Pu-erh Tea Questions

[chittychat]

-- Does loose pu-erh tea age and how should it be stored?

-- I read of 12 to 15 even 20 infusions.
For how long does this take to drink it and who does drink all that?
What amount of tea is involved?
I never get more than 2 infusions from 1 tbs of tea in 250 ml water steeped for 2 min.

-- Is pu-erh tea usually drunk by Chinese gong fu style or is this just a western fad?

-- I am always amused reading "collectors item" by sellers.
Is pu-erh tea really made to collect and not to drink and enjoy?

-- I found boiling lesser quality pu-erh tea much improves flavor to give a pleasant drink. Bring to boil and let simmer for 5 min.
Have others such an experience?

[debunix]

I can answer just this one of your questions:

--
-- I read of 12 to 15 even 20 infusions.
For how long does this take to drink it and who does drink all that?
What amount of tea is involved?
I never get more than 2 infusions from 1 tbs of tea in 250 ml water steeped for 2 min.

I get 12 to 20 infusions easily from my favorite puerhs. I can't speak to the quantity of 2 tbs of puerh, as that could represent anything from 1 gram of long loosely furled puerh leaves to 10 or more grams of a very dense brick puerh. But to get 20 infusions, that are all interesting, I need to start with one of my nicer puerhs, infuse at about 1 gram of tea per 30mL of water, which would be about 8 grams in your 250 mL, and those infusions are as short as 10 seconds at the start. If you're infusing 2 minutes and enjoying it, I have to suspect you're using a much lower tea-to-water ratio and that your 2 tbsp (30mL) of tea actually is only a couple of grams of very loose, light tea.

Because I do not have the bladder capacity to drink 250 x 20 = 5 liters of tea in one session, I do my gongfu puerh sessions in very small gaiwans & pots (1 to 2 grams of tea in 60-75mL vessels), and if I'm trying to compare 2 or more, I use some so tiny they're almost doll-house sized: 40mL apiece. The cups in this set hold about 15 mL.

[AdamMY]

Loose Puerh does age and it should be kept in a container with mid to little exposure to air.

It very well can go for many infusions, In my experience Raw puerh tends to yeild more infusions. This is why it is important to brew in small amount, and when brewing Gong fu style, as you have more leaf and are doing much shorter infusions it makes it possible to get that many infusions.

If you have Cooked puerh, boiling may improve the taste, but it is not recommended with raw puerh.

[bearsbearsbears]

-- Is pu-erh tea usually drunk by Chinese gong fu style or is this just a western fad?

Pu'er in general is a fad in most of China. I'd say most tea drinkers in China, like most Western tea drinkers, are casual consumers who don't go to great efforts to brew "gong fu" style. There are regional differences and preferences in China; in Sichuan, people in tea houses drank green tea from large gaiwans or tall glasses, brewing "from the root". However, any tea store I went into that sold pu'er, regardless of what region, province, or city I was in, brewed pu'er gongfu style. The only place I drank pu'er "western" were in dimsum houses in Guangzhou & HK.

-- I am always amused reading "collectors item" by sellers. Is pu-erh tea really made to collect and not to drink and enjoy?

Like anything well marketed (over marketed?), pu'er is subject to producers making "collectable" pressings. Think cans of coca-cola made for the olympics, around christmastime, etc. Though, sometimes when vendors say "collectable" they mean it's good to keep and age, not necessarily that it's a limited edition. There's some confusion in terminology there, from my experience.

[chittychat]

Thank you very much all!
That clears pretty much my questions I carried with me for some time.
I drink pu-erh tea of the loose leave type with my dinner and then for a night-cap a brick tea, year 2000 Xishuangbanna,Yunnan, produced with Qiaomu (arbor) tea from high mountain hundred years old tea tree.
My, may I say ballooned, gong fu style of this tea I enjoy immensely night after night out of a 150 ml very thin open porcelain cup. On a hot night I make 2 cups, otherwise I keep it for the next day second infusion when I often think it tastes then even better.
One day I will try a real gong fu style brewing, surely not for a relaxing night-cap.

[debunix]

'Real' gong fu brewing is very relaxing for me, in a rather meditative way. A few sips of tea from the small cup, a little more water for another infusion, contemplating the flavor changes in the tea, and the tea coming in at a slow, steady rate, no big caffeine rush.