Matu Send Message

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.