2013 Lucky Cloud

Tea type
Pu'erh Tea
Ingredients
Pu Erh Tea
Flavors
Almond, Cacao, Chocolate, Creamy, Malt, Medicinal, Mineral, Moss, Round, Smooth, Umami, Wet Rocks, Cream, Earth, Powdered Sugar, Red Fruits, Strawberry, Vanilla, Honeydew, Sweet, Pastries, Wood, Coffee, Fruity, Roasted, Autumn Leaf Pile, Forest Floor, Caramel, Peat, Plum, Wet Earth
Sold in
Bulk, Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Crimson Lotus Tea
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 4 oz / 120 ml

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11 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Smell- Not too much here, clean. Moss rock thing, and nori. 1st – 3rd Steeping This was a clean brewing , and a red brown, garnet liquor. Smooth. It had a malty nutty character which came as a...” Read full tasting note
    89
  • “Gongfu! Finishing off seven days of shou pu’erh with a tea session enjoyed in the park!! Jingmai productions of ripe pu’erh were some of the very first I ever found to be enjoyable, back when I was...” Read full tasting note
  • “First steep tasted like honeydew and sweetness, which is a rare treat! Usually shou don’t start tasting sweet until steep 3. Oddly the funkiness often associated with shou was stronger in steep 2...” Read full tasting note
    87
  • “Sample out of my last CLT order. Pleasant shou. I’d describe it as a little bit “airier” than most shou – maybe that’s in part because of the name, who knows. Texture and flavor were both...” Read full tasting note

From Crimson Lotus Tea

This shou puerh is made 100% from Jingmai material. You don’t see a lot of pure material Jingmai shou puerh on the market. We’re pleased to be able to offer this one. We have blogged about Jingmai. This is a bud heavy blend of Jingmai material processed just outside of the Jingmai growing area in Huimin.

About Crimson Lotus Tea View company

Company description not available.

11 Tasting Notes

89
22 tasting notes

Smell- Not too much here, clean. Moss rock thing, and nori.

1st – 3rd Steeping This was a clean brewing , and a red brown, garnet liquor. Smooth. It had a malty nutty character which came as a surprise. Plenty of medicinal flavors though too, that balloon, latex glove thing.

4th-6th steepings: The tea has really opened up brewing a dark, opaque, chocolate liquor. Mineral, with a quite subdued earthy woody tones that you normally associate with a shou. Clean, malty smooth, chocolaty, mineral, a more wet rock character where the pile or, woody/earthy would live. A decent body, but no super thick. Finishes with some medium sweetness, and almost no bitterness. The latex/rubber balloons taste rolled off somewhere in here…

This was a nice surprise, it had a nice mellow character, and not overly earthy, and woody. It had a more of a black tea character, with malty-ness, and chocolate to it which I totally did not expect.

I’m not sure if I stressed the mineral character of the tea enough, its very chocolate, and sweet, smooth but the mineral things is very interesting for me in this one.

In the early steeps, it definitely had some medicinal tastes to it. This dissipated, and rounds out with sweetness quite nicely. I love Jingmai teas!

Flavors: Almond, Cacao, Chocolate, Creamy, Malt, Medicinal, Mineral, Moss, Round, Smooth, Umami, Wet Rocks

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

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16414 tasting notes

Gongfu!

Finishing off seven days of shou pu’erh with a tea session enjoyed in the park!! Jingmai productions of ripe pu’erh were some of the very first I ever found to be enjoyable, back when I was really first starting to build an appreciation for this style of tea – so they hold a bit of an extra special place in my heart. I found this one to be slick and syrupy in terms of mouthfeel, with a flavour profile that was about as rich and starchy as it was brothy and earthy. Kind of like a savory porridge type of flavour, but with elements of beets and brown sugar in the mix too.

This past week of enjoying only gongfu sessions of shou has been really interesting. Of course, outside of gongfu, I drank other tea types and blends throughout the week as well. However, really sticking to one tea type in such short of a time span is something I haven’t done in years. I felt it really made me focus on the qualities I love about shou while at the same time really showcasing just how widespread the different tasting notes can be within just the one style of pu’erh. I am excited to switch things up again next week, but I wouldn’t surprise myself if I decide to repeat this exercise with a different tea type sooner rather than later…

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CxTJ7ObO_n3/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XQTrLq6M8Y

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87
27 tasting notes

First steep tasted like honeydew and sweetness, which is a rare treat! Usually shou don’t start tasting sweet until steep 3. Oddly the funkiness often associated with shou was stronger in steep 2 and 3 than 1. Oh well, I’m not complaining.

This might be the easiest shou I’ve had.

Flavors: Honeydew, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 6 g 4 OZ / 110 ML

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485 tasting notes

Sample out of my last CLT order. Pleasant shou. I’d describe it as a little bit “airier” than most shou – maybe that’s in part because of the name, who knows. Texture and flavor were both smooth, moderately thick body. Sweet flavors – pastry and a little bit of woodiness. Definitely easy drinking and tasty – I think I prefer a bit more body, to my shou, but would not be at all upset to have more of this around.

Flavors: Pastries, Smooth, Sweet, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 8 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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81
75 tasting notes

Yum yum. I keep really liking each shou that I try. I’m so glad that Crimson Lotus has free shipping on samples, so I got to try this. I’m gongfu brewing it, and am only on my second steep. It tastes sweet, and not bitter, but then leaves a sort of bitter aftertaste I think? There’s something about it that reminds me of pretzels, which is funny. Maybe that’s the roasted flavor that’s in the description. I’m having so much fun trying out puerh!
I’m also getting kind of sleepy drinking this, so I guess it’s a soothing tea for me, in addition to tasting nice.

I rinsed it twice as the instructions suggested, and am not getting any fishy taste.

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7 tasting notes

It has been awhile since I’ve had this one, I think I’m on my 7th or 8th steep now and it’s still going strong.

Nice full bodied, easy drinker. I’m starting to get the tea sweats but that may be because it’s 28℃ here today. I can’t wait until we get back into the cool fall temperatures and I can sit outside and enjoy my shou

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123 tasting notes

This is the first Crimson Lotus tea that I’ve tried (I’m waiting for the 2017 sheng to come out). I’ve had the cake sitting in my pumidor for a month or two as I like to give pu’er plenty of time to make themselves at home. The bing itself is quite nice looking, with minimal amount of dust and debris sitting at the bottom of the wrapper. The cake is satisfyingly soft and easy to break thin, intact chunks from, but does not totally come apart on its own like the Yong De Blue Label I reviewed earlier.

I used 11g of leaf in my 160ml Jianshui clay teapot, giving the leaves a brief 10s rinse followed by a 10 min. rest before I began brewing. I did a total of eleven steeps, for 13s, 13s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 50s, 80s, 2 min., 3 min. and 4 min. according to my mental clock. Like with the dry leaf, the wet leaves didn’t have a very strong aroma. Following the rinse, they had a smell of dark, sweet hay, which is within the typical shu pu’er spectrum.

As I was using primarily chunks that were about the size of a coin and didn’t rinse the tea for that long, the color of the first steep was still somewhat pale as was to be expected. It did have some body and a surprising amount of sweetness for a first infusion. At first the tea came across as a pretty typical shu pu’er, but as I was sipping my second cup, I felt there was something different about this tea. Part of it had to do with flavor, but more so it was about the sense I got from the tea. Hard to say if I was imagining it, but it felt to me like the tea may have had a slight cooling sensation and perhaps even made you feel slightly good. Especially for a first infusion, the steep was actually very nice.

The second steep produced a much darker liquor as one would expect. There was also more body and hints of coffee and maybe a bit of chocolate in the taste, with the tea leaving a dark chocolate bitterness lingering in your mouth. A nice infusion. The following third steep was almost totally black, with only a slight red hue revealing that it was in fact not coffee. The tea had much less body now, while the flavor had shifted back towards a sweeter profile with some of the coffee/chocolate still going on. There was also something in the aftertaste I didn’t quite recognize. I also noticed that the tea made your saliva taste sweet in your mouth.

The fourth infusion remained nearly as dark, with the tea having more body again. There was less sweetness and the flavors had shifted towards a darker part of the spectrum. I tasted slightly roasted and nutty flavors, with still small hints of the coffee/roasted coffee bean going on. I quite liked this infusion. It had a nice body and was very pleasing to drink.

The color of the fifth infusion was still quite dark, but not quite as dark as before. There was also less body than in the last steep, but still some. It kind of felt like the tea caused your saliva the thicken in your mouth. It had a different kind of sweetness to it than before, and as the tea cooled down a little it got even more sweeter and almost syrupy. The next infusion was still a fairly dark brownish red, but by this point the liquor was getting noticeably lighter. The taste now had a much more noticeable mineraly character, which even extends to how I would probably describe the sweetness. Again, I did not really spend time confirming this, but it felt like there may have been some mouth cooling going on. The tea was still performing well, but based on past experience, I got the sense that we were probably exiting the middle steeps and entering the late steeps now. The flavors were coming across as perhaps somewhat thinner without being watery or necessarily weak in strength. I have no complaints about this infusion, even though it wasn’t necessarily as solid as earlier steeps. The aftertaste was again somewhat mineraly in the beginning and developed into something quite nice over time.

Surprisingly the following infusion was still about as dark as the last one and it still retained a bit of body. The flavors changed again. I’m not sure how to describe the taste, but I liked it. While the tea tasted great, at the same time for me personally this infusion felt like it was more about things besides the flavor – how it felt and how it made you feel – attributes that I appreciate most about great tea. I must say this infusion was really darn nice, especially for a this late steep. Even though this tea offered many excellent infusions, I would say this one was definitely my favorite from this session.

The next steep was the eighth. It had a much lighter color. Despite this, the tea still maintained a very stable strength. Again the sweetness present in the tea was slightly different from before, although this infusion wasn’t predominantly sweet. I might describe it as a slightly berrylike sweetness, but I’m not sure. The flavors became darker in the next infusion. Less sweet, while still maintaining a good amount of flavor.

I happened to take a smell of the leaves before drinking the tenth steeping and they had a surprisingly pleasant smell to them. After some pondering I came to the conclusion that they smelled like nectarine, or at least I believe that’s the correct fruit. I haven’t had it since my childhood, but I’m talking about a fruit with a fuzzy skin and not an entirely sweet taste to it. The liquor itself had a considerably lighter color to it now, but in terms of flavor it hadn’t lost that much strength and it was still very drinkable. The tea had a prominent fruity sweetness to it now and it was quite surprising how sweet the tea actually was. The aftertaste that the tea left in your mouth was most definitely nectarine or whatever fruit it was that I smelled in the leaves. The tea may have still even had some body to it.

I did try doing an eleventh steeping, but although the taste wasn’t necessarily watery, the color was very light now and the flavors were starting to thin out considerably. There was however a huge amount of sweetness to the tea still, although the aftertaste wasn’t necessarily the most pleasant. I probably wouldn’t recommend stretching this tea too far, but your results may vary so experiment.

Overall this was a really excellent tea, and I’m really happy to say that about a shu pu’er. So far I’ve had trouble developing an appreciation for shu pu’er and finding a tea that I genuinely like, but this tea was a very pleasant surprise and excellent from start to finish. The tea is dynamic, interesting, rewarding, and the longevity is about what you’d expect from a ripe pu’er, if not slightly above average. I try to reserve the “Recommended” stamp to only teas I would buy more of myself if I ran out and I’ve only given it to one tea before this, but I’m happy to say that Lucky Cloud now joins that group. I will have to try out more ripe pu’ers to see what I like, but unless I find other teas that I like even way more than this one, I’ll likely be ordering at least a cake or two if not a whole tong, provided it does not sell out before then. Crimson Lotus did an excellent job sourcing this one and now I probably have no option but to sample their other shu pu’ers as well.

Flavors: Chocolate, Coffee, Fruity, Mineral, Roasted, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 11 g 5 OZ / 160 ML

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80
77 tasting notes

A few weeks ago, I was shaking the water out of my beautiful little 70 ml (an awesome size!) xishi Jianshui clay pot from Crimson Lotus when I lost my grip on the down stroke, and I basically did what amounted to throwing my pot into our porcelain farmer sink in the kitchen with quite a bit of force. As you can imagine, it shattered into many pieces. These are wonderfully crafted pots, and I highly recommend them. I don’t recommend slamming them onto hard surfaces. :-( I immediately ordered another pot, and included with the replacement pot was a sample of 2013 Lucky Cloud shou pu’erh. Hopefully this “lucky cloud” will shade me for awhile, so I don’t ruin any more teaware. The sample provided was high quality, outer edge cake, nearly completely intact with very little loose tea leaves.

Below is the teapot:
https://crimsonlotustea.com/collections/teapots/products/jianshui-zitao-clay-teapot-xishi-style-red-70-110ml-free-shipping

Smooth and creamy is how Crimson Lotus describes this shou pu’erh, and that is an accurate description. This would make an excellent daily drinker, and I think it would appeal to many new shou pu’erh tea drinkers, and maybe some experienced ones, as well, depending on what taste profile is desired.

Dry leaf aroma was earthy, leaf pile, and subtle. It required getting the nose right on the leaves to pick up any aroma. Wet leaf smell is classic shou pu’erh — earthy, mulchy, life pile, forest floor.

I brewed this in a very small ~50 ml porcelain gaiwan. One rinse with boiling water, another quick rinse with just off the boil water, and a first steep of 10 seconds. Liquor was dark brown on the first steep. First infusion was mellow and so smooth. No bitterness. No astringency. No fishiness. No throat feeling. Very little aftertaste. Mouth remained wet. Faintly sweet.

Second infusion was for 30 seconds. Liquor now very dark brown with some slight redness. Taste remained much the same.

Third infusion was also for 30 seconds. Liquor remained the same dark, reddish brown. Taste changed to sweeter and some maltiness.

Four infusion of 40 seconds has more sweetness. I’m getting a small amount of mild mouth drying after about a minute. Astringency and perhaps some bitterness (if that’s your thing) may be able to be pulled from this shou pu’erh with long infusions. I’m on the fence on trying it, because it is so good in this mellow form. Oh what the heck, let’s go for it.

Fifth infusion. 3 mins. I’m surprised. I thought it would be more bitter and astringent, but this is the 5th infusion. It’s there. There is some astringency at first on the back of my tongue and then the front of the tongue as some time passes after each sip, but it isn’t a strong, chalky drying action. It is slight. Bitterness is so slight at this longer infusion, it’s hardly worth mentioning. The maltiness is still there.

Sixth infusion. 45 seconds. Color of liquor now a medium brown and I can see the bottom of my teacup. Sweet, mineral, no bitterness, no astringency, mild earthy note, no maltiness now in the later infusions if the steeping time is kept short.

So, I said that I think this would appeal to new shou pu’erh drinkers, and some experienced drinkers. This shou pu’erh is a very good drinking tea. It has no negative qualities. For some experienced drinkers, I think there is often the desire to find something unusual and new, layers of complexity, even if some of those layers aren’t what one would normally think of as delicious traits. This tea delivers a smooth and delicious shou pu’erh experience that remains predictably consistent across many infusions. It is tolerant of wide steeping parameters. I experienced no chi, no increase or decrease of body temperate, and had no visions, but I consider myself lucky to have started my day with the delicious Lucky Cloud.

Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Earth, Forest Floor, Mineral, Sweet

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 2 g 1 OZ / 40 ML

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90
109 tasting notes

First tasting of today is Crimson Lotus 2013 lucky cloud. This is a very dark medium sized cake, rather tightly compressed. This is one of the first full cakes Ive gotten instead of samples, so the first order of business was breaking into the cake. Since I dont have a puerh pick, I found a small thin cheese knife instead and worked it around the edge. Breaking off a about a 3 1/3 gram piece, then I scraped up a few of the broken pieces that fell off and in the yixing they all go, it was a bit over 4 grams total.

Giving it a quick wash that was all it needed, a single wash. It produced a clear very light brown liquor, giving it a good smell, a tiny sip and then tossing the rest of the wash, I decided it was ready to infuse.

The first infusion produced a very dark brown liquor as the leaves opened up, an aroma of peat, plums and caramel greeted me. And though it had a very slight fermentation aroma it wasnt at all unpleasant, it came out smooth and clean. The broth was sweet, smooth and with a nice pleasant aftertaste.

The second infusion was much darker producing a nearly black liquor that was dark,creamy, smooth and sweet. The flavor was a little more intense and actually made my tongue tingle a little. This is a very nice tea with a good mouth feel and a smooth sweetness. Dont let the dark color fool you, this is a wonderful afternoon sipping tea.

The third infusion was about the same darkness, showing this tea was going to have alot of staying power, the taste and aroma might be even a bit stronger. The slight tingle got a bit more pronounced. I really like this tea alot.. it would go well with strong foods, ones that you might think would overpower the tea.

The fourth was the same as the third, again showing the staying power of a good shou puerh. The flavors and aromas are staying pretty consistent at this point, the umami might be getting a bit more pronounced though, as well as the mouthfeel getting a bit more intense as well.

Im going to go finish up this tea, but I have a feeling Ill be steeping this for a while.

I highly recomend this to anyone who likes shou puerh! This is going up there with my favorite tea!

Flavors: Cacao, Caramel, Peat, Plum

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 4 tsp 3 OZ / 80 ML

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67 tasting notes

Pleasant, relaxing, easy drinking shu, good for after dinner or evening tea.

Very clean, no fermentation flavors, smooth and delicious. Subtle ripe plums. Drying finish for first 3-4 steepings, then it was mouth watering til the end. No aftertaste, flavors faded as soon as you swallow. Mid-full bodied mouthfeel.

Almost a slight camphor cooling thing going on about 3/4 of the way through my whole session, but only when the tea had cooled down to room temperature. I wouldn’t consider it huigan though.

Relaxing, not getting caffeine jitters. Soothing to the stomach.

Made me sweat a little towards the end but that soon passed.

Nice longevity, well over 12 steepings.

Steeped in Crimson Lotus jian shui dragon egg 100mL teapot. Love this little guy! Someone said this same tea in maocha form (that came in jian shui jar) had unpleasant fermentation and was bitter. I got neither fermentation nor bitterness. Perhaps this jianshui teapot removed those flavors or they disappeared during pressing into cakes? I’ll have to test this tea in a gaiwan and update if necessary. (http://steepster.com/AllanK/posts/338033)

2x rinse, gongfu session

At $.16/g this is an easy affordable choice for a daily shu to drink now. I may pick up another cake or two for that reason. I’m not sure if more age will improve this any, so this is a tea I’ll be drinking now and not sitting on.

Flavors: Plum, Wet Earth

tperez

Those jian shui pots are so nice! I picked up two

andresito

aren’t they?! I’m considering getting another one :)

bo-dot-scott

Could you guys post pics of your Jian Shui pots? I’m considering buying one, but I’d love to see some pics/ hear some comments on potential size. I’m leaning towards a 70ml one, since I’m usually the only tea drinker at home.

bo-dot-scott

—I live in India, in case you wondering why this post came so late in the evening.

andresito

Here’s the link. I have black 100mL dragon egg. http://crimsonlotustea.com/collections/teapots/jianshui-2016

andresito

I’m happy with the 100mL teapot, although if I did it over I would have bought a 90mL one. The knob on the lid and teapot handle are proportionate to the teapot in appearance, but functionally they’re a bit small on the 100mL. I wonder if they’re even smaller on a 70mL, to the point I would not be able to use it easily.

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