Official Pu of the day

[shah82]

One session of my favorite (well, not *the* favorites, but the stuff I have the most of) shu a month.

I really don't have very much shu at all, so I can't drink any of them all that often if I want them to last. Of course, I have miniscule amounts of "everyday" shu.

[sung8891]

Pretty much limiting myself to one session a month these days

Actually me too. I start drinking pu'er on the first of every month and finish on the last day on time to get ready for the following month.

Shah , why ???

[DVS]

Teadezhang's

I am looking forward to visiting there shop in Bangkok when I get there. I have their 2013 Xigui and 2013 Bingdao that I like.

[Puerlife]

Today I had a young sheng for the first time in a while and it's the most I've enjoyed young sheng in quite a while. High pour or low pour, didn't seem to matter. It was Teadezhang's 2013 Bangdong. Yum. Lots of infusions at 90c. When I finally got a hint of an offtaste with a 35-second infusion I went down to 70 and then 75C at 15 seconds and got two more good, albeit weaker infusions, then stopped. I've been doing this recently so that the last sip of a session is a pleasing one that lingers rather than a mediocre or nasty aftertaste that overshadows my memory of the whole session.

[Balthazar]

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I've always preferred to pour from high when I'm brewing oolongs, but not with puer. Not that I can say I've noticed a huge difference (or that I've experimented all that much).

Today I tried the $20 shupu from Awazon ("2000 Excellent Old Aged Ripe Pu-erh Tea Brick"), which Hobbes reviewed quite recently. I like it a lot, and for the price it's pretty much unbeatable for what it is. Didn't get more than three good brews out of it, though. Which actually suits me pretty well, as I usually drink shu in the evenings (and feel wasteful when I go to bed before my tea is "spent").

Didn't find it half as dirty as I thought it would be from Hobbes' post (I know he uses it a word of endearment), though.

[Puerlife]

Have you experimented with pouring the tea from the teapot high up into the teacup/gongbei? I have tried the technique you stated before and don't notice a difference but stuff like this is still interesting and a little nerve wracking because these are seemingly insignificant changes that can actually change the end result and there can just be so many variables!


No, I have not tried that yet, but from the height and force I'm using most of the tea would probably splash out of the cup. How to save your nerves--find a relatively inexpensive yet interesting tea to tea around with

Actually, since reading your post I have been playing with high pouring into the tea cup from the chahai and I do notice a difference. How dense of me to outright reject your idea without trying it.
Observation:
When I do a double high pour (from the kettle and then from the chahai), it really livens up the tea. I feel I'm tasting the water in the tea, in a good way. But I suspect the tradeoff is that the tea has less body (viscosity). I haven't tried high pouring with a young sheng yet but the change is noticeable with semi-aged sheng and with shu.

[Puerlife]

Have you experimented with pouring the tea from the teapot high up into the teacup/gongbei? I have tried the technique you stated before and don't notice a difference but stuff like this is still interesting and a little nerve wracking because these are seemingly insignificant changes that can actually change the end result and there can just be so many variables!

No, I have not tried that yet, but from the height and force I'm using most of the tea would probably splash out of the cup. How to save your nerves--find a relatively inexpensive yet interesting tea to tea around with

It's a good variable to play with. You also want to consider the tea you are brewing and on what infusion you are at. For example, if you are in the first infusions of a pu'erh I'd definitely do that, in late infusions I would pour from very low in a thick stream to prevent water from cooling down along the way. More details here in point 2): https://shuocha.wordpress.com/2015/03/0 ... g-details/

It's the hot season here, as it is for most of the year actually, so teapots and tea in cups and probably water in the air stays hotter than it would in a winter setting, but during our cool season I do notice a big change. I'll play around with that. Is that your blog? Nice. Thank you for sharing.

[steanze]

I came across a suggestion last week--to pour the hot water into the teapot/gaiwan from high up in order to oxygenate the water. So I tried it and there was an obvious improvement in the taste. In fact, it has worked with every tea I've tried it with over the last several days.

It's a good variable to play with. You also want to consider the tea you are brewing and on what infusion you are at. For example, if you are in the first infusions of a pu'erh I'd definitely do that, in late infusions I would pour from very low in a thick stream to prevent water from cooling down along the way. More details here in point 2): https://shuocha.wordpress.com/2015/03/0 ... g-details/

[Zacherywolf7]

I came across a suggestion last week--to pour the hot water into the teapot/gaiwan from high up in order to oxygenate the water. So I tried it and there was an obvious improvement in the taste. In fact, it has worked with every tea I've tried it with over the last several days. Today I tried one of my problem teas, 701 7262 from tuochatea. It has been consistently disappointing--weak, thin, sour... Until today with my 'new' pouring technique. Much, much better. Quite good, actually. Problem solved, it was me, not the tea And now, at the risk of posting the uncoolest gong fu photo in the history of Teachat, here is my kettle. Yeah, kind of embarrassing, especially since I've been reading lately about tetsubins and Chaozhou kettles, but it works. So now instead of picking up my teapot/gaiwan when pouring, I leave it on the tray. I can get a gentle flow by pushing on the big button on top or go for the fire hose effect by using the electric pour button. Great fun.
Edit: Funny thing is, my kettle's default temp setting is 90C and I forgot to bump it up to the normal 98 so the first two infusions were at 90 and were very good, then I bumped it up to 98 and it was slightly better, which suggests that water that's properly oxygenated in this way can make up for inadequate water temp, or that some shu can handle 90c.

Have you experimented with pouring the tea from the teapot high up into the teacup/gongbei? I have tried the technique you stated before and don't notice a difference but stuff like this is still interesting and a little nerve wracking because these are seemingly insignificant changes that can actually change the end result and there can just be so many variables!

[Rui]

Pretty much limiting myself to one session a month these days

Actually me too. I start drinking pu'er on the first of every month and finish on the last day on time to get ready for the following month.

[Puerlife]

I came across a suggestion last week--to pour the hot water into the teapot/gaiwan from high up in order to oxygenate the water. So I tried it and there was an obvious improvement in the taste. In fact, it has worked with every tea I've tried it with over the last several days. Today I tried one of my problem teas, 701 7262 from tuochatea. It has been consistently disappointing--weak, thin, sour... Until today with my 'new' pouring technique. Much, much better. Quite good, actually. Problem solved, it was me, not the tea And now, at the risk of posting the uncoolest gong fu photo in the history of Teachat, here is my kettle. Yeah, kind of embarrassing, especially since I've been reading lately about tetsubins and Chaozhou kettles, but it works. So now instead of picking up my teapot/gaiwan when pouring, I leave it on the tray. I can get a gentle flow by pushing on the big button on top or go for the fire hose effect by using the electric pour button. Great fun.
Edit: Funny thing is, my kettle's default temp setting is 90C and I forgot to bump it up to the normal 98 so the first two infusions were at 90 and were very good, then I bumped it up to 98 and it was slightly better, which suggests that water that's properly oxygenated in this way can make up for inadequate water temp, or that some shu can handle 90c.

[bob]

I had a session with pu-erh.sk 1999 Haiwan "Wild" Yiwu. So good. Sooooooo good. Thick, dark, gloopy, oily, refined and energizing qi. I felt this one the next day. It's not cheap, but I just went online and bought the last beeng. I have been very impressed by older Haiwan products (both sheng and shu).

Ha, interesting, I had a session with this tea just this weekend (I got a sample). I like it a lot, it seems nicely aged to me (I'm still learning about puerh) and it's quite tasty to drink.

[benm3]

I had a session with pu-erh.sk 1999 Haiwan "Wild" Yiwu. So good. Sooooooo good. Thick, dark, gloopy, oily, refined and energizing qi. I felt this one the next day. It's not cheap, but I just went online and bought the last beeng. I have been very impressed by older Haiwan products (both sheng and shu).

[Rui]

Sipping a very nice 2014 Yunnan Sourcing Autumn Da Qing Gu Shu raw pu'er.

[apache]

What? a session a month? Are you ok?

I haven't tried 07 An Xiang shu for sometime and I only have one cake of shu and a few cakes of sheng. This one cake of shu is going to last much longer than my sheng cakes. I find drinking shu is really hard going and I can't do it more than once in a week or that off taste of shu would linger and I need drinking oolong to detox!

Pretty much limiting myself to one session a month these days, but...

'07 An Xiang was all sorts of awesome again, today.

Not the strongest of taste or thickest of soups, unlike, say, Star of Menghai, so it's not really a favorite among Chinese shu drinkers.

However, accepting those limitations, this shu has an appreciable percentage of the hedons of an excellent mature puerh. When I mean excellent mature puerh, I mean the aged sheng that never seems to leave the Far East in any appreciable amounts and which most people experience from gifts but not purchases.

Has never not been appreciably better than the An Xiang sheng version, for some reason. For example, the huigans were/are stronger than the sheng, both in the mouth and throat. Has stronger qi, tho' the sheng does have something something tightly bound to caffeine feel. Coats the mouth thoroughly. Complex taste and aroma. Durable. Always a big treat when I let myself have some.