TeaChat

1980s "7542" from thechineseteashop. Given the mixed reputation (and my experience) with their teas, this one is a pleasant surprise. It may be still too young, with bitterness and astringency disturbing the experience a bit, but it brings good feelings and energy. And the taste is one of the most interesting from the 80s teas I had; beside the usual aged components, there is plums, cinnamon, some camphor and herbs, etc. I guess that 10 years of Vancouver storage led to a serious airing out.

JakubT wrote:1980s "7542" from thechineseteashop. Given the mixed reputation (and my experience) with their teas, this one is a pleasant surprise. It may be still too young, with bitterness and astringency disturbing the experience a bit, but it brings good feelings and energy. And the taste is one of the most interesting from the 80s teas I had; beside the usual aged components, there is plums, cinnamon, some camphor and herbs, etc. I guess that 10 years of Vancouver storage led to a serious airing out.

Was this their dry stored 7542?

gasninja wrote:

JakubT wrote:1980s "7542" from thechineseteashop. Given the mixed reputation (and my experience) with their teas, this one is a pleasant surprise. It may be still too young, with bitterness and astringency disturbing the experience a bit, but it brings good feelings and energy. And the taste is one of the most interesting from the 80s teas I had; beside the usual aged components, there is plums, cinnamon, some camphor and herbs, etc. I guess that 10 years of Vancouver storage led to a serious airing out.

Was this their dry stored 7542?

No, it was this one:http://store.thechineseteashop.com/Pu_E ... ugc-80.htm.

However it does not taste really wet or anything... I'd call it dry storage myself.

1996 CNNP Da Ye cake. Much dryer storage than most of EOT's cakes. It has a strong aftertaste. I am a on the fence about it though as it is a little drying. I have another sample that is most likely from another cake. I will try that and see if it makes a difference.

70s Loose leaf from Origin tea. Brewing a bit stronger, and it brings a welcoming aroma of old books, and damp leaves on a very warm fall day. Taste is really only properly described with as "old." It's a taste all aged puerh teas have in common, but this lacks the bells and whistles most other highly noteable aged puerhs have to set them out from the pack.

Not a bad tea, and good when you just want something aged.

This morning we enjoyed 1958 Gaung Yun Gong with the sunrise. Not reallys in the same league in the flavor department as the 60's GYG. But still very nice with a nice nice aftertaste that rises from the throat. The qi was potent as expected of a 50 + yr old tea. But the real reason this was special was its historic value. 58 being the first year leaves from Yunnan where brought to Gaungdong to press these cakes.


Once infusion times stretch to around a minute it starts to taste very much like an aged oolong.

98 Menghai yieh shen chiao mu (Wild arbor) . the predominant flavors of this tea is a black pepper camphor the aroma being mainly the same. The tea is very thick coating my mouth . The qi is strong. my mouth ends up with a tingling feeling. Aside from the flavor being a little to straight forward everything else about the tea is excellent.

98 Fuhai from Tea Urchin - a very decent tea, I think (Yiwu, it seems to me). Not really that interesting yet, but the good storage up to now is rather rare these days, I'm afraid.

JakubT wrote:98 Fuhai from Tea Urchin - a very decent tea, I think (Yiwu, it seems to me). Not really that interesting yet, but the good storage up to now is rather rare these days, I'm afraid.

Tasting notes? I have this cake too, only had one session with it so far though, so not ready to say anything.

JakubT wrote:98 Fuhai from Tea Urchin - a very decent tea, I think (Yiwu, it seems to me). Not really that interesting yet, but the good storage up to now is rather rare these days, I'm afraid.

This is a tea I would describe as wet stored but not to the point where the storage is suffocating. There is a nice smoothness and the storage taste is not a big turn-off for me. However, the flavor and aroma never really develop outside of the storage condition. Maybe lost it's inherent flavor and aroma over time but has settled into a drinkable brew. I would imagine there are those who really like this type of tea. For me, what was most noticeable was the mouth activity, immediate huigan, and feeling in the body. In other words, the energetics of the tea. But at $172 a cake, I think I want something more distinctive. Am I dreaming?

[quote="Tead Off"]This is a tea I would describe as wet stored but not to the point where the storage is suffocating. [quote]

For light wet storage tea, sometimes you can wash the wet storage taste off. Just fill the pot half full with boiling water together with the tea and shake horizontally left and right for about 30 seconds and discard it. Then start brewing it. Try it out.

Cheers!

Teaism wrote:

Tead Off wrote:This is a tea I would describe as wet stored but not to the point where the storage is suffocating.

For light wet storage tea, sometimes you can wash the wet storage taste off. Just fill the pot half full with boiling water together with the tea and shake horizontally left and right for about 30 seconds and discard it. Then start brewing it. Try it out.

Cheers!

Thank you, but this doesn't work for me. It might dissipate some of the aroma but you can never get rid of that storage smell completely. But, my point is what is left even if we could get the storage smell and taste out of the tea? If the tea has lost its aroma and flavor to a certain degree, is it a well stored tea? Because there will be many views about this, there is no single answer to give. But, this is why you and I are trying to preserve aroma and taste in our teas by aging them in a certain way. I don't think an older cake needs to lose its flavor and aroma with age. Yes, it will change but I don't think it should lose it. What say you?

Hi Teadoff,
This method sometimes work and sometimes don't but it definately get rid a fair bit of the wet storage smell. Another process I always do before this is to "bake" or refresh the tea. This is a troublesome process as I need to heat them in clay tea refresher over low fire and let it rest and cool down and re-bake them another time to bring out the aroma. I do this for most tea, from green to puer and it does really make the tea a lot nicer.

On the issue of preservation of aroma and taste, it has a lot to do with the quality and suitability of the tea and the manufacturing process. E.g. LBZ, which is a full flavour tea won't loose its flavour and aroma if properly stored. The flavour and aroma will evolve into something interesting which a lot of tea connoisseur appreciate but definitely don't diminish into something plain and flat. Many tea nowadays are very different from the traditional puer, in term of quality, processing technique and taste trend, which in many case, no matter how we store may not turn into something dramatic. That is the sad reality of it.
If we think carefully on how the business of tea evolved from the tea plantation to the shop final product, we can get a lot of hints from there.

tenuki wrote:

JakubT wrote:98 Fuhai from Tea Urchin - a very decent tea, I think (Yiwu, it seems to me). Not really that interesting yet, but the good storage up to now is rather rare these days, I'm afraid.

Tasting notes? I have this cake too, only had one session with it so far though, so not ready to say anything.

I like its storage, which is probably just right for me - there is still a lot of youngish character, in my opinion, but there is a reasonable amount of agedness too. I believe that Yiwu teas tend to age this way and acquire aged tones faster than some areas - it may be sometimes confused with wetter storage, but I think that there is a difference. Wet stored Yiwu tastes way more humid (and occasionally fishy) - this is just clean agedness, I think.

I enjoyed its good feeling in mouth and decent energy (though it will probably get even better with time), also its inner calmness - that is why I enjoy 90s and older tea. That the original taste of young puerh is lost? Well, sure, sort of. But the goodness of aging outweights it for me. If I want to taste young puerh, I drink young puerh. For aged puer, I drink aged. Comparing this, e.g., to CYH 2001 Yiwu I had recently, that one is a lot drier stored and it has a lot more of its original youthful character... but the tea did not work at all. Really, it's just trying hard to look young, but it is not.

The idea of dry storing tea to retain its youthful character, but make it mythically more complex, improve its taste and qi, is silly, in my opinion. It just does not work like that, aging is always a tradeoff of features.

I mean, things in the world get old all the time. Some like young, some like older. When one drinks aged wine, it is far from its youthful complexity, but again, it brings something new instead of that. Still, people enjoy the aged character, even though it is not as "simply enjoyable" as, e.g., 10 years old wine (it depends on the area, I know; same with puerh though).

JakubT wrote: The idea of dry storing tea to retain its youthful character, but make it mythically more complex, improve its taste and qi, is silly, in my opinion. It just does not work like that, aging is always a tradeoff of features.

Here in SE Asia, dry storing is not the same as in Europe or other non-tropical places. Humidity is always present. I have 10 year old teas here that have undergone very good aging still retaining flavor and aroma that have mutated very well without any wet storage features that we are speaking about. Teas that have lost their bitterness while developing flavors that were simply not present in the younger tea. Sure, they are always going to change but you help guide the change by protecting its environment. I think it works exactly like that. Smoothness plus flavor is the goal for me. If I lose the flavor, either the tea was not a good ager or I was faulty in my handling of it. I am not at that point, though, where I can be sure which teas will age well if I buy a young sheng. But, the way I've handled the storage part doesn't seem to be an issue for me. None of my 10 year olds taste like young sheng.

As I said, I would imagine many drinkers will like the Fuhai. I don't dislike it. It's at my threshhold for wet storage. What I did question was the price of the tea. Would I spend $172 on the cake? I bought the sample. Are you going to buy the cake?