Can you tell about the quality of a bing/tou from appearanc?

One of the intentionally aged teas, Pu-Erh has a loyal following.


Apr 23rd, '13, 00:11
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Re: Can you tell about the quality of a bing/tou from appearanc?

by shah82 » Apr 23rd, '13, 00:11

I did eventually remember that the old teas, like some of the 70's and 80's Dayi and Xiaguan having blended shu into sheng. Have never really counted the 8972 since it looks like it's mostly shu.

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Apr 23rd, '13, 00:44
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Re: Can you tell about the quality of a bing/tou from appearanc?

by gingkoseto » Apr 23rd, '13, 00:44

shah82 wrote:I did eventually remember that the old teas, like some of the 70's and 80's Dayi and Xiaguan having blended shu into sheng. Have never really counted the 8972 since it looks like it's mostly shu.
This is not the first time I saw such comment, but I've never seen a large factory tea blended with sheng and shu. According to some older tea professionals I know, large factories were among those who are always most against sheng-shu blend, let alone doing it. That makes sense to me.

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Apr 23rd, '13, 01:59
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Re: Can you tell about the quality of a bing/tou from appearanc?

by wyardley » Apr 23rd, '13, 01:59

shah82 wrote:I did eventually remember that the old teas, like some of the 70's and 80's Dayi and Xiaguan having blended shu into sheng. Have never really counted the 8972 since it looks like it's mostly shu.
According to some books I've read, it's as far back as the 20s or 30s that some ripe material was blended in (20-30% seems to have been common).

And a lot of later period bricks are said to be 50/50.

Also, some ripe teas are less heavily "cooked" than others.

That said, I think there's some mixing up terminology between here between oxidation and fermentation (as in the natural aging process, or in the making of ripe tea). Oxidation is part of this process, but it's not all. When people complain about raw pu'er that has been intentionally partially oxidized to taste better when it's young, that's a very different thing from ripe tea.

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Apr 23rd, '13, 05:33
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Re: Can you tell about the quality of a bing/tou from appearanc?

by Teaism » Apr 23rd, '13, 05:33

Officially the shu was created for mass market in the 70s to meet the demand of Hong Kong and Asian market. However there were some shu tales much earlier than that.

I have chance upon some shu of 80s and 90s where they are half sheng/shu. I think at that time they are still hessitant on the process and retrieve the leaves earlier from the piling stage. Those aged half shu/sheng are really nice tea, having the best of both world. They are very smooth and yet there are subtle flavours and character of sheng at the same time. The brew is nice and clean amber in colour. They are quite like the ancient sheng.

But nowadays generally the sheng is really like a heap of some nasty leaves, the piling overdone to mask inferior leaves. I hardly come across any decent sheng now. There are still good ones out there. Look out for the nice leaves, almost dark purple ( not black) in colour and smell good ( not like some rotten wood or old cabinet)

Back to the tread question: Can you tell about the quality of a bing/tou from appearance? A definate yes for most experience tea drinker if there is a physical piece of the tea available for evaluation.

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Apr 23rd, '13, 09:07
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Re: Can you tell about the quality of a bing/tou from appearanc?

by lordsbm » Apr 23rd, '13, 09:07

Teaism wrote:But nowadays generally the sheng is really like a heap of some nasty leaves, the piling overdone to mask inferior leaves. I hardly come across any decent sheng now. There are still good ones out there. Look out for the nice leaves, almost dark purple ( not black) in colour and smell good ( not like some rotten wood or old cabinet)
I think in olden days they use some zijuan to get that dark purple finish and flora/fruity smell right? Now the trend seems to be using silver tips which don't do much (IMHO) except look nice :lol:

I do see dark purple (or rather blue hue) new sheng, but mostly from sellers who sell white paper/fake wrapper pu erh collected from less known location. Mainly gushu/laoshu also. The good ones, the leafs normally same throughout the cake/brick/tuo. Looks more rough on the finish.

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Apr 25th, '13, 08:41
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Re: Can you tell about the quality of a bing/tou from appearanc?

by Keiki » Apr 25th, '13, 08:41

By silver tips you mean like in this cake below?

Image
Image

It looks amazing, imho, but I couldn't find anything about its taste on the interwebs. Anyone here tried this?

Thanks.

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Apr 25th, '13, 10:18
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Re: Can you tell about the quality of a bing/tou from appearanc?

by lordsbm » Apr 25th, '13, 10:18

Keiki wrote:By silver tips you mean like in this cake below?

It looks amazing, imho, but I couldn't find anything about its taste on the interwebs. Anyone here tried this?

Thanks.
Look like a 月亮白/美人. It may not aged as well as you might hope it would^^; Likely you'll find it has a strong flora flavor, maybe a hint of sour, sweetness will depends. Brew will likely be pale yellow.

I think ladies will enjoy it better :lol:

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