Tried Pu-er - didn't like it much

I did, when I tried it a few weeks ago. But then I was expecting it to taste weird, after hearing about it for years. Plus it was some good stuff.

With any acquired taste, like lapsang souchong, it depends on how persistent you are, and how willing you are to be persistent about something like tea. :-)

Ian

I liked Pu-Erh the first time I tried it, and if that specific type tastes that bad to you I wouldn't try to acquire a taste for it! Before giving up on it, though, maybe you should try other Pu-Erh's? Maybe you just didn't care for that specific Pu-Erh, or maybe you'd hate them all, who knows?

Tried it, didn't like it. Tried it repeatedly, and different variations. Never developed a "taste" for it.

Every cup tasted the way my mouth did after spending a day mucking out horse stables. Perhaps if I didn't have that memory, I could learn to like it. As it is, the taste of stall dust is NOT a pleasing memory.

I did not like it the first or second time.. Some things to suggest:

1) Rinse the puerh for 30 seconds and throw away that initial steeping. 2) Try a Green pu-erh.

For me, a switch just clicked and I began to kindof like it.. Although that initial SpecialTeas Tuo Cha still kinda tasted bad until the 2nd or

3rd steep.

I would say it depends on the quality of the stuff you got and the type. Was it the sheng (green) or the shu (cooked/fried/whatever) and how old was it? Some people prefer the taste of the cooked version better than the green version.

Some of the newer stuff (less than 5 years) tastes horrid. Most people recommended to me that you should try to score stuff that was at least 5 years before even thinking about trying it.

There again, I did some gongfu cha with pu'er for my mom when she visited and she hated it but my brother loved it. I say keep up with it though. I didn't like it as well at first, but after I got some good quality stuff and after someone showed me how to brew it correctly, I found it to be one of the most rewarding tea experiences I can recall. It can be really smooth like a fine coffee if you can get some good stuff!

Mydnight

-------------------- thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.

A couple of years ago I knew nothing about puerh and my first trials of it were definitely not appealing. It was the cooked variety, but I realized that, in a weaker version, I'd been served it from time to time in Chinese restaurants.

Through acquaintance with several members of this newsgroup, I was introduced to better quality puerh, particularly the "green" puerh. which I find far more intriguing and rewarding.

I'm in. I've bought a yixing pot specifically for puerh, and have several varieties at hand. For me, a good green puerh (and both young and old can be good) is a real pleasure.

Yes, it can be an acquired taste, but if you have the good stuff, it's not a hard taste to acquire. For me, it's still not a tea I reach for on a daily basis, but it's often "just the thing."

Joe K

I immediatly hate the first horrid puer I have drunk (tasted like dirty mud)and immediatly loved the first good one (aged leaves bought in Hong-Kong).

For the horrid muddy version certainly. Well, you may never like puer, but don't make the mistake of concluding after drinking only one.

Kuri

Same here - I tried Pu Erh about 1 year ago, and didn't like it very much. Back then we just put boiling water over the loose tea leaves.

Ater I read so much about Pu Erh in this NG I decided to give it a 2nd try. I just stumbled over it, not in a teashop though, but in a local imported goods shop. I got a kind of pressed 'teaball', about 1,5 cm in diameter...well...not really a ball, but pressed and small, though ^-^ Anyone knows what this is? Is that one of the 'cakes' read aout?

I rinsed it two times with boiling water, and then infused for only 30 seconds (also with boiling water). That way the infusion lost a lot of the earthy taste that I didn't like on my first Pu Erh experience, but there was still enough earthiness to make it interesting.

now I'll try to go for green Pu Erh, should be excitig.

ciao Patrick

If a pu-erh made in any tearoom by any "master" from anything called "puerh" would be immediately loved by everyone, it would not be a fine, elusive, complex drink that we love so much (those of us who do). The best way I know is to be introduced to puerh by a master who knows not only puerh, but also a gentle way of introducing it. I highly recommend Roy Fong from ITC. Call him in advance, tell him you want an introduction to puerhs. I wish I would have done that myself.

There are thousands of different puerhs and ways of making it. Just do not be quick to make conclusions.

Sasha.

Cathy snipped-for-privacy@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com12/6/04

20: snipped-for-privacy@weeksfamily.net

Cathy,

Yup, loved it the first time round. But, do not give up. Actually, Pu'erh is many tastes, and it is still possible to find one just right for you. In the most general sense, we have "cooked" Pu'erhs that taste of the loam of the earth, young "uncooked" ones that often taste of flowers with a certain delightful mustiness, and finally the old "uncooked" ones that cost an arm and a leg, and some believe are worth every digit.

Michael

>

It's called Xiao Tuo Cha, small(mini) bowl tea. Puerh can come loose, or compressed as Tuo ('birdsnest') or beeng('pancakes'). The mini tuocha is about 10g, tuocha 100g, and beeng 300g+. The Xiao is good for a pot. The other two you have to crumble.

Jim

Patrick He> Ater I read so much about Pu Erh in this NG I decided to give it a 2nd

No, cakes (bingcha/beengcha/beencha) are more or less flat discs, though they're much thicker than e.g. a DVD. What you have is a tuancha.

/Lew

Tuochas are bowl-shaped, not ball-shaped. Can the original poster clarify this?

/Lew

The Puerh that I tried at Teavana was loose, and very black looking. They said that it was aged for 15 years.

Cathy Weeks

Cheap Pu Erh tastes like horse piss. Or, in deference to accuracy and proper English (I think), it tastes like horse piss smells. Or is it "as"? Will any of you non-native English speakers, who seem to be the only ones who know the rules of grammar these days, correct me if necessary?

I will drink cheap tea of almost any variety as long as it is fresh, made properly, and is real tea. But not pu erh. Right now I'm drinking "Fu Fang Cha" sent me by a friend. It is pu erh and I think translates to "lucky square tea". It's cuboid, more precisely.

Best,

Rick.

Derek wrote:

In my experience, the value of the Pu Erh has little to do with how it prompts my memory. It's all varying degrees of the same thing.

I'm not being critical of your merchant's honesty, but it's nearly impossible to judge how old the tea is just by the looks. It could possibly have been aged for 15 years, but that would make the price decently high. The merchant was probably told it was 15 years old, but how to verify?

There is also a process in which pu'er can be aged quicker by moistening it and then letting it dry out over and over again to try and make it appear older than it is. This usually damages the tea quality and can make it taste horrible. This is why I am so ardently against purchasing pu'er online; maybe that's a strong statement, perhaps extremely cautious.

The only way I will buy a tea is if I can try it first or am advised by someone that knows the particular tea well. I live in the middle of no where without any access to any teashops, so I have bought nothing new in a while. heh. Poor me.

Mydnight

-------------------- thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.

I think he meant cheap quality and not cheap price. I do support his assertion; the lower quality stuff for the most part tastes horrid.

Mydnight

-------------------- thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.