Carolyn

I have no idea what would cause it, but could it be an allergy? Stuff with a lot of chilis in it were giving me digestive problems and I found out later that I had a minor food allergy.

Those are really short steeping times!

@tagoti I don’t know. It is only with cooked puerhs. Raw puerhs do not cause any problems. I used to have similar (though lesser) problems with oolongs when I brewed them too hot and too long so it doesn’t sound like an allergy to me.

@Jillian Those are actually recommended times and after the first steeping it really did brew up pretty strong. For example, here is a review of a similar puerh: http://ancientteahorseroad.blogspot.com/2008/08/1994-menghai-factory-7542-chi-tse-beeng.html

Note that his times for steeping are very short. (The first number is the number of the steep and the second number is the number of seconds he steeped it.)
1-15s
2-12s
3-25s
4-35s
5-50s
6-75s
7-85s
8-95s
9-105s
10-120s
11-135s
12-150s