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The fearsome odor of puerh tea

When I go to the ITC, I almost always have their fine puerh tea, but a recent experience with an inferior puerh from another vendor has dampened my enthusiasm.

I scraped some tea from a huge tea ball that I'd purchased for an extra-cheap price ($1). The tea seemed surprisingly drinkable -- none of that telltale cloudy infusion that's a problem with so many bad puerhs. But after multiple tastings, I detected a flavor note that kind of bothered me.

It took about a week to figure out what it was. The tea had, for lack of a better terminology, a kind of uric acid aroma when steeped. This makes sense when you realize that puerh is a natural substance that biodegrades a little bit in aging. But it's definitely put me off my puerh for a while.

Has anybody else noticed an element of this aroma in their steeped puerh tea?

Reply to
sjspinali
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SJ --

I can't tell you about Puerh, because my experience with it is very limited. However, I have experienced a couple of greens that release a "cat pee" sort of aroma.

It has only happened a couple of times, and it may even happen at some temperatures and not others. I have hesitated mentioning this to my tea-drinking cohorts because it seems so off-the-wall, and I am relatively new to some teas and brewing methods, but there it is.

Some folks say that about New Zealand Sauv. blancs, too.

Joe

Reply to
Joseph Kubera

I once had a certain tea-vendor offer to give me a little piece of a very old, very expensive Pu-Erh. Said vendor never made good on that promise, but I was informed at a later date by somebody who actually purchased a portion of that tea that I wasn't missing much. This person told me that the vendor's description of this Pu-Erh tea's "camphor and mineral" notes was more of a euphemism for what I believe would be that nasty odor/flavor you mention. I only dabble occasionally in Pu-Erh teas. I feel no great urge to buy many of them.

N.

Reply to
WNW

"sjspinali" ha scritto nel messaggio news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

Also the aroma of some wines sometimes presents "animal" notes, which are describes by sommeliers in this terms: amber, fur, leather, wild (game meat), sweat, cat urine, civet, foxy. During the Ming dynasty, the smell of Jie tea was described as that of "baby skin" (ying rou). I also found some of this fairly "fleshy" notes in some tea. Regar to the bad smell you are talking about, I found it in some ripened Tuocha and Pu'er cakes. LZ

Reply to
Livio Zanini

For a beginner in pureh teas - where would you (those who have been there and do that...) recommend I turn? Some recommendations of varieties/vendors would be appreciated.

Reply to
Saunam Bhattacharjee

varieties/vendors

Hi Saunam,

I am new to fine teas; I have found the kind folks in this newsgroup to be very helpful.

I have tried just two types of pu-erh tea, both from Tao of Tea, an online vendor. I found their green tuocha pu-erh to have a fragrant and pleasant taste, not at all heavy and earthy like I was expecting. I found their (regular?) tuocha not as fragrant as the green, but pleasant as well. Neither (IMO) have a heavy loamy dirt taste that seems to have polarized this board to those in favor and those against pu-erhs.

Folks here have told me that loose leaf pu-erhs have a better flavor than the compressed nest tuocha "thingies" : -)

When you do taste your pu-erhs, please do let us know how you fared!

Heather

Reply to
HeatherInSwampscott

Thanks to each of you!

I have ample leads to get my ball rolling. I will take the liberty to post my feedback here. BTW, Michael, I am in St.Pete - Florida (still in the US as of now!).

Cheers,

Saunam

varieties/vendors

can

Reply to
Saunam Bhattacharjee

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