sheng processing

[BW85]

Does anyone know if the shaqing/wok firing step has always been a part of sheng puer processing or is this a more recent thing?

I ask after reading an article that suggest puer is traditionally just sun dried, whithered and rolled before being pressed into cakes. Yet in videos showing puer processing you can sometimes see them wok firing the leaves. Are these the sheng puers that are more like green teas that won't age well? or is it a traditional part of puer processing?

a question for any older puer drinkers: 15 plus years ago were people drinking young sheng casually, other than to judge its potential for aging? Have you noticed a difference in the taste of young sheng in recent years?

[shah82]

Large numbers of western puerh drinkers started in '06.

No, it was always fired (or buried, and even then, probably toasted). Quality depends on right temperature, evenly applied temperature. Too little means eventual hongchapu, too much means luchapu. Puerh is in between, a bit. There are also fermentation steps that people use to make tea more fragrant (besides overroasting), and this tends to make tea unpleasant to drink if you have more than a few cups.

In '99, there were very few people interested in drinking young sheng, examination or regular drinking.

[theredbaron]

a question for any older puer drinkers: 15 plus years ago were people drinking young sheng casually, other than to judge its potential for aging?

That's about the time i slowly started drinking Pu Erh and bought my first cakes for aging. Nobody i knew then really considered drinking young Sheng other than just testing it.
I still do it they same way - i taste the young Sheng i intend to buy, leave it for a few years until it gets over its childhood, and then taste it once or twice a year to see how it progresses.
The first time i have heard of people actually drinking young Sheng was when i discovered that tea made it into cyberspace. I honestly find it a bit bewildering - aged Pu tastes so much better, and that has always been the point of Pu Erh, IMO.

[BW85]

That's about the time i slowly started drinking Pu Erh and bought my first cakes for aging. Nobody i knew then really considered drinking young Sheng other than just testing it.
I still do it they same way - i taste the young Sheng i intend to buy, leave it for a few years until it gets over its childhood, and then taste it once or twice a year to see how it progresses.
The first time i have heard of people actually drinking young Sheng was when i discovered that tea made it into cyberspace. I honestly find it a bit bewildering - aged Pu tastes so much better, and that has always been the point of Pu Erh, IMO.

I do think the recent trend to drink young puer beyond the villages where it's produced is interesting. Maybe someone saw an oppurtunity to create a new market, and did so.

And as delicious as a matured sheng is, I do enjoy younger sheng too. I guess I like the raw power it packs, and I also enjoy the bitterness. I just have to balance it out with a warmer tea later in the day.

Back to the OT, does anyone know if processing has changed at all in conjunction with it being consumed young? Made to be more palatable early on

[kyarazen]

Does anyone know if the shaqing/wok firing step has always been a part of sheng puer processing or is this a more recent thing?

I ask after reading an article that suggest puer is traditionally just sun dried, whithered and rolled before being pressed into cakes. Yet in videos showing puer processing you can sometimes see them wok firing the leaves. Are these the sheng puers that are more like green teas that won't age well? or is it a traditional part of puer processing?

a question for any older puer drinkers: 15 plus years ago were people drinking young sheng casually, other than to judge its potential for aging? Have you noticed a difference in the taste of young sheng in recent years?

yup it has always been, although there is a pure "sundried" version of the tea recorded before.

ever seen dead leaves beneath a tree.. where the leaves are yellow, brown, dry and crispy? once a leaf is plucked off from a plant, the leaf can no longer maintain its redox state for long... enzymes present in the leaf such as polyphenol oxidase, and other oxidases will quickly act on the leaf and in due time turn the leaves into something like fallen tree leaves.

by a quick pan-fry, these oxidase enzymes are inactivated, so the tea remains green (i.e. dragonwell, and all other green teas).

once arrested in this state, then the fun begins.. when maker are given the choice on how they want to oxidize the tea in a slow controlled manner. but before that they will need to remove excess water and concentrate down the tea juices by withering the leaves.

that is when you have sun-withered and oven withered, with sun withered thought and said to be superior for several reasons.


taste wise.. of course! just like lokpou cha, pou lei cha has always been evolving during the past 50 years, diff ways of processing, manufacture, taste. the changes can be rather dramatic..

[kyarazen]

I do think the recent trend to drink young puer beyond the villages where it's produced is interesting. Maybe someone saw an oppurtunity to create a new market, and did so.

And as delicious as a matured sheng is, I do enjoy younger sheng too. I guess I like the raw power it packs, and I also enjoy the bitterness. I just have to balance it out with a warmer tea later in the day.

Back to the OT, does anyone know if processing has changed at all in conjunction with it being consumed young? Made to be more palatable early on

i have a copy of the '89 tea production manual.. and know where to find a 2013 copy of it.. if i can get my hands on the 2013 version it will be interesting to see how tea processing methods have changed...

[Tead Off]

We can all read about sheng processing on various sites, but one element that may escape the attention of many drinkers is the kick-start of the fermentation process and how that affects the tea's flavor, both young and old. Moisture and heat are the factors that control this process.

What I like most about drinking a sheng is the fermented taste that comes through. For me, the better shengs have this quality of fermented flavor, some stronger than others. Sometimes this quality can be there in a young tea. I prefer to buy and drink sheng that has this quality quite pronounced. And, it can appear in a non-gushu plantation tea as well as the higher end gushu. Some gushu don't have this flavor and I will avoid those. Whether this is a right or wrong approach, I couldn't say. But, it plays a strong factor when it comes to reaching for my wallet.

The floral bouqets and sweetness of some of the young sheng doesn't hold my attention for long if the fermented flavor is absent. It is the key element for me and I think that this is what is maturing and changing in an aged cake.

I'd like to hear what others say about this.

[kyarazen]

We can all read about sheng processing on various sites

do share some. chinese, english or japanese is ok

[fdrx]

The floral bouqets and sweetness of some of the young sheng doesn't hold my attention for long if the fermented flavor is absent(...)I'd like to hear what others say about this

usually yes, but it's been my observation that well processed cakes will loose this characteristic after a short period of time, let's say one year or so, and transform very quickly, sometimes in a magical way. If it's not the case then something's wrong.

Another observation is that "purity" really helps spotting that chenwei in a young floral gushu; blending different leave qualities and areas doesn't imho.

[Tead Off]

We can all read about sheng processing on various sites

do share some. chinese, english or japanese is ok

Just do a google search.

[kyarazen]

We can all read about sheng processing on various sites

do share some. chinese, english or japanese is ok

Just do a google search.

turns up too much junk. or pages cloning each other's content
thought you had a list of informations or something.

[teaformeplease]

Pan frying is definitely part of the process. My boss recently returned from a tea buying trip to China. She noticed that many of the farmers were over-roasting the leaves at the instruction of Korean tea vendors. This essentially makes a compressed green tea but the initial aroma and taste are better. She had said that puerh should be roasted for about 15 minutes but these folks were going for 45 minutes.

[kyarazen]

Pan frying is definitely part of the process. My boss recently returned from a tea buying trip to China. She noticed that many of the farmers were over-roasting the leaves at the instruction of Korean tea vendors. This essentially makes a compressed green tea but the initial aroma and taste are better. She had said that puerh should be roasted for about 15 minutes but these folks were going for 45 minutes.

it will also sweeten up the tea, and drop the bitterness by a notch with roasting, and impart clarity over complexity.. a nice way to achieve something more palatable

[Tead Off]

We can all read about sheng processing on various sites

do share some. chinese, english or japanese is ok

Just do a google search.

turns up too much junk. or pages cloning each other's content
thought you had a list of informations or something.

It's been awhile since I last tried to find something about the processing. Didn't save anything.