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Dry leaves are whole and intact. That aroma! Wow, the aroma of the dried leaves is very strong and translates into the tea. One of the best parts of young sheng is that stone fruit honeysuckle apricot aroma.

I brewed this 3 steepings at a time, mixed together in a chahai/pitcher. Each set was different. This tea is interesting, and different in each set. I think I’ll need to break this tea down to separate steepings to fully explore its nuances.

First impressions: Once hot water hit the leaves there was a remnant of a very rich sweet burnt sugar/antifreeze-like smell, maybe remnants of processing? But it went away after the first steeping. Very mild flavor, malty sweet, very full body. Very full body (worth repeating). Thick liquor with lots of bubbles. Underwhelming flavor at first.

Second set: Slight sour/astringency and subtle bitterness developed throughout the session, then converted into a long lingering sweetness and long lasting aftertaste. Not much flavor complexity. Grassy honeysuckle dew.

Third set: Here’s where the huigans started along with throat cooling effect. The gentle bitterness has faded but that aftertaste keeps building. Its wonderful to see it develop throughout the session.

Good longevity, lasted over 10 steepings without fading.

No chaqi.

Last thoughts: Seems a bit too raw for me at the moment. Very pleasant, but stomach was a bit uneasy. I may need to let it get some age. I think I’ll revisit this tea in a few months.

Brewed in bone china gaiwan, 2x rinse, gongfu

looks/smells/tastes like Camelia taliensis, mostly buds. Never had taliensis gushu before, but taliensis is distinct for anyone who’s had it. You can try Hojo’s Feng Qing Wild White tea if you’re curious, its comparable to Secret Forest, but Secret Forest has much stronger aftertaste/flavors. Maybe because Secret Forest is a puerh not a white tea, its maocha and wasn’t steamed/pressed into cake, and its probably from an older tree.

Opened the bag and never smelled something so strong and pleasant. Aromas mirrored the flavor. Strong apricot, stone fruits, and I’ve found taliensis has a dankness almost like hops, can’t figure out how else to describe it. Sweet muscatel.

After one cup I got body massaging chaqi and my whole body covered in goosebumps, but it didn’t return. Energy then went to my head and stayed there the rest of the session. Later sessions I didn’t get any chi.

Lots of longevity. But the problem I’ve seen with taliensis is that it lacks complexity needed to keep it interesting through its longevity. After a while I move on to another tea.

Final thoughts: A session with this tea takes me through about 3 phases. Its like young sheng up front, a white tea in the middle, and finishes like a black tea or even oriental beauty. It oxidizes in a matter of hours in the gaiwan. So the length of each ‘phase’ depends how long you let it oxidize. Initial steeps are yellowish-green, progressively turning darker and darker until you’ve got dark amber liquor at the end of a session after maybe 2 hours.

My latest obsession…puerh stuffed Xinhui mandarin. For the price, very underwhelming. No off flavors or wet storage, pretty clean, except a dominant taste of paper. Perhaps the paper wrapper that’s sealed inside plastic has affected the taste? I’ll leave some to air out for a bit to see if that goes away, update review as necessary.

Very pleasant and complex aromas, I am blown away by the smell. So yummy and relaxing, pleasant, just simply pleasant. Saying “citrus” doesn’t do it justice. It smells similar to the liqueur Grand Marnier. Musty earthy citrus herbal.

Aromas didn’t manifest into flavors unfortunately. Liquor was thinner than I prefer in shu, and pretty flat. Didn’t really get much complexity, much flavor, or even much ripe puerh flavors at all. Dominant paper taste with a tinge of herbal citrus.

Someone else said it was smoky, there was no smokiness in mine. Used gaiwan.

Hope Crimson Lotus continues to deliver more teas like this one. Total blind buy without sampling, but based on other Jingmai teas I’ve had from Crimson Lotus I couldn’t pass up an 8-year old Jingmai maocha. It was totally worth the gamble. And it paid off! Wow! High quality material, clean, no off flavors, really good sheng.

This is an interesting tea. At first I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but don’t think I used enough tea initially so I held back those tasting notes, and used a lot more tea in later sessions.

It brews a really nice amber color, on the lighter side of amber, but what I expect from a 2008ish sheng. Signature Jingmai honeysuckle and honeydew, less-so than some other younger Jingmai shengs, and an underlying creaminess that brings it all together.

It still leans to the bitter side but quickly turns into sweetness, and a gentle astringency that causes my mouth to water…if a tea can be juicy then this one is juicy. Nice mouth buzz from first 4-5 steepings that fades away after that. Very long lasting pleasant aftertaste, one that you don’t want to eat anything because it may ruin your palate and the flavors you’re enjoying. This speaks to the concentration of polyphenols and minerals in these leaves. High quality stuff! I absolutely love these aspects of shengs, and what I look most for in mid-age shengs.

Large thick and intact leaves, beautiful to look at.

Very slight huigan, no camphor, qi is relaxing and gentle. Not getting any caffeine kicks or jitters, and around steeping 10 I started getting a bit tea-buzzed and had to eat something.

After about 12 steepings it started getting straight bitter, which means I probably need to be fine-tune my steepings later in each session, or pay attention more. In my own defense, this tea had me buzzed :) Some longevity! Its outlasted me every single time with 12+ steepings consistently.

The strength and qualities of this tea give me a really good sense that it has lots of potential for long-term aging, and that its not even close to hitting its peak. But after 8 years, it also has me wondering if there is a bit of younger material blended in? How can this tea reach this level of bitterness after 8 years as maocha?

High quality material, glad it was left to age in Jingmai for 8 years. I’m really looking forward to growing with this tea, and only wish I had more!!

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.

As of now its my fav young-er shu. No wudoi or fermentation flavor. On the sweeter side of shu probably because its golden tips. Not drying, nor astringent. Medium body, very smooth, easy to drink, easy on the stomach. Its my daily drinker. Gives me a slight boost of calming energy (if that makes sense) without the caffeine jitters. First sip is honey with earth, then a bit of mouth watering without any flavor, then the almond honey aftertaste appears a few minutes later. Extremely pleasant and lasting aftertaste.

At first it seemed underwhelming because the flavor faded quickly, but this tea is about the aftertaste. The more I drank it the more I mixed it into my “shu” rotation, and found myself coming back to it and preferring it over my others. I understand why it sold out so fast. I hesitated ordering it initially, and then saw it was sold out, so I asked anyway and luckily Hojo let me buy one of his last 2 cakes (which I suspect he was keeping for himself).

Brewing: two flash rinses in a gaiwan then put the wet tea into a tumbler and brewed it grandpa style, topping it off with more hot water as it gets low. Medium longevity, lasts me 1.5-2 Liter tumblers with 5g tea.

First experience with Crimson Lotus tea and pleasantly surprised. Straight up honeysuckle, honey, gentle sweet flavor, very pleasant to drink, nice longevity, but didn’t get any chi. I was confused how a 300 year old tree could have no chi? I’ll see if this changes in later sessions and update review then.

Lasting huigans, gentle bitter/astringency that converted to gentle sweet lingering honeysuckle which is one feature of shengs I love most!

I enjoyed this tea. it was entirely pleasant and mellow and you could tell made with quality material. I think these will age well. I will buy another 5-10 balls and see what happens to them over the years.

brewing: 2 flash rinses with reused rinse water, so water was cooler each time. Didn’t want to fatigue the exterior leaves while I tried to hydrate the interior. The interior was packed very hard and was dry even when the outter leaves were soaked and loose. After 2-3 rinses, I left lid on teapot for 1 hour 45 minutes and then came back and gave it another flash rinse with boiling water. Then when it cooled enough I used my hands to slowly and gently separate the ball leaf by leaf until it was completely loose maocha. Then I started my gongfu sessions.