New Samples - Where to start?

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


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Jul 9th, '08, 21:02
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Joined: Jun 25th, '08, 11:17
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New Samples - Where to start?

by cane » Jul 9th, '08, 21:02

I just received 5 samples in the mail from Hou De

I have frequented his blog numerous times, and have been drinking tea for a long time, but I am fairly new to pu'erh. I have had some pu'erhs before, a cooked mini tou cha, some blends with other loose cooked puerh, but nothing that I have really loved, or anything that I perceived as high quality.

So I sent an email to Guang, and asked for his advice, and he recommended these teas.

1999 Da Du Gang "Yunnan Yuan Bao" Chi Tse Beeng
2007 Spring "Yi Wu Cha Wang" of Chen Chen Guang He Tang (new green cake)
2004 Chang Tai "Yi Wu Zheng Pin" (young uncooked cake)
2006 Spring Nan Nuo "Ban Po Lau Zhai" Sun-dried Mao Cha
90s Meng Hai (aged cooked loose)

My current problem, is I have small samples so I want to make sure I brew these as they should be brewed.

I have set aside a 150mL yixing teapot for puerh. Will this be sufficient?

How much tea should be used, I currently dont have a gram scale, just measuring spoons/cups. Should I wait and get a scale before using up my tea?

How should I brew the tea? Is a rinse necessary, I see it mentioned alot? How long for initial infusion, subsequent infusions?

Sorry for all the questions, but being new to pu'erh, and it being a somewhat touchy tea (or so I have read) I just want to make sure I start off on the right foot!

Thanks!

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Jul 9th, '08, 23:18
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Contact: hop_goblin

Re: New Samples - Where to start?

by hop_goblin » Jul 9th, '08, 23:18

cane wrote:I just received 5 samples in the mail from Hou De

I have frequented his blog numerous times, and have been drinking tea for a long time, but I am fairly new to pu'erh. I have had some pu'erhs before, a cooked mini tou cha, some blends with other loose cooked puerh, but nothing that I have really loved, or anything that I perceived as high quality.

So I sent an email to Guang, and asked for his advice, and he recommended these teas.

1999 Da Du Gang "Yunnan Yuan Bao" Chi Tse Beeng
2007 Spring "Yi Wu Cha Wang" of Chen Chen Guang He Tang (new green cake)
2004 Chang Tai "Yi Wu Zheng Pin" (young uncooked cake)
2006 Spring Nan Nuo "Ban Po Lau Zhai" Sun-dried Mao Cha
90s Meng Hai (aged cooked loose)

My current problem, is I have small samples so I want to make sure I brew these as they should be brewed.

I have set aside a 150mL yixing teapot for puerh. Will this be sufficient?

How much tea should be used, I currently dont have a gram scale, just measuring spoons/cups. Should I wait and get a scale before using up my tea?

How should I brew the tea? Is a rinse necessary, I see it mentioned alot? How long for initial infusion, subsequent infusions?

Sorry for all the questions, but being new to pu'erh, and it being a somewhat touchy tea (or so I have read) I just want to make sure I start off on the right foot!

Thanks!
Hey Cane,

150ml is standard size for gongfu-ing pu-erh. Use 1gm for every 30ml of water. You should then start with 5gm infusions. However, you may want to up it to 6gm for the 99. As puerh ages, it takes more leaf. I would buy a scale only because when you are dealing with expensive stuff, you want to make sure you can get as many infusions out of it. For example, if you by 25g sample you want 5 equal sessions out of it.

Yes, rinsing is necessary. It helps the leaves open plus it washes all of the dirt, mold or anything crap that will get into tea.

1 wash for sheng or "green" puerh and 2 washes for shu or "cook" puerh. Don't need a watch or clock to infuse, while you are rinsing, just take 3 slow deep breaths and this should be enough. Make sure to aggetate it in the vessle to help the leaves along.

Infusion times are the same for both types. Take 4 slow breaths first infusion, 3 slow breaths 2nd infusion 4 slow breaths 3 infusion and then add a breath for each subsequent infusion. This means your 4th infusion should eb 5 slow breaths and so forth. However this is just a guide. You may find that you need less or more. Depends on the quality of the pu. By the way, one slow breath generally equals 7-8 seconds.

I hope this helps!
Last edited by hop_goblin on Jul 10th, '08, 09:08, edited 1 time in total.

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Jul 10th, '08, 09:05
Posts: 35
Joined: Jun 25th, '08, 11:17
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Re: New Samples - Where to start?

by cane » Jul 10th, '08, 09:05

hop_goblin wrote: Hey Cane,

150ml is standard size for gongfu-ing pu-erh. Try I would use 1gm for every 30ml of water. You should then start with 5gm infusions. However, you may want to up it to 6gm for the 99. As puerh ages, it takes more leaf. I would buy a scale only because when you are dealing with expensive stuff, you want to make sure you can get as many infusions out of it. For example, if you by 25g sample you want 5 equal sessions out of it.

Yes, rinsing is necessary. It helps the leaves open plus it washes all of the dirt, mold or anything crap that will get into tea.

1 wash for sheng or "green" puerh and 2 washes for shu or "cook" puerh. Don't need a watch or clock to infuse, while you are rinsing, just take 3 slow deep breaths and this should be enough. Make sure to aggetate it in the vessle to help the leaves along.

Infusion times are the same for both types. Take 4 slow breaths first infusion, 3 slow breaths 2nd infusion 4 slow breaths 3 infusion and then add a breath for each subsequent infusion. This means your 4th infusion should eb 5 slow breaths and so forth. However this is just a guide. You may find that you need less or more. Depends on the quality of the pu. By the way, one slow breath generally equals 7-8 seconds.

I hope this helps!
This is very helpful, thank you so much!

I have ordered a small digital jewelry scale that should be here next week, so maybe I will use all my will power and wait until then.

I can't wait to get tasting, I will make sure to post pics and comments as I do.

Thanks again :D

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Jul 10th, '08, 09:07
Posts: 1936
Joined: May 22nd, '06, 11:28
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Re: New Samples - Where to start?

by hop_goblin » Jul 10th, '08, 09:07

cane wrote:
hop_goblin wrote: Hey Cane,

150ml is standard size for gongfu-ing pu-erh. Use 1gm for every 30ml of water. You should then start with 5gm infusions. However, you may want to up it to 6gm for the 99. As puerh ages, it takes more leaf. I would buy a scale only because when you are dealing with expensive stuff, you want to make sure you can get as many infusions out of it. For example, if you by 25g sample you want 5 equal sessions out of it.

Yes, rinsing is necessary. It helps the leaves open plus it washes all of the dirt, mold or anything crap that will get into tea.

1 wash for sheng or "green" puerh and 2 washes for shu or "cook" puerh. Don't need a watch or clock to infuse, while you are rinsing, just take 3 slow deep breaths and this should be enough. Make sure to aggetate it in the vessle to help the leaves along.

Infusion times are the same for both types. Take 4 slow breaths first infusion, 3 slow breaths 2nd infusion 4 slow breaths 3 infusion and then add a breath for each subsequent infusion. This means your 4th infusion should eb 5 slow breaths and so forth. However this is just a guide. You may find that you need less or more. Depends on the quality of the pu. By the way, one slow breath generally equals 7-8 seconds.

I hope this helps!
This is very helpful, thank you so much!

I have ordered a small digital jewelry scale that should be here next week, so maybe I will use all my will power and wait until then.

I can't wait to get tasting, I will make sure to post pics and comments as I do.

Thanks again :D

Yes, Please do!

Good luck

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Jul 10th, '08, 12:32
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Contact: augie

Re: New Samples - Where to start?

by augie » Jul 10th, '08, 12:32

cane wrote: I can't wait to get tasting, I will make sure to post pics and comments as I do.
Thanks again :D
Please post pictures! Tea porn, yea! :)

I had the same problem. What I did when I got samples was write times/temp on them with a sharpee and then a Y or a N when I was finished. Still got confused.

On cooked cakes, I usually do one full-brew at 30-50 seconds and discard. Cooked Pu Ehr is too strong for me on the first infusion and I like to get that one out of the way.

You have a few raw cakes, what do you think of them? Are these your first samples? I ask b/c the first three months I drank Pu Ehr I loved raw, now I am changing my mind. Interested to hear your thoughts along with some nice pictures.

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Jul 10th, '08, 21:55
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Re: New Samples - Where to start?

by orguz » Jul 10th, '08, 21:55

augie wrote:
cane wrote: I can't wait to get tasting, I will make sure to post pics and comments as I do.
Thanks again :D
Please post pictures! Tea porn, yea! :)


You have a few raw cakes, what do you think of them? Are these your first samples? I ask b/c the first three months I drank Pu Ehr I loved raw, now I am changing my mind. Interested to hear your thoughts along with some nice pictures.
Here are some pictures of some cakes i got recently, all raw cakes

http://s327.photobucket.com/albums/k476 ... th_003.jpg

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