Aging Puerh.

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


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Feb 19th, '13, 23:33
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by HifideliTea » Feb 19th, '13, 23:33

Besides enamel and porcelain jars that I bought recently, I also got these clay pots recently, reddish clay and more porous than enamel and ceramic, which I will use to store older teas . The pots are new and have no smells.
But the choice of storage would stil be large yixing pots, which are hard to come by.
There are also a cheaper alternative, ie metal containers that I use for storing older tea to retain the taste and flavour - an advice from a tea vendor as he does not want the tea to change it's flavour and taste and become unsaleable later on.

sung8891, are the pots you have similar to this?
Pot.jpg
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Feb 21st, '13, 07:18
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by sung8891 » Feb 21st, '13, 07:18

HifideliTea wrote:Besides enamel and porcelain jars that I bought recently, I also got these clay pots recently, reddish clay and more porous than enamel and ceramic, which I will use to store older teas . The pots are new and have no smells.
But the choice of storage would stil be large yixing pots, which are hard to come by.
There are also a cheaper alternative, ie metal containers that I use for storing older tea to retain the taste and flavour - an advice from a tea vendor as he does not want the tea to change it's flavour and taste and become unsaleable later on.

sung8891, are the pots you have similar to this?
Pot.jpg

Yes they are.

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Mar 1st, '13, 16:59
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by Bad Jedi » Mar 1st, '13, 16:59

My storage is pretty stable even in winter , yesterday I've done some measurements and humidity is around 80-81% and temperature around 20-22 C as you can see on the picture .
Left digital hygrometer sits on middle shelf and on right is analog one just brought in for comparison reasons and it shows humidity outside of my storage room.
No artificial humidification, flavor enhancers or high fructose corn syrup used :)
Hygrometers salt/water mixture calibrated . Extech professional hygrometer used as reference measurement device. No mold accidents so far.
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May 26th, '14, 08:19
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by apache » May 26th, '14, 08:19

Hope there is no objection for me to resurrect this post, as aging takes a lot of time ... and there seems to be perpetual interests in this topic.

Just want to share one of my results, the cake is Dayi 901 7542 which I bought from YS in 2009 and has been stored in the UK for almost 5 years.

As I do not have any picture when it was first came out, I have use Hobbes' pictures as a reference:
http://half-dipper.blogspot.co.uk/2009/ ... 2-901.html

The result of 5 years UK storage:

Day 901 7542 in May 2014
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First and second steeps
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Leaves after 4 steeps
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I think it has made some progress and seems to going to the right direction. In fact, I think it is better than some of my much more expensive cakes :(

It still has a lot of astringency, on the other hand it has more interesting characters than when it first came out.

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May 26th, '14, 09:02
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by Tead Off » May 26th, '14, 09:02

I bet it is not a tea you called 'delicious' then, or now. Am I right?

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May 26th, '14, 09:14
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by apache » May 26th, '14, 09:14

Tead Off wrote:I bet it is not a tea you called 'delicious' then, or now. Am I right?
Or put it this way, I think it still needs a least 10 (figure plucked from the air) plus years before I would consider it a regular drink. If I compare this with another Dayi I have with similar age, 801 8582, this 7542 is much nicer.

Yesterday I had a 2003 7542 and it was rather nice and I can see there some hints of that older cake taste in this 2009 cake.

Of cause, I only compare it with post 2000 cakes, anything before is very different.

May 26th, '14, 10:11
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by Puerlife » May 26th, '14, 10:11

Apache - I have a newly purchased 901 7542. The dry leaves look about the same as yours but the broth is still a strong yellow, not orange, so your storage must be good. Congrats.
Hifidelitea (or anyone) - Great looking earthen pots. How are they working out for you? I can find those in Thailand (with a different motif) but probably not with an earthen lid. What would work as a substitute. They sometimes come with cheap looking metal lids. Or wood. What would work best, I wonder.

May 26th, '14, 14:18
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Aging Puerh.

by Exempt » May 26th, '14, 14:18

Puerlife wrote:Apache - I have a newly purchased 901 7542. The dry leaves look about the same as yours but the broth is still a strong yellow, not orange, so your storage must be good. Congrats.
Hifidelitea (or anyone) - Great looking earthen pots. How are they working out for you? I can find those in Thailand (with a different motif) but probably not with an earthen lid. What would work as a substitute. They sometimes come with cheap looking metal lids. Or wood. What would work best, I wonder.
If you purchase some be sure that the wood or metal doesn't have any odor that could be imparted in the tea.

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May 27th, '14, 08:43
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by apache » May 27th, '14, 08:43

Puerlife wrote:Apache - I have a newly purchased 901 7542. The dry leaves look about the same as yours but the broth is still a strong yellow, not orange, so your storage must be good. Congrats.
...
I bought some 2005 Dayi Tuos a couple of years ago and I think they were stored in China somewhere outside Guangdong or anywhere near China's southern coastal area. And they certainly look and feel much younger than I would expect from any 9 years old pu.

I think most of us would agree that pu would generally age nicely in places like HK, Macau, most places in Guangdong, Malaysia and South East Asia. The 64 million dollar question is whether we could age pu successfully outside South East Asia as most of us on this forum live outside pu traditionally storage area.

I think it would be nice if we could pool together any hard evidence whether it is positive or negative (bad results are still good experimental data). I think this would be much more useful than just theoretical discussions based on opinions, guessing and second hand knowledge from Internet searches.

As aging results depend on many factors these include the starting raw material, how tight the cake been compressed ... etc. To mitigate all these other interfering 'noises', we need lot of data.

I will continue to share my results of other 5 year or older cakes on this thread.

May 27th, '14, 09:27
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by Puerlife » May 27th, '14, 09:27

My 7542 came from someone selling for high prices on Amazon (because I had gift certificates I wanted to use up) so I don't know where or how it was stored. I am very, very new to sheng but I already have one 'learning experience'. I bought a bing of Yiwu 2012 material in March this year in Malaysia and stored in in a one-bing display box, leaving it exposed to the heat, and we've had a very hot and extended hot season this year. It's already lost a lot of aroma and flavor! I also have an unopened bamboo tong of the same stuff, from which a very pleasant aroma is emanating. But I worry. I need a solution. Because of the layout and size of my house, the only place I can put my pu gets exposed to the various scented body oils and perfume my wife uses, and some cooking odors. Then there's the heat. I've read the thread that discusses food grade ziplock bags and that's one option. But what about traditional earthenware water vessels such as what Hifidelitea posted in this thread? I went to Khamtieng Market today, Chiang Mai's big outdoor garden market, and found the following.
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Pot 1.jpg
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May 27th, '14, 09:32
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by Puerlife » May 27th, '14, 09:32

The lids of the first two come with the pots but that somewhat ugly thing on the third one is a separate piece, some kind of base, that I found in the same shop. The lids on the first two don't fit very well but I could place a cloth between the vessel and the lid. My question is would this protect against odors, heat and humidity?

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May 27th, '14, 10:12
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by Tead Off » May 27th, '14, 10:12

Storing your teas in covered ceramic containers can't be a bad idea. They will at least protect the cakes from air circulation, pollution, odors, and moisture, provided it is kept in the right place. I would not keep them in an aircon room. Do you have any room that you use for storage, in general? Even a closet. The first 2 containers look good. Cardboard boxes work well, too. I used those for years. I would get your cakes into those food grade ziplocked bags on the double.

Here in BKK, the humidity is quite low in my apartment which is high above the river. It's been in the 50's for the past week or so. Of course, at street level, it's another story. But the temp has been a fairly consistent 32-34c. ''

May 27th, '14, 10:44
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by Puerlife » May 27th, '14, 10:44

It's an unusual house. There's the master bedroom (air con) and a second bedroom (my study, also air con). Then there's a very big open plan area. It also has air con but I use it probably five days a year at most, and parts of that large area are less cooled. Then there is a maid's room that I use for storage with an outside entrance. It's about half a degree centigrade hotter than inside the house. It has a ceiling fan. Teadoff, your post kind of gives me confidence that I can keep the tea in that big main room. I would really love to be able to look at the jars while I drink tea, but maybe the novelty would wear off?

Would you put an entire bamboo enclosed tong in plastic? I imagine either plastic or earthenware would suffice for odor but I wonder if the pots are cooler. I might just have to buy one, get a thermometer, and check it myself.

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May 27th, '14, 12:46
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by Tead Off » May 27th, '14, 12:46

The only thing I would worry about is if the bamboo itself was giving off a strong odor. The bamboo is good protection, though. Try one jar with no plastic and the other with the ziplock. It's good to experiment. The main thing is to not contaminate the teas or expose them to the elements.

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May 27th, '14, 21:32
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Re: Aging Puerh.

by kyarazen » May 27th, '14, 21:32

Tead Off wrote:The only thing I would worry about is if the bamboo itself was giving off a strong odor. The bamboo is good protection, though. Try one jar with no plastic and the other with the ziplock. It's good to experiment. The main thing is to not contaminate the teas or expose them to the elements.
it could be an important component to get a certain storage flavour though :mrgreen:

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