Hi Mike,
As they would say in the movie, "I'm in."! :")
Hi Alex, you mentioned that your pu'er has the smell of earth? Questoin: Is it wet earth, like the smell that lingers in the air after a heavy rain, or the warm musky earthy smell? A good cooked pu'er should sometimes take on the smell of dry old books, like the smell you get when you walk into a well ventilated old bookstore, or library. If it is the former, then the the tea was probably poorly stored (or even wet stored), if it the latter, you'll probably not used to pu'er yet! :")
There may be one way to rectify the wet earth smell: break up the pu'er, and put them in an open container, and cover the mouth with a strong kitchen paper towel, and tie the mouth. Put it in an airy dry place for a month and check at the end of the period for smell. If it is still moldy, keep it for another month or so.
The next step is optional, but I do it constantly: I have a small cast-iron frying pan which I use for Pu'er only. When I want to brew a funky smelling pu'er, I do the above, and when I'm about the brew it, I heat up the pan till hot to touch, remove it from the stove, take the amount of tea required, and sort of 'pan-fry' the pu'er for a brief 1-3 minutes. Then I brew it. It yields up a very different tasting cup...
Hi Michael, if your 1972 pu'er is a cooked one, then chances are you've been smoked. Cooked pu'ers didn't appear till late 1973, from the menghai tea factory...