Pu-Erh, take two... much better!

Yet another convert....

-- Mike Petro

Puer is just about another tea on my shelf with its own pecularities like fermentation but no different than say white tea and grading or Darjeeling and flushes. I can taste the difference from factory to factory mainly due to locale and processing standards. The taste varies year to year by factory because of the crop harvest. I too was initially hung up on the taste profile especially for the shu or cooked. I satisfied myself when I got to about 10 different years and factories that the taste is what it is. There are similarities and differences and it struck me one day it is like drinking beer. You have to develop a taste for it. I think all the hubbub is over the sheng and aging. I don't have the time or money to satisfy myself over the long term merits. I drink my puer off the top. I use to frequently stir so the last sips were the same as the first. I have switched to no stirring with first sips for delicate aroma and last sips for strong taste. I like the visual representation through wrapper and form. If nothing else you can impress your friends at the local tea shoppe. I think recent years of Puer are still an excellent tea bargain in price/gram ratio but I see that going up just recently. You learn some factors that seem to influence the price. There's nothing I can't eat if there is a shu nearby.

Jim

Dominic T. wrote:

Absolutely, it is just that I have grown tired of my old favorites and standbys so Pu-Erh has been a welcome change. Darjeelings and Blacks also are on my list to explore. I was kind of in a rut, and this was a nice way of beginning to break out of it.

I find it interesting, and I'm always big on learning new things and investigating histories and culture. While I don't think I could ever live for Pu-Erh, I can now properly appreciate it and understand it. I will continue to enjoy it and grow within it, and I am very interested in it's medicinal qualities too as I have a father who could benefit from some of the proposed claims such as cholesterol benefits. I don't believe there is even a tea shop in or near Pittsburgh that carries Pu-Erh, so I won't be sharing or discussing it outside of RFDT and my home most likely.

If nothing else reading everyone's experiences and suggestions has helped me realize I was even in a rut, let alone dig myself out of it... and that's the main thing.

- Dominic

If there's a Chinese grocery store in Pittsburgh, it probably carries Pu'er.

/Lew

I think there are some mildly hallucinogenic properties to pu.,

I remember that floaty feeling the first time I tried it. I think you have to get that and then pass that before you become a true pu lover.

Amazingly the only Pu-Erh to be had is one store that carries very low end Pu-Erh teabags for $1.99 a box and that's all. I am actually friends with most of the owners of the asian markets in and around Pittsburgh (there are only a handful), and frequent them often. Lotus Foods is a largish Korean Grocery in the Strip District and that was all.

Pittsburgh has no "proper" tea shops, where you can sit down and order real tea. The best we have are Fortune's coffee, a franchise mainly dealing in coffee but handles teabags and some Republic of tea loose varieties, Border's Bookstores, Barnes and Nobles, and more of the same. It's a pretty sad state of affairs, there's a guy who created a store called Planet Chai nearby me where he is attempting to have a real teashop, except that it is also a salon and the smells do not exactly lend themselves to tea drinking.

Barky Bark: I was really surprised to feel any effects at all from drinking Pu-Erh. It was exactly as you described, more of a "floaty" feeling than a drunk feeling. Pretty strange stuff.

- Dominic

Hrm. I've never had that floaty feeling. I almost feel like I'm missing out. :)

I can't remember ever getting this myself. Maybe I've just been floating all these years since my first sip of Pu'er and forgot to look down.

/Lew

This makes me want to give it another chance. I have a small amount of loose and a few mini tucha's. I bought it locally and don't have a clue where it came from or what kind it is. She wrote golden Pu-erth on the loose and Toucha on the other. I think I will head to Upton and order some from them before I decide if I want to spend more money on another kind.

I would like to say that I enjoy reading this board. I have learned so much about all kinds of tea. I have tried several and find that I like almost all that I have tried. I know that I don't really care for the floral flavors. I prefer the straight tea, green, black and white. I have bought several to try from Enjoying Tea, and like the fact that they always give me a sample of something different with my order. Thanks every one Anna

Lewis snipped-for-privacy@panix1.panix.com3/7/06 13: snipped-for-privacy@panix.com

Dominic, when you ask for it in that Chinese grocery store, say: "I want some Pu;erh, Bo Li, Bo Ri, Po Ni." Inflect each of these in different ways, watching intently the face of your interlocutor. As soon as you see a smile and a nod, you'll know you hit it. "Pu'erh" never works. (Imitate somebody speaking Chinese. They won't take it as making fun, they'll be more apt to understand you.)

Michael

There are a couple on the strip, but all I saw there was the Sprouting brand stuff, which is not exactly high grade. Admittedly, I was looking for black teas since I don't much like pu erh myself, so I may have overlooked some.

--scott