Help & suggestions, Please?

[TomVerlain]

Smokey is from actual smoke used in the process of making tea (Drying with fire). I think fishy is a result of poor Wo Dui fermenting or wet storage

[solitude]

If the sheng is smoky I take cca 50-100 g from the cake, break it to pieces and put it in a place where it can breathe (a paper bag for example), this usually helps.
Among the few shu I tried wasn’t any with fishy smell, on the other hand some of the shengs had fishy like strange smell which disappeared after the first 1-2 steps. Does this smell comes from the previous storage or it is one of the stages of ageing?

[Sundri]

was there a reason you were going with Shu over Sheng? I, thus far anyway, have found Sheng to be much more enjoyable/drinkable.

The main reason I've started with shou/shu is because that was what was presented first. >.<; To be honest I am not a newcomer to the world of tea, I have been refining my tea habits for years now - but I am absolutely infant in the realm of pu-erh. When I started out, shu was the only thing I knew about via one of the american vendors I purchase from. After that I started digging to find out more and discovered the wealth of information, but I haven't had much opportunity to try out any of the sheng pu-erhs and have been a little afraid to spend the money on them since my experience thus far has been fishmarket 2/1. I wanted to get a better idea of what to expect and how to choose the right teas to try before I started diving in further with my limited tea budget.

I have wondered if the choice of suppliers was the case, since pu-erh is such a refined/complicated form of tea that I was fairly sure my usual sources wouldn't be good enough, but after the first two experiences with the fishy tea I was a little afraid to move forward without clarifying the concept of pu-erh flavor and the 'fishshu'. I'm taking you both up on the suggestions now that I have a better idea of where to start, thank you so much for the recommendations!

I wonder if I am also more sensitive to the fishy flavor. In general I like strong flavors (the beers I prefer are ambers and darker), so I was surprised that I disliked this. What surprised me more was my husband's reaction when smelling the pu-erh. Typically he likes flavors that are much less strong (wheat beers are his favorite), and I've never seen him drink tea. He liked the smell of this pu-erh, and when I asked, said it did not smell fishy. I'll give this one a few more tries with rinses and different infusion times. I do have a few others, including two raw ones, that had a much more pleasant odor.

I was a bit worried about that as well since I am very sensitive to 'fishy' odors. (I can usually tell when things in my fridge are starting to go bad even when no one else can smell it/taste it yet - the minute they are 'off' I can feel it/smell it.) I do think I am going to have to try some of the raw and older vintages to really get a good idea of the range of flavors.

Thanks to everyone else who has responded as well!!! I have posted this issue to a couple other teaboards in the past couple years and hadn't gotten any replies. I think I can conclude that 'fishy' is NOT the standard, that gives me the courage to start sampling again! I'm going to have to sit my little anti-social-hide-under-a-rock-self down when I have moments free and keep back-reading through the wealth of info you have here. <3

[entropyembrace]

Smokey is from actual smoke used in the process of making tea (Drying with fire). I think fishy is a result of poor Wo Dui fermenting or wet storage

+1

Actually I quite like smokey puerh....but fishy (it´s like fish droppings or rotting fish) is only good for the compost pile.

[rosmarinaus]

I´d say try a few of the classic recipes which are named with number codes, Tom gave one for shu the 7262. Try some sheng too, I really like 8582 and Xiaguan Bao Yan (Xiaguan is another major brand/factory for puerh)

Also to get some more ideas of good quality accessable puerh to try check out bearsblog´s new to puerh post.
http://puerh.blogspot.com/p/new-to-puer.html

Thanks - the entire post was really helpful. I followed the links from the bearsblog post you linked and now have some aged pu-erh samples being shipped.

[nickE]

Thanks - the entire post was really helpful. I followed the links from the bearsblog post you linked and now have some aged pu-erh samples being shipped.

Nice! Samples are definitely the way to go until you know what you like. I'd recommend a cheap gaiwan to brew up those aged Sheng samples.

[Catfur]

I've never had a tea that smelled fishy to me, but have definitely had some that are smoky at the start, particularly some young shengs--but have never had a shu like this. Could my 'smoky' be what others are calling 'fishy'?

Fishy smells like a can of anchovies, smokey tastes like bbq tea.