First Puerh experience

1 hour!?! i just had some puerh for the first time yesterday, and i let it about 5 minutes and it was pretty pungent. i think if i had let it sit 1hour i would have choked on it...but, i'll me try it later... ill reply if im still alive :)

---> HOW HOT was the water?

Jimmie Houch> I let it brew in the thermos about an hour before I poured my first cup.

Yea, after this they are sending me to Puerh Seminar in the Bahamas.....

Mike Petro

"In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed." Samuel Johnson, 1775, upon finishing his dictionary.

The water had reached a good boil. I turned off the heat, left the kitchen for a few minutes and prepared my thermos.

From everything I've read, its difficult to oversteep Pu-erh. This was with the high grade camel breath ripe puerh at holymtn.com. On the holymtn website it talks about putting in a thermos and brewing overnight. :)

Later this evening I did similar with the green Tibetan mushroom. It was quite a bit milder than the camel breath puerh from earlier. So far I have liked both, but probably prefer the camel breath so far.

Its still early in my experience. But I am encouraged enough to drink and continue my pursuit and learning of puerh. Try some other brands and other vendors.

Maybe there was something about your puerh? Or maybe it just isn't your cup of tea? ;) (couldn't help myself)

Later.

Jimmie

Jimmie, where DID you get this info?

My advice is to read through Mike's website on pu'er before attempting your next brew...

Danny

I drink my puerh off the top ie in the tea cup. There are some oolongs and greens I drink the same way. It might take 10 minutes to finish it off. The first sip taste like the last. I think the best part of cooked puerh are the last few sips. I might hit the cup two or three times. I've noted in the past especially drinking the cook there seems to be some infusion delimiter. If I was going to throw an all day tea into a thermos puerh would be at the top of the list.

Jim

samarkand wrote:

This is only true of cooked (ripe, as you call it) pu-erh. If you have any green stuff, I would advise you not to do the same thing. Young raw pu-ehr is much closer to green tea than to cooked pu-erh in terms of flavor and effective preparation. It will get bitter fairly quickly if you oversteep it.

Speaking from my brief experience with pu-erh, I recomend using a gaiwan if you have one. I usually brew it without the lid, like a green tea. Somehow this makes it better.

Nico

it steeped for 1 hour came out same taste a bit stronger but no bitterness well the puerh i got tastes a bit like tree bark or something around there and has a little bit of a minty fresh aftertaste or maybe its just me... ...my wife said it smells like animal pee so she didnt want any .

If the first tastes like the last, why are the last few sips the best part?

Blues

Because you don't have to choke down any more.

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Actually, Pu'erh can be VERY tricky to prepare, but doesn't have to be. Since it changes during its sometimes decades long storage life, it needs different treatments for younger and older versions. A young Pu'erh can be VERY harsh and unpleasant oversteeped at overhigh temperatures. 175F is a good start, and a quickish dip in the water is a good way to get your bearings with any given Pu'erh. Pu'erhs like a presoak of a half minute to clean them up. Throw away the presoak water. My recommendations are start points; you will want to adjust steep time and temperature upwards most likely as you get comfortable with the tea.

A good place to start might be the "silver needles" style Pu'erh, which uses buds only, and which is much more forgiving. The advice you were given might refer to this style of Pu'erh, in which case it would almost be true. I have also heard this said of cooked Pu'erhs, but personally find them to get boring and overstrong steeped too long.

A Pu'erh steeped for half an hour in truly hot water would be a foul brew indeed in my ever so humble opinion. I second Danny's suggestion that you explore Mike's extensive, well organized, and informational site.

Michael

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Silver,

Would you please let us know exactly what this Pu'erh was, how old it was, and any other information regarding it you can give us. I'm intreagued by your "minty fresh aftertaste' reference, which would be a quality of an older green Pu'erh of good breeding. The animal pee thing is definitely an acquired taste.

Michael

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Hey, welcome aboard the good ship RosettaSlur. Where've you been? So, am I to assume that Pu'erh isn't your favorite brew? How about a nice Pu'erh made of Sencha leaf? Hey, anything that sells.

Best, Michael Choking down some silver needles Pu'erh from Tea Gallery in NYC. Very nice.

Someone will have to try harder than that to catch me in a faux pax. Let me explain it another way. If you drink tea off the top in a cup then most of them will make you wish you hadn't drank the last few zips. The fact you can with cooked puerh and it doesn't taste really any different than the first is the enjoyable part. Those last few drops where the leaf touches the lip while using your incisors as a strainer will probably make you wish you had added water sooner. If nothing else for Yunnan teas they do come from one of the oldest areas tea producing areas in the world natural or cultivated. Wuyi rock teas from outcrops aren't probably far behind growing in the wild along with some bushes. So if you choke you can blame it on intelligent design.

Jim

crymad wrote:

Been here, never left. Correct, Puerh is not my favorite. And so that leaves me hacking through endless posts about the stuff all to no avail, like a man hopelessly chipping away at a Puerh cake with a spork.

--crymad

So what do you like then? I have grown to really like Japanese greens over the last year or so. Naturally Shincha in all it's variations is the best. Makes for an excellant weekend morning cup. I bought a bunch of Shincha back in June and sealed it into nitrogen flushed 10g packages

My favorite vendor is in Japan and he speaks enough broken English to communicate and he does take plastic. His prices are pretty decent considering the quality.

Mike

Try a *metal* spork.

/Lew

As I remember, Mike, when opined that your increasing interest in Japanese greens was a kind of balance to your longtime fascination with teas at the other end of the fresh/aged spectrum (Puerhs), you said I had a point. I'd love it[1] if Crymad would make a similar (opposite) move, but when I sent him some Dai bamboo sheng Puerh from Silk Road a while ago he hated it.

/Lew

Yes, I never consciously sought the other end of the spectrum but analysis after the fact does indeed back up the theory as I am now deeply devoted to both genres. Ok, so if we have Japanese greens on one end of the spectrum, and Puerh on the other end, where do the other teas fall?

Mike Petro

"In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed." Samuel Johnson, 1775, upon finishing his dictionary.

"False peace"?

-Or grown a moustache. Apologies to those who can't.

-DM