Country of Origin: China
Leaf Appearance: bright green, finely ground
Water Temperature: 212 degrees
Steep Time: 5-10 seconds
Preparation Method: porcelain gaiwan
Liquor: gold
I’m a sucker for a great cake wrapper so I was super excited when Crimson Lotus Tea sent me the 2023 edition of their Space Girls Sheng Puerh. It is unique because it comes packaged as four 50g cakes in a mini tong. They are each wrapped in a different watercolor by Seattle artist Stasia Burrington from her Cosmonauts series. I have been a fan of her artwork ever since I bought their 2018 Daydream. The framed wrapper hangs on the wall in my tea area.
Space Girls is a single mountain sheng puerh tea blend made with material from Nannuo Shan. It can be purchased from either their China or Seattle inventories. It’s super convenient to be able to choose where you would like to ship from.
Leaf
Having several smaller cakes is convenient because it makes it easier to split them up without making a big mess. The dry leaves were mostly whole with a nice mix of colors. They were not super compressed so I was easily able to break off pieces with a puerh needle. I just had to use my tiny 50ml pinkish purple gaiwan that was made by Inge Nielsen to brew this tea. I used full boiling water with flash steeps of under 10 seconds. That steep time was gradually increased towards the end of my session to maintain its strength and body.
Liquor
Space Girls brewed up a gold liquor with lots of trichomes floating around in it. The taste was super floral yet also vegetal in a crisp, sweet way. There was some astringency but that quickly transitioned to a pleasant and long-lasting hui gan. It had an almost juicy quality, making my mouth water after each sip. I would recommend this tea to anyone who enjoys floral puerh teas that aren’t overly punchy. It might even make a good introduction to this category. Keep your steeps short, but using fully boiling water will help make sure you extract all of those wonderful aromatics.
Have you had a chance to try Crimson Lotus Tea’s Space Girls 2023 Sheng Puerh? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
Space Girls 2023 Sheng Puerh was provided for review by Crimson Lotus Tea.
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