Spring cleaning today

by **HifideliTea** » Mar 2nd, '13, 00:05

Spring cleaning today

by HifideliTea » Mar 2nd, '13, 00:05

Sorting, removing, re packaging, re labelling, re storing in different places and containers the stash of teas today - focusing on the raw section. Some of the teas in cloth bags really smells just lovely. But the cloth bags need to be rinsed and left to dry as the external cloth material smells like cotton.
No signs of mold. One or two was contanimated by sweat drops (?) - causing the tea stain on the wrapper.
One tightly packed stash of very new tea in a yixing container smells sour-ish - lack of air and the wrong gases from the new teas cannot escape?
Other than that everything seems to be ok.
I've also vacuum packing some older bricks but leave another brick exposed to the environment. Let's see how it turns out in a year when I open the vacuum pack and compare both brews.

This, I guess is the joy of this addictive hobby.

by **Tead Off** » Mar 2nd, '13, 01:44

Re: Spring cleaning today

by Tead Off » Mar 2nd, '13, 01:44

I have just done the same thing today except I am not vacuum sealing my cakes, only storing them in food grade PE bags and rearranging them in different boxes.

by **gasninja** » Mar 2nd, '13, 12:40

Re: Spring cleaning today

by gasninja » Mar 2nd, '13, 12:40

You might have ran into the problem with the very new tea smelling sour from the cakes still not being dried completely after pressing and then put into a closed spaced before getting time to fully dry in the center.

by **TIM** » Mar 2nd, '13, 12:42

Re: Spring cleaning today

by TIM » Mar 2nd, '13, 12:42

gasninja wrote:You might have ran into the problem with the very new tea smelling sour from the cakes still not being dried completely after pressing and then put into a closed spaced before getting time to fully dry in the center.

Oolong-Pu

by **MarshalN** » Mar 3rd, '13, 01:13

Re: Spring cleaning today

by MarshalN » Mar 3rd, '13, 01:13

TIM wrote:
gasninja wrote:You might have ran into the problem with the very new tea smelling sour from the cakes still not being dried completely after pressing and then put into a closed spaced before getting time to fully dry in the center.

Oolong-Pu

Sour smelling tea is classic oolong behvaiour when aged.

by **HifideliTea** » Mar 3rd, '13, 03:00

Re: Spring cleaning today

by HifideliTea » Mar 3rd, '13, 03:00

MarshalN wrote:
TIM wrote:
gasninja wrote:You might have ran into the problem with the very new tea smelling sour from the cakes still not being dried completely after pressing and then put into a closed spaced before getting time to fully dry in the center.

Oolong-Pu

Sour smelling tea is classic oolong behvaiour when aged.

Thanks all.
This sour batch was from the same vendor brand and it's 2011 and 2012 stock. Could be one of the many in that container - I don't really know.
I guess I'll have to start sniffing every cake of that brand to determine the source of the sourness.
All other brands have the traditional tea fragrances absent of the sour smells.

Any hazards keeping them with the pu erh stocks?
How does oolong puerh typically taste like when aged?