I've been noticing a lot of people talking about humidifiers for their puerh cakes on teachat. I'm just now getting into puerhs and have ordered quite a bit of samples from yunnansourcing. My question is, am I supposed to put my cakes in a humidifier or is that just for additional aging?
Thanks
Its pretty much for additional aging, or rather if you are intentionally trying to age. As it is my understanding that the cakes should naturally age in all weathers, but if they are in a very dry area, the aging process would be very slow. So people try and store there cakes in humid area's to try and recreate the caves and humid conditions of china. It is widely believed that the higher the humidity the faster the aging process occurs.
The reason I maintain that patience is free is that I have perhaps 3 lifetimes worth of puerh that I am unwilling to risk going moldy through enhanced humidity or wet storage. It might make for an interesting experiment but over the years I have found that methods of rushing a process always seem to shortchange the quality.
Feb 23rd, '09, 19:01
Posts: 1633
Joined: Feb 15th, '08, 10:15
Location: Pennsylvania
Well, I think the reason most people are doing this is to get "suitable" storage. Puerh tea NEEDS some high humidity to survive. It is thought that continuous storage at 30% humidity will not just low the process but kill the tea. So dont think it a matter of faster aging, but ensuring the tea lives.