Home aging? How is it going?

[kimble22]

I thought it might be interesting to start a thread about how cakes have aged under our care... I've noticed that my buying has significantly decreased and I have a decent amount of cakes and tongs that have been living with me for a few years now. While my note-taking has taken a backseat, last night I was looking through my old tasting notes and decided to re-taste the first cake I ever bought.

In the beginning, it was immensely smokey like no other puerh I had tried up to that point, and I was quite peeved that I hadn’t bought a drinkable cake. Cut to 3 years later, a completely new cake has emerged. Only the faintest bit of smoke, and this detection I think is aided by the fact that I knew how smokey it was before. It has gone from porky-smokey-road tires-tobacco-and to wild-flower, musky, while still very tobacco-ey. The broth is many shades darker, and more oily than before. The tea wrapper is a good indicator of this as well as it has become brown in a fair amount of places. While this cake has seemed to age well, the number of infusions has dropped from somewhere in the 12-14 range to about 8-9.

Not to be exclusive to the newcomers, it would be nice to hear from people who've at least had their cake(s) for 1 year, so that the cake has done at least one full cycle through the seasons under your care. (I will try to add some comparison photos soon.)

 

[tea goober]

Ive had some of my cakes for about four to five years now and as far as I can tell they are aging just as they are supposed to. No longer green, they have changed to brown. The aroma is deeper and heavier. I know what you mean about the smokey aspects and how they fade. I remember buying some tuocha's that were extremely smokey when new, four years later it's barely detectable. But... these tea's are not good to drink as they are now, they are in the in between stages of aging. I think maybe somewhere around the ten year mark they might be enjoyable. We will see. But I am lucky in that I live in a fairly humid place, the average being around 50 % indoors. But with summer coming and the air conditioner in use it will dry it up a bit. I,m the kinda person who just stores em and forgets em, I don't check on them often. I think the less interference from me the better off they are going to be. I will also try to come up with some "then and now" pics.

 

[thanks]

Ive had some of my cakes for about four to five years now and as far as I can tell they are aging just as they are supposed to. No longer green, they have changed to brown. The aroma is deeper and heavier. I know what you mean about the smokey aspects and how they fade. I remember buying some tuocha's that were extremely smokey when new, four years later it's barely detectable. But... these tea's are not good to drink as they are now, they are in the in between stages of aging. I think maybe somewhere around the ten year mark they might be enjoyable. We will see. But I am lucky in that I live in a fairly humid place, the average being around 50 % indoors. But with summer coming and the air conditioner in use it will dry it up a bit. I,m the kinda person who just stores em and forgets em, I don't check on them often. I think the less interference from me the better off they are going to be. I will also try to come up with some "then and now" pics.

I'm in a very similar boat. All of my cakes are aging just fine, and I look forward to spring or summer to retaste a few of my teas, and I cycle which ones I taste so it's rare for me to try the same tea more than once every two years.

Having said that, there are a couple of cakes that probably won't age well, or they are going through awkward phases. I just recently tasted my 04 Sun Yi Shun Liu An basket knowing it wasn't ready, but just to see how it's coming along. It was... not so good. I remember it being better a year ago! The cha qi and caffeine hit me like a freight train though. Liu An is some extremely potent stuff!

 

[SilverToy]

This thread will be very informative for a Tea newb such as myself, I have just started putting away tea about two months ago, (about 20 cakes and a dozen or so tuocha's) and I have been wondering about some of the changes that they will go through, I had not considered the tea wrapper being a good indicator of change, and I had not thought about taking pictures to chart the aging. I will be watching this post closely for more hints…

 

[tea goober]

You know, nobody knows for sure how any tea is going to turn out years down the road. From my experience, it's seems to be quite common for tea's to go through the "awkward phase" around the five year mark is when Ive most often noticed this happening. They taste kinda lifeless, flat and boring. But from what Ive read, this is a typical scenario and we should be anticipating this.

 

[tea goober]

This Tuocha is only four years old and when new it was as green as green could be. You can see for yourself that's no longer the case. The tuo's aroma has also changed in these few years. When I first got these they were so smokey that I never entertained the idea that I would ever like them. About a year ago, just for the hell of it I brewed some up and was amazed at the transformation, that smokiness had almost completely disappeared. And I wound up liking this tea so much that I bought several more of the same tuocha's.

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[Shogun89]

Good thread! I must say that I was skeptical of how our tea would age here in the US. I have only been collecting for about 3 years now. My first cake, a Guoyan 2007 66 has become quite good. At first it was fairly smokey and obviously bitter. Now both of those traits have calmed a bit though it is still very potent. My others, such as the 7542's 8582's and other various cakes have defiantly improved as well. I hold about 40% and 65 degrees in the winter and about 70% 75 degrees in the summer time with a decline in between seasons. So, for myself I must say that I am happy with how things are going and this only makes me want to buy more tea.

 

[netsurfr]

I too have found that my teas have been aging rather well. I am learning that the teas that are more from old arbor trees seem to be aging better or at least have a better flavor profile as they age. However, that is strictly a personal impression. I don't have a lot of data to back that concept up. In addition, I like the teas that are made by using stone compression. The tight machine compression may serve a purpose for longer-term storage, but it seems to delay the aging process significantly.