Aging Puerh.

One of the intentionally aged teas, Pu-Erh has a loyal following.


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Jun 1st, '14, 19:27
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by apache » Jun 1st, '14, 19:27

Xiaguan 8853 2008
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1.jpg (63.95 KiB) Viewed 811 times
After 5 years of storage
2.jpg
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Wish I had taken a photo 5 years ago, without reference, it is rather difficult to say how much it has changed.

Third and Forth steeps
3.jpg
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If I remember correctly, the broth wasn't like this colour a few years ago!

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Jun 1st, '14, 19:30
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by apache » Jun 1st, '14, 19:30

And finally, the spent leaves
4.jpg
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Nothing great to write home, but at least it doesn't turn nasty and decent enough.

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Jun 1st, '14, 22:14
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by chrl42 » Jun 1st, '14, 22:14

apache wrote:Xiaguan 8853 2008

After 5 years of storage
Wish I had taken a photo 5 years ago, without reference, it is rather difficult to say how much it has changed.

Third and Forth steeps
If I remember correctly, the broth wasn't like this colour a few years ago!
nice photos. a classic XG soup.

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Jun 14th, '14, 17:21
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by apache » Jun 14th, '14, 17:21

My another puerh tea "aging experiment" result. This time is Douji 2009 Naka.
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It was a group buy organised by the Right Honourable Lord of the Half-Dipper, Hobbes the Great. Such was the heady days in pu drinking and buying. Now after half a decade later, here is my result.
2.jpg
2.jpg (84 KiB) Viewed 768 times
3.jpg
3.jpg (88.61 KiB) Viewed 768 times

Jun 14th, '14, 17:38
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by bonescwa » Jun 14th, '14, 17:38

apache wrote:My another puerh tea "aging experiment" result. This time is Douji 2009 Naka.
1.jpg
It was a group buy organised by the Right Honourable Lord of the Half-Dipper, Hobbes the Great. Such was the heady days in pu drinking and buying. Now after half a decade later, here is my result.
2.jpg
3.jpg
lovely as hell!

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Jun 14th, '14, 17:46
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by apache » Jun 14th, '14, 17:46

The broth is deep amber colour rather than orange red.
4.jpg
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This is the first and second steeps combined after rinsed twice.

spend leaves after 4 steeps.
5.jpg
5.jpg (47.82 KiB) Viewed 781 times
The proof of the pudding is in the "drinking"... Do I like it, NO.

Now here come the questions:
Have I stored it in the right environment? I think so, but I'm not 100% sure as I wasn't living in HK or south China ... Whether pu can be aged correctly in the UK, it is still unknown.

Is Naka tea can be aged? I have no idea, but I do notice Douji product does have a house style and most of my Douji cakes seem following the same path and this including last year I ordered a 2006 cakes which been stored in south China, it has a very similar aged tastes which I don't find it very appealing. This could be just a personal thing, as some of you would know I can't smell. So it is a little bit like a blind person trying to see drawing or a deaf person trying to listen to music. All this floral aroma would be wasted on me.

Have to be fair on this cake, I DON'T mean it tastes nasty, far from it. It has a powdery texture which I don't find in most Dayi cakes. Also very interestingly, I think I sense a hint of sourness in it. I heard from the great vine most pu will go through a sour phase as it age. As long as this sourness is not overwhelming, it would be alright at the end. It has a lot of bitter taste in it which I find it rather difficult to handle, but I do use a lot of leaves normally. Drinking pu is a bit like taking drug, you need to increase the dosage the more you drink it or you wouldn't get 'high'.

So I think I will leave this one sleep for another year at least before I would visit it again.

Jun 14th, '14, 17:57
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by shah82 » Jun 14th, '14, 17:57

I suspect that sourness is a product of heat in storage. Not really sure if it ever goes away, even the right kind of sour (Mengku, wild tea, just a bit of strong fermentation). There are other sorts of sour that means it's a bad tea.

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Jun 14th, '14, 18:26
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by apache » Jun 14th, '14, 18:26

shah82 wrote:I suspect that sourness is a product of heat in storage ...
The sourness a very very slight, it might not even be there.

Very interesting, today is one of the hottest day so far this year in the UK, it's in mid 20 C around London, almost prefect for our noble Queen to Trooping The Colour.

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Jun 15th, '14, 06:55
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by Balthazar » Jun 15th, '14, 06:55

shah82 wrote:I suspect that sourness is a product of heat in storage
As in that it's been stored too hot? I thought most people reccomend something like 28-32 degrees (which I wouldn't think UK storage would ever go beyond, unless one stores the cakes right next to a heater).

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Jun 17th, '14, 01:56
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by Teaism » Jun 17th, '14, 01:56

Hi,
Just to share some interesting note on tea storage development in Malaysia. I am travelling now in Malaysia for 2 weeks to meet many groups to catch up with the tea development. Last night I had tea with a group of old collectors, link to the famed LBX group. We had many teas way past midnight..

We had long discussion on storage method and their perception on storage. Apparently this group was doing "dry and semi sealed storage" for decades. They stored the tea in large quantity in bamboo tong and in sealed cardboard boxes stacked in airy space but not seal in food safe plastic. Essentially the tea are semi sealed as they are contained within the tightly packed bamboo tong in a thick card box boxes. Interesting, they mentioned that they fear moisture and air exposure in their storage method and periodically check their tea for detrimental effects. They refer tea that are exposed to air and moisture as tea that are "sick with flu" . Just to note that Malaysia has constant high humidity of 70-80% and high temp of 32C.

We brewed those tea and they taste clean, good,nicely matured. Then we had comparison brew by brewing a 2002 tea stored their way and another stored sealed by me. From the brew, both teas have aged but their method lose a lot of flavour and aroma compared to sealed storage. The aging for sealed storage, maybe around 2 years behind the their semi sealed method. We concluded that sealed tea aged a bit slower, maybe 2 years behind semi sealed for every 10 years but retain the aroma and flavour. And we noted that vendor did semi sealed or exposed storage to accelerate the aging for easy sale without any due consideration of losing the flavour and aroma as those the are normally sold younger. For private collectors, it would be better to consider preserving everything although it aged slower a bit.

Anyway, putting aside all the theory and arguments, this just one of the experience that I encountered personally. Aging Puer tea has to many variables and I just share it putting aside any intention to be right or wrong.

It is interesting to find that new frontiers are explored, breaking away from the old tenacious belief and practice in the past in this region. I see this change in Hong Kong too in my last few visits there. I know another group in Ipoh who is following Hojo style for some time and hope to catch up with them to try "crynogically sealed" aged tea.

Anyway, just to share this experience.

Cheers! :D

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Jun 17th, '14, 02:34
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by Tead Off » Jun 17th, '14, 02:34

Keep 'em coming, Teaism!

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Jun 17th, '14, 02:41
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by MarshalN » Jun 17th, '14, 02:41

apache wrote:The broth is deep amber colour rather than orange red.
4.jpg
This is the first and second steeps combined after rinsed twice.

spend leaves after 4 steeps.
5.jpg
The proof of the pudding is in the "drinking"... Do I like it, NO.

Now here come the questions:
Have I stored it in the right environment? I think so, but I'm not 100% sure as I wasn't living in HK or south China ... Whether pu can be aged correctly in the UK, it is still unknown.

Is Naka tea can be aged? I have no idea, but I do notice Douji product does have a house style and most of my Douji cakes seem following the same path and this including last year I ordered a 2006 cakes which been stored in south China, it has a very similar aged tastes which I don't find it very appealing. This could be just a personal thing, as some of you would know I can't smell. So it is a little bit like a blind person trying to see drawing or a deaf person trying to listen to music. All this floral aroma would be wasted on me.

Have to be fair on this cake, I DON'T mean it tastes nasty, far from it. It has a powdery texture which I don't find in most Dayi cakes. Also very interestingly, I think I sense a hint of sourness in it. I heard from the great vine most pu will go through a sour phase as it age. As long as this sourness is not overwhelming, it would be alright at the end. It has a lot of bitter taste in it which I find it rather difficult to handle, but I do use a lot of leaves normally. Drinking pu is a bit like taking drug, you need to increase the dosage the more you drink it or you wouldn't get 'high'.

So I think I will leave this one sleep for another year at least before I would visit it again.
Try using less leaves, you might be surprised.

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Jun 17th, '14, 03:40
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by apache » Jun 17th, '14, 03:40

MarshalN wrote: ...

Try using less leaves, you might be surprised.
Yes, I will try again using a bit less.
It was 8g in a 100 ml gaiwan.

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Jun 17th, '14, 03:48
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by apache » Jun 17th, '14, 03:48

Teaism wrote:Hi,
Just to share some interesting note on tea storage development in Malaysia. I am travelling now in Malaysia for 2 weeks to meet many groups to catch up with the tea development. Last night I had tea with a group of old collectors, link to the famed LBX group. We had many teas way past midnight..

We had long discussion on storage method and their perception on storage. Apparently this group was doing "dry and semi sealed storage" for decades. They stored the tea in large quantity in bamboo tong and in sealed cardboard boxes stacked in airy space but not seal in food safe plastic. Essentially the tea are semi sealed as they are contained within the tightly packed bamboo tong in a thick card box boxes. Interesting, they mentioned that they fear moisture and air exposure in their storage method and periodically check their tea for detrimental effects. They refer tea that are exposed to air and moisture as tea that are "sick with flu" . Just to note that Malaysia has constant high humidity of 70-80% and high temp of 32C.

We brewed those tea and they taste clean, good,nicely matured. Then we had comparison brew by brewing a 2002 tea stored their way and another stored sealed by me. From the brew, both teas have aged but their method lose a lot of flavour and aroma compared to sealed storage. The aging for sealed storage, maybe around 2 years behind the their semi sealed method. We concluded that sealed tea aged a bit slower, maybe 2 years behind semi sealed for every 10 years but retain the aroma and flavour. And we noted that vendor did semi sealed or exposed storage to accelerate the aging for easy sale without any due consideration of losing the flavour and aroma as those the are normally sold younger. For private collectors, it would be better to consider preserving everything although it aged slower a bit.

Anyway, putting aside all the theory and arguments, this just one of the experience that I encountered personally. Aging Puer tea has to many variables and I just share it putting aside any intention to be right or wrong.

It is interesting to find that new frontiers are explored, breaking away from the old tenacious belief and practice in the past in this region. I see this change in Hong Kong too in my last few visits there. I know another group in Ipoh who is following Hojo style for some time and hope to catch up with them to try "crynogically sealed" aged tea.

Anyway, just to share this experience.

Cheers! :D
Very nice to hear some actually results, keep it going. Would be nice to have some pictures as well. :D

Jun 17th, '14, 11:43
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by AllanK » Jun 17th, '14, 11:43

Teaism wrote:Hi,
Just to share some interesting note on tea storage development in Malaysia. I am travelling now in Malaysia for 2 weeks to meet many groups to catch up with the tea development. Last night I had tea with a group of old collectors, link to the famed LBX group. We had many teas way past midnight..

We had long discussion on storage method and their perception on storage. Apparently this group was doing "dry and semi sealed storage" for decades. They stored the tea in large quantity in bamboo tong and in sealed cardboard boxes stacked in airy space but not seal in food safe plastic. Essentially the tea are semi sealed as they are contained within the tightly packed bamboo tong in a thick card box boxes. Interesting, they mentioned that they fear moisture and air exposure in their storage method and periodically check their tea for detrimental effects. They refer tea that are exposed to air and moisture as tea that are "sick with flu" . Just to note that Malaysia has constant high humidity of 70-80% and high temp of 32C.

We brewed those tea and they taste clean, good,nicely matured. Then we had comparison brew by brewing a 2002 tea stored their way and another stored sealed by me. From the brew, both teas have aged but their method lose a lot of flavour and aroma compared to sealed storage. The aging for sealed storage, maybe around 2 years behind the their semi sealed method. We concluded that sealed tea aged a bit slower, maybe 2 years behind semi sealed for every 10 years but retain the aroma and flavour. And we noted that vendor did semi sealed or exposed storage to accelerate the aging for easy sale without any due consideration of losing the flavour and aroma as those the are normally sold younger. For private collectors, it would be better to consider preserving everything although it aged slower a bit.

Anyway, putting aside all the theory and arguments, this just one of the experience that I encountered personally. Aging Puer tea has to many variables and I just share it putting aside any intention to be right or wrong.

It is interesting to find that new frontiers are explored, breaking away from the old tenacious belief and practice in the past in this region. I see this change in Hong Kong too in my last few visits there. I know another group in Ipoh who is following Hojo style for some time and hope to catch up with them to try "crynogically sealed" aged tea.

Anyway, just to share this experience.

Cheers! :D
Teaism, when you say you seal your bings do you mean 100% air tight plastic sealed or plastic bags which let in a small amount of air?

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