TeaChat

don't worry about blends and whatnot, bottom line, you want a good tasting tea in the end. i could give a rat's ass about whatever blend. this is just me.

heavydoom wrote:don't worry about blends and whatnot, bottom line, you want a good tasting tea in the end. i could give a rat's ass about whatever blend. this is just me.

lol , I'm with you, heavy!

thanks wrote:A fantastic tea, and my favorite Menghai sheng recipe next to the always great 8582.

I revisited my 8582 801 last night (yes, I recently decided it's ok to drink sheng at night ), and was pleasantly surprised. Maybe I'm just getting better at brewing..? I used shorter steeps than usual, and got a few very satisfying cups, nice and mellow. Maybe a hint of rubber?

Dizzwave wrote: I used shorter steeps than usual, and got a few very satisfying cups, nice and mellow.

Yes, I love those short steeps. Makes even the roughest young sheng drinkable. I feel a little guilty since I always hear that a long strong brew is the way professional tasters find out what a tea is really all about. Course, they don't sit down and drink the whole cup.

I'm glad to hear that Dave. I think of blends almost like teabags, consistent and pleasurable to the average drinker. I will probably get a few menghai blends for Christmas. The only thing is I need to get doubles because I hate breaking up a beautiful cake that I want to age.

Dizzwave wrote:

thanks wrote:A fantastic tea, and my favorite Menghai sheng recipe next to the always great 8582.

I revisited my 8582 801 last night (yes, I recently decided it's ok to drink sheng at night ), and was pleasantly surprised. Maybe I'm just getting better at brewing..? I used shorter steeps than usual, and got a few very satisfying cups, nice and mellow. Maybe a hint of rubber?

Another reason this probably tasted better is that it's had time to dry out because it was recently pressed.

Usually my infusion times for young sheng (using LOTS of leaf in my yixing) is 3s, 3s, 3s, 4s, 5s, and at this point I usually feel the tea out for the rest of the session. This usually gives me a great idea of what the tea is all about without drinking a cup full of battery acid (well if I'm brewing BuLang or something). Tea five years and older, are a different story (thought still young). I never exhaust a young sheng of all of it's flavors, but then again I don't drink young stuff daily except to test samples. If you brewed like that to drink sheng until it gives up, then be prepared to be brewing for a long, long time.

Salsero wrote:a long strong brew is the way professional tasters find out what a tea is really all about. Course, they don't sit down and drink the whole cup.

Yeah, I've heard that kind of stuff too. For instance, one way I've heard that they use to see how good a tea (sheng) is, is to let it steep for something like a day... and if the liquor is clear, it's a quality tea. I don't think they drink any of it though. (I have to work my way through all these Art Of Tea mags.. so much info in them on this kind of stuff...)

Dizzwave wrote:

Salsero wrote:a long strong brew is the way professional tasters find out what a tea is really all about. Course, they don't sit down and drink the whole cup.

Yeah, I've heard that kind of stuff too. For instance, one way I've heard that they use to see how good a tea (sheng) is, is to let it steep for something like a day... and if the liquor is clear, it's a quality tea. I don't think they drink any of it though. (I have to work my way through all these Art Of Tea mags.. so much info in them on this kind of stuff...)

Are those mags any good? They look very interesting but the price would always deter me from buying one. Which ones do you have? and which do you find has the most on puerh?

Dont the the word magazine fool you. Hey are very thick, almost catalog like. Full of amazing pictures and inside banter.

I have all four. Hop is right, they're not like "magazines" we know in the US.. They're chock full of info and pics. And a continuing series of articles on at-home pu storage!
All 4 are pretty much all about pu, except for the one that has more on oolong (which is obvious from the cover).
I balked for a while too, but glad I have them now.

They can be bought for the price of a cake, so in your opinion whats better, another cake or this magazine. I will probably end up getting both editions that they have at YSLLC in place of some tea.

shogun89 wrote:whats better, another cake or this magazine?

Hmm, that depends if you have 100 cakes, or just 10.

thanks wrote:Usually my infusion times for young sheng (using LOTS of leaf in my yixing) is 3s, 3s, 3s, 4s, 5s, and at this point I usually feel the tea out for the rest of the session.

Cool, I'll have to try that too. It's hard to pour that fast though.

those 2 seconds or 3 seconds steeps are a bit too short imo. i like it pretty strong, i steep for the first time for 10 seconds. i have done 20 seconds, but depending on the cake, this 20 seconds can be too much and cause the tea to be bitter. each tea is different and herein lies the fun of pu, they are all different in their own way.

I generally use 1gm of pu for every 30ml to start off with until I know how the tea will act. For new green sheng, I try to keep the water just under boil or if boiled, to let it sit for a few sec to cool. I know that most resources suggest to use boiling water for pu-erh, but we have to remember that new sheng is just "green tea" and should be brewed as such. You will be surprised how much more aroma, flavor and less astringency you will have just kicking back the degree of the water a couple o notches.