Hi all
I think it is better to put these questions in a new thread.
I liked the five OTTI Pu-Erh. But the two older ones I liked best. Is this because they had more time to age?
With wine you often get a time period when it is supposed to be on its peak and it will get worse from this time on. How can you tell this with your Pu-Erh? Does it improve and improve or is there a peak?
What do you think how our OTTI Pu-Erhs will develop the next 5-10 years?
What about Shu Pu-Erh and ageing? It is "cooked" to simulate aged Sheng. Will it improve with further ageing?
Is the improvement through ageing with Sheng or Shu somehow linear or does it improve more in the first five years or more in later years?
Hope for a nice discussion and some good advices.
ciao
Marco
Re: Pu Erh questions about ageing
Marco wrote:I think it is better to put these questions in a new thread.
I liked the five OTTI Pu-Erh. But the two older ones I liked best. Is this because they had more time to age?
With wine you often get a time period when it is supposed to be on its peak and it will get worse from this time on. How can you tell this with your Pu-Erh? Does it improve and improve or is there a peak?
What do you think how our OTTI Pu-Erhs will develop the next 5-10 years?
What about Shu Pu-Erh and ageing? It is "cooked" to simulate aged Sheng. Will it improve with further ageing?
Is the improvement through ageing with Sheng or Shu somehow linear or does it improve more in the first five years or more in later years?
I am by no means an expert but I do have a few thoughts on these questions.
As to, did you like the two older ones because they were older? That really depends a bit on why you liked the older ones, very young sheng often has characteristics that are rather unique, but while it can be enjoyable it usually has a certain unrefined touch to it, some would go as far as call it a stale green tea type characteristic. But as puerh ages that touch tends to go away a little by little and be replaced by other earthy flavors.
It has been said that puerh can go through stages where at certain times it will taste good, and at other times it will taste off, but in all honesty I feel the peak age for a cake is when you really like it, while I have not tried more than meager sample of puerh from pre 80's and only a little bit in from the 80's, depending on storage and probably on the starting material a cakes can probably very well peak at different times.
Personally I do not like to guess how cakes will age, and even though I have given a lot of thought into how I think cakes might age, or possibly collecting cakes to age, I have yet to actually conduct any "aging experiments."
To compare Shu (cooked) with aged sheng (raw), Shu does seem to be an approximation of an aged sheng, but in the end it is really rather different. But I have heard of people aging Shu successfully.
I would say improvement in aging is far from linear, and probably not even monotonic, as it could very well taste better at one point, and a year or so later possibly taste even worse.
Re: Pu Erh questions about ageing
The special taste of aged pu'erh is not just a result of the accumulation of time. Obviously, to begin with, the tea needs to be of quality. Then, there is envoirnment.
Like wine, the ingredients, the process and the conditions of storage all combine to the tatse.
Two identical beengs, stored in different places, will yield different results.
What the optimum conditions are could be open to debate.
In any case, the oxidation process that turns young tea to aged tea can mellow out shu as well. Shu fresh from the floor does benefit from some time to disapate off flavors and smells of the process. Where that process stops giving positive results and the tea degrades is not a fixed time.
Like wine, the ingredients, the process and the conditions of storage all combine to the tatse.
Two identical beengs, stored in different places, will yield different results.
What the optimum conditions are could be open to debate.
In any case, the oxidation process that turns young tea to aged tea can mellow out shu as well. Shu fresh from the floor does benefit from some time to disapate off flavors and smells of the process. Where that process stops giving positive results and the tea degrades is not a fixed time.
Re: Pu Erh questions about ageing
Thanks a lot for your inputs.
Yes I know you can never generalize and there are always exceptions.
But what I've read and learned so far is that the majority of Shu Pu-Erh is not made for drinking right after processing, because it will improve with storing.
And yes it depends on ones taste but can you with a specific Pu-Erh tell if you should drink it in 5, 10, 15 years?
My comparison to wine was because you can take a good wine-catalogue and there is stated "drinkable now - peak in about 2016", or "for storing - peak in about 2025" -- I've seen this often. So can you do something similar with Pu-Erh?
Because I think if you want to have something great in 10 years it can not only rely on luck what you buy now. Am I right?
And you say with a specific Pu-Erh its taste can be worse in five years? (even under right storage conditions) - Or can you generalize here and say it will be better or at least not worse?
This is all fascinating - and sometimes complicated
ciao
Marco
Yes I know you can never generalize and there are always exceptions.
But what I've read and learned so far is that the majority of Shu Pu-Erh is not made for drinking right after processing, because it will improve with storing.
And yes it depends on ones taste but can you with a specific Pu-Erh tell if you should drink it in 5, 10, 15 years?
My comparison to wine was because you can take a good wine-catalogue and there is stated "drinkable now - peak in about 2016", or "for storing - peak in about 2025" -- I've seen this often. So can you do something similar with Pu-Erh?
Because I think if you want to have something great in 10 years it can not only rely on luck what you buy now. Am I right?
And you say with a specific Pu-Erh its taste can be worse in five years? (even under right storage conditions) - Or can you generalize here and say it will be better or at least not worse?
This is all fascinating - and sometimes complicated
ciao
Marco