2017 Yunnan Sourcing "Crimson Rooster" Ripe Puerh Tea Cake

Infusions 1-5, warm milk with a teaspoon of nesquik and a touch of earth. 6-10 dark chocolate with a mellow sweet finish.

Good, smooth puer, no bitterness. Grandpa-style in infuser tumbler.

Love this shu. Tastes like bittersweet chocolate. It is heavy, thick and burly, with a moderate caffeine boost. This is a keeper.

Crimson Rooster seems to be aging into a well-rounded and elegant shou. Compared to my previous tastings, it was more fruity and sweet today.

Specifically, I could smell wild blueberries in the dry leaf, the taste has a notable raspberry flavour to it and there were also hints of cranberries, banana and papaya in the aftertaste. The sweetness is of the creamy kind and really takes hold of the session towards the end.

Besides those, I also found some other new associations. In the dry leaf scent – petrichor – and after the rinse also char, roasted red peppers, tomato vine, and peat. The taste was more medicinal than what I remember, displaying novel flavours of curry leaves and coriander. Finally, a very nice throat cooling sensation permeated the aftertaste throughout the session.

Just finished my second session with Crimson Rooster from Yunnan Sourcing. It’s probably my favorite of their 2017 shou productions of Hui Run, Rooster King, and itself. Dry leaf smells like dark chocolate, a little maple syrup, and a little bit of funk but nothing that can be put into words. Wet, it opens up more and smells like dark chocolate, earth, and sweet caramel. The soup also smells similar and is very aromatic. There is some bitterness in the early steeps which I like quite a bit along with a hint of funk but already nothing compared to how it was maybe a month ago when it arrived which was very much like hot dogs. There are hints of caramel throughout and sweet dried fruit emerges later on. I didn’t get as much spice as last time but I suspect that was due to some difference in brewing. I think I leafed it harder in the very least the first time. Some tartness emerges really late which I think really rounds out a shou and will hopefully continue to emerge. The mouthfeel of this is so nice – probably the creamiest tea I’ve had lately, super thick and oily too. Compared to Rooster King and Hui Run I’d say that this is the middle ground – not as sweet as Rooster King but not as bitter and pungent and Hui Run but more than enough to provide a really interesting session. I’ll definitely be picking up more of this.

Got this in my recent order. First thing to say is the fermentation taste is very strong and earthy. I would not say fishy but it is strong. It is a very thick dense liquid, bittersweet at the start. It slowly turned to a more sweet note. One might say there are some chocolate notes but I am not sure. Overall it is a nice ripe that does need to age another six months really but it was good.

I brewed 12.7g of leaf an a 150ml gaiwan with boiling water. I steeped it six times (so far). I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, and 20 sec.