I'm curious

[heavydoom]

your drinking habits are exactly that, personal. don't let others dictate how you drink your teas and don't believe everything you read here.

[beecrofter]

We probably are missing the true flavor of the tea of old as it is lacking the sweat of the pack horses of the Cha Ma Gu Dao.

[Janine]

I need to read Tim's article to catch up with his thoughts... which I will do in a moment.

Just a note to say that when I said "puerh started out as green tea" I meant that people thought they were importing/exporting green tea: this was the commodity desired. But the taste for the distinctive fermented end product developed.

Also interesting side note: what we think of as the shape of beeng cha was also for transportation although I believe there was a hole in the middle. So the tea was like a ring/circle: pressed this way the tea could be strung together and easily transported. I know I will be corrected if I am mistaken

[Janine]

From what I gather, most Puer drinkers on this site do not drink new Puer. If you only drink aged Puer, do you not drink Puer often?

Sorry IPT I did not answer your original question. I don't drink puerh incredibly often. When I do it's rarely "new" simply because new puerh is just often too harsh for me. But even the word "new" is relative, isn't it? I will drink a good "cooked" or "finished" puerh any time. Sometimes for health reasons because it is good for me, especially when I get a cold or virus that affects digestion. I figure processing is processing; all kinds of things are done to create good tea. Of course, a wonderful aged green is terrific. But I don't drink puerh that often; I'm more focused on hongcha and roasty oolongs. I always appreciate a good puerh; it invariably puts me in a good mood, better than any antidepressant drug could do, I'm sure. I discovered its psychotropic effects long before anybody told me about chachi!

[IPT]

Also interesting side note: what we think of as the shape of beeng cha was also for transportation although I believe there was a hole in the middle. So the tea was like a ring/circle: pressed this way the tea could be strung together and easily transported.

Puer was pressed into cakes, and bricks for shipment. It took up less space than loose leaf did and if a box broke open, during shipping, no tea would be lost.

I know that the tea of the Tang Dynasty had holes in it so it could be strung up over a fire to dry. I don't believe that Puer did, although I'm not positive. I'm going to have to ask around on that.

[gingkoseto]

Most Chinese drinkers I know don't drink new puerh either. I assume new means <2-3 years old? Or you actually mean <5-10 years?

I mean 1 to 5 years.
I live in China and own two tea shops. I honestly do not know of a single person who doesn't drink new Puer. Of course they prefer the old Puer, but here people drink tea basically nonstop from morning to night and drinking only aged Puer would be too expensive and all of the aged Puer would be drank up and there'd be none left if everyone only drank aged Puer.

I sometimes drink 3-5 years too, but 1-3 years sound too new to me. Obviously your people and my people are not the same group of people But China is a big country, and tea drinking varies largely from province to province. I just thought of this and wonder if that contributes to different patterns of puerh drinking. Could it be that people who drink new tea drink mainly hong qing (roast kill green) tea and people who never touches new tea drink shai qing (sun dried green) tea? For example, Xia Guan tuo made for Sichuan province is largely made of hong qing tea, while other xia guan tuo products are largely made of shai qing tea (they claim so, hopefully true).

[Jack_teachat]

Most Chinese drinkers I know don't drink new puerh either. I assume new means <2-3 years old? Or you actually mean <5-10 years?

I mean 1 to 5 years.
I live in China and own two tea shops. I honestly do not know of a single person who doesn't drink new Puer. Of course they prefer the old Puer, but here people drink tea basically nonstop from morning to night and drinking only aged Puer would be too expensive and all of the aged Puer would be drank up and there'd be none left if everyone only drank aged Puer.

I sometimes drink 3-5 years too, but 1-3 years sound too new to me. Obviously your people and my people are not the same group of people But China is a big country, and tea drinking varies largely from province to province. I just thought of this and wonder if that contributes to different patterns of puerh drinking. Could it be that people who drink new tea drink mainly hong qing (roast kill green) tea and people who never touches new tea drink shai qing (sun dried green) tea? For example, Xia Guan tuo made for Sichuan province is largely made of hong qing tea, while other xia guan tuo products are largely made of shai qing tea (they claim so, hopefully true).

Although I am still rather inexperienced with Pu-erh, I was under the impression that it is better to drink sheng which is between 1 to 3 years old than between 3 to 5 years. I know it would differ greatly depending on the storage conditions, but isn't the latter period of aging meant to be the worst in terms of how the tea tastes?

I only ask this in reference to some advice given by members on buying cakes to drink now last year, much of which seemed to recommend only buying cakes made after 2008 and before 2005.

Jack

[TomVerlain]

[quote="Jack_teachat
I only ask this in reference to some advice given by members on buying cakes to drink now last year, much of which seemed to recommend only buying cakes made after 2008 and before 2005.

Jack [/quote]

I think people might be refering to the "bubble" effect tea, where even lawn clippings were in demand. But I might be wrong about what other people meant.

I believe there might be references to certain plateaus in aging occuring at 7 year marks, but as always, your taste is the deciding factor on what you like.

[cha-fu]

From what I gather, most Puer drinkers on this site do not drink new Puer. If you only drink aged Puer, do you not drink Puer often?

Pu is our daily tea of choice. My wife and I drink mainly Shu (15+ yo) and some aged Sheng (25+ yo), plus 70s Fu Brick Cha, typically from morning to early evening. Older Shu's and Sheng's are for special occasions. From time to time, we drink Diang Hong. We usually use about 15g of Pu (usually 2 Pu's) to brew ~4 liters each day.

When we started drinking Pu-erh a few years ago, ~15 yo Shu gave the best value (especially "naked" tea, Pu bricks/cakes without wrapper), so we started with that. We prefer taste of aged Pu, since younger Pu's give us dry throat and stomach ache.

I recently purchased some (relatively) young Sheng (2000 and 2001) which will stay in storage for a few years before consumption. No plan to purchase/try younger Pu (later than 2003) at the moment.

[hop_goblin]

I enjoy shengpu on occasion, but choose not to drink it often as a result of it being bad on the body. Luckily, I have a great stash of aged, aging and shou to keep me company.

[Janine]

Today I am drinking a tea from Chaikhana (Santa Cruz). It's been labeled 2007 "Ancient Style" (which I think means it' s a "granny puerh" he bought locally in Yunnan direct from granny' s patch but I'm not certain). "Raw Dayeh"... this is delicious tea, IMO. It's smooth and it's a totally clear amber/cognac colored brew after several minutes steeping in hot hot water. This is the "newest" puerh tea I will probably drink, and it's from a source I trust. But never say never.

edit: ps After an hour, I'm teadrunk. Pow. My normally tight shoulder (due to pinched nerve) is relaxed, top of my head feels like air; head and shoulders feel warm inside, nicely prickly-cool on surface, cheeks are rosy. not TMI for those into puerh effects I hope.

[Drax]

Today I'm drinking a bingdao brick tea from 2009. Holy cow, this stuff is strong enough to strip wood bare.

Normally I run a mix of ages for sheng, and similar for shou. I have bought a greater amount of "young" sheng, because it's cheaper, and I plan (like so many others) to age it myself. I save up for special purchases on older beengs, but those purchases are much further in-between.

[zhi zheng]

"..people who drink new tea drink mainly hong qing (roast kill green) tea and people who never touches new tea drink shai qing (sun dried green) tea?"

I think there's some confusion about the process here: 'sha qing' or killing green is normally (best?) done by hand in a large wood-fired wok. Some people use a wood-fired oven with a revolving drum and hot air blown through it instead. Either way, the tea, after 'frying' is rolled and then dried: by sun - 'shai qing' or in an oven - 'hong qing'. The end results are markedly different. (Also, under last years' Yunnan Province ruling the latter would no longer qualify as Puer.)

So the assertion doesn't hold: Lots of people who drink new tea drink 'shai qing' sheng cha!

[gingkoseto]

"..people who drink new tea drink mainly hong qing (roast kill green) tea and people who never touches new tea drink shai qing (sun dried green) tea?"

I think there's some confusion about the process here: 'sha qing' or killing green is normally (best?) done by hand in a large wood-fired wok. Some people use a wood-fired oven with a revolving drum and hot air blown through it instead. Either way, the tea, after 'frying' is rolled and then dried: by sun - 'shai qing' or in an oven - 'hong qing'. The end results are markedly different. (Also, under last years' Yunnan Province ruling the latter would no longer qualify as Puer.)

So the assertion doesn't hold: Lots of people who drink new tea drink 'shai qing' sheng cha!

Whether hong qing green should be called puerh sheng, is another problem.

Some of current puerh sheng products are labeled "made from shai qing raw tea", some are labeled "made from mixture of shai qing and hong qing". Some are not labeled what kind of raw tea is used and a lot of people suspect many of these unlabeled ones are made from hong qing, because there is hardly enough space to sun dry the tea when market demand is large. So I don't think we can assume all sheng puerh are made with shai qing materials. Not that there is anything wrong with hong qing, but many people wouldn't want to store much of it for many years.

If someone doesn't think a new sheng is too harsh too drink, maybe it's personal taste, maybe it's hong qing green. I think either scenario is equally possible.

(Therefore I thought hong qing might be relevant to op's original discussion. Talking about hong qing may be exactly dis-confusion, instead of confusion.)

[pb2q]

From what I gather, most Puer drinkers on this site do not drink new Puer. If you only drink aged Puer, do you not drink Puer often? I'm curious, because in China I never hear anyone saying they don't drink new Puer, and most people drink both Shengpu and Shoupu.

Naturally I'd rather drink good aged tea. My first pu-erh experiences were with 80s 7542 some years ago. Long enough that samples of those teas were considerably cheaper than they are now. But even then it seemed really expensive.

The quality of this tea was obvious from the 1st brew, even with my probably clumsy brewing skills. But due to the cost, then, as now, good aged tea was a precious item for me, and I was always trying to stretch it out (looking back I shudder to think of the volumes that I was brewing per session then).

These days the amount of good aged pu-erh I drink hasn't changed that much, and I always try to keep some on hand. Occasionally I'll spring for a really special sample.

What has increased is the amount of young sheng that I drink. For the last couple of years I've been drinking it semi-regularly. Most of the time I consider it research: I'm trying to learn about young teas, which ones are good and specifically which ones might become good aged teas. But I also enjoy drinking very good young pu-erh simply for the pleasure of drinking it. Unfortunately, even these teas are often hard to come by for me (limited quantity, high cost), so they're also treated as somewhat precious.

I always keep some good shou around but don't find myself drinking it much these days.

The rest of the time I'm drinking (all sorts of) oolong. Typically I'll decide to try some new young sheng samples, or revisit some that I'm evaluating, or just revisit some of those that I've identified as great, and this will turn into a 'young sheng kick' for a few days, during which time that's all I'll want to drink.