If you stick around the western pu’erh scene long enough, you’ll hear about people setting up a variety of different storage setups. Unfortunately there is only a light track record for us to draw on. A handful of 10-15 year old western stored pu’erh has been lightly circulated but this isn’t exactly a quick feedback loop. While some folks flirt with fairly complex systems of storage, most people end up settling on something relatively simple. Why is that?
(more…)Category: Aged Pu’erh
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Three 20ish Year old Dayi Teas [Inbetweenisode 208]
In this episode, I talk about three older Menghai Tea Factory teas that are all around 20 years old. While I don’t drink them on camera, I share my thoughts on each and my overarching impression and how I think they fit into my own understanding of Menghai Tea Factory Tea.
Relevant article published on these teas.
The samples were purchased from: http://taishunhe.com/.
NOTE: I’m not too satisfied with how the video turned out with me reading from a script I pre-wrote. I think it wasn’t particularly well-executed and I’d do it differently if I were to do it again. Nevertheless I think the concept of the episode and what is portrayed still works so I decided to release the video anyways.
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A Few Considerations in a Group Session
I’ve had the opportunity to participate and host a number of group sessions since I got into tea. The context varies.. Some have been with a couple people unfamiliar with tea, others are with regular tea friends. This article on a couple approaches to choosing what to brew sequentially in a group setting and a few more of my thoughts that I thought I’d share.
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What I’ve Been Buying Recently (The Past Couple Years)
I get asked now and then what I’ve bought and where to buy from. Despite some past efforts of transparency and publicly shaming, I haven’t talked as directly about teas I’ve bought. If you read between the lines you can probably get some idea of what I go for. Over the last few years, I’ve slowed down an awful lot, first in terms of sampling and now in terms of buying. A few cakes I’ve bought in the last 8 or 9 months.
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1988 Hongtaichang Raw “Pu’erh” via Tea-Side [Episode 324]
This episode, Denny and I drink a purportedly very old tea processed like sheng pu’erh. The tea was kindly provided by Valerii over at Tea-Side and is not pu’erh because it comes from Thai material. While we can’t vouch for this exact age the tea is legitimately old.
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2001 Xiaguan Iron 8653 Raw Pu’erh [Episode 322]
This episode, Denny and I drink a sample kindly provided by Pat, a 2001 Xiaguan Iron 8653. This is a famous recipe and the tea itself is fairly aged, but still potent raw pu’erh. The character is partly woody, earthy and aged but there’s also a brightness and liveliness to the tea that keeps the session dynamic. Thanks Pat!
https://www.instagram.com/pat_love_tea/
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The 70/70 Line & Projecting Pu’erh Storage
A few years ago I thought it’d be interesting to try mapping certain temperature and humidity conditions to approximate a certain area’s storage. For instance, if you could maintain conditions of 55-65F/65RH in a storage setup that might approximate somewhat close to average Kunming storage. 80-85F/65-70RH might be Kuala Lumpur. After banging my head and never really getting anywhere I decided that this was a doomed exercise (or at least beyond what I’m capable of). One reason why is that while location clearly matters in storage conditions, trying to translate outside weather conditions to actual storage conditions is not easy or straightforward. In the west people will sometimes get quite excited about storage and look at their climate data and try to extrapolate. I don’t think this is a totally useless exercise but it’s pretty difficult to know what to do with these numbers. This article explores some limitations but also what I think is a shortcut to approximating your natural conditions and how they stack up with places with an actual record of pu’erh storage.
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How I Brew Pu’erh & My Thought Process on Approaching Different Types of Pu’erh [Inbetweenisode 201]
In episode 201, I supplement a couple older episodes Denny and I filmed on the basics of raw and ripe pu’erh. In this episode I talk specifically about brewing and how I tend to model it in my head and think about it. This is one of our most requested episodes and I make no claims of expertise. I’m just a guy that likes pu’erh and has brewed and drank a lot of it!
Over the course of the episode, I walk through young raw, semi-aged raw, aged raw, and ripe tea and how I think about each.
Raw Pu’erh Basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LR9TOBNuA4
Ripe Pu’erh Basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HwrjdGvcpk -
A Conversation w/Glen on Aging Tea in Seattle & Kunming, Blending & Tea Culture [Inbetweenisode 199]
In this episode, Glen and I have a casual conversation covering a wide arrange of tea and pu’erh centric topics. We start by talking about how tea is aging in Seattle (where we both live) and how that compares with Kunming, a place known for its dry storage. We then talk about tea culture and some of the regional preferences in the west as well as Yunnan. Finally we conclude by discussing some new and upcoming products.
I always enjoy talking with Glen and these are often some of our most popular episodes. Thank you to Glen for appearing!
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ICYMI Tea Storage & Humidors on The Tea Fix
ICYMI, last summer I had a guest appearance on the Tea Fix where Geoff, Leona and I talked about tea storage in the west.