Does Loose Leaf Puer Age?

Puerh and other heicha
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Janice
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Tue Dec 17, 2019 7:01 pm

I’m looking at this loose leaf sheng puer on the Seven Cups site.

https://sevencups.com/shop/bai-long-xu- ... oose-leaf/

It’s new and it’s never been compressed into a cake. Is it intended to be drunk as is, or if I put some aside for several years will it age?
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Bok
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Tue Dec 17, 2019 7:16 pm

Janice wrote:
Tue Dec 17, 2019 7:01 pm
I’m looking at this loose leaf sheng puer on the Seven Cups site.

https://sevencups.com/shop/bai-long-xu- ... oose-leaf/

It’s new and it’s never been compressed into a cake. Is it intended to be drunk as is, or if I put some aside for several years will it age?
It will age. Any tea you put aside will age for that matter, question just is how long you need to wait until it's something decent.
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aet
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Tue Dec 17, 2019 7:45 pm

I believe there is a difference between Mo Jiang and Jing Gu tea , but not sure if worth to pay 4x higher price.I guess this is individual. ( yet there are in same area Puer )
It's a white tea not a puerh tea ,as website suggesting. The tips of the Yun Keng Shi Hao type bush which hasn't gone trough the kill green step of processing , therefore it is not a puerh tea but just a white tea. In Jin Gu ( Yunnan ) they call this Bai Hao , or big ones Da Bai Hao. which is just a White Hair (fur).

The white tea tends to kinda age up to certain time ( get the sweet taste caused by nat.chem reaction when oxidizing ) , after that turns bitter like Chinese medicine. Some people say 7 years, some 10 years, I believe it all depends on environment where it's stored. I have 2y old few grams left and it has lost a bit it's natural tea leaf bitterness ( which is the one of the points of aging ) , but I believe the same flavor of tea leafs/tips which I have developed in my KM storage for 2 years, might be achieved within 20s of steaming them before pressing in cake.

If you use a heater ( dry air ) in your home, I'd suggest to keep them sealed in some jar or box. Not vacuum tight as oolongs but with some space in jar for inner air / environment.
Last edited by aet on Wed Dec 18, 2019 6:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
Chadrinkincat
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Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:59 pm

Why wouldn’t loose puerh age?

In general it’ll age faster than compressed cakes but 2-3 years isn’t gonna have much of an aging effect unless you live in a hot and humid place in Asia.
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aet
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Tue Dec 17, 2019 10:08 pm

Chadrinkincat wrote:
Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:59 pm
Why wouldn’t loose puerh age?

In general it’ll age faster than compressed cakes but 2-3 years isn’t gonna have much of an aging effect unless you live in a hot and humid place in Asia.
correct! I got distracted by the link of actual tea ( which is not puerh ) , rather focusing on question ;-) There are certain temp. and humidity criteria for enzymes start to work ( the aging ). I haven't observe that in laboratory to say exact numbers. I think it's said that minimum threshold is like around 60-70% humidity, or something? More humidity, faster aging. Even in Kunming are places with various humidity . Yet the temperature is involved as well.
oolongfan
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Mon Dec 30, 2019 7:57 pm

I have some lovely lovely aged loose shengs from the '90's and '70's - both from Norbu. They have incredible body and energy.

I can't really speak to the experience of aging loose sheng, since I have only had these less than a year. It will be hard not to drink them entirely before any significant amount of time passes ;)
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