Hand Leg Pu-erh aka Tampered Pu-erh

[auhckw]

'Hand Leg Pu-erh' is direct translation from chinese which means 'Tampered Pu-erh'

My friend got this Ripe Tampered Pu-erh from a tea seller. According to the tea seller, someone from China gave this sample to him asking him to taste and if good to sell. This is actually young ripe, but tampered to look and taste at least 5 to 7 years old. For 250g, cost price is about USD2 and suggested selling price is about USD10.

The tea seller didn't give the wrapping for the puerh, so I couldn't post the cover. Here are some photos.







From an inexperienced me, the material and colour of the tea looks fine. Aroma is not that strong but flavor is quite similar to my other 5 years old CNNP ripe. Smoothness and thickness is quite good compared to my 5 years CNNP.

If one is not careful, and if wasn't informed. I think can be easily cheated by this.

[MarshalN]

Why buy cooked pu? There are so many problems with cooked pu, it's not even funny.

[debunix]

Why buy cooked pu?

Some of it can be delicious!

[Mr. Usaji]

What does "tampered" tea mean? Since I'm a pu'er novice, I'm not really sure what's supposed to happen to cooked pu'er when it ages, so how is a 5-7 year old tea different from a new one anyway?

And I would like to know what's so wrong with cooked pu'er. I'm aware that it's basically composted, which could make it seem a little gross, but it doesn't have harmful bacteria or anything. And it tastes good.

[MarshalN]

Raw is just better, all around. I'd drink black tea before drinking cooked pu.

[Mr. Usaji]

Oh, you just mean the taste. I like the taste, but maybe if I were more experienced I wouldn't like it anymore. (I've never tried any aged sheng, so maybe that's part of it.)

I'd also drink black tea before cooked pu, but I like black tea.

[puerhking]

Why buy cooked pu? There are so many problems with cooked pu, it's not even funny.

Okay....what horrific things don't I know about cooked pu.

[shogun89]

I have had some amazing aged ripe puerh that beats alot of shengs I have had. So to say that all ripe puerh is bad is just flat out wrong.

[TwoPynts]

I guess there can be all kinds of shu, from "fast food" cooked, to "fine restaurant" cooked. I've enjoyed the cooked samples I've had so far.

[MarshalN]

Well, obviously there will be terrible sheng that are worse than shu, but if you choose right, there's never any real reason to drink shu.

Also, I tend to stay away from any small factory shu. Dangerous things.

[Chip]

This is interesting ... maybe someone could start a new topic titled about the dangers of some shu ...

[TwoPynts]

I'd be curious to learn some more details of these dangers. I just got over learning about the dangers of drinking sheng too young!

[nicolas]

FUNGAL COLONIZATION OF PU-ERH TEA IN YUNNAN
ZHAO, Z., TONG, H., ZHOU, L., WANG, E. and LIU, Q. , Journal of Food Safety, no. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-4565.2010.00240.x
Article first published online: 28 JUN 2010

Abstract:
Pu-erh tea is a popular beverage in Southeast Asia, especially in many areas of China. Natural fungal inoculation and fermentation form its special quality and function in health care. At the same time, a common assumption is that unknown fungi from natural inoculation may pose a risk for safety of drinking the beverage, leading to an urgent need for a thorough fungal survey of Pu-erh tea. The present paper reports the natural fungal colonizations isolated from 60 representative samples. The results of the survey showed that the fungal colonizations were isolated from all the samples studied, ranging from 1.6 × 103 to 1.16 × 105 cfu/g, and 62 isolates were identified to belong to 41 species of 19 genera, including 13 species of Aspergillus and seven species of Penicillium, and 21 species of other genera. The predominant fungi were yeasts and different species of the genus Aspergillus. The concrete species of the dominant fungi varied with environment conditions of various production places. Sample parameters such as water content, AW, pH, polyphenol content were recorded, though they appeared to have no obvious effects on the total number of fungi, whereas processing and storage methods evidently affected total number of fungi. Some species of fungi such as Aspergillus fumigatus, Penicillium spp., Trichoderma spp. and Fusarium culmorum, etc., which maybe excrete toxic metabolites, were isolated in the survey. Further evaluation on the safety of these fungi isolated from Pu-erh tea products is needed.

Source:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... DED.d01t02

See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspergillus_fumigatus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillium_chrysogenum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichoderma
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusarium_culmorum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_coli

[TwoPynts]

Thanks Nicolas.

[MarshalN]

The article is an interesting read. It's curious to me how loose cooked pu is the worst, although not too surprising.