Aging black puer?

Just to clarify a bit,

When I talked about a black puerh "deteriorating" I was actually referring to deterioration that occurs when any puerh is "over" oxidized. There is a point where further oxidation actually begins to break down the organic matter and results in decay. Even with green puerh some collectors will discourage further oxidation after 30 years or so by wrapping the tea in cellophane because the tea will start to loose aroma and other subtleties.

Black puerh is oxidized to varying extents during the processing stage. Not all black puerh is oxidized to its fullest extent and therefore some may benefit from aging, but the benefit will be slight. I have some cakes that clearly marked as "Shu" that are only about 40% oxidized and taste rather green and brew to a golden liquor. These probably would improve over time somewhat. However I also have some that are about 80% oxidized or more. They brew up to a dark red almost black liquor. These are the ones that could actually deteriorate if encouraged to oxidize too many years.

I must admit that whenever I have bought older vinatages it has always been green not black, although I have tasted a few old blacks. The older naturally oxidized greens just seem to have so much more depth than an black of equal age so I never invested in an old black.

Mike Petro snipped-for-privacy@pu-erh.net

The main purpose of aging a pu-erh tea is to give it time for a slow oxidationby air.

When a tea is highly oxidised already, there will be no requirement for further oxidising it.

when airing pu-erh black teas for long periods of time, this will prompt further oxidation which isnt really necessary else the factory would have oxidised the tea maximally in the first place.

its the easiest for black pu-erh teas to go bad or mouldy due to the high levels of oxidation and the large degree to which leaf components break down.

a lot of black pu-erh teas have very strong "shui3 xing4" (water character) after a period of aging in air, this results in degradation in quality as such a character in pu-erh tea is undesired. (shui xing, water character refers to the taste caused by presence of water, i.e when a tea cake is kept in a very humid environment, it oxidises very quickly, and goes mouldy, and this tea cake will have a wet mouldy taste, we call the tea having a very strong Shui Xing, and the taste is overly earthy)

Airing black pu-erhs for a span of a month or two in perfectly dry air will aid in removing all unwanted mouldy odours etc and turn the scent a little sweetish.

i never liked airing black pu-erhs, neither was i really taught to age them by experienced tea shop owners who showed me the differences in aged black tea, one that is not excessively aired, which tasted bold, woody and profound, whilst the other sample being aired frequently, tasted less woody, a lot more earthy and a less complex aroma.

its all a just of matter of preference for taste.

note that aging can occur in different ways, aging in a confined place or aging while airing it. even for green pu-erhs over thirty years, they should be sealed in plastic and should minimally be exposed to air, so as to prevent loss of the desired tastes and scents in pu-erh. the process for keeping it for many years is AGING, whilst airing is for oxidation whilst aging is another issue.

my apologies for not making the distinction between aging and airing while aging clear. do not confuse these two terms. its perfectly to age black pu-erh if desired, this causes some minute unclassified changes in the tea, but its not really good to age black pu-erh in an airy environment.