Have you heard of Silver fish in puerh?

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


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Dec 3rd, '12, 23:16
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Re: Have you heard of Silver fish in puerh?

by Maxwell2079 » Dec 3rd, '12, 23:16

Thanks again Catfur,

I was unsure about those. Language barrier perhaps and didn't check carefully in wikipedia.

Anyhow, is good news!!

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Dec 4th, '12, 09:17
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Re: Have you heard of Silver fish in puerh?

by gasninja » Dec 4th, '12, 09:17

How old is the tea?

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Dec 4th, '12, 09:54
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Re: Have you heard of Silver fish in puerh?

by Maxwell2079 » Dec 4th, '12, 09:54

Hi,

6 years.

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Dec 4th, '12, 22:27
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Re: Have you heard of Silver fish in puerh?

by TwoDog2 » Dec 4th, '12, 22:27

Maxwell2079 wrote: However, I do have silver fish in my building!! I didn't even no the name of the bug. Apparently because the wooden floor, I hope they don't eat my pu wrappers then :O.
I have heard of them eating puer wrappers, they are a pretty common bug that live in a variety of climates. I have heard of them eating paper from drawings and photographs. Worst case scenario, your wrappers will have some holes in them. They don't harm tea in anyway though, to my knowledge.

edit: spellin
Last edited by TwoDog2 on Dec 5th, '12, 01:13, edited 1 time in total.

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Dec 4th, '12, 22:44
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Re: Have you heard of Silver fish in puerh?

by Maxwell2079 » Dec 4th, '12, 22:44

I have heard of them eating puer wrappers, they are a pretty common bug that live in a variety of climates. I have heard of them eating paper from drawings and photographs. Worst case scenario, you wrappers will have some holes in them. They don't harm tea in anyway though, to me knowledge.
Thanks for clarifying.

By the way, congratulations for your online business, I might give a try to your Danzhen pu in the future.

Take care.

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Dec 5th, '12, 01:40
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Re: Have you heard of Silver fish in puerh?

by TwoDog2 » Dec 5th, '12, 01:40

Thanks!

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Jul 4th, '13, 23:30
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Re: Have you heard of Silver fish in puerh?

by jayinhk » Jul 4th, '13, 23:30

Just found a few beetle-looking things in one of my sheng cakes. Crushed two of the larger ones under my fingertip, but there was a little one that scurried back into the tea. Broke a chunk off the cake, stuck it in my shuiping, rinsed twice and brewed it up--pretty good. :D

Jul 5th, '13, 07:49
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Re: Have you heard of Silver fish in puerh?

by ChengduCha » Jul 5th, '13, 07:49

Maxwell2079 wrote: Honestly speaking I haven't ever seen any bug in my pu. My only concern is buying whole cakes and getting them with these insects and that they cause any damage to the tea or my health. And also that these spread to my other cakes at home.
I think pesticides should be a bigger concern for any regular tea drinker.

Random picture of the pu erh making process stolen from Tea Urchin:

Image

Basically anything can get into those piles.

Eugene from Tea Urchin states: "Next, the maocha should be tossed in pans to separate out the broken leaves, dust & fannings. At Zheng Si Long, this is still done by hand. As this is quite time consuming & back breaking work, I imagine it's only done for gu shu material, and only if the customer is particularly picky, like me."

This should explain why people find random stuff in their pu, although most bugs probably end up in the cake during storage somewhere.

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Jul 6th, '13, 00:30
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Re: Have you heard of Silver fish in puerh?

by Maxwell2079 » Jul 6th, '13, 00:30

Just found a few beetle-looking things in one of my sheng cakes. Crushed two of the larger ones under my fingertip, but there was a little one that scurried back into the tea. Broke a chunk off the cake, stuck it in my shuiping, rinsed twice and brewed it up--pretty good. :D
Funny story Jay!!!

Thanks for the info Chengducha.

Jul 18th, '13, 18:47
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Re: Have you heard of Silver fish in puerh?

by bryan_drinks_tea » Jul 18th, '13, 18:47

I think you all may be talking about the mold mite -

I keep my sheng in the mid to upper-70's for humidity, and more than once I have unwrapped a few cakes to check them out, and yeah, they are common around humid stuff. I've never had any bad effects from them though.

Best,

Bryan

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