tony shlongini wrote:I love the wine analogies, but it's important to point out where the relationships are non linear.
Wine is so extraordinarilly expensive compared to tea that you can't simply sit back and say, "I don't know. Maybe it's me, but I'm just not getting it. I'll have to pop another $40 bottle tomorrow and give it another go." With wine, you have to decide rather quickly, sometimes with a mere taste, if it's worthy of laying down for the long haul. Professional wine tasters such as Parker make pronouncements with far reaching implications (a review can make or break a producer's bottom line) without even swallowing a sip. As long as you have a well stored (ie: not ruined) bottle and a clean glass, the presentation should be duplicateable, and subject only to the not unimportant peripheral variables- setting, company, state of health, time of day, etc.
With tea, it's harder to replicate what's in the cup. How many times have you brewed a perfect cup, only to have trouble duplicating the experience the next time? I've seen some very experienced folks change their opinion of a tea. Sometimes it falls into disfavor; other times you may finally get a handle on it and come to appreciate its charm. Tea simply will not consistently show itself the way a poured glass of wine will. It's always a matter of this needs a bit more leaf, or that was brewed a few seconds too long, or perhaps the temperature was a few degrees too high. Even after you learn how to get the most out of specific tea, there's another matter- our own tastes change. You may champion the virtues of a sheng early in your tasting career, then catch yourself saying "What the hell was I thinking?" later on. A sample may provide enough material to yield sufficient representative sessions to allow for an informed opinion, but I don't think 25g is enough to reveal everything there is to know.
Moreover, unlike wine, tea is something that we drink a lot of. I mean lots, and every day. This requires that we have a sizeable supply on hand. I'm sure that every person here, myself included, has purchased a cake that they regret buying, but by and large most of the items newbies will consider have already been preselected by the knowledgeable folks on this site. If you buy a cake of a classic recipe, it may not exactly suit the newbie's nascent palate, but it's not going to be a bad tea. With 365 tea drinking days in a year, you're going to soon have to face the fact that you'll need a goodly number of bings to keep you going. At roughly 30-70 sessions per bing on the Hobbes-Benny* scale, it's the only way to ensure a steady supply, and you can only get by on samples for so long. Once a newbie has familiarized himself with the standard fare, then it's a good idea to try samples of pricey, exotic offerings before committing.
*Tough guy Hobbes, using plenty 'o leaf, only gets ~30 sessions per bing, while notorious cheapskate Jack Benny, utilizing a puny 5g per, dust and all, claims upwards of 70 sessions.
I can see your point. However, I still believe there is a flaw in your logic. I think you are approaching pu-erh like any other tea. The appreciation of young sheng is entirely different as a consequence of its intended purpose, that is, that is is meant to be stored for later consumption. Granted, young sheng can be evaluated for its aromas and taste and perhaps even enjoyed, but the true measure of a young sheng is its durability and qi. For instance, many in Taiwan do not even consider the what nuances in terms of the aromas and taste that a sheng has to offer. Some actually "stress" the tea in order to evaluate how the leaf will react to extreme conditions. Granted, if one is having a bad "tea day", perhaps if it were green or oolong, variances in how it was brewed may affect the overall drinkablitity of the tea . In this respect nuances, aromas, tannins etc may be affected. However, when we are evaluating puerh, nuances, flavors and aromas tend to be secondary. What is important however, is its durability, sensations and qi, none of which can be altered as they are inherent qualities of the leaf itself. This is not to suggests that steeping a young sheng too long will make an insiped brew, of course it will. But from a young sheng appreciation stand point, it should be inconsequential since a potent brew is what want - yet a potent brew that doesn't overly offend the senses. Even an oversteeped brew will say somthing about is durablity and qualities - its color, viscosity, acidity, astrigency etc can all still be evaluated- in fact, this is what the stress test is intended to do. It doesn't take a large number of sessions to determine the strength and durability of a brew. This is my point.
However, as I have already stated, if your intentions are to educate yourself about the nuances found from different mountains then perhaps many infusions is what is in order. But this is different than evaluating the potential aging qualities of young shengpu.
Also, how good/bad is western-style brewing for a pu-erh?
For immediate consumption, buy good shu and maybe 20g packs of good sheng here and there.