Review: The Dark Planet - Crimson Lotus Tea

Type: Pu'erh (Shou)
Producer: Crimson Lotus Tea
Origin: Menghai, Yunnan; 2013
Brewing Parameters: 6-9 g; 100°C; 5s up in Gongfu style
Appearance: Small, compressed ball with light to dark brown leaves
Rating: B | 83/100
# of Brews: 6

Tasting Notes and Thoughts
So, I was given Crimson Lotus Tea's Puerh Yunniverse tasting set for Christmas this year, which means that we're doing another set of themed reviews! Although I'm usually not a puerh drinker (and a shou puerh drinker at that), I love these little single serving tea balls. I don't know why– it's probably just the convenience or the fact that I never actually drink puerh that often. Anyway, I'm excited to try this. I'm following CLT's suggested brewing style, with a couple of rinses before to open the ball up.

Surprisingly, this tea didn't take that much work to open up. It kind of fell apart after the first wash. As a whole, the leaves are relatively small, but not broken up. The tea has a smell– sort of musty, fishy (shrimp or crab), and like old books. The color is a very nice dark amber, similar to unrefined apple juice.

For the first brew, the taste was relatively weak (probably because I only brewed for 5 seconds). It had an earthy and mineral sweetness, with a very light fruity/citrusy aftertaste. It's not bitter at all– something I didn't expect– and had very little astringency; in fact, the mouthfeel was generally smooth.

As it went on, the brew became more orange-red and clear. I increased the brewing time by 5 seconds each subsequent brew, and it worked out pretty well. The flavor became a bit more sour and the mineral flavor was much more pronounced (you know how water tastes when it has a bit too much calcium in it? yeah, that's how this tea is). Over the six brews, the flavor stayed relatively constant, which makes me think that I could keep drinking this throughout the day.

Overall, this is one of the better shou puerhs I've had. I'm still not a fan of shou puerhs in general (probably because I have so little experience with them), but this could be the occasional pick me up or something to change up your daily drink. I might change my mind on this tea by the end of the Puerh Yunniverse tastings, but I think it's just alright.


Other Notes

Today's album was De La Soul's And the Anonymous Nobody. I heard some bad things about this album from my friends, but I actually liked it quite a bit– there's a wide variety of featuring artists and the lyrics are pretty good (Here in After is my jam).

Hopefully, I'll be publishing a review or post almost every day for the rest of break. It's been too long since I last posted, and I actually now have a backlog of teas I need to go through and review (which is a first). Here's the plan for the Yunniverse teas, though:
Today: Dark Planet
12/31: Planet Bangwei
1/1: Planet Jingmai (no review since I've already done one, and I think that drinking the first sheng puerh I ever tasted is a good way to start the new year)
1/2: Planet Yiwu
1/3: Planet Baiying
1/4: Space Girl (I might hold off on this one because it's a small brick/cake instead of the usual tea-ball)
After that, I'll be reviewing some random teas in no particular order: Stormy Night by David's Tea, Earl Grey by Tea of Life, Soleil Levant by Lupicia, Peppermint Herbal Tea by Stash Premium, Soothing Chamomile by Ambiance, and Teh Halia by Lipton. (Most of these teas are actually just free teabags I got as samples or from hotels/law firms/etc.).

As for what's happening today– I'm going to finish writing my college applications and hopefully submit by the end of the day! I don't know where I'll go in the end, but we'll see and I'll update you guys when I get my acceptances.

What's Going On? (Life Update) 12/29/16

It's been a long time. Two or three months, it seems. Like I've always said, I'll try to get back on the daily tea grind whenever I have free time. And, it looks like now I do, with it being winter break and all.

So, how have I been in these three long months? Well, for the short version in no particular order:
1. Competition Civics has taken up most of my time.
2. College applications!
3. Meeting people?
4. District Attorney's Justice Academy!
5. End of first semester for senior year.
At least, that's what comes to mind. It's been so long since I've really written a blog post that I've forgotten why I really started in the first place– so I can save these memories. Looking back at old posts, I was going through a really bad time and it looks like stuff is looking up for me now.

Anyway, here's the long version.

First off: competition civics. In short, we're going to compete at state now! I'm in Unit 5, the Bill of Rights/legal unit, and I'm loving it. While my unit isn't necessarily perfect, I like to think we're a dysfunctional family. For the most part, it's mostly been me and another girl doing most of the work, and we've been carrying the third person, but in competition, we all end up pulling our weight pretty equally. The majority of our meetings go like this: we start writing the testimony (the prepared speech we have to do), and then something interesting comes up, and we end up arguing over random legal issues for the next hour or so. It works out pretty well, actually– we discuss many of the questions that come up in Q&A, so when they get asked, we know our stances and responses pretty well. At the first competition, districts, we were the only unit from my school to get first (by a measly 1 or 2 points); overall, as a school, we lost that one. However, at the second competition (the one that matters)– Regionals– my unit did miles better than the other schools, and we won by 13 points! A tiny margin, but hey, at least we got first.

Next: college applications. Oh man, they are stressful. These past few days, I've been writing and editing college essays from dawn till dusk. It's sort of my fault for waiting too long, but me being the indecisive person I am, I ended up dropping and adding a number of private colleges to my list. I'm now applying to Brown, Amherst, Cornell, Swarthmore, and Haverford. Back in November, I applied to UC Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Davis too. My major is undecided– still have no idea if I want to go into the humanities (e.g. law or history) or STEM yet, so hopefully I can figure that out in college. I don't know what I'm going to do if I get multiple acceptances to the private schools, but hopefully, we'll see what happens.

What's this about meeting people? Don't you meet people every day? Well, yes. But yesterday, actually, I met up with a girl from the opposing team for comp civics and it was interesting, to say the least. I didn't really go in expecting much (apparently people said it was a date, which was not my original intention), but I think she's pretty cool. Crazy smart, too. We talked about comp civics, mainly, but also about college and movies and stuff like that. On an unrelated note, I noticed that I get pretty tense when I talk to someone who I don't know that well but am interested in.

I'll make these last two sections pretty quick. On a whim (and because of an extended deadline), I applied to the county district attorney's justice academy, and I got in! For the next few months, I'm going to be attending legal seminars and it looks like I finally have that summer internship (not in science, but in law now). As for senior year, it's gone pretty well. It's not necessarily that hard, but it's super interesting. I love African American Lit (I've warmed up to my classmates, who are pretty cool), and AP Chem, my "hard" class, has turned out to be a decent challenge. It looks like I'm ending with all As, too, so there's that.

There. I finally wrote a post, and it only took three months. I'll be posting some of my essays I've written (not college essays, but just creative pieces) and new reviews soon enough. Crimson Lotus Tea's Yunniverse collection came in the mail today, and I have a few other teas that I got as gifts from people (David's Tea, Tea of Life, and Lupicia samples).

Writing: Bee Movie

Note: So, I watched Bee Movie and I had no idea that there was a courtroom scene. For giggles, I decided to put my mock trial journalism skills to the test and write an article about Bee Movie.

SENSATIONAL TRIAL CAUSES BUZZ IN HUMAN AND HONEY BEE COMMUNITIES

November 2, 2007

NEW YORK CITY – Following a week-long trial at the Superior Court of New York, honeybees successfully sued humankind for the unlawful sale of honey and use of bee labor in the case Barry Bee Benson v. the Honey Industry.

Arguing the case for beekind was Attorney Barry Benson Bee, a recent college graduate. After visiting Honey Farms, Benson Bee was appalled at what he saw, citing the conditions at the farms as “man-made wooden slat work camps.”

In response, opposing attorney Layton T. Montgomery argued that mankind’s use of honey was justified as “man’s divine right” and “the bounty of nature God put before us.”

Key witnesses Klauss Vanderhayden, the owner of Honey Farms; a bear; Sting, the lead singer for the band The Police; and Ray Liotta, actor, were called to testify in front of the court. Calling attention to the appropriation of bee culture and exploitation of bee labor by these individuals, Benson stated that “by taking our honey, you not only take everything we have, but everything we are.”

A major point of contention was the use of bee smokers by honey farmers to sedate bees. Benson Bee stated that at the farms, honeybees were “forcibly addicted to smoke machines.” Montgomery, on the other hand, called the smokers a “harmless little contraption.”

The case reached a climax when Montgomery was stung by Adam Flayman, a member of bees’ legal team. Montgomery called attention to the fact that the “queen gives birth to all the bee children”, and therefore, Benson Bee must be “an illegitimate bee.” Flayman, angered by Montgomery’s argument, yelled “I’m going to pincushion this guy,” and stung Montgomery in the buttocks. Shortly after, Flayman was rushed to the hospital.

Despite the incident, both Flayman and Montgomery returned to court the day after. However, the bee’s legal team was not present, leading to calls to dismiss the case entirely. In the nick of time, Benson returned with a key piece of evidence: the Thomas 3000.

Quite literally, the smoking gun in the case was the Thomas 3000, a bee smoker in use at Honey Farms. When the function of the smoker was demonstrated by Montgomery, a large majority of bees in the audience were knocked out.

Presiding judge Bumbleton immediately ruled the case in favor of the honeybees, as the jury watched in horror at the smoker’s effects.

When questioned after the trial, Benson Bee only had one thing to say: “My sweater is Ralph Lauren, and I have no pants.”