Ill effect of pu'er

[paxl13]

Hi TeaChat,

First post here ever, I've been reading you since quite a bit of time. I've always been an amateur of pu'er blended tea. I've drank quite a lot of Blood Orange Pu'erh from DavidsTea in the last year without any ill effect. During the chrismas vacation I decided to try out real pu from bricks. I've got a nice teashop that's specialized in pu so I said why not.

So I get one Sho and one Sheng < okay, now I have 3 of them each but that another topic >. I also got a lil' Yixing teapot to brew it properly and I wanted to confirm what I'm doing wrong or if I'm just too stomach weak to drink pu.

So, basically, what are the effect on the body of pu? I've been feeling kind of bizare since I started drinking it. I've been using ~5-7g in a 180ml Yixing. I was doing a flash rinse and then 30s, 25s, 30s, 40s, 1m... The effect were ranging from weird bowel located abdominal pain to feeling weird after eating lunch ( I usually drink tea in the morning after breakfest ). I can't say I did any acid reflux. I've got this bad feeling that I'm trying to associate stuff that isn't pu' related...

This morning I tried to rinse one Sho I had for 1 min insead of a flash rinse. So far I have no ill effect what so ever ( after 4 cup of 4-5oz ). Could it be possible that I wasn't rinsing the tea enough ? Any tips, I know that young sheng are suposed to be harder on the stomach but young sho and aged sheng shouldn't be a problem.

I hope to be able to pass through this... pu is awesome, I really really like the earthy flavor it has.



TL'DR: What are the side effect do you experience when drinking Sho or Sheng Pu?

[mcrdotcom]

I'm not pu expert, but I've drank a good few at this stage, old and new and I think sometimes pu erh is a bit hard on the stomach and bowels. No idea why. I usually do one 10s rinse instead of a flash, and then I inspect the tea leaves by smell and look, and I also smell and look at the liquor and from that I decide on another 10s wash or not. I also brew them for a shorter time than that, usually starting at about 15s and then adjusting by taste! So perhaps try brewing for a shorter steep time to see if maybe you're drinking it too strong?

I brew pu erh in a gaiwan as my only yixing is for young oolong teas. So take my comments with a pinch of salt in that regard as I don't have yixing experience with them! Was the yixing from a trust worthy vendor? Did you clean/season the pot before the 1st use? Perhaps try a gaiwan or glazed teapot with one of the teas that has effected you to rule out the teapot as a source of issue!

Hopefully you figure it out anyway!

[Catfur]

My usual teapot is around 200ml, and I use from 8-15g. Regardless of the quantity of tea, I typically steep starting with a flash brew, the go up in 5 sec increments to 30, then 1 min, then 2 min, etc.

[paxl13]

I did sterilize the Yixing and it's supposed to be of good quality since it was bought in the same teashop that specialize in pu'. In fact it's the owner that recommended it to me so I hope.

I think my problem could be the fact that I was overbrewing it. I'm on my cup 5 of this morning < after the rinse of 1 min > starting @ 10s of brew time and so far I'm okay, my throat feel a bit dry / stuffy which I think is due to the astringency of the tea more than anything else. I did something like 10s, 5s, 10s, 25s, 35s, 1min < oupps not cup 5, cup 6 > I did use a lil' bit less of leaves too...

I'd drink pu' all day round but for now I'll stick to those 6 infusion probably. Thanks a lot and please anyone else chime in with their experience!

[paxl13]

Lunch did go well, I still have this bit of a pain on my lower left abdominal. I think it was there before starting to drink the tea this morning but can't make sure. I'll try to go on a tea diet for a couple of days to see if this is still there and not tea related.

All this is weird, I never had this with the blood orange pu'er from davidstea. I'm having this feeling there is something else wrong with me

Thanks to all!

[miig]

Hi,
i'm glad you and Pu are making progress in your relationship We're doing the same thing here.
My first experience with Sheng was that i felt quite drowsy and got extremely hungry... now, half a year later, I only get hungry
And yesterday I tried really wet-stored Sheng and at first, I almost vomited and felt really sick, even though I had washed it twice. The aroma is really quite extreme if you haven't had something like this before! But it went away quickly and I had a long session afterwards.
So Pu really can be a litte rough in the beginnings, thats happening to other people as well Enjoy!

[paxl13]

That render me happy that I'm not the only one having effect from that tea. But yeah, long rinse or 2 rinse seem to be in order in my case.

Another question: Can I keep my leaves overnight for a next session the next morning or I should not do that. If so, can I leave them in my Yixing or I have to store them somewhere ?

Still a bit of pain lingering in my lower left abdominal region.. dunno from what this is coming.

[Emmett]

If you have pain after drinking a certain tea, dont drink it! Look for better quality if you really like the flavors of puerh. Sample the teas before just drinking what your local shop says is good. I have had more than a few bad ones and you just toss them out.

[miig]

Oh my... no I wouldn't drink that tea anymore... i mean i felt sick very quickly because this wet guys are really extreme.. but it went away very quickly and i have been feeling perfect ever since.

But if you really got pain from it - throw it away man.. its always possible that something went wrong in the production and this is a serious warning sign... i mean it happened to me that i was eating something and then saw that it was moldy already, and I didn't feel sick even from that. So if you get serious pain from it, its not right!!

[paxl13]

It's not serious pain, it's a lil' bit like if my bowel had contracted a lil' bit too much. It might be muscle related tho.. I'm not sure. I'll eliminate all the factor one after the other and we'll see how this evolves.

BTW, thanks guys !

[chrl42]

Many Puerh trees are stimulating, that's normal.

Back then Yunnan huge varieties were not taken seriously in China, they were mostly consumed by ethnic minorities, and those sent to Beijing during Qing (Manchurian royals and nobles) were mostly small varieties similar to green tea trees.

There are hundreds types of tea trees grown in Yunnan, many are not drinkable and stimulating, the trees we drink today are very selected ones out of them...you may think ANY Yunnan leaves after decades will have a camphor aroma..cos they are not. There is a reason why Menghai became famous after all...

[the_economist]

It would be useful to see pictures of the pot and the tea leaves (dry and wet) to see if anything was really off.

[paxl13]

I'll post a pic next time I brew some.

Turns out the lil' bit of pain is still there more than 24h after ending drinking pu'erh, I'm almost sure It's unrelated.

We will see next week!
Cheers
Xavier

[squaretooth]

You can't go wrong if you follow the advice from Catfur. Anytime I brew tea, after the initial rinse, it's water in, water out. I don't weigh tea, though. If it's tightly compressed like most tuo cha, or anything from Xiaguan, I fill the teapot to about 25% of depth with puerh. If compression is medium to loose, then I go to about 1/3 of the depth. My rinse is to slowly and completely fill the teapot, then pour out the tea. I let the tea rest to allow the effect of the water to help the leaves relax a bit. The first blend I fill the pot to the top again with boiling water, then immediately pour, again water in, water out. At that point I get an idea on the strength of the tea. If it's really bitter, I make note of that and next time will use fewer leaves or do a second rinse. It's really easy to overbrew puerh, especially young sheng. So you really need to experiment and get things dialed in. Paying attention to details are going to make your experience much better. And while there are some truly bad puerhs out there, you can minimalize a negative experience by exercising a bit of patience and knowing how your tea responds and adjust accordingly.

[paxl13]

Yep that all make sence...

My problem was that I was overbrewing most of the time. These days I do usually 2 rinse, one short and one a lil' bit longer and then adjust the time of brewing on the first Flash brew. I just ordered a precise scale b/c I want to learn how much grams of tea give a good brew.

I'm really happy to have sticked around pu'erh, It's really a wonderful tea. I'm a big fan of shu pu'erh tho. I have yet to find a good old and young sheng. I'm not a fan so far.

The 3 sheng I have are 2 young and 1 from 1994. I have a lot of problem controlling the astringency and the bitterness to be honnest.

Anyway Cheers to everyone and thanks for your help.