shu: dry storage?

Puerh and other heicha
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pedant
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Tue Feb 20, 2018 5:42 pm

i ended up removing posts that i felt contained personal attacks.

tealifehk: quit calling people haters

lurker: i think you are a bit out of line, and the topic's getting derailed. sorry, .m.

my summarized interpretation of what lurker said:
  • i'm not obligated to say who i am on other sites
  • disagreeing with you doesn't necessarily make me a hater
  • i think you have biases, and i also think it would be better if you acknowledged them sometimes
it's ok to say things like that, but there's no reason to rant and make attacks ad hominem. that's against the spirit of this site.

can we please return to the real discussion? :D
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tealifehk
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Tue Feb 20, 2018 8:52 pm

I've decided this would make a good topic for a blog post (dry storage, not the drama)! Let me expand on what I was saying.

Some of the best dry storage shu (and sheng) I've ever had was tasted (and purchased) in Kunming. The shou was exactly what I wanted. Lovely sweet aromas and no storage or wo dui funk. I brought 1.3kg of shou like that home. I also recommend BitterLeaf's 2005 7581 bricks to everyone as an excellent daily drinker shou that is aged beautifully.

At the same time, I've also had tea from Kunming arrive basically undrinkable without years of storage here being necessary. I believe much of this is because large factories and wholesalers store their tea in carefully controlled conditions to prevent aging. Some of those warehouses must be truly massive. You can buy 2007 (or earlier) tea from these companies (including Dayi) that is barely aged at all because they simply aren't playing that game.

For people who are holding that much pu erh, I believe it is a much safer bet to keep tea in stasis than to play the aging game at that scale (and potentially ruin your tea). As far as the factories go, if they were to start aging tea themselves, it would rock the market to its core. A big reason for why the pu game today is what it is (since the 88 QB) is because people (both dealers and individuals) try to store their own pu, dry storage style. This simply wasn't something anyone bothered with in the 90s and earlier. You just bought (cheap!) factory pu from a dealer (who usually aged it) and that was that.

The proof is always in the pot. Buy a sample and try it. If you like it, buy more. If you don't, try something else! When buying online, it is impossible to tell if a tea has been stored right without trying it first. Trying a tea in person is the only way to know if it meets your needs.
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