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@Balthazar, I dishearteningly concur with you on young puers falling into a slumber during colder half of the year. I haven't been putting these teas on hold through this winter at all and it's a complete wreck and doldrums compared to what they turn into come Spring.

I'll be insinuating any biologists/food experts I'd bump into for any hints in explaining it.

Well, there's a large number of people living in similar climates that doesn't seem to notice anything like this, so it's a bit of an conundrum to me. Also doesn't seem to be limited to young sheng (which, depending on one's definition of young, I don't have much of in storage) for me.

Glad I'm not alone! Even gladder the teas do pick up again (as if nothing had happened) around the same time the first duck couplet can be seen on the small forest stream close to our place.

2018 "the thing is" from white2tea

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Brewing it in this pot is amazing. Brew is thickened - zero astringency- maybe aroma is cut but body so greatly enhanced.. clay continues to surprise me

I am currently playing with the loose leaf puer from the EoT club March shipment, which arrived the day I ran out of their Cloud Watching, a tea I got along with rather well, and the pepperminty aroma of which I am already missing.

This one, though, is a young autumn loose leaf from San Jia Zhai village in Yiwu, but it didn't respond well to the way I brew my current young-ish Yiwu teas and so I ran straight into the strong bitterness trap in my first sessions. For my taste, it is one to experiment with from the basis of flash steeps since this reassuringly cuts out the bitterness completely. I am actually glad it's loose leaf with long intact leaves since the inevitable cake breakage would have exacerbated this.

The trees are said to be a few hundred years old and there is some activity in the liquor. Need a few more brews to figure it out.

Hello.

I actually opened 2007 Changtai Cha Hu Chen Nannuo Raw Puerh
This material is real mature sheng. Absolutely no astringency, full sweet and fruity taste, shiny orange colour....pure tea pleasure

Teaware: Duanni pot, chamotte clay inside glazed pitcher and cup.

polezaivsani wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:02 pm

I'll be insinuating any biologists/food experts I'd bump into for any hints in explaining it.

Some help may come from TCM - traditional chinese medicine, but similar principles can be found in most of far east traditional medicines, Ayurveda, etc.. including George Oshawa's book on macrobiotics, that uses the classic yin-yang duality to explain basic nature of food and its interactions with body.
Trying to simplify a complex matter, basic principle is that in nature living beings, have their own nature which may be warm or cold, with various intermediate steps.
Same thing goes for human beings, some have a warmer and some a colder nature, depending on their basic biology which maybe be influenced by climate and foods they eat or drink and different interactions with the environment.
Green teas have a colder nature, oolongs are a mixed bunch depending on how they are modified by master teamakers (leaves, roasting, etc..) and time, blacks have more of a neutral or neutral warm nature.
Same goes with many things, some may have noticed that although alcohol is cold as nature, a red wine may be more attractive in winter, a white in summer, irrespective of serving temperature.
That would explain very roughly and in a very basic way why some of us may be attracted by some teas depending on the season and temperatures, it's all a bit connected in the end.
Being such a complex matter it may take a bit of reading to familiarize with TCM, but there's plenty of information also online and books for whom may be interested.
Teaguardian has a few articles regarding TCM and tea, one may start from here:
https://www.teaguardian.com/tea-health/tcm-tea/

Late night sheng session. Drinking that 2005 XiaGuan T8653 Thick Paper from MoodyGuy. I didn’t measure leaf, I just threw chunk in and leftover bits and dust from that broken up cake. That chunk wasn’t breaking up, so I tried to crush it with my bare fingers. Note to self, not a good idea to break pu without proper utensils. The chunk ended up flying past my head, leaving leaves scattered across my face, shirt, floor counter and sink. Well, I gathered up what I could off the floor, threw it back in pot, and made the best cup yet. It tasted of smoke, apricot and tartness. Good stuff, headache had all day has almost finally vanished.

ferg wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 14, 2023 9:50 pm

I just threw chunk in and leftover bits and dust from that broken up cake

For how careful I am leave material as intact as possible, I am often surprised how well my bottom of the jar session comes out. Like a convention defying last goodbye offered by the tea. As for headaches, liu bao just dispels them for me.

Taking a break from trying new teas, and simply enjoying a 90s green label cake from Varat Phong. Powerful relaxation...

Andrew

2021 Chawangpu Jinggu Lao Shu Zhuan 400g Brick in bamboo wrap.

Nice Shu despite its youth. Full in taste and flavour.

Teaware: Yixing houhin, Huaning pitcher, traditional Slovak ceramic cup.

Enjoying an evening session of shu, kindly gifted. The dry leaf smells slightly earthy, as is reflected in the cup. A cleaner shu than I’ve had in the past, light in taste and quite smooth, thicker when pushed in later steeps. Earthiness I always attribute to shu evolved into rich, chocolate notes with deeper steep. Slightly warming, made for a relaxing tea.

Revisiting the hojo dry storage

viewtopic.php?p=42331#p42331




And looking at my original post
viewtopic.php?p=34962#p34962

Where I proclaimed fast infusions with porcelain to be better.

But I think after gaining some experience, I prefer the deeper infusions from the hqsn pot - I end up reaching for it all the time for sheng now

More Nor Sun, such an agreeable low-effort tea. However, I'm not seeing it around anymore -- maybe the blend has been discontinued?

My wife and I are sharing some Xiaguan XY from the 2022 TWL intro quarter cake set. Smokey and smooth!

2005 'Early Spring' Sheng Tuo from Menghai via Yunnan Sourcing. I bought this Tuo back in 2010, and it's been in my indifferent Los Angeles storage (various boxes in my home, no attempt made to really manage the storage conditions) ever since. I prepared some in the 2L thermos the night before a long day in clinic, and it worked beautifully, being delicately earthy, lightly sweet, and just enough bitter edge at the aftertaste to keep it from being boring.

It got raves from even my 'no earthy teas' tentative tea newbie and from the other 8 or 9 people I shared it with.

And there was a little too much left to just rinse out and discard the leaves, so I brought it home....and after 36 hours in the thermos, and a little dilution with some fresh hot water, it is still quite pleasing and not particularly bitter. Really nice. I used a pouch of picked-apart leaves that has been in the office tea file-drawer for some time, but now it is clearly time to pull out the remaining tuo to work on it in earnest.