Today’s tea is Crimson Lotus Tea’s 2020 Believe Sheng Puer another cool young sheng with a space themed wrapper!
2020 Believe is described as “crisp IPA style bitterness”. Sadly I just have the sample pack – Believe is cool enough to own just for the wrapper – but thankfully Crimson Lotus Tea does good sample packaging.
Leaf and Steeping Method
The dry leaf has a soft zesty scent.
My gongfu ratio is 1 gram of leaf per 15ml of vessel size, steeped at a boil. After a rinse, 2020 Believe continues the tangy scent, opening up more of pomelo citrus with looming astringency.
Tasting of Crimson Lotus Tea’s 2020 Believe Sheng Puer
First and Second Infusion: Crimson Lotus Tea’s 2020 Believe starts off buttery in texture, and immediately heavily aromatic floral sweet pomelo and grapefruit. Some sips are golden straw, but mainly the heavy aroma dominates the taste and lingers for a long time in the aftertaste.
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Infusion: Believe runs in strong with bitter, hops, with sour citrus grapefruit floral, continuing with a floral heavy aftertaste. The tea is starting to dry my gums, but still pretty pleasant in texture as it’s thick. I am also getting a bit of a head tickle from drinking this tea.
Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Infusion: In the final stretch, Believe grows even more potent but mostly in the bitterness and astringency department. It’s tangy pithy citrus and wheaty, with hints of floral.
Comments
Crimson Lotus Tea’s 2020 Believe Sheng Puer is an engaging potent sheng with an interesting play of bitter citrus that grows with each sip, but with excellent heavy aromatic citrus floral.
If you love bitter teas as well as aromatic ones, this one is a fun one with a pretty wrapper to boot! It’s like a LaomanE with floral. If you prefer all bittnerss and no floral, go for Crimson Lotus Tea’s Stone Lion.
(tea provided for review)
