What Pu'er Are You Drinking

[TeaLoverJuang]

Hello to all tea lovers! I am happy to share my experience with pu-erh. I have recently tried Shen Puer and was fascinated by its unique taste and aroma. This tea has opened up a whole world of new sensations and emotions for me. It has a unique character, exquisite aroma, and depth of flavor, which gives a sense of calm and harmony .

What kinds of pu-erh do you drink? I am always fascinated by the diversity of the tea world and would love to hear your impressions and advice. Perhaps there are some other interesting types of pu-erh that you recommend trying? I look forward to hearing from you! May every cup of tea be full of new discoveries and pleasant experiences.

[debunix]

assuming that what you mean is sheng puerh, the more traditionally aged version, vs shou, a modern innovation in processing that rapidly converts fresh young tea to some with some of the qualities of an aged Puer, I would suggest trying some shou puerh as well. Shou is generally very earthy and mellow, and I quite enjoy sharing some shous with tea friends at work. Many lovers of Sheng Puer, however, really dislike shou, some because they are tea snobs, and some because they just don't like it. Your shou preferences may vary....

and simply having tried one Sheng does not mean you have tried all of them, because there are dozens of growing areas that produce the leaves, dozens of tea makers who processed the leaves, and harvests differ year to year even in the same place with the same person processing the tea, and they can be as as varied as wine.

[debunix]

Revisited an old tasting note for this 2010 Ban Pen Sheng from Essence of Tea, from 2011 or 2012:

I missed making a note first time around for this tea. I broke off a small quantity of this one to enjoy now, although I intend to let most of it age a while.

Tonight, just 1.8 grams of tea in a very small gaiwan, which holds 50-60mL, and tap water at 205 degrees.

The dry leaf is quite dark, with some paler leaves twisted in with the rest. The scent is light, herbaceous, soil-like.

First a flash rinse, wait a minute or two, then a first flash infusion. Strongly herbaceous, some bitterness waiting in the wings, hint of sweet but only a hint. Leather, fresh-cut wood, umami noticeable after cooling, sipping more slowly.

2nd infusion was similar. 3rd infusion, still flash infusions, more sweetness starting to come to the fore, although the leather/earthy/umami is still dominant. 4th infusion, waited 5 seconds before starting to pour: sweet, anise/herb notes are stronger again. The leather/umami is still there but lightening, less overwhelming but still stronger than anything else. 5th, 10 seconds before pour: more sweet. 6th, similar, the long sweet finish starting to really take over. Yes, there is some bitter in there too, but my taste buds are doing a happy dance now. Nice nice nice. One more and I’ll be done for the evening [nope, make that 3, we’re up to 9 before retiring for the evening]. This is definitely one to continue tomorrow—want to see how far it can go.

10 and 11 down before I had this note open to edit: sweet, delicious, holding up well to some strong onion flavor in what I was eating before starting back with the tea. 12 was too short, about 5 seconds, just sweet water. 13, was barely patient enough to go 20 seconds (I am thirsty)—more flavor of herbs to back up the sweet—14, 15, 16, similar, beautifully balanced between sweet and herbaceous and sweet forest duff, tastebuds doing happy dance again. Then a horrible moment—I looked over for infusion 17 and the gaiwan was EMPTY. Filled, infused again, world righted itself on its axis. Whew.

18, 19, 20 still delicious, but starting to lighten up. Need to lengthen the infusions again. 21 to 2 minutes….still needs more. #22 will be 3 minutes, and was a little better. Going to push #23 for 5 minutes…..and it is again very nice. 10 minutes on #24, and it is nice, but back to nearly sweet water. Time to add water and go do some chores for an hour or two, maybe. #25 lost something to cooling down; #26 suggests the leaves are finally done.

Overall, an excellent experience, and this is while it is still only an infant tea.
Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec

231124 Ban Pan Sheng EOT DEB_1268 ppd TFIG.jpg (263.56 KiB) Viewed 42273 times

And today, enjoying it through the day, without having measured the quantity of leaf, in a small Petr Novak treebark teapot, and drinking from a large Petr Novak chawan that makes it easy to correct careless brewing errors by adding more volume as needed when it came out too strong....and I'm trying to interpret those notes from my past palate, and guess if there has been any actual aging in my random Los Angeles storage over the past decade, an enjoyable exercise. I'm not sure. But I'm enjoying the process a lot, the herbaceous notes, the earthy notes, and the bit of sweet--this might have reduced a bit over time.

231124 Ban Pan Sheng EOT DEB_1273 TFIG.jpg (305.8 KiB) Viewed 42273 times

A pleasant exercise.

[Andrew S]

Taking a little break from 'normal tea' and relaxing with some Sunsing 2001 FuHai. Very nice traditional storage - it's clearly crossed the line between young raw puer and aged puer. It also puts me gently into a calm, relaxed, contemplative state.

It feel strange that my last post on this part of the forum was half a year ago... But then there's only so much tea that you drink each day.

Andrew

[debunix]

Ketlee '2020 Indian Gushu Sheng Coin'. I bought this with an order of mostly samples about a year ago, and this is the first of these 'coins' that I have opened. It looked like more leaf than I wanted for a shorter evening session, and I was pondering breaking it up anyway when I realized the disk was too big to fit through the lid opening of my little Petr Novak treebark puerh pot. So I took out the ratcheting puerh scissors, and chomped right through that coin.

I let the first infusion continue for too long, because I got distracted by the needs of some baking bread, and I dealt with that by pouring out about a third of it, and diluting, and another third and diluting a few minutes later, and it turns out to be quite pleasant, earthy, a little sweet, a little herbaceous and not too bitter. I'm not sure of the aging potential of this, but at three years old, and having been stored in it sealed pouch since it arrived, it's tasty stuff--my favorite so far of the teas that I tried from them.

[Bok]

Someone gave me this Chen Yuan Hao cake from 2007... not an avid Puer drinker, but this one is very nice. Very clean and bright tea soup. No faults whatsoever. My only complaint is that it made for some very lucid dreams

[Andrew S]

My only complaint is that it made for some very lucid dreams

So you are a 'qi-believer'... You should drink the really mouldy stuff.

Andrew

[Bok]

My only complaint is that it made for some very lucid dreams

So you are a 'qi-believer'... You should drink the really mouldy stuff.

Andrew

Haha… Qi is nothing to believe in. Just a term for things the old ones couldn’t explain yet. All biochemical reactions of some sort.

[.m.]

Someone gave me this Chen Yuan Hao cake from 2007... not an avid Puer drinker, but this one is very nice. Very clean and bright tea soup. No faults whatsoever. My only complaint is that it made for some very lucid dreams

You have some good friends!
Which cake of CYH is it?

[Bok]

Someone gave me this Chen Yuan Hao cake from 2007... not an avid Puer drinker, but this one is very nice. Very clean and bright tea soup. No faults whatsoever. My only complaint is that it made for some very lucid dreams

You have some good friends!
Which cake of CYH is it?

Apparently cakes that were pressed for their own use for a special occasion.

[.m.]

Wow, nice! That sounds enticing.

[Bok]

That’s the wrapper

[.m.]

Mansa

[Balthazar]

501 8582 today. Been alternating between this and the 901 7542 when I'm working from home recently. These days I'm mostly drinking thorough two cakes at a time, letting the rest rest in the closet. The exception is office days when grandpa calls the shots, better quality leaves handle that kind of treatment much better imo. Entry level CYH has become an office favorite of mine, the 2011 Yiwu jincha is a likely candidate for tomorrow.

This 8582 is in a nice place. Plummy, good body and aftertaste, very calming and focused energy.

[teacreacha7]

2018 "Lumber Slut" Shou from White2Tea