Silk Road Teas (Pu-Erhs)

Alex Chaihorskyqz02d.21399$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr29.news.prodigy.com9/15/04

15: snipped-for-privacy@nowhere.com

Sasha,

You will not be disappointed with:

1. Mini Menhai Beengcha 1999
2. Dai Bamboo Pu-erh (P-DBB-6)
3. Fengcha 1999 (which Lew will give you more details on)

The first is marvelously complex in an uncooked sort of a way. The second has just the right flower and must. The third is likewise green and very nice.

I had tried the Bamboo Fragrance Pu-erh (P-BFP-100), but didn't think very much of it. Not too much there, for me. I also have a 2 kg brick of "Hong Kong Back to China" commemorative. I've enjoyed its soft -- camphor??? -- undertone. Getting pieces ready for brewing is a bitch.

I don't have David's latest catalog, but will be looking at somebody else's copy this evening, I hope.

Real men drink green Pu-erh.

Michael

Make that "Fangcha".

Right. Musty, smoky, brothy, fruity, and slightly tarry (in a Lapsang way) all rolled into one. Did we say it's complex?

Courtesy of the ethnic minority that seems to have invented Puerh.

There's also his cheap loose green Puerh (P-GPE-1), with a bold, brothy, collard-greens-and-hambone taste.

The Aged Green Pu-erh Brick (P-GPB-92) has a lot of character and subtlety if you can brew around its tendency toward an ashy taste.

Yes, but the Bamboo Fragrance Pu-erh (P-BFP-1) is nice and soft and gentle (the one you mentioned is black, while this one's green.)

All other tea products are girly-teas.

/Lew

Thanks guys. Just ordered what you recommended plus Dave's choice 3 black puerhs.

Sasha.

The puerhs has arrived, so now I would very much like to be taught how to drink it. I have Greens: Mini Menhai Beengcha 1999 Dai Bamboo Pu-erh (P-DBB-6) Fangcha 1999 (which Lew will give you more details on)

Blacks (Dave's recommendation) Large leaf from Old trees (P-PE-2) Small leaf (P-PE-4) Gold bud Beencha 1999

Do you gongfu green puerh? I doubt that you gongfu black puerh, but I what do I know?. So, please, I am listening humbly.

Sasha.

Alex,

I've also gotten a number of Puers from Silk Road. While I will never have anywhere near the expertise these other guys have, FWIW I can tell you how I've been making the "Large leaf from Old trees (P-PE-2)", which I too got on DLH's recommendation: 2 measuring Tablespoons in 12 oz. for 4 minutes with full boiling water, with an initial 10-15 sec rinsing steep. That may sound like a lot of tea, but the leaves are very large, irregular and volumnious, and, like other such teas, don't measure volumetrically worth a darn, but I don't have a scale (yet). I find this a very mild Puer, so the above is not at all too strong (at least by the standards of strong Puers I've tried.)

I also have the Pu-erh Fangcha 1999 P-PFC-99 (also recommended by DLH). Though I've only made it a few times so far, this is how: 1 measuring Tablespoon in 12 oz. for 3 min. with approx. 190 deg F. water, with a 15 sec. or so pre-rinse. I'm not sure if you're supposed to use full boiling water with green Puers, but I haven't with this one, except the first time, and it was a little bitter.

People actually do gongfu Puer. I haven't yet, as I don't have a Yixing for it (yet), and I never think to try it in one of my porcelain gaiwans when I have the time to do it. I'm sure others here will have suggestions in that direction (which I would be interested in as well).

A couple questions for you: I have Silk Road's "Spring Tea List", from March

2004. I don't see any "Mini Menhai (sp?) Beengcha 1999" on it. Is your catalog later? What is the catalog number of the tea? The only Menghai beenchas I see are P-GMBC-99 (a green, 4/5 pound), and P-MBC-00 (presumably black, 250 gm), neither seeming to deserve "Mini".

I will also be very interested in what you think of the Gold Bud.

Doug

Yes, mine is Summer 2004.

What is the catalog number of the tea?

P-MMBC-9

This one is 100g and $15.00

Gimme a day or two :)

I am quite surprised that SRT does not have a web site with pictures, etc. I would definitely buy more if I had a chance to salivate over some pictures.

Sasha.

I wish I had a tuocha for every time I have heard that, said it myself even. It appears that David has his hands full with his current business model and isn't really interested in taking on any more. I think he does a lot of wholesale too.

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

remove the "filter" in my email address to reply

I'm sure that wholesale is the vast majority of his business. I suspect that dealing with tea fanatics is kind of a hobby for him. How do I feel about being somebody's hobby? In this case, I like it.

/Lew

I tried "gold bud". It was a good tea but I am not swept off my feet. Why is it called "gold bud" anyway? On the wrapper it said (word-bvy-word translation) "Yunnan Arbor tree palace (imperial) court tribute pressed tea (beencha)". Where didi the "gold buds": came from? I am going to ask Dave that question over the phone tomorroow.

Sasha.

As strange as it may be to some ,I like collard-greens and hambones. Although I've had some strange health problems that have made hambones off limits. So a tea with that warm brothy flavor would be appreciated.

I noticed that Holy Mountain has a loose leaf green puerh with the designation P-GPE-1, any idea if it's the same tea? They have a reasonably priced sample.

When I first started drinking good teas many greens and pouchongs had a salty, brothy, sometimes fishy flavor that took me by surprise at first, but I learned to really enjoy it. Then it seemed like my taste changed and I no longer get that from any tea. I had a Taiwan Pouchong from either Upton or Special Teas that reminded me of my mothers oyster stew with some flowery notes thrown in. It was amazing. Now it just tastes flowery and perfumey to me. I love good senchas, and at first they had salmony sea like notes, but now I don't taste them. I noticed the same thing with beer. My first tastes of beer was much different than how it tastes to me now.

Drinking the last of my Xiaguan Green Tuo Cha from Teaspring.com and listening to Luther Allison Live in Chicago.

Blues

I didn't mean to suggest it was a bad tea, and sorry about your potlikker problem.

You're onto something there, to be sure. I haven't had Silk Road P-GPE-1 in quite a while now, and I *think* I'm hoping it would still taste the same to me.

What's it taste like?

Listening to the muffled sounds of the foundation of a new office building being dug 14 floors below me in Manhattan.

/Lew

Oh, I didn't take it as bad, just the opposite. I just didn't think that description would appeal to the majority of tea drinkers. However, it caught my attention

I think I'll try a sample from Holy Mountain. I also called and asked for Silk Road's catalog, but it seems like I read somewhere that there was a

500g minimum order. That might be more than my budget can take in one hit. But then again Christmas is coming soon.

It took me a while to get this one right. I don't have a scale, so I've been eyeballing the amount of tea. Once it expands in the water it looks like what I would expect from a couple of teaspoons of leaves. At first I was using fairly hot water and experimented with steeping for around 2-4 minutes. That produced a horribly astringent, tarry tea with a really intense long lasting, sweet, fruity after taste. I loved the after taste, but the tea was another story.

After reading some of the recent discussions here, I've been brewing it with

160-170 degree water for one minute for the first steep. The tea is nice and smooth, a little smokey, some fruitiness, mildly astringent with a sweetness that gets stronger through progressive steeps. I usually have the water in a thermos here at work, so I don't increase the temperature for each steep, but do increase the time after the 3rd or 4th steep. The sweet aftertaste is still there, but more subtle and haunting. It's a very reasonable tea at $5.90/100g

The only other Puerhs I've had are some samples that Teaspring was kind enough to send with one of my orders. The Xiaguan isn't as smooth and doesn't have the musty, earthy flavors that the 10 year old green Puerh sample had, but has a nicer aftertaste I also had a sample of their 2 year old Menghai Tuo Cha. I think it was maybe smoother and had more clean horse barn in it than the Xiaguan, but had a similar sweet fuity aftertase. I had it about six months ago, so I'm going on memory.

The black puerh samples I've tried give me a mild headache and quesey feeling. I think I'll stick to greens. They also sent some green puerh tea bags. Those were actually quite nice also. I was kind of surprised by that.

I think I'll stick with Luther. ; )