you taste perception is changing on many factors , and yes , the drinking experience is one of them along with body and mind estate at the moment you drink your cup.
The actual taste of tea also changes based on storage ( time & conditions ) and not only applied to puerh.
Many Kunming vendors proudly say : " Once you try ( or fall in love with ) puerh tea, you don't want to drink anything else ( like no other tea make sense to drink ) " .....
One main reason of this is that most of them are not experienced tea drinkers but just happened to have money to invest into the puerh and run the business. Because most of those people never even had any tea biz before ( the real tea shop which offers varieties of tea ). So more than likely they understand the puerh only and hardly can judge quality of other Yunnan teas, let alone tea from other provinces ( some they have never even heard of ).
Why I'm saying that?
It is the 1st time puerh experience you are going trough. I went trough this as well, but got a bit overwhelmed by puerh and started to search for other teas in higher qualities.
Like lately I drink LBao quite a lot. Last month I was really into the GABA tea , and tried some vendors / suppliers. Sometimes I get black tea mood.
Depends how often in day you drink tea and how long is each session. In general if I'm at home , not going to tea market ( where goes very random and sometimes too much ) I have 3 to 4times per day and each time mostly different tea in 5 to 10 steepings.
Sometimes I mix some CN herbs and drink those , in order to calm the stomach as it the acidity might raise up after drinking young shengs.
Keep it in balance
"I've been enjoying a lot more raw puers lately, and going back and trying my taiwanese oolongs I've found them lacking." ..because your mind is unconsciously comparing it with your young sheng puerh FRONT taste , which , I believe is bitter & astringent ( unless you have some real old woods or Xing Gong Yi made puerh , or some wet stored where transformation was wast ) and trying to catch some "hui gan" or "sheng jing" after .
I caught my self doing it with coffee the other day. I slurped in , like I do with the tea and realized that I'm waiting for some sweet after taste ...had to laugh right after I realized that I'm just doing it.
