Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

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


Jul 3rd, '13, 14:38
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Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

by deadlysight » Jul 3rd, '13, 14:38

Hi,

By its appearance without revealing the year, can you guys tell if it is raw or cooked?

Irwin
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Jul 3rd, '13, 14:56
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Re: Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

by shah82 » Jul 3rd, '13, 14:56

Cooked or will give the same quality as cooked.

Jul 3rd, '13, 16:36
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Re: Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

by deadlysight » Jul 3rd, '13, 16:36

An obvious hint, this is after steeping for one minute.
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Jul 3rd, '13, 17:00
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Re: Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

by shah82 » Jul 3rd, '13, 17:00

mmmhhmmmm, now, how was the brew?

Jul 3rd, '13, 17:25
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Re: Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

by deadlysight » Jul 3rd, '13, 17:25

This is a 90's Dayi Raw Pu-Erh brick. When first cut open the paper wrap, I thought that the seller made a mistake by selling me a cooked one. But after the brew, most leaves turn green, some brown / yellow.

For the first two infusions, it tastes a little smoky / woody, little astrigent, mellow, mild hint of green tea, very complex.

For later infusions, it becomes less smoky, less woody, less astrigent. But it becomes sweeter.

Jul 3rd, '13, 17:45
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Re: Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

by shah82 » Jul 3rd, '13, 17:45

Where are the things that would identify it as a mid 90's Dayi product?

Neifei, wrapper?

Jul 3rd, '13, 17:59
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Re: Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

by deadlysight » Jul 3rd, '13, 17:59

[EDITED: PICTURES REMOVED]

Here's the wrap. I also want to know the exact year, but I can't find the exact wrap on the web.
Last edited by deadlysight on Dec 12th, '13, 22:23, edited 1 time in total.

Jul 3rd, '13, 19:08
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Re: Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

by shah82 » Jul 3rd, '13, 19:08

As far as I know, Dayi sold relatively few bricks during the '90s. Of those, most are relatively wet stored in S. China. Of course, there are fangchas.

Anyways, a quick survey on Taobao seems to make me think this may be fake. The label goes tea brick, when Dayi normally labels brick tea. The 94 edition does do it tea brick, but the other characters don't fit. Moreover, it's typically labeled as a shu. Some other shus have this exact label for 3kg bricks. I've found a sheng brick from 2000 that has a matching wrapper, but the tea isn't all 7581-y blend like this tea here is. The neifei is also missing from the brick depicted here.

So in short, from what I can gather...

1) The specific wrapper was used for shu in the mid-90s
2) Sheng wrappers start in the 2ks, or at least the very late 90s, and only lasted until 2003, 2004 at the latest.
3) The composition of the leaf material on the surfaces depicted here is very coarse relative to how Dayi like to do their sheng brick teas. I don't see a neifei, which all sheng bricks have, for sure, and probably almost all their teas. Did you only show the back of the brick, and the top didn't show the part of the brick that has it?

Jul 3rd, '13, 20:33
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Re: Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

by mr mopu » Jul 3rd, '13, 20:33

A picture of the back of the wrapper would help. By any chance is this a 2002? check this link also. It may help http://www.aliexpress.com/item/GRANDNES ... 83469.html or this one http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product ... 90971.html

Jul 4th, '13, 01:29
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Re: Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

by deadlysight » Jul 4th, '13, 01:29

It's certainly older than 2003, I also had the 2003 year brick, and it is much more greener.

I know that that a similar wrap is used for Shu Puerh from some internet sources. From the taste profile and the steeped leaves, the tea is certainly raw. In contrast, the brick is very dark brown which also seemed cooked. It doesn't seemed wet stored, it doesn't smell moldy, no unpleasant odor.

If this tea brick is not from Menghai / Dayi, then where does it come from. It's quality is quite good, complete leaves show up after the steep, and certainly look very aged. What are the intention of faking a good tea.

That is why I posted this topic, I found this tea brick kinda wild.

Jul 4th, '13, 01:47
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Re: Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

by deadlysight » Jul 4th, '13, 01:47

mr mopu wrote:A picture of the back of the wrapper would help. By any chance is this a 2002? check this link also. It may help http://www.aliexpress.com/item/GRANDNES ... 83469.html or this one http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product ... 90971.html
My tea brick doesn't look like one of those two, since one is cooked and the other one is from 2005.

The 2005 tea brick shows a lot of brown and yellow leaves, and it also looks wet stored. The texture of the brick also looks like compost leaves. Even my year 2003 raw tea brick (could be a fake one though) doesn't look that aged.

But anyways, different storage and location can make a big difference to the appearance of the tea brick. But that shouldn't grant tea merchants intention to relabel the year of the tea.

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Jul 4th, '13, 01:57
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Re: Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

by wyardley » Jul 4th, '13, 01:57

deadlysight wrote:It's certainly older than 2003, I also had the 2003 year brick, and it is much more greener.
[...]
If this tea brick is not from Menghai / Dayi, then where does it come from. It's quality is quite good, complete leaves show up after the steep, and certainly look very aged. What are the intention of faking a good tea.
Looks raw to me.
Storage, compression, and other factors can affect the taste and look of the brewed tea and tea leaves. It is possible your tea is from the 90s, but just because it seems more "aged" than a similar tea from 2003 does not necessarily mean it's older. Based on the photos only, I wouldn't hazard a guess. Did you acquire it from a vendor who sold it as 90s tea, or from someone who has actually had the tea since the 90s?

I also can't comment on whether it's fake or not (and I certainly don't mean to suggest that I think this is fake tea) -- but there certainly is fake Dayi tea out there, and from what I've heard, plenty of it is not necessarily bad. As far as why you'd fake tea... well, the usual motive is profit - if you can convince someone that a tea (which might be good tea) is made by a famous producer, is a famous production, or is older than it is, you may be able to sell it for more money than it's "worth".

Anyway, someone with more detailed knowledge of Menghai / Dayi wrappers might be able to give you a ballpark age range for this tea, but chances are that a precise date would be hard to come up with.

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Jul 4th, '13, 02:00
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Re: Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

by wyardley » Jul 4th, '13, 02:00

deadlysight wrote: But anyways, different storage and location can make a big difference to the appearance of the tea brick. But that shouldn't grant tea merchants intention to relabel the year of the tea.
Yup. But to be fair, tea gets bought and sold a lot; a vendor could sell something in good faith believing it's something it's not.

And while it's usually pretty hard to prove that a tea is definitely what it's said to be, it's sometimes possible to exclude certain possibilities (a certain wrapper style didn't exist until such and such a time, and so forth).

Jul 4th, '13, 02:05
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Re: Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

by deadlysight » Jul 4th, '13, 02:05

shah82 wrote:Did you only show the back of the brick, and the top didn't show the part of the brick that has it?
There's no neifei on any of the two sides, unless it is hidden in the centre of the tea. And yes, I only showed you the back of the tea.

Jul 4th, '13, 02:20
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Re: Aged Puerh Brick: Raw or Cooked?

by deadlysight » Jul 4th, '13, 02:20

wyardley wrote:Did you acquire it from a vendor who sold it as 90s tea, or from someone who has actually had the tea since the 90s?
I bought this tea from a vendor who claimed it from either 96 or 98. But now I am not certain if it's that he ordered that tea back then or it's a tea produced back then. Because I also acquired a Zhuni teapot from him, and asked him about the year, and he wasn't sure, but he told me that he ordered a few of them 15+ years ago. Sometimes it's way too back then for him to remember the year.

Btw, here's the Zhuni teapot.

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=18851
wyardley wrote: I also can't comment on whether it's fake or not (and I certainly don't mean to suggest that I think this is fake tea)
Btw, I totally got your point. By "fake tea", I really meant "fake labelling". My puerh tea brick is definitely a real tea brick :-)

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