pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
Today I drank a tea that is just starting to age, the 2007 Classic Mushroom from White2Tea. This was a smooth raw tea. It had lost the bitter edge of a young sheng while not yet having acquired much of the aged flavors of an older tea. It will be interesting to see what this turns into.
Moved on to a shou from my White2Tea order, the 1998 CNNP Zhongcha 421 Shu Tuo. This one had clearly been wet stored. The initial notes were spice and wet wood, definite indications of wet storage. I think all of White2Teas older teas have wet storage taste. At least that is my experience. This one was good but need to air out for six months. The 1998 White Tuo improved I think this one will too.
This is interesting. I tried it on Saturday and I was pleasantly suprised at how clean it tastes and smells. I firmly believe it was dry stored, at least for most of its life.
Another indicator for dry storage would be the distinctive leaves. 17 years of wet storage would have resulted in a much muddier appearance I think – take the white tuo for comparison
Then again, I’m not sure if I have tried that many wet stored shus, I’ve always assumed dry storage is the norm for ripe puer. That’s not to say that there aren’t many wet stored shus out there, but maybe those are more the product of natural storage and convenience.
A puerh tea develops the note of wet wood because of humidity in the storage. This one had some of that note. To my knowledge that is the only way a tea gets that distinctive note of wet wood. This does not mean that there were not periods of dry storage for this tea just that there were periods of humid storage.
I checked the product page, its says that the tuos have been stored in dry storage for the entirety of their lives.
I agree on the wood note and I think it is a common feature of wet stored raw puer, but I also think that it is characteristic of age regardless of storage type. After some time, every puer is bound to have some of it, perhaps wet storage just happens to produce it earlier and makes it more pronounced.
Due to the fermentation process, storage of ripe puer is a difficult topic anyway as you start out with a wet and aged taste already.
2015 Huang Shan Gu Shu sheng from YS. Its actually been the puerh of the weekend as Ive lost count of the amount of times ive resteeped it, must have been over ten times. Really nice fruity sweetness.
I still havent got my head around shu yet – I dont think the flavours are for me, but sheng like this is totally up my street.
Yeah I really like it, I got this and a sample of Yu Guang Bai from the tea club & really enjoyed both.
Interesting, I read that the Moonlight white, when pressed into a cake, can be described as a white and a puerh.
Both totally delicious.
Cool. I haven’t had the other one but own a pair of Huang Shans. One of the few 2015 teas I actually bought and own.
2003 Xinghai “Wild Elephant Valley” Ripe from my YS tea club. Im forcing myself to drink these ripes as Im trying to get used to the flavour.
Its nice, a bit of stonefruit, mellow earth & odd huiguan that im not used to. Some coffee as well?
Ripe is a weird one for me still, as im not really a black forest gateau kinda guy when eating dessert anyway, which is sometimes how they come across to me, but its nice and im enjoying it. Theres hope for me yet :)
Today I drank an excellent ripe from Mandala Tea, the 2013 Yi Wu Ripe. This was good with a moderate amount of fermentation taste. This taste was somewhat unpleasant but I wouldn’t use the word fishy. I lasted about till the fourth steep. this was a sweet tea with notes of chocolate and fruity notes later on. This is one I will see how it ages. It tastes good now. How will it be in ten more years of dry NY storage. There is the thought that when I move next month I could find the space for a second pumidor for ripe tea but I doubt it.
I loved raw and ripe pu-erh. I drank raw pu-erh every night. 2g with gaiwan, it will usually ended with 5++ round with shorter steeping time (less than 5 second each brew). My mother enjoyed the sweet and deep aftertaste. Sometime we can’t sleep after drinking raw pu-erh over-steeped. We both enjoyed the moment together.
Today I drank a semi aged ripe from Yunnan Sourcing, the 2005 Menghai 7592 501 Riper Puerh tea Cake. There were no notes from wet storage here so I believe it was dry stored. Also, there was still some fermentation flavor. It had not totally cleared. There were a variety of sweet notes including chocolate and fruity notes in later steeps. Overall this was one good tea. The price wasn’t too bad for an aged Dayi at $66. Of course I bought it on sale so I didn’t pay $66 for it.
2007 Menghai Silver Dayi sheng. Only just started this session, and its bed time already!.
I am beginning to get confidence in puerh to be able to compare between teas as I’ve had some I like and some I did not like. What has changed is my ability to brew them properly so I can get the right flavours out, and I’m expecting this one to sweeten a bit as the session carries on. The only thing I dont know much about is storage tastes.
It starts off pungent and bitter, with standard stonefruits and a ‘murky’ fermentation flavour, im guessing it has been wet stored?. Although I could be wrong as I dont have the same experience with Pu, as I have with Oolongs.
Looking forward to carrying on with it tomorrow, and seeing where it leads.
Taste mould? Then you’re tasting wet storage. If you taste a musty old library then it’s dry stored. Sometimes they come together.
It’s most likely dry and clean then. You’re probably just tasting the bit of fermentation/maturity in the tea.
I still have a lot of inexperience with the actual brewing of puerh – it will be worth the effort though
Today I drank an excellent tea from White2Tea, the 2006 Gongting Shu. While this was certainly not the most spectacular tea it was a solid performer. There was some fermentation taste to it but no fishy taste. It was sweet with little bitterness. It was good.
My cake of 2015 Green Miracle Ripe had about a month to stabilize, so it was time to see what it was like. There was a strong but clean fermentation taste in the first four steeps, then it tapered off yielding a spicy, woody and sweet profile. This seems to have good potential so I’m putting it back on the “Florida pumiodor” for a few years with high hopes it will become great.
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