Young sheng pu'er: why do you drink it?

[mr575]

Hello,

As a newcomer to pu'er, I'm interested in the reasons people drink young shengs. Do you enjoy the tea for what it is at this moment? Or are you sampling and evaluating the tea for its potential to age? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[Zacherywolf7]

I drink it because I think it tastes great. It's in a whole other game of taste compared to aged puerh, not better necessarily but the flavors are so different. So I drink both and think both have their merits.

[Puerlife]

I have two years of pu drinking experience now, which means I've just scratched the surface compared to some members here, but what's obvious to me is that if you have, say, 150 bucks to spend on one cake and want to drink it now, a ten to fifteen-year-old pu will give much more enjoyment than a cake of new sheng. I'm not sure if these semi-aged cakes are underpriced or new gushu is overpriced, but I doubt this situation will last.
But variety is the spice of life and sampling a cake as it ages is interesting, too, albeit nerve wracking at times until you figure out what works in your climate.

[Tead Off]

Hello,

As a newcomer to pu'er, I'm interested in the reasons people drink young shengs. Do you enjoy the tea for what it is at this moment? Or are you sampling and evaluating the tea for its potential to age? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

There is nothing wrong with drinking young shengcha, but most tea enthusiasts will have their eye on the future of a particular cake so evaluating the tea for its aging potential is there. You can always sample as it ages and this probably gives the best education about the aging and storage process.

I think the view that Puerlife gives for spending $150 on an older cake will give much better immediate return of enjoyment providing the cake is a good one to begin with. There are plenty of 10-15 year old cakes I wouldn't spend any money for, so it really boils down to your own understanding and experience of what you want. Newer drinkers have less experience and aren't in a position to make 'knowledgeable' decisions. Puerh takes years of experience to gain a foot-hold into it.

[AT333]

In the past young sheng cannot be drunk because they are too harsh. Most people drank old sheng. Then they came up with shou to replace old sheng. Now they come up with dainty young sheng. The trends are fluctuating all the time. Now we are lucky to enjoy young sheng, old sheng, young shou and old shou. We are spoilt for choices.

I enjoyed young sheng for its vibrant aroma and flavour, as an exotic oolong, I supposed.

[Puerlife]

There are plenty of 10-15 year old cakes I wouldn't spend any money for, so it really boils down to your own understanding and experience of what you want. Newer drinkers have less experience and aren't in a position to make 'knowledgeable' decisions. Puerh takes years of experience to gain a foot-hold into it.

Yup +1 I still need training wheels - a Westerner-friendly English-speaking vendor who knows his stuff and sells samples and cakes online at reasonable prices.

In the past young sheng cannot be drunk because they are too harsh. Most people drank old sheng.

Except in the Yiwu area where the local producers used to only drink it young and threw it away when it got to be a couple years old. That to me was the most fascinating part of Jinghong Zhang's book, her account of Taiwanese puer collectors going to Yiwu in the 90s and presenting the producers with fully aged puer and saying this is what we want. The main theme of her book is that there are as many different ways to drink puer as there are definitions of what it is. So, learn from the many masters on this site and gradually find your own way.

[bellmont]

I drink it because I think it tastes great. It's in a whole other game of taste compared to aged puerh, not better necessarily but the flavors are so different. So I drink both and think both have their merits.

+1,

I drink sheng when I want to mix it up, right now it's not an impossible drink for me nor is it something I turn to on the daily. I suppose if I was into greener oolongs or Japanese greens I would not turn to sheng as often. My daily drinking currently is almost all shou pu-erh and that can be too 'warming' for some days, so a more 'cooling' sheng cha might be needed.

Like others, I struggle spending $150 dollars on pu-erh that is semi-aged. My thought is that I can get higher leaf quality from some new school (western-facing) vendors... for instance my guess is that 150 dollar sheng cake from Tea Urchin, example: http://teaurchin.com/shop-for-tea/puer/ ... pring.html has higher quality leaf than the 150 dollar aged sheng cake from White2tea, example: http://www.white2tea.com/tea-shop/1990s ... -raw-puer/

So, if one's in it for the aging game a more cost effective cake might be the Nahan (though, Nahan as a region might be over-priced...but let's not get into that right now).

I am still on the fence about aging though. And I have little experience with aged sheng, so if given the choice (spending my own hard earned cash) I would sample the HK style first, for tuition/learning purposes.

[entropyembrace]

Hello,

As a newcomer to pu'er, I'm interested in the reasons people drink young shengs. Do you enjoy the tea for what it is at this moment? Or are you sampling and evaluating the tea for its potential to age? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

I drink young sheng because i like how it tastes now, and that includes powerful bitter teas that some people consider undrinkable

puerh is really getting easier to access in the west now with more and more westerners moving to China and setting up tea export businesses focused on quality. I think best thing to do starting out is buy a lot of samples from different vendors and figure out what you like.

[Puerlife]

I drink it because I think it tastes great. It's in a whole other game of taste compared to aged puerh, not better necessarily but the flavors are so different. So I drink both and think both have their merits.

+1,

I drink sheng when I want to mix it up, right now it's not an impossible drink for me nor is it something I turn to on the daily. I suppose if I was into greener oolongs or Japanese greens I would not turn to sheng as often. My daily drinking currently is almost all shou pu-erh and that can be too 'warming' for some days, so a more 'cooling' sheng cha might be needed.

Like others, I struggle spending $150 dollars on pu-erh that is semi-aged. My thought is that I can get higher leaf quality from some new school (western-facing) vendors... for instance my guess is that 150 dollar sheng cake from Tea Urchin, example: http://teaurchin.com/shop-for-tea/puer/ ... pring.html has higher quality leaf than the 150 dollar aged sheng cake from White2tea, example: http://www.white2tea.com/tea-shop/1990s ... -raw-puer/

So, if one's in it for the aging game a more cost effective cake might be the Nahan (though, Nahan as a region might be over-priced...but let's not get into that right now).

I am still on the fence about aging though. And I have little experience with aged sheng, so if given the choice (spending my own hard earned cash) I would sample the HK style first, for tuition/learning purposes.

I like White2tea's 7532 tiepai more than the one you linked to even though it costs less. And the 2002 Little Yellow Mark, which recently jumped up to 179 bucks, is superior to them both.

[honza]

"New" puer tea products are more easy for drink now. And number of them is oolongpu, hongchapu or just too close green tea and will change after few years very horrible,,, If you meet with teas which are made for long storage like new cakes from Mr. Shi Kun Mu or any master products made by old tea sellers , you will for sure dont want them drink NOW and you will know is really tea for future. They are too powerfull and too strong. Like high quality famous puer in past.

New tea drinkers and new market of puer can not offer many old teas with reasonable price so teach and push new drinkers drink and enjoy new puer tea. But if you can have choice for new and old and not need carre about the price, you will take the old one for sure.
Here is nice post from MarshalN about new teas http://www.marshaln.com/2014/09/dont-drink-shincha/ is more about green tea but new puer tea is just "sun dried green tea" and drink it a lot can make number of troubles for your body.

There is many reasons why tea drinkers are pushed by sellers to drink and enjoy new puer teas but just be carefull.
New tea you can just try and buy for future drinking and better is enjoy fine semi-aged or really old puer tea.

Is just my opinion and of course not must agree with me

[entropyembrace]

"New" puer tea products are more easy for drink now. And number of them is oolongpu, hongchapu or just too close green tea and will change after few years very horrible,,, If you meet with teas which are made for long storage like new cakes from Mr. Shi Kun Mu or any master products made by old tea sellers , you will for sure dont want them drink NOW and you will know is really tea for future. They are too powerfull and too strong. Like high quality famous puer in past.

Not everyones tolerance for bitterness is the same, some people like to eat things like very dark chocolate (90-100%) orange pith, bitter lemon, tonic water, unaged traditional sheng pu ect...

I will write more about the health effects later but consuming bitter foods is not nessecarily bad for you, and the bitter compounds in tea have been strongly linked to health benefits.

[honza]

But old tea can be bitter too

Bitter food like here in Yunnan some extremly bitter bamboo or some vegetables like ku gu - bitter mellon, have long history and number of good reassons why eat it.

You can see what tea farmers and minority people drink - huang pian, yellow leaves, from old trees. No bitter, very sweet , without power . I guess they know what is good if they make puer for so many generations. In their food you can find really extremly bitter vegetables, wild vegetables , and the bamboo , which normal people cant eat (I love it ) . But in fresh puer is not only bitter - so many "new" tea is nearly not bitter... The reasson why not drink them is I feel different

EDIT : my first post is specialy wrote for new tea drinkers. If you drink new and fresh puer tea long time - means like 10 years (honestyl I know only tea sellers who do it and they do it becuase is their - our - work) and still enjoy it, is okay and you must be Iron man with iron stomach

But sadly I know many people and friends who get serious troubles with stomach etc. because they drank too many new sheng puer.

[bellmont]

I like White2tea's 7532 tiepai more than the one you linked to even though it costs less. And the 2002 Little Yellow Mark, which recently jumped up to 179 bucks, is superior to them both.

More the reason to sample wide. My earlier example was not a hard and fast recommendation (to go get those specific cakes) by any means. I was illustrating, using a 150 dollar price point, of what I think about when it comes to new school pu-erh vendors and aged sheng.

[bellmont]

I also drink young sheng because I find it easier to learn about what a specific region tastes like. Aged stuff there's less of a focus on what specifc mountain or sub-regions (the materiel is from) because it usually is a blend from a factory (or white label/tiepai trying to copy a factory blend).


In the case of Yunnan Sourcing, there are plenty cheaper samples to try from all of the main pu-erh growing regions. Most of these are sheng... This is also why I am drinking sheng right now (to get educated and because I grabbed a ton of samples from YS).

[Greenteaguru]

I think it's down to taste. I much prefer and get more excited over new Sheng (sub 5 years) for the taste but I do still admire and reach for older Sheng time to time. Maybe it's a cultural thing? I was in Hong Kong chatting to some vendors, one mentioned that he only comes across mainland Chinese and westerners who prefer new Sheng. Hong Kongers generally prefer to stick with aged because that's what they have drunk for so long.