Hello again all. I know Mike Petro has said he enjoys the Dai Nationality Bamboo Puerh. I've had a kind of bamboo tea before, and liked it a lot. So, Mike, or, for that matter, could anyone point me in the direction of this tea. I've seen a couple of selections online, but I'd like to get one that someone has tried and could recomend.
Actually my experience with Dai Nationality Bamboo Tea was very contrasting. I bought this tea twice from David Hoffman (Silk Road) and first time it was fabulous. Two months later I bough quite a chunk of it (2 kilos I think) and it was nothing like the first one. The first one I would recommend to anyone, the second sits in my puer teabox almost untouched.
Sasha.
Alex ChaihorskygFcte.486$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com6/19/05
07: snipped-for-privacy@nowhere.com
Which leads me to a question. Received wisdom is to open up your wrapped pu'erh and expose it to air, still in its paper wrap presumably. Would leaving the Pu'erh in its shrink wrap or metal casing harm it per se, or merely severely retard the aging process?
Mike and others?
Michael
What bamboo tea are we talking about? The one in the tubes roasted over a fire to absorb the flavor of the bamboo or the smoked tuocha that comes in a dried bamboo shell for storage or the pu that comes wrapped by green bamboo leaf which dries out giving it's flavor?
Jim
Michael Plant wrote:
Hi Nico,
Which kind of Bamboo did you try that you liked, can you describe it? There are about 6-8 distinctly different types that I am aware of. Was it cooked or raw? Was it formed into tablets, wrapped in paper, then placed in a Bamboo case? Was it formed into tablets, wrapped in paper, then wrapped in bamboo leaves? Was it simply compressed into a bamboo cane? Or was it just a long pipe shaped stick of tea? Describe it and I might be able to steer you in the right direction.
Mike
Keeping it sealed wont harm it, unless you seal in too much moisture, but it will retard the maturing process if it is an airtight container. Also, depending on the shrink wrap, I have seen many bingcha lately shrink wrapped in a perforated type of shrink wrap that would still age perfectly fine.
One of the main "long term" storage objectives is too ensure that air can get to the tea, if you are going to consume it within the next few months then it doesn't really matter. It is recommended to occasionally pull out your stock and rotate it in it's storage unit. This serves two purposes, it guarantees periodic exposure to fresh air, and it helps equalize the amount of air exposure that each cake gets. For example cakes on the top or bottom of a stack will get more exposure to air than cakes in the middle. When collectors break open an old "Qizi" (tong) they often place a higher value on the top and bottom cake within that Qizi, the reason being that these two cakes had more exposure to air.
The only time it is recommended to "seal" a puerh against air exposure is in the case of a tea that has already matured sufficiently, say 30-40 years or so. It is possible to mature a tea too much at which point the tea will be extremely smooth but will start to loose flavor and aroma, alas that is a problem I think very few Westerners will ever have.
Mike
This leads me to another issue. The bamboo encased tea I last tasted had a distinct "flowered" aroma and taste which might have been a heavy dose of the bamboo transfer here described and discussed. (See previous posts in this thread for details.) Perhaps the taste and aroma of the bamboo was so heavy that I missed that that was what it was. Any thoughts?
Michael
Thanks for the information, Mike. To your last comment, I can only say, It's all about the qi.
Michael
Ahhh, the "Qi" is a concept that I only get fleeting glimpses of. It seems that Qi is very difficult for a Westerner to fully grasp, or at least for me anyway. I find myself struggling to tell the difference between Qi and a caffeine buzz. Mike Petro
My bamboo tubes have a commercial wrapper with lots of Chinese and the only English "Fragrant Bamboo Tube Tea". I don't think the bamboo fragance overwhelming perse. It's just another scented tea which I think works well with the poo. When it is gone I'll use it for storage of other teas. I'm on a quest to store all my teas in bamboo tubes in a wine rack. I need something the size for 500g. Also for long term storage I need to investigates problems with wood worms and the likes.
Jim
Michael Plant wrote:
Hi Mike, The tea I described was actually one from Northern Laos, and thus not really a puehr as such. I was a pipe shaped stick of tea wrapped in thin stips of bamboo. The tea was a grean tea, which, I believe, had been roasted in a wok over a bamboo fire. I got it from Marriage Freres in Paris about two years ago. Interestingly enough, I, like Sasha (or Alex?) also had two sticks, one of which was superb and the other sub par. I'm not necessarilly interested in finding one exactly like that. I was mainly intruiged by the pictures on your homepage a while back. I thought, being that you had tried a good number of puehrs, and you declared this one as one of your favorites, that might be be a good place to start. I've also taken a look at your recomendations, especially the kilo brick on ebay. Have you been drinking this one or letting it sit? Also, would it work to devide a brick or cake, keeping some for storage and the rest for immediate consumption?
Always appreciate the help, Nico
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