whats the diff between losse leaf puerh vs compressed cake?

[LaybackPandas]

whats the diff? one more thing..can all puerh be kept as long as you like or is there an expiration date? i brought some loose leaf puerh from adagio and i dont really care for it, hope i can keep it for awhile b4 i hasve to dope it out, cuz it's gonna take me along time to finish it.

[shogun89]

Puerh is the tea that gets better with age. You can keep it for 100 years if you want. Loose tea usually does not age as good as compressed tea.

[entropyembrace]

I think loose tea is just more vulnerable to losing it's aroma if you keep it sealed with only a small amount of air in the jar it should age well too. Tea doesn't actually spoil unless you expose it to bad odours or too much moisture but loose can lose a lot of it's aroma and taste if it's exposed to open air flow or light.

I haven't tried Adagio's pu-erh but it's probably an unaged shu pu-erh from the looks of it which can have a lot of unpleasant tastes and odours especially if it's not from an established factory.

If you're curious to try a better example of pu-erh other members can definitely help you. My first experience with pu-erh from a local shop was one of those no name shu pu-erh maocha's and it was really unpleasant the aroma was like barnyard yuck!

But later I did end up ordering 3 different pu-erh's from jing tea shop and they're all delicious...no hints of barnyard! I'll be sampling more types later this year...reading the posts here certainly has given me plenty of ideas!

[hop_goblin]

Loose leaf puerh can be divided into two categories. 1. Yunnan black tea (shou) which is very much of the HK puerh culture and 2. maocha which is essentially raw puerh leaf that has not been steamed and compresssion into shapes.

Both can age as it is pu-erh. However, whether there are advantages to pressing puerh is not really known. Some say that compressing the maocha provides an extra boost of humidty which will subsequently start the aging process, while other claim it doesn't really matter. Nonetheless, both are suitable for storage. However, there is possibly no advantage in storing Yunnan black tea more than 10 years since it has already gone under accelerated artificial aging.

[JAS-eTea Guy]

whats the diff?

I'd have to say that the diff is compression.
Sorry, poor joke but I just could not restrain myself.

Cheers,
Steve

[apache]

I think loose tea is just more vulnerable to losing it's aroma if you keep it sealed with only a small amount of air in the jar it should age well too. Tea doesn't actually spoil unless you expose it to bad odours or too much moisture but loose can lose a lot of it's aroma and taste if it's exposed to open air flow or light.

I haven't tried Adagio's pu-erh but it's probably an unaged shu pu-erh from the looks of it which can have a lot of unpleasant tastes and odours especially if it's not from an established factory.

If you're curious to try a better example of pu-erh other members can definitely help you. My first experience with pu-erh from a local shop was one of those no name shu pu-erh maocha's and it was really unpleasant the aroma was like barnyard yuck! :shock:

But later I did end up ordering 3 different pu-erh's from jing tea shop and they're all delicious...no hints of barnyard! I'll be sampling more types later this year...reading the posts here certainly has given me plenty of ideas! :D

Hi entropyembrace,

I notice that you mentioned Jing tea shop in a few of your posts, I wonder which Jing tea shop you mean? jingtea.com in UK or www.jingteashop.com (I think they base in China)?

[tea soho]

good topic, since your questions have several ones. So I divide them into the several questions, and provide my personal answers respectively.
1) does loose leaves Puer age as the cake?
Yes, loose leaves will age the same as the cake. The biggest spotlights of cakes are,i) since it is steamed first under high temperature, many infragrant substances disappear accordingly, such as the wok taste after killing the anzymes, the impurities flavors, and astrigent flavors.

2) how to store the Puer loose leaves tea and cakes;
Ideally, for small quanities, it is best to store in the clay canisters, such as the purple sand canisters, Menghai clay canisters, and other clay canisters. Again, before storing any tea in the purple sand canisters or other clay canisters, first need to put the purple sand canisters in water to steep for at least 10 days to get rid of the hidden fire smell, and dry these canisters competely before storing the teas. As to large quantities puer tea, it must be stored in the paper cartons in the warehouse.

3) ideal temperature and humidity to store loose leaves Puer tea and cakes.
temperature is hard to control. So any temperature is ok to store Puer tea; and the best humidity is about 60~70%, so that it can age properly

4)How many years to age the Sheng Puer tea, so that its flavors are the best.
i)for trees loose leaves and cake teas, normally 6-7 years are ok, 10 years are the best; ii) for bush puer teas, normally 8 -9 years are ok, 12 years are the best.

Well, hope you guys would like it.

[tatatizia]

I tried recently a uncooked loose leaf puerh very good with a strong qi: Ba Da Da Hei Shan of 2007 from Royal puerh. What do you think about?

[hop_goblin]

I tried recently a uncooked loose leaf puerh very good with a strong qi: Ba Da Da Hei Shan of 2007 from Royal puerh. What do you think about?

Never heard of it. However, I must admit that I shy away from anything with the word "royal" in it. I have found that most of the "Royal" puerhs are inferior. Just a gimic marketing scheme IMHO. In fact, in all of my research I have never head of anything Royal in puerh. Of course excluding the tribute teas and the like.

[TIM]

I tried recently a uncooked loose leaf puerh very good with a strong qi: Ba Da Da Hei Shan of 2007 from Royal puerh. What do you think about?

The leaves pic from Royal Pu looks good. Tender but meaty shoots, looks like a non-fermented/oxidated version of a yunnan gold. Strong but harsh qi, or Mellow qi?

[TIM]

FYI - royal puerh is an online store - I have ordered from them before - ok (got boyou 7262 - ok but the real deal is better)

http://www.royalpuer.com/Ba-Da-Da-Hei-S ... r-Cha.asp?

Ba Da Da Hei Shan Pu'er Cha was produced using rare wild arbor tea leaves harvested during early spring season from Ba Da mountain areas in Xishuangbanna region. This mountain is home to some of the oldest trees in the world, including the ancient 1,700 years old "King of Tea Tree". The tea was originally stored in a bamboo basket packaged at 6.5 kilograms per basket

This would not be on my must try list - but I have gotten a bit picky of late.

Interesting.... 1700 yrs old tea tree is consider the King of tea tree already? hmmm

[silverneedles]

knew i saw that name somewhere

http://pu-erh.net/sections.php?Choice=Approved (below half down the page)
snippet:
"...Royal Puer ...
This is an affiliate of Teaspring.com..."

[tatatizia]

I tried recently a uncooked loose leaf puerh very good with a strong qi: Ba Da Da Hei Shan of 2007 from Royal puerh. What do you think about?

The leaves pic from Royal Pu looks good. Tender but meaty shoots, looks like a non-fermented/oxidated version of a yunnan gold. Strong but harsh qi, or Mellow qi?

You prentend too much from me! For the moment I only know that this tea has a good strong qi but I'm not able also to classificate it!!