Yes, you are correct, though I prefer the term "fermentation" to oxidation.
Hmmm, interesting concept, in other words can you take old dead tea and compost it into puerh. I have never heard of such a thing. My suspicion is that it would deteriorate rather than ferment if you attempted this.
Mike Petro
Forgive me if this was already said, but believe oxidization and fermentation are two different things. Oxidization is what happens to apples or other fruits, as well as tea leaves, when you leave them exposed to oxygen for a while (I don't know what exact chemical process is involved), while fermentation is any process in which microbials process elements in a substence, such as yeast in beer, or I think, puer, although oxidization also takes place in raw puer as it ages.
This is largely speculation on my part. Any ideas?
Nico
To confuse things, Pu Erh is a county in Yunnan which gave its name to the tea. Oolong does grow there - I've had one sample - and so it could be called Pu Erh oolong in the same way that one could have a still red Champagne.
Even more confusingly, Wikipedia
Rick.
Yes, and Pu'er is also a town as well. However puerh is not grown there. The town was the main trading center for mao-cha years ago and thats how puerh got it's name.
I had no idea there was an oolong from there. Is it made from a large leaf variety? I know little about oolongs other than some of them are quite good.
Hmm, now that "known as Mutual or Oolong" thing is something I have never heard of before. The downside of Wikipedia is that anybody can edit the Wikipedia, even if they arent sure of their facts. On the other hand they could be right??? Does whoever made that statement frequent this group? If so can you please elaborate?
Mike
I'm innocent of that Wikipedia entry, but I just looked at it, and the section with the "Mutual or Oolong" reference has a couple of other odd ideas:
- implying that pu'er is always bingcha;
- calling green pu'er qing rather than sheng.
/Lew
Might be a misprint for a midwestern insurance company.
(Sorry - too much Drum Mountain Clouds & Mist, and now I'm free-associating.)
I've been getting some $2.49/250g Ceylon green tea sold under the name "Alghazaleen" from a Lebanese-owned market. As is, this stuff is drab. But stir-roast it in a dry skillet over med-low heat on top of the stove for about 5 minutes, and it becomes something worth drinking -- not delicate by any means, but the deep toasty greeniness is really good after eating strong-flavored foods.
--crymad
Do you think the improvement is from freshening the tea - teas like this are often badly packed - or did you turn it into Ceylon houjicha?
/Lew
Should probably add, brewed at about 180 for 60 seconds or so.
--crymad
Maybe a little of both, but the pan-roasting is very light, with no color change in the tea at all. Regarding the packaging, it comes in a sealed mylar-type bag inside a box. I believe it might be the Akbar Green Tea sold under a different brand. You can find pics online of the Akbar product line easily.
--crymad
The Alghazaleen label from Akbar Brothers is for middle east distribution. The Akbar label is for other international distribution. They are located in Sri Lanka
Jim
crymad wrote:
snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com10/14/05
14: snipped-for-privacy@xprt.net
I've been taking a very similar approach to some less-than-lively oolongs. Some nice aroma comes back, and a bit more taste too. I've never turned a dead tea into a lively dancing tea. I do the roast thing rather often nowadays, mostly experimental, all with oolongs. I had bought a fancy hand roaster of clay, but it's too much trouble, when I can place a dry wok on the stove and get going in a minute or two.
Michael
Lewis snipped-for-privacy@panix1.panix.com10/14/05 15: snipped-for-privacy@panix.com
Houjicha is stem only, no? Thus he can't turn leaf into houjicha no matter how roasty he tries. Here's a thought: Once upon a time, buttermilk and skim milk were dirt cheap because they were thought of as the by-products of cream and butter &c. Nowadays, at least in NYC, you pay full scalper's rates for the buttermilk, skim milk, milk, cream, and butter. Now, please tell me where I'm going with this. That's right! The houjicha scammaroo.
Michael
Oops forgot I'll be in and out of town for most of this week. The experiment will have to wait. I found some unopened Alghazalean and Alwazah Ceylon green tea from the last century over the weekend. I also came across an open generic Arabic labeled bag of green tea from the same time period. Surprising it still had moderate bitter taste with warmth from throat to stomach without singeing the hairs on the neck. I was surprised because I took no special care in storing this one.
Jim
Space Cowboy wrote: ...I delete me...
snip
I *think* you are thinking of kukicha, which I believe is mostly stems or stalks. Hojicha I believe is mostly leaf, with maybe a little stalk.
Doug Hazen, Jr.dj1f7m$eop$ snipped-for-privacy@pcls4.std.com10/17/05 20: snipped-for-privacy@nowhere.com
Yes, I was wrong. You are right. That's that. My mistake. Michael
Well some of them (like Ito En's) are extremely stemmy...
In fact, this one appears to be entirely stems:
N.
Natarajan snipped-for-privacy@iefbr14.dyndns.org10/18/05
22: snipped-for-privacy@cwru.edu
Only God can redeem me, but Natarajan Krishnaswami has vindicated me. Quite good enough for the moment, and for all I know tantamount to the same thing.. Thanks, N.
Michael
I call it "grace"! Or maybe just pedantry. Who can tell these days?
N., drinking kukicha
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