"Selective" aging of raw Puerh

[gasninja]

I have a cabinet that I have turned into a puidor. I keep three bowls of water each with a natural sponge in it (which i clean with hydrogen pyroxide every two weeks. I keeps the humidity steadily between67 and 75. I am running out of space in this and plan to build something bigger with a cigar humidore humidifier in it.

[tearabbit]

I also live in CA. It says 70% humidity 75F..
Shouldn't that be pretty much the perfect weather?
I do worry about my Pu at home also sometimes.

Well, it's only 47% humidity right now where I live, and pretty much stays the same during summer time

[wyardley]

Most of us store Puerh right where we live - in our houses. Heater in the winter and AC in the summer dry out the air inside even though it might be humid outside.

While I don't suggest taking your pu'er outside to soak up some humidity (it won't absorb enough in a few hours outside, and it might be hard to keep it away from light, plus, most people agree it's bad to have sudden swings in humidity or heat), I think you touch on an important issue here.

Even though folks get very worked up about storage from HK vs. Taiwan vs. Malaysia vs. North America, a bigger consideration is storage at home vs. in a merchant's warehouse, and also the initial storage of the tea (i.e., has it been stored in the same place its whole life)? Just because the tea has been stored in a specific climate by the merchant you bought it from doesn't mean that its initial storage may not have been wetter (or drier). And not only do most of us have a lot less tea than in big warehouses (the tea and packaging does seem to store / release some humidity), but most of us store our tea in the parts of the house we live in -- as you say, with some degree of climate control in most cases.

I think there is some chauvinism from a lot of folks, that their storage is the best, or the cleanest, or the ideal for proper aging of tea. Everyone finds a way to justify the assertion that "their" storage (or the type of storage they first encountered) is the best for tea.

But it does seem like sometimes, folks are possibly comparing a tea which has had natural storage for its whole lifetime vs. tea which has had intentional wet storage to make a comparison between two climates. If you want to compare storage locations, based on natural storage, you'd need to have reliable examples of tea which has been naturally stored for its entirely lifetime - probably difficult to find for older teas.

I'm happy to see that there's an upswing in interest in tea which has had some wetter storage.

[sp1key]

a bigger consideration is storage at home vs. in a merchant's warehouse, and also the initial storage of the tea (i.e., has it been stored in the same place its whole life)?

Quite a fair and true opinion. A same batch of tea in a merchant's warehouse could also result in differences of storage. I remember wyardley trying a tea from me which was taken out of a new tong from the same storage but appeared much wetter than other tongs. Merchants shift their storages (top/bottom, inner/outer) to get a better balance.

[wyardley]

a bigger consideration is storage at home vs. in a merchant's warehouse, and also the initial storage of the tea (i.e., has it been stored in the same place its whole life)?

Quite a fair and true opinion. A same batch of tea in a merchant's warehouse could also result in differences of storage. I remember wyardley trying a tea from me which was taken out of a new tong from the same storage but appeared much wetter than other tongs. Merchants shift their storages (top/bottom, inner/outer) to get a better balance.

That also, but what I meant was that tea can change hands, i.e., it may be hard to determine where or how a tea was stored before it made its way to the vendor who's selling it now, other than whatever information the vendor knows and is willing to share. For example, the vendor may know that the tea was stored in HK for X amount of time, but may not know (or be willing to share) exactly where or under what conditions.

But yeah - position within the tong and location in the storage area can definitely make a big difference. A recent Art of Tea (I think #9) has some really good articles about storage, including one by Chan Kam Pong about "traditional" HK storage (with added humidity). It's a really interesting read, and has photos and some fairly specific information about how one HK tea shop (Ming Xiang) stores their tea. I think you can see a page or two of it on some of the sites of shops that sell AoT. The same issue has a few other good storage articles as well.

[sp1key]

ya I've seen those articles in mandarin, they are very informative articles.
I think for cakes which are not more than 10+ yrs old, if the merchant is willing to share truthfully or if you know them well, chances of them knowing where the batch of tea have gone before is higher than the older aged teas. It's easier if its dry stored as you could examine and tell from the cake and it won't matter as much where it has been kept.

[odarwin]

i really think that its really difficult to tell how each of our storage condition will affect the aging of our tea... now with so many people aging tea at home on their own... i just hope that mine turns out well... in the beginning i worry every time there is rain and when humidity goes up above 75%, now, after having my own cabinet for puerh at home, i just check from time to time. the good thing is its always 55-70 rain or shine. each of the cakes/tongs are in individual copy paper boxes so the smell isn't that fragrant as compared to when they are exposed inside the cabinet.

as for brewing and drinking tea, i feel sometimes that there are days that the session is really good, and some not so good. to me, i just try to enjoy every session and hope that the next one brings out something good from the past and having an experience that will last in your memory for a long time.