smelled a bit of smoke on it after a rinse, but that didn’t persist into the flavor of the tea.

Many teafriends I’ve spoken to online have issues with Lincang teas, but I have only had good experiences with them thus far. They tend to have a really nice sweetness and, again in my experience, not a whole lot of unpleasant bitterness or astringency.

The first two steeps here were floral, with just a touch of bitterness in the first steep. Soft and sweet with a literally mouthwatering huigan I tasted mostly in the corners of my mouth. That aftertaste was definitely the highlight at least of the early part of this session.

In the next three steeps, the floral notes dropped off a bit, displaced by a bit of a vegetal taste – the tea was still sweet and thickening up some. I noted just a minor astringency in a couple of these steeps. The aftertaste remained strong, having received most of the tea’s floral bouquet along with a sugarcane sweetness to round out the sip.

I got another 11 or so steeps out of this tea – that’s another thing I’ve noticed with Lincang teas, they seem to just go forever – all of which had mostly the same character. They were slightly bitter on the front of the sip, though this faded as I got towards the end of the session, with a vegetal or maybe herbal flavor, followed by a sweet finish – between floral and sugarcane. It maintained a moderate thickness. This tea never got super oily or creamy thick, but I could appreciate the body. If I had chosen to, I probably could have gotten a few more steeps off of it as well.

I found this better in the 100mL Jianshui teapot I also just got from CLT than in my gaiwan. I’m glad that I enjoy what it does with sheng so far, because it’s so pretty that even if it didn’t make as good of tea, I’d still find it hard to stop using it! After trying Hidden Song, I’m excited for the rest of CLT’s 2016 lineup, all of which I have samples of cakes of. Their sample packaging is also pretty neat – at first I thought it seemed a little insecure, but opening/closing the packaging a few times without spillage has assuaged my doubts.

When this tea was first released, CLT had a contest of sorts, in which anybody who could guess the song that was printed on the wrapper would receive a tong of this tea as a reward. During a google hangout with some teafriends, we spent probably a couple hours trying to guess what the song was using only the notes which were visible from the front of the wrapper, as none of us had a complete cake. Needless to say, we failed, but while drinking this tea, I found myself chuckling at the memory a couple times :)

I don’t know if I was supposed to keep that a secret or not – oh well.

Sample obtained through the Pu’erh Plus TTB and prepared in a gongfu session, with a ceramic gaiwan. I gave the leaf a 3-second rinse and no rest. Steeping times: 5 seconds, 8, 10, 12, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 45, 60, 90; 2 minutes, 4, 10.

I’m going to kick off this review my saying that, during the four months since I took the sample from the box, I think I inadvertently dried the humidity out of the leaf.

The dry leaf smells of tobacco, light apricot, and black pepper all at once. Having sat in the pre-heated gaiwan brought out more apricot and a little smoke. The wet leaf in the beginning of the session smells of the field grass, then changes to apricot in the middle.

The soup color is golden. Infusions 1 through 4 are incredibly sweet with apricot – with a little bitterness underneath – and have strong huigan. After the second, the soup has energetic mouthfeel. 3’s texture is thick and oily. I reheated the water to boiling since the temperature had fallen to 195-200. I would later confirm that infusing the leaf in 200< degree water produces sweetness. Boiling brings out bitterness as well. Infusions 5-8 taste of camphor and black pepper as well as a continuing apricot. The more I let the soup sit in my mouth, the more peppery it is. There is a cooling effect upon swallowing. At this point and this point only I feel qi, which is induces relaxation. (Maaaaybe because I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. I started feeling nauseated just before my break – HEY I ACTUALLY NEED TO EAT, I remembered. Quickly fixed.)

After the first break, I go through 9-11. The soup tastes more bitter – same intensity as the apricot note. The bitterness strengthens in the aftertaste. The texture has become creamy.

Another, longer break. 12-14 mostly have bitter, grass notes with slight huigan. (I didn’t feel like boiling the leaf as the website suggests because I was hungry (just came back from exercising and all).)

I was not expecting to get tea drunk off of this.

This tea has a very pungent fruity smell with a light mint finish to it. It reminds me of menthol or light smoke in the smell. The apricot is distinct and delicious as well. I could only wish to have this bottled into a perfume of some kind. The taste is crisp, clean, clear, and most of all delicious. The vegetal flavor with its smokiness makes it a unique tea experience. This tea deserves to be drunk gong fu style and no other style. There is very little to no astringency in this tea which makes me love it so much more.