Young sheng pu'er: why do you drink it?

[TomVerlain]

too strong for me, I cut it with shou. Even 1998 sheng I have can be a bit too strong by itself. If I drink too much young sheng my body jumps up and down in protest and I need to eat food to keep from feeling horrible. That being said, I have had young sheng that is floral and green, not bitter, but it really doesn't taste like pu'erh to me. I can drink espresso like shou all day and feel fine. (that is a slight exaggeration)

I know I can brew it lighter, but to me, young sheng is not really where its at. I'd rather drink oolong of I want the floral, younger taste.

[TwoDog2]

too strong for me, I cut it with shou. Even 1998 sheng I have can be a bit too strong by itself. If I drink too much young sheng my body jumps up and down in protest and I need to eat food to keep from feeling horrible. That being said, I have had young sheng that is floral and green, not bitter, but it really doesn't taste like pu'erh to me. I can drink espresso like shou all day and feel fine. (that is a slight exaggeration)

I know I can brew it lighter, but to me, young sheng is not really where its at. I'd rather drink oolong of I want the floral, younger taste.

I am the opposite, especially during Spring, I am drinking dozens of fresh raw sheng teas everyday. I don't really enjoy doing that, but I am fine. However, I am not much of a coffee drinker. Drinking espresso makes my heart jump and makes my body feel tense and uncomfortable.

It is about finding what works with your body and your palate. Read through the suggestions here, try some things and research what works best for you. Just like you wouldn't want a stranger choosing your meals for the day, you wouldn't want them picking your tea either.

And as for your question, I enjoy drinking young sheng a lot. I find the energy and strength to be unique and there are days when i will reach for young sheng. I enjoy bitterness and astringency. I enjoy strength and youth in Puer tea. I only begin to dislike it with overexposure. Everything in moderation.

[entropyembrace]

But old tea can be bitter too

Bitter food like here in Yunnan some extremly bitter bamboo or some vegetables like ku gu - bitter mellon, have long history and number of good reassons why eat it.

You can see what tea farmers and minority people drink - huang pian, yellow leaves, from old trees. No bitter, very sweet , without power . I guess they know what is good if they make puer for so many generations. In their food you can find really extremly bitter vegetables, wild vegetables , and the bamboo , which normal people cant eat (I love it ) . But in fresh puer is not only bitter - so many "new" tea is nearly not bitter... The reasson why not drink them is I feel different

EDIT : my first post is specialy wrote for new tea drinkers. If you drink new and fresh puer tea long time - means like 10 years (honestyl I know only tea sellers who do it and they do it becuase is their - our - work) and still enjoy it, is okay and you must be Iron man with iron stomach

But sadly I know many people and friends who get serious troubles with stomach etc. because they drank too many new sheng puer.

Thanks for elaborating honza, I wasn't sure if the avoidance of young sheng comes from a general aversion to bitterness or not.

I didn't have time to finish my post earlier, so I'll elaborate on why I think people feel differently after drinking green teas and young sheng. Probably the most important difference between fresh teas and aged teas are that the catechins are degraded and lose a lot of their antioxidant capacity. These reduce inflammation and increases regulated cell death (which is important to prevent cancer). They also affect the insulin pathway and reduce blood sugar and ldl ("bad" cholesterol). A lot of people suffer from inflammatory diseases, which are becoming extremely common in the West, and will benefit more from fresh teas with highly active catechin.

But, there's another side to the coin, it's possible to have too much anti-oxidant activity which interferes with several normal signalling pathways that are required for good health. If this is the case you'd probably feel better drinking teas with less active forms of catechin.

Also since catechin reduces blood sugar levels if this causes you to enter mild hypoglycemia you'll feel dizzy. I think this why Japanese traditionally serve their green tea with a small sweet snack.

Tea does seem to alter gastric secretions too but I'm less sure how this works. I've seen that tea can both increase and reduce gastric secretions, I think I'd have to look into the papers and figure out what kind of tea each was testing.

Personally I feel good after drinking young sheng and green tea. I have persistent environmental allergies and an autoimmune disease so my body is constantly in a state of too much inflammation. I think liking young sheng isn't so much a matter of iron stomach but having a different reaction to it because your body is in a different baseline state.

I can also certainly believe that people don't feel well after drinking young sheng and green teas.

TLDR: I don't agree with blanket statements on green tea/young sheng being bad for you. There's plenty of evidence that different people will have a different reaction to drinking young sheng based on their individual body chemistry. So for the new tea drinker, try different kinds of tea and figure out what works for you

[TwoDog2]

TLDR: I don't agree with blanket statements on green tea/young sheng being bad for you. There's plenty of evidence that different people will have a different reaction to drinking young sheng based on their individual body chemistry. So for the new tea drinker, try different kinds of tea and figure out what works for you

+1

There is often some fear mongering around young sheng being bad for health and "back in the day young sheng was completely undrinkable!" talk. As someone who has drank literally thousands of young shengs, I think it tends to be certain peoples personal bodily reaction and preconceptions, rather than an overall unhealthiness or major oolongpu/hongpu change.

I know people who can't drink any young sheng without immediately running full speed to the nearest toilet. I also know people who can pack 15g of young sheng in a gaiwan several times a day and feel excellent. It is about finding out which teas make you feel good, just like with other foodstuffs, it is all quite personal how your body reacts.

[kyarazen]

shikunmu is one of the very few writers that i respect in his neutral and historically correct stand on tea writings including his access and reference to factory records of menghai, xiaguan and related productions.

my observations and personal experiences are well correlated to his observations as well

"New" puer tea products are more easy for drink now. And number of them is oolongpu, hongchapu or just too close green tea and will change after few years very horrible,,, If you meet with teas which are made for long storage like new cakes from Mr. Shi Kun Mu or any master products made by old tea sellers , you will for sure dont want them drink NOW and you will know is really tea for future. They are too powerfull and too strong. Like high quality famous puer in past.

New tea drinkers and new market of puer can not offer many old teas with reasonable price so teach and push new drinkers drink and enjoy new puer tea. But if you can have choice for new and old and not need carre about the price, you will take the old one for sure.
Here is nice post from MarshalN about new teas http://www.marshaln.com/2014/09/dont-drink-shincha/ is more about green tea but new puer tea is just "sun dried green tea" and drink it a lot can make number of troubles for your body.

There is many reasons why tea drinkers are pushed by sellers to drink and enjoy new puer teas but just be carefull.
New tea you can just try and buy for future drinking and better is enjoy fine semi-aged or really old puer tea.

Is just my opinion and of course not must agree with me

[steanze]

Sometimes I drink it to test if for future aging, sometimes for current enjoyment. I wouldn't drink the tea I pick for aging when young on a regular basis (strong), but sometimes I do drink it because I like to see it transform through the various stages. At the same time, I can be more forgiving if a tea lacks potency when I'm drinking it for current enjoyment without plans of aging it.

[PuerhCollector]

Some really nice and thoughtful exchanges.

I would definitely support everyone’s suggestions here on knowing yourself and your body. What works for you? What do you enjoy? and then what would you like to do?

I also don't like blanket statements as there is usually an exception to everything. There are too many different circumstances, variables out there that it would be best to avoid such sweeping statements. It’s basically about keeping an open mind.

Let me introduce another perspective by sharing my preference for history in association with time. I have a tendency to go with time proven and time tested theories and traditions comparative to new trends (esp. the ones that appears to be too profit oriented). It is my belief that the longer something has been around (the longer the better) this generally points to stability and safety. The test of time reveals to us what the accumulated effects are that can lead to potential side effects and dangers. This can sometimes can take a long time to surface and understand.

Going back to the initial questions - I don’t drink much young puerh nowadays. I used too and I overdid it. It is something I regret doing. The main reasons I drink young puerh now is to keep updated with the market and in participation with friends. I also drink young puerh to assess their ability to age but have been doing this less and less as I feel you get more certainty by assessing the aging potential of semi aged teas. Furthermore the costs of semi aged teas generally are not too much higher than young puerh (and I believe that has been mentioned).

Best, VP

[AT333]

The main reasons I drink young puerh now is to keep updated with the market and in participation with friends. I also drink young puerh to assess their ability to age .

+1
Given a choice, personally I would prefer to drink old Sheng much more often. Young Sheng is more for tasting, assessing, buying and aging.

[puerhking]

Personally I prefer the taste of young pu over aged pu. I've been drinking young pu for about eight years pretty much daily. Having said that....I never drink it first thing on an empty stomach. I wait until after lunch.

[pedros11]

This aged/ new sheng puer discussion is quite interesting. For myself it happened quite curiously, that after many years of drinking new shengs more and more i`m losing interest to drink old shengs. Good quality tea is whole in it`s freshness, but after some years it just seems to lose something essential. They are some fascinating aged puers anyway, and had the luck to taste many many 50+ years aged teas as well, but still i`m just more excited in fresh puer, and the fresher the better, sometimes even by a 2 year old cake i can get disconnected. And i hardly believe i would wait for 50 years to get my teas aged.

[honza]

PuerhCollector wrote:
"The main reasons I drink young puerh now is to keep updated with the market and in participation with friends. I also drink young puerh to assess their ability to age .............Furthermore the costs of semi aged teas generally are not too much higher than young puerh (and I believe that has been mentioned). "

100% agree with you.


If the work in wok is made well, and everything happend in the right way in tea processing, the sheng puer tea will change slowly and nice.

Many new shengs taste nice first two or three years and then change to something orange without nice aroma and taste is really not good. (a lot of Lincang new teas is made more like green tea and have this trouble - from my experience, but also other area teas are made for "new puer market and new drinkers" who cant accept the taste of normal new sheng) . But thats not really well made sheng pu, it´s can be too green or can have any kind of oolong/hongchapu trouble. The taste just go down like new green tea taste nice and after 2-3 years change so bad (ok most of green tea).
Well made sheng pu must taste better and better, some in 15 years age, some need much more time, but single mountain gushu from places like Yiwu can be nice after 10 years...not so long time .

For me, I love and enjoy drinking new tea samples , new maocha , for about 6 months in year, since now and stop in autumn. I like it because I want know new taste of puer places or cakes I never try before etc. That can do daily without trouble. It´s my hobby but also my job. But I can feel easy the "cold" in new tea and "warm" in old tea and dont like drink new sheng in cold days. I belive is just not good for body.

But of course, no one do wrong things, if you like new puer and your body accept it, do what you like. The market is now full of new puer cakes, easy for drink now.

[tingjunkie]

I have to admit, out of all Chinese teas, young sheng took me the longest to begin to understand. Right from the beginning, I knew I liked certain teas, but couldn't tell you exactly why. I think that's because what appeals to me now about really good young sheng are all the things beginners tend to overlook in teas; mouthfeel, the feelings on the tongue and back of the throat, the energy, the aroma left in the empty cup, etc. So in short, why I drink it is usually not for the up front flavors and aromas (though they can be nice too), but for all the other stuff that requires more attention and experience to savor.

[debunix]

I first tried it as part of a group tasting--if it hadn't been for that handholding I might not have continued to discover how lovely it can be.