Pu-Erh Placement in Pumidor

[Tead Off]

The Red Baron and I would be happy to store all your high-end Puerh cha for a nice yearly charge plus a % of your tea! We will even invite you to come and drink it with us once a year so you can see how it is doing. Doesn't include plane/hotel/transportation charges or meals out.

That may be a way how i can continue to afford living here...

Me, too! Plus, keep us in tea. They can choose going native with you, or the lofty heights of Bangkok with me. Or both! Brilliant.

[Tead Off]

Malaysian Puer tea drinkers are distinctively divided now. One group for dry (sealed) and another group for wet storage tea. You can find good and really awful tea there at the same time.

I am definitely in your camp - clear and clean! But aged!

I don't seal my teas here in Bangkok - i store them naturally, in a shady place in my house with sufficient airflow, yet without the fan blasting on my teas.
But Bangkok is less humid than Malaysia, with a lot more seasonal change in both temperature and humidity. During the rain season though i am very careful - regularly sniffing my teas, and shifting them as well.

So far, over the past ten years of storing Pu Erh i have no reason to complain.

I have tried such cockroach taste tea in Malaysia - it's not for me. I find that moldy taste simply revolting.

As a general rule, I often watch the reaction of women drinking Puerh cha. I believe that most women have a keener sense of smell and taste than men. Most women react strongly against moldy taste and aroma. Mix in the cockroaches and they run away fast. However, we as humans, can be trained to accept almost anything and even go so far as preferring certain things from peer pressure and bad education. Smoking cigarettes is one such thing. It is absolutely revolting to most first time users of cigarettes. Wet stored tea, although not as revolting as cigarettes, has turned off many people I've seen drinking it and put me off puerh cha for many years until I could finally get some properly stored teas.

[Teaism]

redbaron and teadoff, nice to have both of you in my camp!

[theredbaron]

Me, too! Plus, keep us in tea. They can choose going native with you, or the lofty heights of Bangkok with me. Or both! Brilliant.

In your place - the awesome skyline off inner Bangkok, the joys of aircon, and close proximity to great department stores.

In my place - a lovely wooden house with the thrill of regular gang fights, shoot-outs, and police chases, and close proximity to Tesco Lotus...

[theredbaron]

redbaron and teadoff, nice to have both of you in my camp!

Only one thing - i am in the smokers' camp

But - a year and a half ago i switched to rollies, can't stand Marlboro & Co anymore, tastes just like burning chemicals.

[theredbaron]

Wet stored tea, although not as revolting as cigarettes (a point to be debated! ), has turned off many people I've seen drinking it and put me off puerh cha for many years until I could finally get some properly stored teas.

Yes, badly stored sheng and shu have done the same for me. I began loving Pu Erh when my own home stored Pu Erh's came to age. Never looked back.

[futurebird]

Dang the way you are rankin' wet-stored teas I start to wonderf if I've ever had them. But I'm a woman, so I'd know right?

To be fair I just can't enjoy shu anymore-- Once I had properly aged sheng, I was like "oh this is what it was supposed to be like!" and I literally sold all of my shu but one brick... and I think i'll sell that too. Now it just tastes odd.

This is not such a good thing for a wallet, though.

Smell is deeply tied to memory. A smell can trigger all sorts of emotions and literally transport the mind to an older state. Have you ever smelled something that instantly took you back to your youth?

But I think this is why tea can generate such strong opinions.

[theredbaron]

Have you ever smelled something that instantly took you back to your youth?

Freshly cut grass - reminds me of making hay on an prealpine hill farm i partly grew up on...

[Tead Off]

Good shu is good tea. Hard to compare it to sheng cha. They are not supposed to be the same thing.

[yanom]

Agreed: but nice shu can also provide some of the features of nice sheng, at a far lower price.

[TokyoB]

I admire all your passion and effort on Puer storage. It takes tremendous effort and the commitment is for a very long time. Practically I am not sure whether the commitment is sustainable.

There are many alternative storage solutions which are more convenient and practical which you may like to consider. From my experience of Puer sheng storage over one or two decades, sealing up the tea works well for me. The tea aged slowly but beautifully keeping all its natural flavours and aroma. Sealing also prevent excessive absorption of moisture and odour. Tea is not only highly hydroscopic but also absord all surrounding odour. Many vendors expose their tea to accerate aging for ease of selling.
Aged tea by sealing will produce a tea that is smooth, clear, clean and full of flavour and aroma. The air in between the tea is enough for the sloww aging process. The same observation can be made for wine and many other food products, they all aged well by sealing.

So this is a personal experience and definately works for me. It may be right or wrong way but it is my right to say it and share the two decades of experiece.

I know there are a lot of difference in opinion on this issue, but we are all entitle to our rights and believe.

Having said that, I would prefer to spend the time drinking tea rather that responding to any rebuttal to come.

But I am really glad that I didn't expose the tea 20 years ago, having tried the the same tea in different storage conditions. I definately prefer an aged tea that is that is smooth, bright, clear, clean and full of flavour and tea aroma; rather than the same aged tea with cloudy color and cabinet or earthy taste with cockroach aroma.

Have a great tea day my friends!

Teaism,
Can you tell us a bit more about how you sealed the tea? I hear that some in China now favor sealing each bing in a silver foil bag. An alternative is storing many bings in a large plastic bin - maybe 50 - 100 cakes.
Thanks!

[gasninja]

So. Basically Red Barron- Teaism. You two are not into any masterpiece or chi tse era puerh. As most of these have been storred a little wet.

[JakubT]

Clean, yes, but prolonged too dry storage ruins a tea, as well as too wet storage does. Also, it's a different thing to taste wet stored tea right after storage (I don't particularly like that) and after some airing out (I do enjoy that from time to time).

Anyway, aged tea is, in my opinion, not so much about taste, as about general feeling and qi. And it seems to me that teas with some humidity in aging tend to do better in that aspect. Again, not too much (cloudy does not sound good; but traditional stored tea does not have to be cloudy at all, it can be actually pretty clean; totally wet stored tea may be worse).

The effects of mold in tea should be zero, as tea molds do not survive being rinsed by hot wated. And basically any non-crazy puerh contains some sort of mold anyway.

Concerning what Cloud showed (circa 52%), the thing is that in lower temperature (such as 21-22%), the humidity leading to the same amount of water in the air will be 60%+, which sounds already reasonable. Also, fermentation is generally faster in more heat, therefore, if these numbers work for Cloud, it does not mean that having 52% RH in New York will lead to good aging.

The teas which were supposedly from circa 50% RH in a bit colder climates, were ok after 5 years, but developed bad sourness after 10 or so (e.g., some too dry stored teas from Finepuer/Sampletea) and lost sweetness and qi. Ok, the taste was possibly somewhat "fresh" and "young", but I want my tea aged, not fresh and young.

I don't want to sound like a too large fan of wet stored tea, I prefer something between wet and dry... or dry HK storage... But I tend to prefer lightly wet over lightly dry tea, true.

[theredbaron]

So. Basically Red Barron- Teaism. You two are not into any masterpiece or chi tse era puerh. As most of these have been storred a little wet.

Never had the chance to drink any of those famous teas, but if they display that moldy taste of wet stored teas - then i am not into them.

My wife and half of Thailand love fermented fish paste - i think it just tastes and smells like rotten fish.

Sorry.


I like naturally stored teas - how shall i describe it? Aged taste, but at the same time clean and complex. I don't like ultra-dry stored teas, such as most of what i have seen of Kunming stored teas, where ten year old teas still have a very dominant green taste.

[futurebird]

The teas which were supposedly from circa 50% RH in a bit colder climates, were ok after 5 years, but developed bad sourness after 10 or so (e.g., some too dry stored teas from Finepuer/Sampletea) and lost sweetness and qi. Ok, the taste was possibly somewhat "fresh" and "young", but I want my tea aged, not fresh and young.

Which teas from sample tea are "too dry" in your view?

I really like to compare notes, I have a lot of their teas.

So, far I like "1980's Tong Qing Hao Tea Cake, Green" very much, I think it's what some would call wet... though I wonder if it is what those who don't like wet would call "roach tea" (really... roaches, people? as a NYC'er just the mention of such things gives me the willies, ) --

I also like "2003 Xiaguan "WDJG" Hong Yin Tea Cake, Green" to me this is an almost perfect tea (could be a bit more mature... just a bit) to me this is "dry" and must free-- do you like it (if you've had it) or is it "too young and dry" for your taste?

I just want to compare notes so we know if we are talking about the same thing. It's like the blind men and the elephant:

blind man 1 holds the tail and says "I've found a paint brush!"
blind man 2 holds the trunk and says "I've found a boa constrictor!"
blind man 3 holds the leg and says "I've found a tree!"