Pu-Erh: what's really in it

magnulus · 2004-10-02T18:28:10+00:00

Aparently, it's made from green tea which has been moulded withAspergillus niger, which is a common mold, for about 3 months or so, thenthe leaves are dried and aged for 2 years. It produces the dark mold youfind on foods like bread or fruit, and also is commonly found in peat. Itis related to Aspergillus oryzae, which is the mold used to produce Asianfermented foods such as miso, amazake, soy sauces, and rice wine(aspergillus oryzae, I believe, is usually lighter colored). Food consumption of Aspergillus niger is considered safe by the WorldHealth Organization in small amounts, however... horticultural workers whowork with peat, peat moss, etc., may be susceptable to aspergillosis, a veryserious lung infection, particularly in people with compromised immunesystems. Aspergillus spores can also cause allergic reactions in someindividuals. Aspergillus niger doesn't produce carcinogenic mycotoxins,however, although some other Aspergillus genus members do. Pu-erh's healtheffects have been less studied than green tea, but it does appear to sharewith other teas, a degree of protection of DNA and cholesterol loweringproperties (indeed, in one study the ability to neutralize nitric oxide DNAdamage was slightly greater than black tea, from what I remember), despitethe fact the tea is truely fermented (unlike black tea), leading one to askwheather Aspergillus niger might have some possible contribution. I'm not expert in mycology or medicine, of course. It's interesting thatmost of us throw out moldly bread, yet there's tea costing alot of moneythat is covered in the stuff. To each his own, I guess.

M

Michael Plant 21 years ago

Come on, Samarkand. We Americans suffer for an extraordinarily refined and subtle sense of humor, which far surpasses all others. It is not our fault that God blessed us with innate superiority. That's just something we need to learn to live with. Further, we do in fact have the entire gamut of the world's soy sauces available to us, so we can indeed speak authoritatively. We Americans can be likened to a 2004 uncooked Pu-erh found at your corner grocers. It doesn't get better, trust me.

Speaking of which...some excellent, if not so complex, and super-cheap Pu-erhs can be found in the corner grocers, but it takes some trial and error. On a related note, I've been drinking from what has got to be the crudest, roughest huge (3 kg) cake of uncooked Pu-erh I've ever encountered. It's full of twig and stem and super huge leaves. Very tastey in fact. YiWu (sp?) Mountain, Yunnan. it came in a bamboo and reed casing. I broke it up

-- sort of -- and found what I hope are tea flower buds nearly the size of hemlock cones, not to mention some other items buried within, which I'll refrain from describing lest I offend more.

Dialogue between two Chinese tea farmers in Yunnan:

Farmer One: "You are not gonna believe what I did." Farmer Two: "Pray tell, what did you do?" Farmer One: "I took my spade out to the woods, and dug up 3 kgs of muck." Farmer Two "And what did you do with said muck?" Farmer One: "I sold it to an American for $200. They'll buy anything." Farmer Two: "Let's dig more, and age it for 10 years. We'll make a fortune." [At this point I lost contact....]

And now back to Iris DeMent's Mom singing Higher Ground.

Michael

samarkand416d261e$ snipped-for-privacy@news.starhub.net.sg10/13/04 08: snipped-for-privacy@uk2.net

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Michael Plant 21 years ago

Joel snipped-for-privacy@cindy.panacea.null.org10/13/04

19: snipped-for-privacy@panacea.null.org

Preserved egg, more than likely, I think.

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Michael Plant 21 years ago

Alex Chaihorsky46obd.29725$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com10/14/04

01: snipped-for-privacy@nowhere.com Sasha, not so simple, I think. "Common" courtesy is surely not common, but what it means is culture specific, not universal. When we say Pu-erh -- or Durian, for that matter -- is stinky, we speak affectionately, right guys?

Michael

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Alex Chaihorsky 21 years ago

Michael, I appreciate your diplomatic stance, but no, this is not about liking or not liking things - which would qualify as culture specific. Saying that "Having a respect for many aspects of Asian culture (I'm not Asian) doesn't stop me from thinking that Pu-erh is stinky, that natto is like snot and smells worse, and that I'd probably rather eat ground glass than kimchee." is not "affectionate" and you know that. And not calling what others eat "snot" is a universal "common" courtesy, to put it mildly.

Sasha.

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Michael Plant 21 years ago

Alex ChaihorskyxVsbd.13020$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com10/14/04

06: snipped-for-privacy@nowhere.com

Admittedly, that would be quite a stretch of the cultural warp. Point well taken. But, in a broader sense, I think how we express our likes and dislikes can be as culture specific as the likes and dislikes we express. JMESHO. (When I typed my post, I was thinking of some durian loving Chinese friends who referr to it as "stinky fruit," and my own feeling about Pu-erh, which can be many things, not all of them pleasant, but always an adventure and a journey worth taking.

Michael

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Alex Chaihorsky 21 years ago

But certainly Chinese calling durian (or any other "their" food for that matter) stinky is like American calling McDonalds "s***ty food". But when Chinese say "I 'd rather eat ground glass than your s***ty hamburgers" it does sound different, isn't it?

Sasha.

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Space Cowboy 21 years ago

I meant to say 'dry orange blob' and I suspected it was duck egg yolk. Years ago I added a ramp to an unused horse trough and keep it filled for ducks who swam all day. I'd fished every couple of days for eggs. For suburbanites you can scour the banks of an industrial cooling pond habited by wild ducks for eggs. The maintenance personnel know this so you have to be lucky. Sunday morning is a good time. I tasted the lotus seeds and paste. Now if I can figure out what was the sweet stringy gelatin gummy like substance. The best part it didn't crumble. Mine were $5 each but good for three snacks. They were 'heavy' so if lard perfect with puerh.

Thanks to all replies, Jim

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cc 21 years ago

....

But you said *$ made sh*tty coffee ? You know millions of people drink and admire that monkey p... well, excuse the bad manners, I meant : drink and admire

*that*. Aren't you afraid of insulting them ?

Kuri

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Alex Chaihorsky 21 years ago

I never said that coffee is s*it. That could be insulting.

I also belong to the European coffee-drinking culture, and I do drink it as I indicate in that message. So its not "your s***ty coffee", its "our s***ty coffee". I also said that it was "s***ty" because it was not strong enough. I think the difference is obvioius.

Sasha.

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Space Cowboy 21 years ago

American culture is known for wisecracking. We have a whole industry devoted to it. Nothing has been said here that would even get a chuckle out of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Yes. No. My favorite internationally accepted description of puerh Camel's Breath Tea. I even have the Chinese somewhere.

Jim

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Michael Plant 21 years ago

Sasha lad,

You might never have actually said that coffee is s*it, but that only means you are not familiar with the rare treasure produced by the digestive action of the Eurasian coffee beetle. You see, the beetle feeds voraciously on the beans and the resulting ambrosia is gathered and....but I cannot continue lest I give away trade secrets. You cannot get this coffee at low life Starbucks. This is only for connesurs -- I no longer even try to spell it, much less be it. I'll bet this is the Pu-erh of coffees.

Hope this helps.

Michael

Alex Chaihorskyjwzbd.13104$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com10/14/04

14: snipped-for-privacy@nowhere.com

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Dog Ma 1 21 years ago

Ex-Lax espresso?

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Pu-Erh: what's really in it

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