Proper young sheng brewing?

[Seeker]

Hello fellow tea-folk!
I'm curious about whether there is a special way to brew young sheng properly.
In reading various posts here and elsewhere, it seems many love the taste and qualities of young sheng.
However, virtually all of the really young sheng I have purchased and brewed tastes to me, well, uh, I hate to say it, but sometimes awful. Too strong, too intense, very smokey, and sometimes like knives in my mouth and throat. My tea source at Teance (who sells an 18yr old loose leaf sheng that is wonderful), says I might be having what she called "chan ko" experience (translation = choke throat; she is chinese; please forgive my likely misspelling, I have no idea how to spell chinese words in english). She further says that "choke throat" response is considered a sign of low quality puerh - no matter what the age of the tea, and that with age this will NOT go away, it may mellow, but will not go away.
Well, I have read some things recently that made me wonder if there might be a special way to brew young shengs, that perhaps they need some special handling with the way they are brewed because of their intensity.
Is this true? If so, what methods are there for handling young sheng in the brewing? (water temp, amount of tea, length of infusion, steaming the leaves, roasting/baking the leaves, leaving the leaves out for a month, etc).
Thanks!
and cheers!
ps - as I write, I'm drinking some 1993 menghai 7542, 7th infusion. Yum.

[Maitre_Tea]

Many people probably wouldn't drink young sheng regularly, since it tends to be harsher on the body if you throw back this stuff too often. But it depends on person to person, and luckily I adore younger stuff.

It helps to brew with slightly cooler water, but still pretty hot...I usually let the water cool for a few seconds after the water boils. Broken leaf usually contributes to a bitter brew, so watch out when you're breaking off a chunk. Some pu-erh, like Mengku stuff, might be easier to take and more drinkable now. I usually brew with lots of leaf, but with super-quick infusions.

Surprisingly, comparing between a gaiwan and a my Chao Zhou pots, using the pot helps round out the edges a bit and makes it a little easier to take...which can be good thing, depending on what you want out of a pot.

Pu-erh (especially young) can be somewhat of an acquired taste, IMO, so maybe it's a matter of getting used to it, or maybe it just isn't for you.

[Seeker]

Hey Maitre,
Yeah, thought about the idea of personal taste and also tolerance.
Thanks too for the tips on slightly cooler water, shorter brewing, and yixing clay.
I'm drinking some 2001 Jin Chang Hao Yiwu, and it's definitely got some intensity - but surely mellowing. I've played with shorter infusion time - helps a lot. Also, this tea isn't like what I was describing, only reminiscent of, just hints of what I've experienced with only 0 or 1 year old sheng.
I suppose young sheng really isn't meant for drinking, is it? But then of course there will be folks who love it even tho - gotta go with what you like, eh.

[Maitre_Tea]

I must clarify that using a yixing won't create miracle results, but in my own "experiments" I was surprised by how much of a difference it did make compared to what I originally thought

[Seeker]

especially when well seasoned!

[Maitre_Tea]

I don't know about others, but young sheng seasons my pot super fast It's only been two months or so since I seriously started drinking pu-erh, and there's a nice shine on my pot and the inside is all tea-stained...should really post a photo in the near future. Xiaguan Baoyan in particular always "stains" my pot

Of course, it could be the simple fact that I've been drinking pu-erh at least once a day...nonstop for the past two months

[hop_goblin]

I use a Gaiwan and use the parameters set for any other green tea.

[IPT]

I drink a great deal of new Shengpu and quite enjoy it, of course I do like the bitterness of it. A really good new Shengpu shouldn't give you choke throat though. I don't drink as much as I used to because of how the quality of new teas tended to drop in the last couple of years. Along with Maitre_Teas excellent suggestions, you might want to try less leaf when brewing as well. If you can find it, hand selected new Shengpu is the way to go. Hard to find in the West though.

[bearsbearsbears]

Hello fellow tea-folk!
<snip> what methods are there for handling young sheng in the brewing? (water temp, amount of tea, length of infusion, steaming the leaves, roasting/baking the leaves, leaving the leaves out for a month, etc).
Thanks!

I make no special preparation of the dry leaf before brewing young sheng. I use about 1g tea for every 15-20ml of water, depending on the tea at hand (smaller leaf or cut leaf = use less / bigger leaves = use more / blend of both = middle). When I first started brewing young pu'er, I measured this on a scale. Now, I just eyeball it.

Infusion times for me are very short. After a quick rinse (10-15 seconds), my method for the first 5-8 brews is "water in, pour out" with a brew time of at most 2 seconds, adjusting the next infusion steep time based on the qualities of the brewed tea in the cup. Starting the brewing thusly results in about 20 infusions per young sheng, varying with the tenacity of the leaf.

The resulting brews are still bitter to most people. My tongue long lost sensitivity to this level of bitterness, and I find most of the teaheads in the LA Tea Affair have similarly seasoned tongues. Frankly: you get used to the bitterness, then you enjoy it, then you wonder where it went until your neighbor tries a cup and exclaims, "so bitter!" with a sour face.

[IPT]

until your neighbor tries a cup and exclaims, "so bitter!" with a sour face.

Haha! That happens all the time here.

[tenuki]

The proper way to drink young shen is to wait another 20 years....

[zhi zheng]

The proper way to drink young shen is to wait another 20 years....

Wow, You must have been drinking some seriously bad young sheng cha to illicit that kind of reaction

[tony shlongini]

The proper way to drink young shen is to wait another 20 years....

Wow. Decmeber 30th, and this may squeek in as post of the year.

[tatsumi09]

However, virtually all of the really young sheng I have purchased and brewed tastes to me, well, uh, I hate to say it, but sometimes awful. Too strong, too intense, very smokey, and sometimes like knives in my mouth and throat.

I got a wide variety of sheng from yunnansourcing and so far I didn't have most of the problems you're talking about. I think it has to to do with many factors.

First, how are you brewing it? If it's too intense, use less leaf, lower temperature, less time, whatever makes it taste light and fresh. Brewing instructions are only guidelines, so just do whatever makes you enjoy the tea the most.

I have some teas I brew for 10-20 seconds first infusion. (after doing 1 or 2 cleansing infusions which I pour out). Using less leaf gives a nice fresh taste, and if you use too much leaf even 10 seconds can give an intense brew. Play around with it, try lower temperatures just to experiment, maybe throw out the first infusion if it's always harsh, since later infusions could get lighter.

I used to follow guidelines to the word before, and all it did was lower my experience. Sometimes I like to drink tea with very light flavor that others say it tastes like hot water, but the subtlety is what I want.

I tried 2009, 2008 and 2004 sheng. 2009 is the harshest, but careful brewing still makes it enjoyable and light. I can say that the 2004 is the smoothest and I can't feel any harshness in it at all. However, I still enjoy the 2009. So yes, you still can enjoy young sheng.

[zhi zheng]

There are a whole slew of things that can make sheng taste bitter or harsh: from the kind of tree the leaves come from, the way the leaves are picked, the way the tea is manufactured, etc. down to the way it's brewed. You may well be able to mitigate some of the effects of a questionable tea by adjusting your brewing parameters but it's highly unlikely, if that's what you've got, that you're going to be able to 'make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.'