Rum Barrel Shou Puer Aged for 1 Year!

Hello hello!

Around a month ago, Crimson Lotus Tea launched a special edition of their rum-barrel shou-puer tea. For the past 3-4 years, Crimson Lotus Tea has released an annual version of rum-barrel shou puer tea. However, this year they released the maocha (loose-leaf puer tea) version of their ten year aged shou puer 'Black Gold', and aged it in a barrel for one full year! After partaking in their 2019 release of rum-barrel shou, which was aged for three months, how does this special edition version of this experiment hold up?

Let's find out!

The Session Details:

Price: $59.99 USD for 60g of tea stored in a clay jar

Steeps: 14

Dimensions: 4g of tea in a 60ml mini-gaiwan

Temperature of Water: Boiling (206ºf -- in high altitude)

Steeps 1 - 7

To start, the loose-leaf had earthy notes of a clean forest and tree bark, with a prominent odor of rum. With the first infusion, the clean notes of alcohol/rum brushed over the tongue while leaving behind a smooth tree bark and room-filling woodsiness. After a few more infusions, the clean and smooth texture kept expanding until it became a near-velvet texture -- leaving behind three-dimensional malt-like tree bark and sweet rum. After the seventh infusion, this tea kept expanding and showed no signs of slowing down.

Steeps 8 - 14

Halfway through the session, the velvet-like texture began to slightly mellow. With the tea's body starting to mellow, the mixture of tree bark and rum began to resemble a sweet malt-like black tea. At this stage of the infusion, the liqueur was amber in color. As this tea's strength began to mellow out, it began to show a strong multidimensional oily texture that made the tea glide through the mouth like an actual glass of rum -- just without the bite. However, by the fourteenth infusion, this tea had given all it could and this barrel gave its very last drop of rum-infused daydream...

Conclusion:

One of my favorite aspects about this tea was how complex it was. While having prominent notes, the notes were presented in a way that was more than face-value. This tea also excelled with having an excellent balance of tasting notes, and despite being heavy in texture, was incredibly smooth and clean. As far as the rum-barrel profile, it was strong enough to be noticeable, yet tied in all of the notes to create one unique and mind-blowing palate.

Overall, I believe this is one of Crimson Lotus Tea's greatest experiments. After following them and their line of barrel-aged teas, I truly believe this limited release sets their previous experiments apart. With the bar set already so high on their sou selections, I couldn't imagine (until now) that the bar could keep getting risen. If you happen to grab yourself one of these limited releases from Crimson Teas, I strongly suggest that you should while you can. Teas like this only come around once in a lifetime...

~Blissfully Tea Drunk