Nauseous

[dstarh1]

I bought a 12 yo from Vital Tea Leaf in San Fran chinatown a little while back and while I love the flavor of the tea at times it makes me a bit nauseous. Does anyone else experience this? The tea is from Yunnan Pingxiwangfu Shengtasishipin CO Ltd. It actually gives my wife a Headache as soon as she starts to drink it as well. Is this something thats normal for some people? Could it be that i'm brewing too much or is the tea not aired out enough? . Not exactly sure about the variety of the tea. It's labled on it's tissue paper "Chi Tse Beeng Gha"

[dstarh1]

Here are some pics of the cake http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidherma ... 579769548/

the top row of pics. The bottom tin is something I picked up at a local Asain Market which is a decent tasting oolong but has way to harsh an aftertase

[puerhking]

I have had a variety of reactions to puerh including a sick stomach and heart palpitations. I would not drink it on an empty stomach in general. The cha qi or energy of the tea is unlike any other tea in my experience. In the end I drink a bit less of it, I was drinking up to 60oz of it a day, and now it is just fine. I do think some people need a period of acclimation if they are new to the tea.

[puerhking]

I would be pretty skeptical about that being 12 years old unless the maocha was aged that long before pressing. The wrapper has a QS stamp on it which started in 2005 I believe.

Based on you bad photos it also looks like a shu. Is this it?

http://cgi.ebay.com/400g-pu-erh-chi-tse ... 7C294%3A30

[dstarh1]

I figured as much. I think I paid about 50 for it. Not sure if they just attempt to rip off tourists or not. They seem to be very knowledgeable but as a Pu Erh novice it's hard to tell.


For a normal brewing how much should I be brewing? a teaspoon? for how long? they suggest "a small amount" for 30 seconds

[dstarh1]

That looks like it. Looks like by the price of the one on ebay i was ripped off.

[puerhking]

Yeah you paid too much......but it could have been worse.

I would use about 5g per 150ml of water. First brew about 20sec and throw it out. Second brew about 10 sec, third 10 sec forth 15 etc.

Shu can be quite strong after it becomes fully hydrated. Water it down a bit at first if you need to.

[dstarh1]

Its to bad they seem very nice in there but I guess i know now and wont be going back. My wife got some blue people oolong from there that she really likes.

[dstarh1]

what does 5 g equate to in teaspoons? (assuming it's well broken up)

[Rich Perry]

I had a strange experience with Vital Tea some years ago. It was very confusing which if any cakes were raw. I made the mistake of ordering one that seemed, from their description to be a raw cake. Not only was it a shu cake but it wasn't even the one I had ordered. When I called they said that they were sorry, but they were out of the one I ordered, so they sent me a different one. I had taken a bit chunk out of it so I didn't think that I could return it. They did send me the Canger Toucha that they have as kind of a peace offering. This was early on in my online tea ordering. Now if this happened, I would have returned it immediately. I've learned a lot of hard, expensive lessons ordering tea online.

[dstarh1]

This was not via their online store but at one of their locations. Granted going to a store the tea will likely cost more money(think tevana) than online but not THAT much more

[dstarh1]

I will say though taht i've only had one or 2 teas from adagio that I didnt like, they were so smokey that it was like I had taken wood left over from my smoker and brewed it.

[shogun89]

What you need to do is send me around half of the cake for testing, to make sure its safe. . .

[dstarh1]

Sure, oh and that horse apple smell is TOTALLY normal btw

[Dizzwave]

Sure, oh and that horse apple smell is TOTALLY normal btw