Chemical Burn?

[teaformoi]

Hello, I just tried puerh for the first time yesterday and noticed toward the end of my session that my tongue was (and still is today) feeling burned, much in the same fashion as bromelain when you eat a lot of pineapple.

Does anyone else experience this or know the cause, I've read a couple threads where people mentioned a numbing but I'm wondering if anyone's found a compound perhaps a byproduct of the fermentation or putrefaction?

[Väinämöinen]

Hello, I just tried puerh for the first time yesterday and noticed toward the end of my session that my tongue was (and still is today) feeling burned, much in the same fashion as bromelain when you eat a lot of pineapple.

Does anyone else experience this or know the cause, I've read a couple threads where people mentioned a numbing but I'm wondering if anyone's found a compound perhaps a byproduct of the fermentation or putrefaction?

What kind of pu'er did you try? I had similar experience with young sheng pu'er (2016 year old tree puer). Im also new with pu'ers. My tongue felt like "dry" burned, this irritation and redness around tongue. I sent message about this to the vendor I bought the tea from. He told me that it can happen especially with young sheng's, so I guess I just went too hard with the puer. I brewed it strong and made long session with it. I was recommended to try some older pu'ers and go easy with young shengs.

Im interested to hear about that compound thing too.

My tongue got better in 2 days and now Ive had the same pu'er and not the irritation anymore. Though I think my throat feels little bit sore sometimes when I drink it. I guess you've got to take your hat off when stepping inside the world of pu'ers. Not type of tea to mess around.

[FBee]

Hello, I just tried puerh for the first time yesterday and noticed toward the end of my session that my tongue was (and still is today) feeling burned, much in the same fashion as bromelain when you eat a lot of pineapple.

Sounds more like pesticide to me... would not drink tis kind of tea!

[FBee]

My tongue got better in 2 days and now Ive had the same pu'er and not the irritation anymore. Though I think my throat feels little bit sore sometimes when I drink it. I guess you've got to take your hat off when stepping inside the world of pu'ers. Not type of tea to mess around.

You do not have to take your hat off that was just bad and possibly contaminated tea! Would not advise to consume such tea.

[john.b]

I'm only agreeing with others here but I've never experienced anything remotely like a chemical burn from tea.

I get the part about it seeming like taking damage from pineapple; I ate a lot of a fresh version at one time once and it really roughed me up.

I'd throw the tea out, or demand a refund from the vendor. I suppose it would just depend on how much tea I'd bought which, but I'd not buy any tea from that source in the future.

I'm trying to think of what tea caused the most irritation of any I've ever tried and I'm having trouble coming up with any examples at all. Sheng can definitely be quite astringent (beyond just being bitter), but never to an extent that has caused me any symptoms like that.

[Teasenz]

Same here, tasted lots and lots of Sheng pu erh, but never experienced a chemical burn that you described.

[Solman636]

I experienced that same mild burn or perhaps described as a sore tongue not long ago when I recently started drinking tea more often. Maybe it was one time thing? Don't know if it was my puehr, but I had eaten a little raw sweet potato which may do the same thing as the pineapple with the bromelain. Perhaps this just happened on a day when you had some spice or something else that set you up to be more susceptible to the effects of the tea. I doubt it was pesticide. Most of the residues from those are almost undetectable and not likely to influence taste or have any impact next to the much larger quantities of other natural compounds in teas. Of course, no one knows if a farmer uses chemicals correctly when trying to stop destruction of his crop by chewing invaders, but we can hope that they care about the quality and flavor of their product and their customer's health. I don't really know the challenges of pest control with camellias yet. Just planted my first two tea plants last month so will let you know! If they require spraying I will just give up and leave the growing to the Chinese farmer and remain in ignorant bliss about the practices.

[bagua7]

If they require spraying I will just give up and leave the growing to the Chinese farmer and remain in ignorant bliss about the practices.

Or else buy the tea from reputable vendors like EoT. For instance:

We've long wanted to make a more affordable Yiwu cake without compromising on quality, but hadn't found the right garden with old trees, good taste and had never used agrochemicals.

This tea comes from a farmer we've known for many years. In previous years, the tea from this garden was always sold out, but we asked him to keep this year's harvest for us.

It's from his family's garden of old trees growing between the villages of Mahei and Da Qi Shu. We decided to blend the whole year's production into one cake.

These trees are several hundred years old, but as with the majority of old trees in the Yiwu area, they were cut short in the 1980's. They have a thick lower trunk which branches out from where it was cut.

The taste displays the Yiwu character well - thick and rich with elegant flavour and a long, steady aftertaste. (https://essenceoftea.com/collections/pu ... 8-eot-yiwu)

Or YS:

Late autumn harvest tea from wild arbor tea trees (between 60 and 80 year old) growing in the area of Yi Bi village of Yi Wu county. Entirely no spray tea from one family's tea garden. Hand-processed from start to finish, but without any smokiness! Classic Yi Wu taste, thick and full in the mouth. Sweet after-taste with some grass and mushroom notes.

(https://yunnansourcing.com/products/201 ... u-mountain)


Cheap tea? Never again!

Plenty of rubbish puer out there.