Fun tea day (Pu-erh content)

Hi Blues,

I recommend a water just off a boil for and pu, they can handle it. Some friends and I practice something that has been coined "wrong-fu" where we go heavy on the leaf and use flash infusions. This works well with a good aged pu. I don't know which vessel you use for this tea but I use about 1g-1.2g per 20ml of vessel capacity (use a smaller vessel if you don't have much leaf), quick rinse, after the rinse let it stand 1-3 minutes before brewing the first infusion, let the first infusion be a quick one like maybe 5 seconds, then let the taste and your perceptions guide you as to how long to infuse the remaining steeps. I often do flash infusions for the first 5 or 6 steeps before I start lengthening the steep time. 10 or more steeps can usually be had from a good tea using this method.

-- Mike Petro

I enjoyed the sample of hunan that came with an order from Generation also. Mike's wrong-fu method works well here.

I snagged a tong of green bings to hide in the closet. I am getting smarter now and order an extra one loose so I don't have to open the stack.

Something funny...

A lady commented to her tea teacher, "I have brewing aged pu'er every night for my husband, he has high blood pressure you see, and I hope the tea will help."

"Is it effective?" asked the tea teacher.

"Oh, it's too early to tell," the lady replied. "I brew the first & second rounds for him all the time, so that the he can absorb the best properties."

"Huh?! & the other brews?"

"Oh that, I use it as footbath, it is really relaxing, you know."

For those who haven't had the pleasure yet: It's common for the taste of aged Pu'er to improve dramatically starting around the eighth steep or so.

/Lew

Do you need aged feet to brew it that way ?

Kuri

Genau!

:")

I would recommend that you get three cups. For the first two rounds, pour them into 2 cups for each round. Start drinking from the third round, and continue to the 5th.

Increase your steeping time on the GYG on the 6th to about 2 minutes, and in the mean time, while the taste of the 'cleaner' rounds are on your palate, taste the 1st and 2nd rounds. This will tell you how far well or poorly stored the tea is.

Rinse your mouth after that, and enjoy the 6th, till you have exhausted the tea. When the liquor becomes pale and flavour thins out, put a clean pot with 1 cup of water to the boil. Throw in the used the leaves. When the water boils up again, turn off the power, then the water cool off slightly, and enjoy the tea.

Danny

Maybe Crymad can answer this one?

/Lew

What should one be aware when tasting this? What telltale characteristics indicate poor storage? Thanks David L.

Amongst other things, some of the easiest red flags to recognize are "wet laundry", mildew, or mold notes which indicate wet or overly humid storage. Another trick is storage inside of camphor wood boxes to impart a camphor flavor in the tea, if this is the case the camphor notes will dissipate in the first half dozen steeps. True natural camphor flavor will persist through all of the steeps.

-- Mike Petro

Thanks Mike. Hopefully I'll give it a try tonight. That's pretty similar to how I do my young raw pu-erhs, except I use lower temperatures and start with 15-20 second steep times. I'll be using a 4oz Zisha Gaiwan. With the tea leaves and filling it about 3/4 full of water it makes enough tea to fill my 2oz Japanese tea cup. That should allow me to get about three sessions out the 10g sample.

I've been brewing the cooked pu-erh I received from Generation Tea in a 6oz tea cup with boiling water, 1-2 tsp. of tea and 3 minute steep. I tried it this morning in a small gaiwan using the wrong fu method you mentioned. It was very enjoyable. I'm kind of wishing I had ordered some cooked samples with my order from Jing. I'd never had one before that left a sweet lingering aftertaste. I think I still like the raw ones better, but this is nice.

Blues

Thanks Danny, I'll give that a try. What do you look for in the first two cups compared to the third thru fifth?

Blues

Guess I should have updated my reader before posting my last question, since it was already asked and answered!

Blues

No sweat, I am sure Danny will have more to add. I think he is offline for a day or two so I just kicked in a bit.

-- Mike Petro

Tonight I broke up my 10g sample and divided it into three portions as equal as I could get them without a scale. Since I was using my zisha gaiwan to brew about 2oz. of tea, this should work out to around 3.3g to 60ml of water. The leaves were mostly black with some brown highlights.

I placed one portion in my gaiwan and did a quick rinse. I used spring water just off the boil and started with around 5 second steeps. I saved the first two steeps as Danny suggested. In steeps 3-5 a musty flavor predominated. After steep five I drank the first two steeps. They were more musty and stronger flavored, but nothing I'd relate to mold, mildew or dank laundry. The cooked pu-erhs I've had have had a dank basement or pond sort of flavor, but this was more of a musty attic taste. It was a flavor I related to old books and my great aunts mostly unused upstairs where we slept when we visited as a child. Her upstairs had a lot of wood (floors and paneling) and old books and furniture in storage. All of the steeps were very dry on the tongue.

The sweetness showed up in steep six. As I continued the sweetness became stronger and the mustiness became less until around steeps 10-12 they seemed to become fairly equal. Also during this time I began to note a hint of camphor. It never became a predominate flavor, but lingered after the other flavors. It was nice mixed with the sweet and reminded me of a gum I had when I was young. It bordered on a wintergreen flavor when mixed with the sweet aftertaste. The '94 MengHai #8582 that came along with the GYG had a very pronounced camphor taste, but not much sweetness. It reminded me more of my grandmother's medicine cabinet. The GYG was much more subtle.

I lost count but I'm sure I steeped over 16 times. After this the taste was thinning out. The sweetness and mustiness were still there, but the flavor became thin and seemed done. I followed Danny's suggestion for the spent leaves and enjoyed another cup of tea. Not as great as some of the earlier steeps, but not bad at all.

I couldn't say I liked it enough better than younger pu-erhs to pay $379 for a beeng (not that that would be an option anyway). But, it had a nice complexity and certainly didn't have the astringent properties of the younger pu-erhs. I did miss the touch of fruitiness that accompanies the sweetness in some younger pu-erhs.

I should be able to get two more sessions from the sample. I'm sure I'll notice more complexity and flavors as I get more accustom to the tea. Thanks for the tips, it's a fun journey.

Blues