Proper young sheng brewing?

[debunix]

I ordered a group of puerh samples from norbutea.com last year, and brewed up several of them at a time in comparative tastings, weighing the tea, using a set of matched gaiwans, water at the same temperature, uniform infusion timings, etc. One of them was just bitter and unpleasant, from the first to the 4th or 5th infusion, and I put it aside while continuing to work with the others.

Later, it was featured in a tasting for another online forum, and I tried it again. First brewing again was not good. But other drinkers were reporting success, and mentioning flavor elements I could detect but that were overwhelmed by the bitterness. So I played around with it more, and discovered that by dropping the water temperature and treating it more like a green tea, it was brilliant. All the good qualities were there, and the bitterness was down to quite acceptable levels. I liked it enough to order a beeng, and am quite interested to see how it changes over time.

I don't know how generalizable this experience was, but at least this young sheng (the 2009 Lao Mansa) wanted to be treated much more like a young green tea than like an old smooth puerh.

[wyardley]

Part of it depends if you're brewing for taste / enjoyment, or brewing to stress the tea / decide if it's good. Also depends who you ask - I don't think there's one "proper" way. Some people do like to brew young sheng closer to green tea. I tend to brew it with a heavier hand, but I don't usually drink young sheng for enjoyment.

[TIM]

My concerns are in the production of mass market puerh. Unlike Japanese green tea or high grade Chinese green, puerh production in Yunnan are not as clean and careful as consumer might think. So brewing it with under boil temp. would be like having undercooked ground beef from unreliable sources? Just my thought.

[debunix]

brewing it with under boil temp. would be like having undercooked ground beef

Interesting point. Would this be any different than for any other sort of tea, that we routinely treat with cooler water? Are there any known outbreaks of illness from contaminated tea?

I did start with a boiling water rinse for 20", before letting the water cool down to 170 for later infusions.

[TomVerlain]

helps the occaisonal cigarette butt float to the surface when you use boiling water .....

[TIM]

Interesting point. Would this be any different than for any other sort of tea, that we routinely treat with cooler water? Are there any known outbreaks of illness from contaminated tea?

I did start with a boiling water rinse for 20", before letting the water cool down to 170 for later infusions.

Mostly IMO high quality tea will not have the contaminated problem, in fact, high quality limited editions for me are worry free, eg. No chemical, organic farming and clean enviroment / process. It's those mass market tea that I will rinse twice and with boiling water.

For puerh or other badly stored tea, mold could be the main 'outbreaks'. A slow poisoning of sort? You won't die from it at the moment, but might affect your health and stomach in the long run.

[wyardley]

Maybe some scientists on the forum can clue us in... will a quick boiling water rinse (or two) actually kill the nasty stuff? I thought you'd need to actually have the tea at a constant boil for 30 seconds or so before you'd kill any possible cooties, but I could be wrong.

[TIM]

There is a puerh thread back in 12/18/2008: What can you find in your Pu?

Fun to see why you need boiling water. Enjoy!

[bigbud]

Brewed with hot water sheng don't need many time to infuse.
Just count it by yourself, how many tea you need to drink, and then vary brewing time depending at your taste.

0 seconds are too long in some cases.

[hop_goblin]

My concerns are in the production of mass market puerh. Unlike Japanese green tea or high grade Chinese green, puerh production in Yunnan are not as clean and careful as consumer might think. So brewing it with under boil temp. would be like having undercooked ground beef from unreliable sources? Just my thought.

If memory serves me correctly water of 140F can kill the most persistant of bactium. Now mind you this is sanitizing and not sterilizing the leaf which is sufficient.

[hop_goblin]

My concerns are in the production of mass market puerh. Unlike Japanese green tea or high grade Chinese green, puerh production in Yunnan are not as clean and careful as consumer might think. So brewing it with under boil temp. would be like having undercooked ground beef from unreliable sources? Just my thought.

If memory serves me correctly water of 140F can kill the most persistant of bactium. Now mind you this is sanitizing and not sterilizing the leaf which is sufficient.

[silverneedles]

unless there was moisture and available substrate to sustain bacteria i doubt there's much bacteria growth on puerh or tea, even so whatever bacteria wont do much damage.
fungus is another matter and also more resistant, should be the thing to be feared.

[entropyembrace]

I don´t worry too much about how sanitary the puerh tea is...as long as it smells and looks okay I´m fine...

I´ve worked in a grocery store...pretty much all the food you buy isn´t as clean as you like to think it is.

[gingkoseto]

I believe rinsing puerh is more of washing off the storage flavor than cleaning the tea. If a tea is dirty from the beginning, nothing can clean it, well maybe wash off some fungus spores at the most

Did someone already mention in the mold post that according to traditional value of fu zhuan brick tea, the more "golden flowers" of the yellow mold, the more expensive and enthusiastically pursued the tea bricks were.

[TIM]

My concerns are in the production of mass market puerh. Unlike Japanese green tea or high grade Chinese green, puerh production in Yunnan are not as clean and careful as consumer might think. So brewing it with under boil temp. would be like having undercooked ground beef from unreliable sources? Just my thought.

If memory serves me correctly water of 140F can kill the most persistant of bactium. Now mind you this is sanitizing and not sterilizing the leaf which is sufficient.

Of course we are not sterilizing the leaf on the less than 3 sec. quick wash ~ hop. The water just need to be hot enough to wash off the natural animal oil and dust that got caught on the leaves which share the same floor with those animal, eg: Chicken, dogs, cats, or occasional piggies. Perhaps the flies or the roaches that landed on the mao cha for the party? Just the peace of mind.