In a few recent posts, some people have made comments about whether a pu-erh tea will age well or not (vendors make similar comments). I mostly get a sense that this is all a 'feeling' about a tea, but there must be some indicators?
From what I vaguely recall, people seem to think that strong or overpowering shengs will tend to mellow with age (?), and it seems as though if a young sheng has no flavor at present, that it will not greatly gain anything with time.
Again, I'm just pulling info from the comments made here and there. I wouldn't be surprised if nobody really agreed on comment elements of how pu-erh flavor changes with time and what makes a good candidate for aging and another not. But it would still be interesting to hear. . .
since we don't really know all that much about how certain great cakes from the past were created (Where exactly the tea was from, the weather then, how they were picked, blended, and then all the aging that occured with humidity and temperature), it is hard to gauge what makes a good cake.
As pointed out elsewhere, this is a chemical reaction between organic matter and living organisms. It occurs over a BIG amount of time. Variations in both the starting material, the bacteria engine, and the reaction conditions contribute to the final result.
The woody allen movie "Sleeper" comes to mind. He awakes in this future to discover cigarettes and red meat are good for you.
My hope is the various stuff I have dutifully set aside will all turn golden, since I have no idea what will yeild the most wonderful cakes from a set of starting conditions.
As pointed out elsewhere, this is a chemical reaction between organic matter and living organisms. It occurs over a BIG amount of time. Variations in both the starting material, the bacteria engine, and the reaction conditions contribute to the final result.
The woody allen movie "Sleeper" comes to mind. He awakes in this future to discover cigarettes and red meat are good for you.
My hope is the various stuff I have dutifully set aside will all turn golden, since I have no idea what will yeild the most wonderful cakes from a set of starting conditions.
That's the idea Drax. But my take is that it needs to not only be strong, but be complex in the sense of having multiple flavors. I've also heard repeatedly that a strong hay flavor points to a fault in manufacture, and will lead the tea to worsen over time. I'm not sure about the hay thing, but I have heard it.