What to do with young Sheng samples?

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


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What to do with young Sheng samples?

by MEversbergII » Mar 23rd, '14, 12:15

Some months back I ordered from Yunnan Sourcing and one of my samples was a silver plastic foil bag of sheng from 2013. It identifies as "2013 Tunnan Sourcing Mang Fei Mountain Old Arbor Raw Pu-erh Tea cake".

I'd actually intended to ask about it at the time, but it migrated it's way into the back back of the tea cabnet. It's still in the foil bag, which is pretty obviously not conducive to aging, but I'm not sure that's what I should even try and do with this - there isn't much TO age.

Were it older, I'd give it a go and see if the parent cake might be worth procuring. But while I've never actually had "new" sheng, I've heard it is bascially just really harsh green tea and I don't know if it would be worthwhile to taste it and make any kind of evaluation about the parent cake - which itself wouldn't be good for at least another 10 years.

So, Pu-er regulars, what do you usually do with such young samples? Is this swap fodder, or a golden learning opportunity?

M.

Mar 23rd, '14, 12:22
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Re: What to do with young Sheng samples?

by Puerlife » Mar 23rd, '14, 12:22

That's why I like Tea Urchin's sample bags; they are zip lock paper bags. I'm sure I'll be using them for tea long after the original samples are gone. But a paper lunch bag should do just as well. But as for the rest of your question, I'm in way over my head, but I think samples are meant to be sampled. Not being snarky at all. I mean, why not drink it?

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Re: What to do with young Sheng samples?

by kyarazen » Mar 23rd, '14, 12:25

drink!!!!

i may brew it a hei-ni/black clay yixing to round it a little (even better if the pot's lower fired).

a lot of nice sheng tea has lovely airy high notes to it, adjusting the brew durations and equipment and water temperature/type etc can create something enjoyable.

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Re: What to do with young Sheng samples?

by Tead Off » Mar 23rd, '14, 14:02

kyarazen wrote:drink!!!!

i may brew it a hei-ni/black clay yixing to round it a little (even better if the pot's lower fired).

a lot of nice sheng tea has lovely airy high notes to it, adjusting the brew durations and equipment and water temperature/type etc can create something enjoyable.
I don't think you want to dampen the nice high notes of a young sheng with a low fired pot. I can see a more bitter/woody/leathery/tobacco tea rounded out in a more porous pot.

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Re: What to do with young Sheng samples?

by mr mopu » Mar 23rd, '14, 15:04

You could just send it to me for analysis.. Actually some of the sheng from Yunnan Sourcing is very smooth and drinkable at a young age.
P.s. if you need my address for analysis just message me. :mrgreen:

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Re: What to do with young Sheng samples?

by miig » Mar 23rd, '14, 15:25

Hm - there are quite a few young shengs which I enjoyed in the last couple of months. The better ones are far more than harsh green tea, young sheng can have the freshness of green tea while presenting at the same time an intensity and very interesting, spicy notes which are not present in the greens.
They won't have the complexity of an aged sheng of course, but
So try them :) I don't know whether it would be worth the effort to save such a little amount for years to try it then.

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Re: What to do with young Sheng samples?

by shah82 » Mar 23rd, '14, 15:39

I think that most aged (15-25yo) sheng are rather simple. True puerh (25+), of which I've not had many, are more likely to be complex in taste.

The good ones that are complex in taste as well costs $$$$ and requires a bit of connection now. And of course, if you're very wealthy, you can buy a blue mark at BTH!

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Re: What to do with young Sheng samples?

by debunix » Mar 23rd, '14, 16:24

I drink them. Sometimes they inadvertently age a bit in my cabinet but that is never the intent. If I can't find a way to enjoy them--flash infusions, dilute brews, even dropping temp a bit for first infusions, then I compost them. The worm bin only gets 1 in 10 or so, however, since I can nearly always get something tasty out of them.

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Re: What to do with young Sheng samples?

by kyarazen » Mar 23rd, '14, 21:42

Tead Off wrote:
kyarazen wrote:drink!!!!

i may brew it a hei-ni/black clay yixing to round it a little (even better if the pot's lower fired).

a lot of nice sheng tea has lovely airy high notes to it, adjusting the brew durations and equipment and water temperature/type etc can create something enjoyable.
I don't think you want to dampen the nice high notes of a young sheng with a low fired pot. I can see a more bitter/woody/leathery/tobacco tea rounded out in a more porous pot.
tea is under 1% aromatics and 99% all the pigments, tannates and strong tasting compounds if you know what i mean. hmm.. maybe not.

bitter, woody, leathery, tobacco tea? wait... is that tea???!! :mrgreen:

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Re: What to do with young Sheng samples?

by MEversbergII » Mar 23rd, '14, 22:36

I've had Celon that reminded me of fine tobacco.

Alright I'll add this to my work bag for tomorrow. I have a 250ml / 1 cup tea pot at the office. How would you all prepare it in one of those? I estimate 15g in the bag.

M.

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Re: What to do with young Sheng samples?

by Tead Off » Mar 23rd, '14, 23:32

kyarazen wrote:
Tead Off wrote:
kyarazen wrote:drink!!!!

i may brew it a hei-ni/black clay yixing to round it a little (even better if the pot's lower fired).

a lot of nice sheng tea has lovely airy high notes to it, adjusting the brew durations and equipment and water temperature/type etc can create something enjoyable.
I don't think you want to dampen the nice high notes of a young sheng with a low fired pot. I can see a more bitter/woody/leathery/tobacco tea rounded out in a more porous pot.
tea is under 1% aromatics and 99% all the pigments, tannates and strong tasting compounds if you know what i mean. hmm.. maybe not.

bitter, woody, leathery, tobacco tea? wait... is that tea???!! :mrgreen:
No, those were my words. :D

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Re: What to do with young Sheng samples?

by MEversbergII » Mar 26th, '14, 10:38

I gave it a try today with my own perimeters.

I was thinking "Young sheng is basically white or green tea, depending on how it's handled". With that in mind, I looked at the leaves - visually resembled something like white tea. So I figured why not prep it like I would white?

5.5g in a 250ml thin walled pot with water boiled. No rinse, steeped 90 seconds.

It wasn't nearly as revolting as I was expecting it to be - in fact, it turned out fairly pleasant. Certainly distinctive, and basically nothing like any white tea I've ever had. I wouldn't use words like "harsh", but I don't know how I'd describe it.

I've had some aged sheng (4 years old) and I've had sheng at a takeout place across from my current quarters. It has similarities in base flavor - something earthy - but it's muted.

Second infusion was at 60 seconds, but that isn't enough. I'll try a third at 2 minutes later on today.

M.

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Re: What to do with young Sheng samples?

by the_economist » Mar 26th, '14, 11:44

I think what you're calling aged sheng is cooked? Take out places will generally not have aged sheng but some form of cooked pu. 4 years is also insufficient to qualify as aged in the sense that most people use the term 'aged sheng'.

The experience of drinking young sheng runs the gamut, depending primarily on leaf quality and processing.

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Re: What to do with young Sheng samples?

by Exempt » Mar 26th, '14, 12:33

MEversbergII wrote: I've had some aged sheng (4 years old) and I've had sheng at a takeout place across from my current quarters. It has similarities in base flavor - something earthy - but it's muted.
4 year old sheng is certainly not aged, and a takeout restaurant definitely will not be serving aged sheng. It sounds like you are calling shu puerh, aged sheng???

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Re: What to do with young Sheng samples?

by MEversbergII » Mar 26th, '14, 15:58

Well, the takeout stuff certainly tasted a lot more like my 4 year old (not old at all, I agree) loose sheng than any loose shu I've ever had. I thought it was going to be bog standard lipton bags until I had a cup a while back and was like "Hey, this is familiar..."

M.

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