I am guilty of buying tea for wrapper art and concept. I didn’t even see what Crimson Lotus Tea’s 2020 The Way Shou Puer was made of, I just clicked buy. My nerding of Star Wars knows no bounds.
The Aurebesh looking font is hella cool.
2020 The Way shou is a blend containing ample LaoManE and promised to be dark and rich.
Leaf and Steeping Method
The leaves smell acidic cinnamon and earthly.
I used 1 gram of leaf per 15ml of vessel size, gongfu style steeping in boiling water. After a rinse, the leaf smells of hot earth, aspirin, and caramel.
Tasting of Crimson Lotus Tea’s 2020 The Way Shou Puer
First and Second Infusion: 2020 The Way Shou is dark, rich, aspirin earth with a touch of sweetness and acidic swirled in the aftertaste. The Way is heavy in the LaoManE material, showing off that well done bitterness.
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Infusion: Darth Hoot and Admiral Owl Thrawn want in on the tea action.
2020 The Way Shou reminds me of when making honeycomb caramel as there is a baking soda bitterness and caramel combo, just like the scent when you add baking soda to the caramel. If you get past the bitterness, the tea is bittersweet dark chocolate with burnt caramel, so under the scary first impression is a sweetheart.
Sixth and Seventh Infusion: 2020 The Way Shou is starting to lighten in flavor here, sipping in bittersweet baking chocolate before switching to the bitterness. I found these the best steepings as the rich bitterness is fading and is more balanced and brothy, dancing between savory earth, bitter, and chocolate. “Artistically done!” Owl Thrawn exclaimed.
Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Infusion: This tea is now giving off a sandalwood incense flavor with a rock sugar finish. 2020 The Way Shou slips in flavor, it goes mineral and sugar before going too light to steep.
Comments
Bitter shou is on trend these days and The Way is a great shou if you love bud heavy and bitter profiles. Crimson Lotus Tea’s 2020 The Way Shou is a burly rich, bitter shou with some bittersweet chocolate base, it lasts quite a few infusions before settling down to sweeter profiles.
The Way, at this time of writing, is $44.99 for a 200 gram cake. Another fun tea Crimson Lotus Tea has done in the past was That’s No Moon, though that appears to be sold out now. Either way, Crimson Lotus Tea does excellent shou puer!
