Pu Erh

[jakor]

Hello Stefen -- from my experience if a puerh is inserted into some bamboo stuff or citrus one - it is still Shu (cooked) puerh, and not of a good quality, because none lets to spoil good puerh on such a "popular" stuff.
About white puerh - it is also quite a modern thing, when puerh beeng or tuo is made of green buds of a white colour. But this kind of tea does not possess the main puerh ability - to AGE, with age such puerh gets worse and become even poisonous because BUDS, not leaves sre used.

[Libertatis]

Good lord you people know a lot about tea! I am impressed! I have never tried puerh, but i am VERY curious now!

[puerh king]

Old good pu erh is usally green. The taste is hard to fake, I think. It is very smooth and the brew is a crystal clarity, even if it is really dark.

[Phyll]

About white puerh - it is also quite a modern thing, when puerh beeng or tuo is made of green buds of a white colour. But this kind of tea does not possess the main puerh ability - to AGE, with age such puerh gets worse and become even poisonous because BUDS, not leaves sre used.

Is this true that white pu-erh can not be aged and that it will become poisonous over time?!?! Now I'm worried.

[illium]

as far as i know, that's not true. there's nothing particularly different about white tea that would cause it to spoil. a bud is merely a young leaf. it's killed, but killed slowly, drying in the sun, instead of flash killed with steam/roasting/etc..

sounds like superstitous mumbjo jumbo "it's not what i'm used to so it must be poisonous!".

he's right though about the cheap pu er in bamboo and citrus fruits. it's a low grade of tea packed in there, but they can still be quite dlightful. i'm a big fan of the little tangerines filled with cheap shou pu er. makes a nice breakfast pick-me-up. you can break off the dried tangerine shell and brew it with the tea, to add more citrus flavour. woohoo!

-troy

[Chip]

Funny thing happened to my first pu-erh that I purchased 7 years ago when I just started drinking looseleaf tea. At the time I had to try just about anything, unflavored, that I could get my hands on. I purchased 125 grams of aged raw 5 gram tou cha.

My "teatastebuds" had not evolved to handle something so...freakin' different. My recollection is that I pretty much hated it. I used one and only one tou cha and left the rest in the bag and pretty much forgot about it. I had not given the thought of trying pu-erh again for the last 7 years.

Then I recently found your forum which is GREAT by the way. Almost every night, I see IM discussions on...you guessed it, pu-erh. I got mine out today and opened the bag. Today my pu-erh saw the light of day for the first time in 7 years.

As it turns out, this was a completely accidental windfall. The pu-erh aged for 7 years, which as it turns out...is a good thing. After getting some advise from Phyll and Marshall, I brewed my first pu-erh in quite some time. I still need to work on the brewing, but I've been drinking...enjoying it most of the day with each infusion different from the last...I am up to 5 infusions with no end in site for this one 5 gram tou cha.

I just wonder why I kept it at all...I don't have any other 7 year old tea laying around here. Funny how that worked out! If I had tried to age it, I would never have been able to wait that long...I'm too impatient.

...time for cup #6.

[Darth Jeeling]

The compression was originally intended to allow tea to be transported long distance on horseback. As a matter of fact these compressed bricks were often used as a form of currency. It was discovered that the compressed tea actually fermented a second time during these long trips in hot humid climates, thus changing the characteristics of the tea.

Petrm

Sorry for replying to a post on the previous page, but I'd like to thank the poster for telling me what pu erh is. I've drunk the compressed bricks before and heard the story, but never knew it's name!

[Phyll]

Oh and speaking of different "color" pu erhs. I've heard of the green variety but also the white where they take buds to make it. Any information on that. Too bad some of the best pu erh is illegal in this country due to the mold(bacteria) that grows on it. Such a silly thing.

Nowadays, it is more common to see young raw pu-erh cakes/beengs with more "white" leaves among the green ones. I have a cake that is almost entirely made up of spring buds. Spring buds tend not to make an ideal pu-erh for long term aging, so I was told, but it's NOT going to become poisonous either like one poster claimed above(!).

The best pu-erh, imho, must not be moldy. Moldy pu-erh is likely an indication of the "wet storage" process, which causes a young cake to look older. Consuming this type of pu-erh is not recommended and, as far as I understand, it's detrimental to your health. Some even claim that the wet storage process creates carcinogenic materials in the tea. Caveat emptor.

[Phyll]

I just wonder why I kept it at all...I don't have any other 7 year old tea laying around here. Funny how that worked out! If I had tried to age it, I would never have been able to wait that long...I'm too impatient.

Careful now, Chip! You might get hooked on the stuff and have to spend $$$$$ on aged raw pu-erh. Glad to hear it worked out well for the pu-erh and you. Those pu-erh must have thought they're doomed to live without touching water all their lives...forgotten.

[MarshalN]

Well, usually the forgotten ones are the best puerh. Well aged, no touching.... and drinkable.

[Chip]

I just wonder why I kept it at all...I don't have any other 7 year old tea laying around here. Funny how that worked out! If I had tried to age it, I would never have been able to wait that long...I'm too impatient.

Careful now, Chip! You might get hooked on the stuff and have to spend $$$$$ on aged raw pu-erh. Glad to hear it worked out well for the pu-erh and you. Those pu-erh must have thought they're doomed to live without touching water all their lives...forgotten.

..heheh...I tend to do that, Phyll. But fortuanately I am focusing on 2006 harvest green, oolong, black teas...and LEARNING about pu-erh because there is so much to learn and one could naively make some huge mistakes in purchasing. This forum + the chat room are invaluable resources for just that, learning and asking questions.

I am as the tea leaf soaking up the hot water that once combined creates a wisdom far greater than the sum of their individual knowledge...blah blah blah pu-erh blah blah blah!

[TIM]

I came across this highly age-able white puerh in Yunnan. It have the characteristic of Yiwu but with intense floral fragrance.

Should not be poisonous and its been around for hundreds of year.

http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/...