Official Pu of the day

[Exempt]

I've recently taken to starting my day with a cup of puerh instead of the usual. I was looking around on youtube today and randomly stumbled upon this numi organic puerh video which I found all around bizarre. Here is the link to watch if anybody is interested in some comedy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3EdpRGa-xA

Also in this video, they pour their tea around 1:40 and it comes out extremely murky and nearly coffee like in color. I thought this was a bit strange but I remembered a post I read on here once about people brewing their pu-erh as if to approximate coffee. I've also read that this color is a sign of low quality stuff. Either way, I busted out my lowest quality stuff, which is a tin of loose shu I got from Chinatown. I got 5 grams or so and put it in a pot of 10 oz and let it brew for 7 minutes following a quick rinse. It wasn't opaque but it was much darker than I am used to. Either way, it had an interesting flavor that was different than typical and while drinking it I poured another 10 oz into the pot and steeped it. I have no clue how long I steeped this one for but it definitely came out quite dark this time around. Again, some interesting flavors in this one but I much preferred the first steep. I rarely steep any tea half (or even a quarter) as long.

So, I think it'll be back to my regular methods... I got 5 delicious hybrid brewed infusions this morning before deciding to stop. Besides, I enjoy the color of pu-erh far too much to let it turn so dark.

The reason their tea is so dark compared to yours is probably because they use a much higher amount of tea per volume than you, and brewing gongfu rather than western style. For example, I use around a gram of tea per 10-15 ml in my yixing pots and do quick flash infusions. So if I was using a huge 10 oz pot I would use 30 grams of tea (not that I would ever do this) and it would be much darker than your 5 grams per 10 oz even with the western length steep times

[daidokorocha]

I don't believe that is true. My second steep with that leaf to water ratio made it about as black as theirs. I'm pretty darn positive that they are not brewing gongfu style either. If you watch the video you see them the whole time with tea bags in giant mugs. They aren't even using loose leaf to make their pu-erh, so unless they are doing gongfu with a massive load of tea bags. Besides, you can see them pouring out of a big tea pot. So I purposefully did it to imitate what I thought they were doing and what I've read people do with pu-erh to make it more "coffee"-ish and it turned out basically that way. Either way, that isn't something I actually WANT out of my pu-erh. Rather it was just something fun to try.

Also, I brew pu-erh gongfu along with a lot of people I've seen and I don't see that color coming out, obviously because of the steep times involved.

[debunix]

Enjoying some Lao Cha Tou from Norbu--plummy fruity wonderful stuff.

[William]

Sipping some Mao Cha from the early 70s. Just a few leaves and a tall glass. The easiest method, and sometimes the most rewarding.

[daidokorocha]

Sipping some Mao Cha from the early 70s. Just a few leaves and a tall glass. The easiest method, and sometimes the most rewarding.

I'm getting some mao cha in soon... any tips on brewing it like this?

[William]

Sipping some Mao Cha from the early 70s. Just a few leaves and a tall glass. The easiest method, and sometimes the most rewarding.

I'm getting some mao cha in soon... any tips on brewing it like this?

Just a few grams and a tall glass. Preheat the glass, then brew the leaves.

[JakubT]

1998 CNNP Apple Green Tuocha, originally from Teaclassico. $83 per 250g tuo? One more session needed to verify, but this does sound very appealing to me. It's interesting how such a moldy tea does not at all taste damp nor very earthy - it's more sweet, woody (but not dried out or anything), even with a good amount of dark fruitiness. Admittedly, the first few steepings are a bit fishy, but I did not find it too disturbing to be honest... And I like the qi - present, but not stoning you down so you can't work after that.

Then again, it's not that thick and the taste does not last so long, but I do like the aftertaste I'm getting when longer steepings are used.

[mam2431]

Enjoying the 2005 Changtai Chenhongchan Yiwu. Nice whole Yiwu leaf; pleasant dry and wet aroma; good mouthfeel; nice cooling effect on the tongue and roof of mouth; decent huigan; staying power yielding 8 enjoyable steepings so far. Not my favorite Yiwu but definitely a solid cake with almost 10 years of age at a fair price!

[William]

A quiet day here .. Just me and some good Pu Erh. Calmly sipping, cup after cup. This is definitely a good day!

Ps. Right now, I am drinking some Mr. Feng XT.

[Puerlife]

I drank self-generated fannings today for the first time and was very pleasantly surprised. I thought the shou might dominate and maybe it did over the first few infusions but the session developed very nicely. I could identify characteristics from some of the teas I've been drinking because there are probably only about ten different ones in the mix and they are all good teas. I thought it would be a quick morning session but it lasted all day (with a long break of course). I'm actually looking forward to doing it again. I feel like a master blender lol.

[bonescwa]

Sounds like a good idea. How did you do it, just strain it or drink the dust along with the liquid?

[Puerlife]

Some of the little bits opened up into rather decent-sized leaf fragments so be careful Bones if you snort it. But seriously, dust is too small. I don't really know what the cutoff size is for experienced drinkers. Maybe someone will deign to illuminate us.
Edit: I didn't use a strainer except when pouring the very last bit from the cha hai into a cup and even then all the solid bits will stay in the cha hai if I pour slow enough. There was quite a bit of fall out from the gaiwan in every infusion. BTW, it's not my idea; I got it from a blog post by Hobbes.

[Da Hong Pao]

drank this tea today - been my go to for an excellent middle-young aged Yiwu sheng for a few years. my notes say 2004 but i'm not sure if that's correct, there is no stamp on the back. I may have gotten this from puerhshop but it's not listed on there any more and no archive that I'm aware of. Anybody encountered this bing before and know where one might purchase it these days?

[solananl]

It is probably the same tea listed here: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=4284674893 Haven't seen it at western vendors.

[Puerlife]

A friend came over today and we compared 2014 Wuliangshan maocha to 2014 bingcha from the same batch/harvest of tea. For my friend the maocha was the clear winner. The first infusion was deliciously fruity and sweet and it continued to taste good with interesting complexity through about nine rounds even though we pushed it hard. He liked the sample chipped off of a bing much less but I liked it almost as much as the maocha because I’m much more used to drinking young gushu. I must admit I didn’t like that taste the first two or three times I had it but now can enjoy it. It retained it’s strength through all nine or ten infusions until the last one has an off taste. My friend skipped the stage I’ve been through of drinking lots of young sheng almost daily for several months. When I served him the (2002) Red Dayi Zengshan Wild Tea a month ago he instantly liked it and would rather not bother with anything lesser, which makes him a rather demanding beginner. Of course he also now has the sublime, meditative, intuitive cha qi of the Red Dayi as his standard so today’s Wuliangshan was pedestrian for him, being an aggressive get things done NOW vibe. These samples came from my Bangkok vendor, who explained that the difference is mainly due to the bingcha having been steamed so it could be pressed. My conclusions is that when I'm choosing 'drink now' young sheng, maocha is a compelling option if my sample of one is an accurate indication.