Comments on: A Few Notes on Buying Pu-Erh

By: Cinnabar

Cinnabar — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:21:32 +0000

Tyler – Yes, it looks like that’s a pretty good price for a green pu-erh of that age. Of course it’s impossible to really assess quality and taste reading about the tea online, but Mighty Leaf is a good, trustworthy company.

By: tyler

tyler — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:22:57 +0000

is a good price for the year of this pu’erh

http://www.mightyleaf.com/loose-tea_pu-erh-tea/green-menghai-beecha-pu-erh-tea/

By: Cinnabar

Cinnabar — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:13:36 +0000

Stephen – Rishi’s Ancient Tree Pu-erh Palace loose leaf would be a really good one to brew gongfu style. This particular pu-erh is one I’m working on a review of. It’s surprisingly good for a tea at that price point.

Black Dragon – Thanks for the sheng/shou definitions. You saved me some time writing them up myself!

Georgia – It’s kind of funny because it seems like the people who would care about pu-erh would also have more of an understanding of the non-trendiness of it in the long run.

By: Georgia (Notes on Tea)

Georgia (Notes on Tea) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:29:01 +0000

I read the Times article, too.

“I just don’t think that they have a very good sense of the historical continuity of the tea industry in China” – great point.

By: tyler

tyler — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 23:21:20 +0000

thank you for theexplanation

By: Black Dragon

Black Dragon — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:36:33 +0000

Hi GFG… Thanks for another cool post. It is full of good advice.

Hi Tyler. I copied the following from a puer post I did a few months ago:
Raw, aka Green, aka Sheng, aka 生, aka Green puer is prepared from sun dried green tea leaves and are primarily hand made. The leaves our sometimes sourced from organic or wild grown tea bushes. Old trees, which can be over 100 years old, are sometimes used to make very fine teas. After the leaves are processed and sorted they will be compressed into cakes, bricks or other shapes by heavy concrete molds. Raw puer gets darker, richer and smoother if aged slowly in dry stable conditions. When a raw puer is approximately 1 to 5 years old it will probably still taste like a fresh herbaceous green tea with varying degrees of sweetness, smokiness, and complexity. At this point many puer tea professionals do not drink the tea for pleasure. Instead they drink it only to evaluate its aging potential.

Ripe, aka Cooked, aka Shou, aka 熟, aka Black puer can be purchased loose leaf, or compressed into cakes and bricks. Ripe puer differs from raw tea because it has a pile fermentation step included in its manufacture. This is a carefully controlled process that results in a dark and earthy brew. Young ripe puer (1 to 5 years old) are often not very smooth and may still have a harsh odor left over from that pile fermentation step in their production. Loose leaf ripe puer tends to taste fuller and smoother sooner, because it has more leaf surface exposed to air. Compressed teas, on the other hand, will mellow slower, depending on how tightly they were compressed and how thick they are.

By: tyler

tyler — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 08:50:24 +0000

what is the difference between cooked and uncooked?

By: zenchas

zenchas — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:54:38 +0000

..like you were reading my mind! Since i´ve almost only tried japanese greens, i thought it was about time to put an eye on china. Therefor i purchased a wooden teaboat, a Yi-xing pot, and a gaiwan. Quite some stuff you need for preparing chinese teas. I had a look on the “Hou de” webshop before, but since i´m new to pu-erh i didn´t excactly now what to buy. any suggestions, hints, dos and don´ts?

Keep it up,

Stephen

By: tyler

tyler — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:56:04 +0000

thank you very much