Pu-erh. What's your preference?

[captp]

I'm fairly new to tea. Only really started drinking it regularly a little over a year ago. Just in the last month, I've started to try other than English or Irish Breakfast Blend.
I'm liking some other black teas & Pu-erh.
What are your preferences on Pu-erh? Raw, ripe, Cake, brick, loose. New harvests or older, well aged.
I have 2 cakes, 100 & 400 grams, and some loose, plus a tube of mini-cakes (8 grams each?) All raw.
I tried the loose, found it quite good, fairly high in caffeine. The mini-cakes; I think I didn't use enough tea. I'll increase it next time.
Haven't tried either of the larger cakes yet, but will soon; they're from 2017. I would expect both of them to be better 'cause they have a few years on them.
So, how do YOU like your Pu-erh?

 

[Ad Astra]

For me, the ripe/cake. Remember to rinse, of course, they use, well, just rinse it.

I really like W2Tea, without plugging them.

Just don't have time for the pu-erh process lately, but it is fun.


AA

 

[luvmysuper]

I'm fairly new to tea. Only really started drinking it regularly a little over a year ago. Just in the last month, I've started to try other than English or Irish Breakfast Blend.
I'm liking some other black teas & Pu-erh.
What are your preferences on Pu-erh? Raw, ripe, Cake, brick, loose. New harvests or older, well aged.
I have 2 cakes, 100 & 400 grams, and some loose, plus a tube of mini-cakes (8 grams each?) All raw.
I tried the loose, found it quite good, fairly high in caffeine. The mini-cakes; I think I didn't use enough tea. I'll increase it next time.
Haven't tried either of the larger cakes yet, but will soon; they're from 2017. I would expect both of them to be better 'cause they have a few years on them.
So, how do YOU like your Pu-erh?

I like Pu-erh, but have always either had it served ready or in a small bag, loose and ready for steeping.
The whole cake issue is a little intimidating honestly, and I'm still working up the courage to attempt it.

 

[captp]

I like Pu-erh, but have always either had it served ready or in a small bag, loose and ready for steeping.
The whole cake issue is a little intimidating honestly, and I'm still working up the courage to attempt it.

I'm close to trying some from the smaller Pu-erh cake. Tea Needle all ready to pry. I have a coffee mug (with Tas on it, not the hockey player) that's about a perfect size for rinsing & steeping.

 

[Ckmaui]

drank this some time ago but liked age cake
and had to be decent stuff as I found a lot of the cheaper stuff was brutal to me it was like my espresso
has to be good base as its so much flavor if its off its bad

fun to see this mentioned

 

[Ad Astra]

I like Pu-erh, but have always either had it served ready or in a small bag, loose and ready for steeping.
The whole cake issue is a little intimidating honestly, and I'm still working up the courage to attempt it.

Easier than it seems, Phil. One of the good companies included a free tea needle, to pick the cakes apart.

I never did settle on a gaiwan - too many artistic choices - but instead use a normal stainless steel filter to rinse and then steep the stuff. You get several cups that way.

My "good" cakes are definitely aging and getting even better, I hope.


AA

 

[TinyTim]

Puerh is a world of its own within the world of tea. I haven't explored it beyond the basic level, but as you can read on the SOTD-Sheng of the Day thread, it can get very complex, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I've been drinking a loose leaf Puerh as a breakfast tea. Cakes are a good way to purchase as well. Sheng and Shou puerhs each have there own merits. And you can spend a bundle on premium puerh tea. I've had good luck with Crimson Lotus Teas, who deal exclusively in puerhs.

 

[Lightcs1776]

Yet another rabbit hole I will have to explore one of these days. I really like oolong tea and now I will have to explore others.

 

[TinyTim]

Yet another rabbit hole I will have to explore one of these days. I really like oolong tea and now I will have to explore others.

You can focus on oolongs for a lifetime and never run out of new things to learn or new varieties of tea. For me, oolongs offer so many possibilities, even at reasonably low prices. I don't know where you live, but you may want to attend a Tea Festival in your area. In my neck of the woods, the NW Tea Festival is held every year on the last weekend of September.

 

[Herrenberg]

What are your preferences on Pu-erh? Raw, ripe, Cake, brick, loose. New harvests or older, well aged.
So, how do YOU like your Pu-erh?

Talk about a rabbit hole.

Sheng (green) pu-erh is hard on my stomach, and has what some call a "bean" taste. It can be beguiling, but no.

Ripe pu-erh is artificially fermented. It can range from pretty darned good to awful. The best is good, but not nearly my favorite. I get sort of tired of it.

That leaves the real thing, Sheng in cakes or bricks or that mushroom-head shape, aged for 11+ years in high humidity. That's what all the fuss is about. It is amazing, and the best stuff is mind-blowing. Menghai is my favorite, generally, but there is a lot of other stuff I like.

The challenge is that it's hard to get your hands on the good stuff, which is mostly spoken for before it has a chance to leave the country. I once walked into a tea store, actually a tea floor of a department store, in Hong Kong, and saw a huge stack of brightly colored boxes holding maybe 5 discs of pu-erh. Following the rule that fancy packaging often means high quality in China and Japan, I asked to buy one of these boxes, but they were all sold, all 300 or so of them. Ugh.

I did manage to get a box of assorted Menghai discs, from old trees, each intended to highlight a particular flavor aspect. They are now 20 years old, having spent their time in humidified rooms or humidified Coleman coolers, and they are wonderful.

A visit to the tea street in Beijing can be very rewarding for a pu-erh fan. Taste, taste, taste. Buy, buy, buy.

Good, small, unglazed teapots are a must, as is the gongfu brewing method, where you make a series of small, brief steeps, throwing away the first one because it extracts most of the caffeine, and is therefore bitter.

 

[Lightcs1776]

You can focus on oolongs for a lifetime and never run out of new things to learn or new varieties of tea. For me, oolongs offer so many possibilities, even at reasonably low prices. I don't know where you live, but you may want to attend a Tea Festival in your area. In my neck of the woods, the NW Tea Festival is held every year on the last weekend of September.

I am in the US, NYS. I will have to look for tea festivals in my area. Thanks.

 

[mr_trent]

I like raw puerh when it's freshly made and pressed, and also after about 5 years of aging. I don't always like the super aged stuff, although some of it is amazing, and ripe is not my favorite, but some of it is amazing.

The best I've ever had was a semi-aged raw, loose/bagged from Hojo Tea.

There is a huge amount of variation in puerh tea. It can taste different depending on where it's grown, how it's grown, how it's processed, how it's stored. The same tea can even taste different from one day to the next. You can spend a lifetime trying to figure it out.

I like Pu-erh, but have always either had it served ready or in a small bag, loose and ready for steeping.
The whole cake issue is a little intimidating honestly, and I'm still working up the courage to attempt it.

I'm close to trying some from the smaller Pu-erh cake. Tea Needle all ready to pry. I have a coffee mug (with Tas on it, not the hockey player) that's about a perfect size for rinsing & steeping.

Most boutique vendors (YS, W2T, Crimson Lotus) use light compression on most of their cakes, which makes them super easy to pry the leaves apart. You can use just your fingers a lot of the time. The factory cakes (Xiaguan, Dayi, etc) tend to be more tightly compressed, and that's when you need to be careful not to stab yourself with your pick.

 

[Sinnbad11]

I finally had a chance to try out the several puer teas I have had on order for a month. I gave them a few days rest to recover from shipping, but ultimately I'm not a patient man so I dove into the two less special teas.

I'll write more musings in the Sheng of the day thread (not that I expect my drivel to be worth much) but I enjoyed both cups quite a lot. The young raw puer punches harder than green teas but carries some similar flavor notes. The shou steeps thick and rich, an excellent winters evening cup.

Off the cuff I think I lean toward the young raw sheng, a pleasant drying astringency that draws attention to the difference between the aroma and flavor/mouthfeel, but still manages to accentuate both.

I say more musings are needed, and much more tea needs to be consumed, before I have a more definitive answer.

 

[abies]

I'm fairly new to tea. Only really started drinking it regularly a little over a year ago. Just in the last month, I've started to try other than English or Irish Breakfast Blend.
I'm liking some other black teas & Pu-erh.
What are your preferences on Pu-erh? Raw, ripe, Cake, brick, loose. New harvests or older, well aged.
I have 2 cakes, 100 & 400 grams, and some loose, plus a tube of mini-cakes (8 grams each?) All raw.
I tried the loose, found it quite good, fairly high in caffeine. The mini-cakes; I think I didn't use enough tea. I'll increase it next time.
Haven't tried either of the larger cakes yet, but will soon; they're from 2017. I would expect both of them to be better 'cause they have a few years on them.
So, how do YOU like your Pu-erh?

Shou, the form I have no preference about. I feel like I should prefer Sheng but so far I have not.

I probably have liked non-puerh dark teas the most, but I've had shou I like as well. I have to be in the right mood for it though.

 

[Doc4]

The mini-cakes; I think I didn't use enough tea. I'll increase it next time.

If we are talking about the same thing ...

... they are probably made to be "single use" size for a gaiwan or traditional clay pot. But of course those pots and gaiwans are quite small compared to a Western tea pot or coffee mug.

I'd try reducing the water used before dropping in another cake.

The whole cake issue is a little intimidating honestly, and I'm still working up the courage to attempt it.

What intimidates? We are full of useful or at least interesting answers and suggestions, so let us know and give us a chance to spout off and sound like we know what we're talking about.

 

[luvmysuper]

What intimidates? We are full of useful or at least interesting answers and suggestions, so let us know and give us a chance to spout off and sound like we know what we're talking about.

Yeah, no doubt I can get expert advice here.
The issue isn't really that I don't know what to do, but rather that elbow leakage problem I have.
I can know exactly what to do, and how, but on new stuff I still fear that knowledge will leak out my elbows before it gets to my hands.

 

[Wgg2017]

So, how do YOU like your Pu-erh?

I just tried pu-erh for the first time about a month ago. I had been drinking coffee when I wanted a morning pick-me-up but found that I didn't really like the more abrupt caffeine hit and crash from coffee. It also seemed to make me irritable occasionally for no apparent reason.

I had previously drank black tea and oolong but got away from them over the years. I like strong flavors and after doing a little research, pu-erh seemed like a nice compromise between the strong flavor of black coffee and the more gentle caffeine profile of tea.

I got a 250 gram brick of ripe/shou pu-erh made from mature tea leaves that were processed in 2011. I like it a lot and it has a scent that has some barnyard/hay notes to it. It kind of reminds me of some of the beers that are fermented with brettanomyces yeast and have the same barnyard notes.

I haven't explored the gongfu brewing style yet. I might try it but it seems like I would prefer the stronger flavor obtained by brewing for about 5 minutes. I use about 3 grams of tea to 8 oz of water and get three steeps out of it before it gets too watery for my tastes.

For me, the ripe/cake. Remember to rinse, of course, they use, well, just rinse it.

I really like W2Tea, without plugging them.

Just don't have time for the pu-erh process lately, but it is fun.


AA

Just curious why it needs rinsed? I haven't been doing that so far. Is there something gross in it?

 

[Ad Astra]

I just tried pu-erh for the first time about a month ago. I had been drinking coffee when I wanted a morning pick-me-up but found that I didn't really like the more abrupt caffeine hit and crash from coffee. It also seemed to make me irritable occasionally for no apparent reason.

I had previously drank black tea and oolong but got away from them over the years. I like strong flavors and after doing a little research, pu-erh seemed like a nice compromise between the strong flavor of black coffee and the more gentle caffeine profile of tea.

I got a 250 gram brick of ripe/shou pu-erh made from mature tea leaves that were processed in 2011. I like it a lot and it has a scent that has some barnyard/hay notes to it. It kind of reminds me of some of the beers that are fermented with brettanomyces yeast and have the same barnyard notes.

I haven't explored the gongfu brewing style yet. I might try it but it seems like I would prefer the stronger flavor obtained by brewing for about 5 minutes. I use about 3 grams of tea to 8 oz of water and get three steeps out of it before it gets too watery for my tastes.



Just curious why it needs rinsed? I haven't been doing that so far. Is there something gross in it?

Here you go. It's worth doing.

Why You Should Rinse Your Pu Erh Tea And Hazards To Avoid

It is common practice to rinse Pu Erh tea at least once before you start brewing. You might have started this habit without truly understanding why you would want to do this. Rinsing your tea

teasteeping.com

AA

 

[Herrenberg]

Here you go. It's worth doing.

Why You Should Rinse Your Pu Erh Tea And Hazards To Avoid

It is common practice to rinse Pu Erh tea at least once before you start brewing. You might have started this habit without truly understanding why you would want to do this. Rinsing your tea

teasteeping.com

AA

That's a good article. Another reason to do it is that the first short infusion (the "wash") is bitter. I've assumed that the bitterness comes from caffeine, but I don't really know that.

 

[Wgg2017]

Here you go. It's worth doing.

Why You Should Rinse Your Pu Erh Tea And Hazards To Avoid

It is common practice to rinse Pu Erh tea at least once before you start brewing. You might have started this habit without truly understanding why you would want to do this. Rinsing your tea

teasteeping.com

AA

Good to know and thanks for the link.