Ouch, sorry to hear that.TIM wrote:
My ego and impatient paid off.... A private commissioned raw puerh in wet storage for a year. This is the result. No Fun, Life and Learn. Why find ways to push time? Its not worth the prize.
Must have been extremely wet-storage for only 1 year.Out of curiosity, what were the circumstances present during storage? Was it stored on site or off site? Thanks.TIM wrote:
My ego and impatient paid off.... A private commissioned raw puerh in wet storage for a year. This is the result. No Fun, Live and Learn. Why find ways to push time? Its not worth the prize.
Tim... you know as well as I do that not all wet stored tea end up looking like this. Who did this, and how?TIM wrote:
My ego and impatient paid off.... A private commissioned raw puerh in wet storage for a year. This is the result. No Fun, Live and Learn. Why find ways to push time? Its not worth the prize.
Thanks guys for the concernMarshalN wrote:Tim... you know as well as I do that not all wet stored tea end up looking like this. Who did this, and how?
Wow.. Tea MythbustersTIM wrote:Thanks guys for the concernMarshalN wrote:Tim... you know as well as I do that not all wet stored tea end up looking like this. Who did this, and how?
Well, the story behind this accident is from a puerh myth. They said some amazing aged puerh needs to collect the energy of heaven and earth. 'Collector' will aged them in cave or 'energy source' that could absorb Moon (Ying Qi) energy.... So, I dig a hole and bury it inside a yixing jar for a year in my garden. And forget about it until I was gardening the other day. You can not believe the scare on my face, I thought I was dying after inhaling some of the pores from those grey and green mold.
Your wet stored puerh looks real disgusting. Did you actually brew it to try? 
Gee, I wonder why it looks that way. That's not wet storage, that's kimchee storageTIM wrote:Thanks guys for the concernMarshalN wrote:Tim... you know as well as I do that not all wet stored tea end up looking like this. Who did this, and how?
Well, the story behind this accident is from a puerh myth. They said some amazing aged puerh needs to collect the energy of heaven and earth. 'Collector' will aged them in cave or 'energy source' that could absorb Moon (Ying Qi) energy.... So, I dig a hole and bury it inside a yixing jar for a year in my garden. And forget about it until I was gardening the other day. You can not believe the scare on my face, I thought I was dying after inhaling some of the pores from those grey and green mold.
auhckw wrote: I categorized puerh in these categories:-
Young Ripe (cheap)
Young Ripe (expensive)
Young Raw (cheap)
Young Raw (expensive)
Aged Ripe (5 to 15)
Super Aged Ripe (15 and above)
Aged Raw (5 to 15)
Super Aged Raw (15 and above)
Puerh is somehow an acquired taste (especially for aged puerh), so sample in categories and see which one you fall into. Sometimes it may take awhile before you will acquire the liking for puerh, so take your time. Once you have identified which category and specific type of puerh you like, then it is easier for your selection. Not everyone likes aged. Not all young raw are hard to drink. So sample sample sample.
For puerh, there is a Up and Down in terms of its character/taste. When it is Down it will lose its flavor and taste, but it doesn't mean that piece of puerh is gone. It 'may' still go Up but this may take from days, weeks, months or even years. So don't throw away your puerh when it is Down. Keep it aside for future tasting.
When tasting, always go for ripe first then only raw. Preferably you drink in sequence of grade too, from low to high. Reason, raw taste is stronger than ripe. So if you tasted raw first, you cannot fully enjoy the ripe. Same goes for grade sequence, higher grade will overwrite the lower grade.
For a start, go for Big Factory Puerh such as Menghai-Dayi then Xia Guan then explore the rest as you go. These days it is 'safer' to buy from big factories be it genuine or cleanliness.
If you are lost and don't know where to start, go for standard recipe such as Dayi's 7542 (raw), 8582 (raw), 7452 (ripe), 7572 (ripe). Then you can venture into their more special/premium editions.
Next venture can be more specific to which mountain you like too. But take note when they say eg, Bulang mountain, this mountain area can be very very big. Not all quality are the same. But in general, if the leaves are from very old trees (hundreds to thousands of years old) and is at high altitude then it 'should' be better. Don't be surprise with the price difference when it come to these criteria.
Also, first batch puerh are usually better. You can identify the batch by the number on the packing. Eg. Year 2009's first batch will be labeled 901, Year 2010's first batch will be labeled 001, and so on... Another thing to look for is, Spring tea is usually better than other season's harvest, but this can be hard to identify especially when it come to big factories where they usually mix the leaves.
I don't buy tea online, but here are some places i look for puerh reference:-
http://www.yunnansourcing.com/store/
http://stores.ebay.com/Dragon-Tea-House
A chinese seller for new products and price reference:
http://goodtea114.taobao.com
I don't know how to read chinese, but looking at the pictures and google translator helps
~Lesson from JYH~A tea seller was sharing his experience with me that back then young raw can be very hazardous to drink. He knows some other sellers who has actually admitted into hospital because of the tasting too many young raw. Can be damaging to liver and if serious lungs.
The good news is that these days younger raw are easier to drink, but here are his advise:-
1) Don't drink young raw with empty stomach
2) If you drink young raw, compensate back by the same amount of water
3) Drink aged raw or ripe
MarshalN wrote: Gee, I wonder why it looks that way. That's not wet storage, that's kimchee storage
Damn Tim. It definitely absorbed its share of Moon energy there! I'll stick with my Moonlight White Puerh when I want some lunar qi, thanks.
When I was at AH's he was not there, but Hui scolded me in almost the same way - Apparently the reason that I could not tell the difference between the waters in the water test, or the difference between the teas from Glass, Banko and Shigaraki was because I was letting the liquid spend too much time in the front of my mouth.auhckw wrote:~Lesson from AH~I was taught on how to taste tea in this manner. .......
.... The taste at your throat defines the 'Aftertaste'. The longer the 'Aftertaste' the better the quality is.
.......... The tea should bypass your teeth and front portion of your tongue directly to the back of your tongue. The tea should not be spread out throughout your mouth. Once the tea is at the back of your tongue, let it flow into your throat. Don't swallow it.
.............
~Lesson from L@ZH~About Ripe
Nowadays there are express making method for Ripe which can be completed in 1 month. The traditional method will take a least 3 months and require a lot of space and men power to flip the tea.
The "du wei" taste is less / none is the traditional method. Big factories are moving toward express method as they want to process in bulk in the shortest time. So if you can, try finding Ripe that still uses traditional method.
There are also factory which uses ammonia in their Ripe to speed to process which makes the taste nasty, artificial or fishy. So be careful when selecting them. If it tasted not right, don't consume.
About Raw
Spring leaves must have aftertaste sweetness. For young spring raw, though some may have bitterness, it should come with sweetness aftertaste.
Some Raw these days is mixed with some other tea like 'Tie Guan Yin' or 'Shui Xian' to give the sweet aftertaste or kick. So looking at the leaves is very important.
About tea leaves
After brewing it is important to look at the leaves.
It should not be sticky sticky.
It should not have have mixed colour leaves as in darker leaves + lighter colour leaves.
For aging, puerh with 'Tie Guan Yin' or 'Shui Xian' may not be good. These puerh are good when they are young, but for aging 'Tie Guan Yin' or 'Shui Xian' will loose its taste after time.
About paper wrapping
Never ever trust the paper wrapping. There are A grade and B grade of the same paper wrapping. Some factories are willing to do it at the cost the seller wants, and so depending on the cost the factories will compress raw material based on the price. Problem is, some factories uses back the same packing of those better grade.
Some factories after selling of their first batch, and when market responded well they will reproduce second batch (lesser quality material) and sell it as first batch.
The printing on it also is not trustable. First batch (eg 901) may not mean it is Spring leaves, it can be left over from previous year and Spring leaves can be later batch (eg 902).
How do you overcome this? Buy from trustworthy sellers and listen to buyers who are experience.
How often does puerh changes it character/taste?
Roughly every 2 ½ years puerh (stored in Malaysia) will change its character/taste. If at one time you like the character/taste very much, you can opt to vacuum seal it which will slow down the aging.
How to taste tea?
When the tea is in your mouth, don't swallow it entirely.
1) Swallow a little (leaving some in your mouth).
2) Pause.
3) Swallow the rest.
4) Don't immediately open your mouth. Let the tea 'Chi' stay in your mouth for a while.
By doing this method, you will enjoy the tea in 3 diff taste at a single sip. Your entire mouth and throat will feel the tea.
Though what you write is right, the described tasting technique is NOT about tasting with your tongue. You indeed want to hit a receptor on the upper side of the back end of your mouth - you want to activate receptors on the soft palate and pharynx.steanze wrote:This makes sense, different areas of the tongue have different concentrations of different taste receptors and the projections from taste receptors on the tongue to brainstem nuclei varies moving from anterior to posterior regions of the tongue.
Therefore it seems reasonable that keeping tea on different parts of the tongue will lead to different taste experiences.
