TeaChat

I was at my local teashop (Chaikhana Tea Culture) about a week ago, and I asked the owner to show me a good pu erh that wasn't too expensive. He directed me towards a bundle of HUGE (about 4 inches long) leaves. He had a large clay pot containing about 15-20 of those bundles. They were sheng pu erh aged since 1999.

Have any of you ever seen pu erh like this?

They were tea leaves stored in a clay pot? Yea i've seen them on a couple websites although I dont know much about them. I deff have seen this method done though.

"Mao cha" is what they call puerh raw material before it is pressed into a shape like a cake or brick. Sometimes they never press it into a shape however and you buy it loose. And Puerh is generally made from the Assamica (Large leaf) varietal of the Camellia Sinensis. So this all sounds legitimate.

Did you get any?

the reason the leaves are large is they come from tea trees, not bushes. woot, big ass leaves!

You got a free tasting of it, right?

I didn't, he had already offered me a free tasting of an 80's pu erh. It was one of the 1st pu erhs I've ever had, so I can't describe the individual notes very well, but it tasted great and had an intense cha qi.

WOw, you are lucky to have such a great local tea shop.

Geospearit wrote:WOw, you are lucky to have such a great local tea shop.

Yep, Sal is correct. The bundles are Mao Cha. Sometimes, they bundle the Mao Cha according to grade before they send it to the factory to be pressed. Sounds like those 'kiddos' never made it. From your desription, it sounds like Autumn harvest leaves.

Thanks for the info hop.

When you day "they never made it," do you mean that they were of too low grade to be pressed?

trent wrote:Thanks for the info hop.

When you day "they never made it," do you mean that they were of too low grade to be pressed?

Who's to say why they didn't. Can't tell ya why. Sorry. I am just suggesting that they were never presssed into puerh shapes.

miles wrote:Yes, being from the area I've seen this tea at Chaikhana and tried some. It's very interesting. Really it isn't puerh at all, it's simply leaves from a puerh tree picked and sun-dried, no processing of any sort.

Aged mao cha (loose pu'erh) is still pu'erh... it's just not pressed into a cake.

miles wrote:Yes, being from the area I've seen this tea at Chaikhana and tried some. It's very interesting. Really it isn't puerh at all, it's simply leaves from a puerh tree picked and sun-dried, no processing of any sort.

Aged mao cha (loose pu'erh) is still pu'erh... it's just not pressed into a cake.

I just bought some of that tea (will post pics soon).

But now, I have a problem:
How should I store it?

It doesn't make sense to store it out in the open... so should I get a clay jar to store it in?

Actually... it might not be maocha, but a local tea instead. Take the 1999 claim with a grain of salt. What colour is the tea when you brew it?

Here are the pics! If anyone wants a sample, PM me. I just finished finals, so I (finally) have time to teablog & teaswap.



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EDIT: I forgot to add, when I bought the tea, the shp owner told me that it's actually a 2004 maocha, i just remembered wrong when I said it was 1999.