Japanese puer-cha

Hmmm, the description sounds an awful lot like some types of Dai Nationality bamboo puer. They are both packed in bamboo and buried in order to ferment. They also seem to allude that the source of the production method was Chinese. Interesting, figs, huh......

On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 18:45:56 +0900, "cc" cast caution to the wind and posted:

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

Mike snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com/19/04

Yeah, interesting. Kuri, could we say dried plums? BTW Mike, none of the Dai Nationality Bamboo Pu-erhs I've drunk approached fig or plum. Hmm.

Michael

There was a second page :

Kuri

Yes, no....They describe the actual Dai method (of the Pulan ethny) as they say it is the inspiration but was then done in Myanmar (that was part of Xishuanbanna) by cousins/ancestors of that ethny. *Then*, it's the Tang area when the Japanese imported Chinese tea drinking/plants/etc. In Japan, they used to produce it quite a lot in the Seto sea area, but it has moved and lost favor. Now only one farm still makes it. It's in Shikoku, in Kochi prefecture. The area is at 400m of altitude, it's humid and sunny. The camelia was a culture but has become more or less wild. They cut it in a certain way to preserve old trees, get rid of old branches and allow maximum sun exposure. Unlike other teas, they don't pick only the young leaves. They pick at end of July and take together new and old leaves. It is steamed 1h 1/2 to 2 hours. It is laid during 7-10 days, in a room. On the straw flooring, they put 50 to 70 cm of leaves and cover with straw. They have kept the water that went out of the tea when steaming (the beasties develop in that liquid). They wet the leaves with that it and lay heavy stones on that and let 10 more days for fermentation. They cut in squares. They lay and dry 3 days under the sun. Then it's stocked in the big straw bags.

Kuri

For the smell that was. Yes, you can say dried plums cos' it's close to dried figs, but less subtile (my students eat the figs and let the plums).

The goishi cha is different to the bamboo puer. Young puer is a bit harsh (or was that only that sort ?). That goishi cha is from last Summer and is already mild. When I drink it, it reminds me tamarind, but in less ..er...less laxative. It's sweet. The liquor is light yellow. I'm trying to find what I've done with the books that described it.

Kuri

It isn't only that sort, but I've certainly tasted mild young Puerh.

/Lew

Fascinating! It says this comes in tea bags. Is that correct? Also, they instruct not to brew this like a normal tea, but rather to "boil" ("nidasu") it over strong heat for five minutes. Strange stuff. And pricey too: 3500 yen for 90g.

--crymad

Mine is in shape of "go stones" (squares of 2 cm). But I expect the shops selling on line to offer the teabag, bottled, instant, etc, versions too.

My package says you can do both, quick brew or "nidasu". "nidasu" for tea is not necessarily to boil, but to keep at near boiling temp or start cold and bring to near boiling temp. That's also the recommendation for certain sorts of bancha, so I have already asked to sellers and they said I don't need boiling them like potatoes. Well, that's modern conception, because until the macha whisking was invented, the Chinese would boil the tea, and salt it, so the Japanese certainly did it too. I know many old people that longly "nidasu" (boil fiercely) oolong and mugicha, mixed or separated. I don't take tea lessons from those persons.

BTW they also give a recipe that approaches the old way of preparing tea :

chagayu (rice porridge)

rice 1.5 cup (180 ml/cup) green leaf vegetables (spinach, radish leaves...) salt

Put cold water in the pot (8 or 9 times the volume of rice) + 7 g (2 squares) of goishi cha in a bag. Put on fire and when the water becomes brownish (ame-iro ?) avec 3 to 5 min, take out the bag of tea. Add the rinsed rice and cook till it becomes porridge. Add vegetables and salt at the end.

Yeh...But well, it's in the range of price of similar hand-made agricultural products and they say I can brew 8 liters with my 30 g.

Kuri

I tried the tea in July when I was in Osaka, in a teashop called Ujien in Shinsaibashi. It was quite costly per cup, and it tasted quite sweet...I don't understand Japanese, so I couldn't find out more about this tea, except that it's not widely available in Japan, and only produced in small quantities.

Samar