pu-erh shop wet storage CNNP cakes

[honza]

I've got one of my friends who sell Puerh, who would keep callin me up to sample new arrivals, at first he's excited because he has found some 9x Sheng at low price, but oh why, why do his teas all come from Guangdong?

As Marshaln pointed out, money speaks for storage condition too, Beeng looks alright because senders already removed the white mold. I guess the minimum starting point for selling Pu is to know how to rule out the wet storages..but in fact many don't.

I also agree with betta that there are storage masters. It requires experience to balance out wet/dry ratio..where is my favorite storing place for Puerh? Korea

I think is two "wet storage" in Guangdong or other wet places. One is keep careful all time in not too wet place but still Guandong air and more wet, the boxes with tea is not on the ground but 20 or more cm highly and still somebody check the tea.....this way is really not bad and many teas (sheng pu) from this storage are very atractive, sweet but still have and no lost original taste, smell....
And the second, is for me really so sad storage. Have some mashroom taste like old house, lost many original taste and my feel is drink this style of pu can´t be good for body if somebody like the taste. This tea is popular in HK and i meet there in many places with this style storage and many Guangdong bussines say this is good for sell to HK.

[honza]

I've got one of my friends who sell Puerh, who would keep callin me up to sample new arrivals, at first he's excited because he has found some 9x Sheng at low price, but oh why, why do his teas all come from Guangdong?

As Marshaln pointed out, money speaks for storage condition too, Beeng looks alright because senders already removed the white mold. I guess the minimum starting point for selling Pu is to know how to rule out the wet storages..but in fact many don't.

I also agree with betta that there are storage masters. It requires experience to balance out wet/dry ratio..where is my favorite storing place for Puerh? Korea

I think is two "wet storage" in Guangdong or other wet places. One is keep careful all time in not too wet place but still Guandong air and more wet, the boxes with tea is not on the ground but 20 or more cm highly and still somebody check the tea.....this way is really not bad and many teas (sheng pu) from this storage are very atractive, sweet but still have and no lost original taste, smell....
And the second, is for me really so sad storage. Have some mashroom taste like old house, lost many original taste and my feel is drink this style of pu can´t be good for body if somebody like the taste. This tea is popular in HK and i meet there in many places with this style storage and many Guangdong bussines say this is good for sell to HK.

Last week in Guangzhou, taste some 1998 sheng brick and really the tea is death, have very strong wet taste and smell. I say is death pu...and the people say, hmmm maybe but you can sell it like 30 years old pu...oh!~~~~
The not good wet storage i mean 仓味 cang wei.

[Dass]

"Truly speaking there is no "Malaysia Chang" puerh that are older than 6 or maybe 8 years. So it only recently that the Malaysian tea merchants are
promoting the "Malaysian Chang". The new Malaysian warehoused puerh"


I do not agree because personally I have a few 1980"s,1990"s tea that was kept in Malaysia since than.I also have many friends who have 1970's yellow mark and other tea's kept in malaysia since than.So what you wrote above is not correct.

[MarshalN]

"Truly speaking there is no "Malaysia Chang" puerh that are older than 6 or maybe 8 years. So it only recently that the Malaysian tea merchants are
promoting the "Malaysian Chang". The new Malaysian warehoused puerh"


I do not agree because personally I have a few 1980"s,1990"s tea that was kept in Malaysia since than.I also have many friends who have 1970's yellow mark and other tea's kept in malaysia since than.So what you wrote above is not correct.

I believe the point made there is there wasn't a big time seller with quantity who has stuff stored in Malaysia for 20-30 years. In other words, there's no Vesper Chan.

By quantity I mean at least a few hundred jian of tea

[sp1key]

A lot of it just comes down to individual taste....even well stored wet just tastes like wet basement to some people.

With sufficient post-storage aging, you will not be able to discern the wet basement taste.

This is the biggest difference between wet storage of HK and places like China. Post-storage could take years and many HK merchants are very experienced at such storages.

Proper wet storage helps to improve a tea besides speeding up the aging process.

As for those badly stored wet tea, I believe the majority ends up being used by eateries whereby they blend it with other teas.

[pgho]

"Truly speaking there is no "Malaysia Chang" puerh that are older than 6 or maybe 8 years. So it only recently that the Malaysian tea merchants are
promoting the "Malaysian Chang". The new Malaysian warehoused puerh"


I do not agree because personally I have a few 1980"s,1990"s tea that was kept in Malaysia since than.I also have many friends who have 1970's yellow mark and other tea's kept in malaysia since than.So what you wrote above is not correct.

There might be just a different understanding of what is considered a Malaysia stored puerh. I would agree all the puerh you mentioned were stored in Malaysia for many years but I can confidently say all of them had gone through some form of traditional storage in Hong Kong/Guangdong before reaching the Malaysian shores. Those days no traders would even considered buying newly produced puerh. Teas that are closest to be full Malaysian storage are liu bao and small boxed packaging of liu bao, TQY and puerh that are meant for the supermarkets, grocers or chinese medicine shops. Look at www{dot}teaculturalexpo{dot}com/da-ma-cang{dot}htm

Check out the excellent write-up's on traditional storage in MarshalN's blog, the Chadao site and The-Leaf. Remember the three steps; the initial warehousing, the tui-cang (this involve moving to a drier part of the warehouse, higher floors, upper shelves, increase ventilation, etc etc) and then long term aging.

My biggest qualm is where to buy good traditional stored puerh since most traders are only importing newly produced puerh these days. And the new Malaysia storage masters are yet to appear. Even heard some traders saying that they might send their tea back to HK for some R&R. I love to get my hands on those traditional stored Haiwan LTZ puerh that MarshalN has.

[pgho]

A Malaysia experiment on storage.
Base Material : 2005 753X blend, imported new no prior traditional storage
Factory : Small factory
Storage Location : Penang, Malaysia
Method: Not disclosed, exact location not provided (low hill)

6 Years Cake


TuiCang stage (less than 6 months after removing from storage location) Tea spent 4 years at Tea shop environment before went into storage. White frosting all over tea surface.


Similar tea but storage done a year earlier and tuicang for about a year. Noticed nearly half consumed. I need to get picture of the brew later; it is a clear red chestnut colour. The taste is enhanced, thick, still bitter in a good way and slight astringent at the back. No old forest floor flavour but also no moldy smell. The white frosting almost gone, a few strands of white frost left. Leaves are overall darker.

[betta]

This discussion regarding wet, traditional and dry storage should also alert puerh tea consumer before buying puerh tea for storage:

If those storage masters require such a long time and effort to ensure the tea under their care really worth something in the future...
What about people like me who just store at home at relatively constant condition throughout the year?

It's true that we can afford buying good young material, however it's just a small step from the entire path to attain good aged puerh tea.

That's the reason I stop buying puerh tea for storage as I see neither precise information on the storage method nor evidence that the tea under my care will be fine.

Maybe at the end of the day we end up with nothing more than expensive grass.

[whatsinaname]

Maybe at the end of the day we end up with nothing more than expensive grass.

This is my biggest fear.

No more new puerh buying for me either. I've got plenty of it already. I do, however, keep my eyes out for reasonable adolescent tea that has seen traditional storage.

[MarshalN]

I think for those of us in North America anyway, the general problem is dryness. Unless you're in the South, chances are where you store your tea is too dry and often too cold, and that can adversely affect your tea.

Various friends of mine who have substantial collections have pumidors. I think it aids in the aging of the cakes. Varied seasons with wet/dry conditions is probably best.

[betta]

Varied seasons with wet/dry conditions is probably best.

Marshaln, maybe it's a matter of philosophy.

Some people believe in natural seasonal weather change to control the aging rate while others suggest to maintain stability of storage condition throughout the year.
Again, no one says specifically the duration they keep their teas that way; maybe only for the first one or two years? and then they start storing it in another condition for longer time?

Knowing you're a seasoned tea drinker, maybe you can comment more on your findings about the common practice.

[MarshalN]

Varied seasons with wet/dry conditions is probably best.

Marshaln, maybe it's a matter of philosophy.

Some people believe in natural seasonal weather change to control the aging rate while others suggest to maintain stability of storage condition throughout the year.
Again, no one says specifically the duration they keep their teas that way; maybe only for the first one or two years? and then they start storing it in another condition for longer time?

Knowing you're a seasoned tea drinker, maybe you can comment more on your findings about the common practice.

Let's put it this way, until maybe a few years ago, NOBODY put their teas in climate controlled environments. By that, I mean dehumidifier, temperature controlled (cool), etc. Pu was left to its own devices.

[entropyembrace]

Let's put it this way, until maybe a few years ago, NOBODY put their teas in climate controlled environments. By that, I mean dehumidifier, temperature controlled (cool), etc. Pu was left to its own devices.

Doesn´t that include humidifiers and heaters too?

[gasninja]

What level of humidity does every one recomend for storage. I am keeping mine in a cabinet with a few different teapots full of water and the relative humidity stays around 60.

[wyardley]

What level of humidity does every one recomend for storage. I am keeping mine in a cabinet with a few different teapots full of water and the relative humidity stays around 60.

I think it's tough to say for sure. And the heat in your environment will make a big difference too. Unfortunately, I think most of our houses will not be that warm, even when it's quite warm outside.

I keep my cabinet around the mid-upper 60s in winter, and sometimes push it closer to 70 in the summer. I rarely go above 70, partially because of the risk of mold, and partially because I don't like artificially inflating the humidity so much beyond what's natural storage (in my area).