Deragoth wrote:As title says, What kind of shu will age well?
Should i look for meaty and powerful teas, or should i consider something like EoT Goshu shu, that is more subtle but with good thick leaves?
HF Friends
It really depends on what you are after.
Here's a reference based on my own tasting, which storage has no issues.
Most with big thick leafs use mostly made with huangpian, likely you'll end up with jujube flavor.
Those with lots of gold tips, likely you'll end up with nuo or toast or grain flavor.
Those with lesser or no gold tips, likely you'll end up with more earthly or woody or herbal flavor.
Some feel lightly fermentation is key, but there are those who believe other wise. What I say is taste it, make sure you like it.
There are people out that who believes shu should have dui wei (storage smell) and that's the taste of pu erh shu. So naturally they'll look for heavy fermented ones.
There are people who just can't stand dui wei, so lightly fermented ones is what they look out for.
Then fermentation skills and material used also important factors. There are many tuition shu in the market. Most have lovely brew colors but taste horrible or flat. This is due to the material used. Or those that taste nice but real dark cloudy colors, good chance there's lack in fermentation skills.
Traditionally shu is made to be drinkable, but most keep it for 3 years to reduce the dui wei. So I believe is when tasting, if you can ignore the dui wei and concentrate on the other flavors, there's a good chance finding something that's worth aging.
Of cos it's not something all agree on, but there's no official fix standard. Just take what you read as reference