How do you age pu erh?
Does anyone have experience making sheng pu taste something more akin to a cooked pu? I have tried a handful of times over the years and the sheng never looses that tangy high flavor and never gains the dark brown color.
Are there special conditions with humidity or something I need to have? Or does it take 10+ years?
Thanks,
-Sam
I can’t find the photo I saw recently in a pu’er seminar I went to, but it was a photo of a cup of sheng each year up to 10 years. The 10 year plus mark had that dark colour like a shou.
I’ve had teas I bought in 2012 now start to turn a little more orange compared to when they were quite light.
How are you storing it now? I’m no storage pro, mine are in crocks, but others here have more serious set ups and can help you out more for optimal storage.
I don’t think a sheng will ever taste like a ripe puerh no matter how long you age it. Aged sheng in my opinion tastes different from both young sheng and ripe puerh. As to the aging taking decades you can speend things up a little by building a pumidor and having higher humidity but it still takes years. An aged sheng will start to look like a ripe puerh after a while but I have found the flavor profile to be quite different. I have only sampled a few aged sheng.
Moisture and humidity is what does the aging. Stateside it will take at least 10 years as opposed to 5 in Malaysia or Hong Kong.
Just as I suspected. I know sheng is considered more traditional and classy but damnit if I don’t enjoy the cooked stuff.
As far as my attempts at aging, I just stick tea in an airtight container and put it in a dark place. It always seems bone dry whenever I take a look at it, and the longest time I’ve tried is probably 2-3 years. So I guess its not suprising that I haven’t seen much transformation.
How would I increase the humidity just the right amount in a small container?
I bought small terracotta disks which are sold as humidifiers for tobacco and “herbs” (haha). You soak them for 15 minutes or so and then put them in with your tea. I don’t know how things will go in the long term, but I do know my tea crocks smell so much nicer and fresher when I regularly re-soak and replace the disks.
The tea needs some air also to change. I think in terms of investment there are some options but it depends on how much you have and are willing to put into a storage area.
I like the cooked stuff too. Took me a while to get into sheng.
I really think you won’t see too much change in the western world till about 5 years or so on the sheng.
I use jars for my aging. The jars don’t need to be airtight, for the Pu needs air to breath; however, not a lot of airflow. Also, you need to keep humidity up, so the space you chose for aging should be away from outside environments. I keep my space relatively closed off and slightly dampened.
The aging depends slightly on the tea. I have seen minor changes at the 4 week, 90 day, 4 month, and year marks. Past that, the tea stays relatively constant; although, my personal experimentation and experience is limited with this. I’ve had some Pu-erh aging for about a year, and I have seen no change whatsoever; whereas, I’ve seen decent change from a cake in as little as four months.
It is hard to answer that.
since the sheng and shou of puerh, they different 2 kind of tea be caurse the different production process. Shou Puer need ferment better in a clean dry warehouse, but sheng puer don’t.
Turn sheng puer more looks like shu, seems the only way is keep it as long as possible. maybe 8-15 years, the color would be dark red.
You can wet it down in a sauerkraut crock, cover it, and ferment it for 6-10 weeks and you have shou.
Wiki quote: “The Wò Dūi process was first developed in 1973 by Menghai Tea Factory[not in citation given] and Kunming Tea Factory5 to imitate the flavor and color of aged raw pu-erh, and was an adaptation of wet storage techniques used by merchants to artificially simulate ageing of their teas.”
Before this invention, Sheng and Shou Puerh would start as same Sheng cake and only storage would be different.
I’ve researched this subject and wrote a bit about since this started, more about a divide in perspective over sealing the tea (wrapping it or storing it in bags) versus leaving it in paper wrappers or in those inside original air-permeable outer covers. Of course the main issue that comes up is level of humidity, and consensus drifts towards a range of suggestions, with some preferring one end or the other of that spectrum.
The interesting underlying factor is that sheng aging is really about the slow growth of bacteria and fungus changing the teas, a process similar to much faster wet piling used to make shou per a research article I cited, although the final results wouldn’t be exactly the same. Too much humidity and the tea either molds or the characeristics don’t match preference (which can vary), too little and it would more or less not ferment at all. Air contact is another factor I reviewed more (others’ input on that), with ideal temperature range not so clear:
http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.com/2016/09/puer-storage-and-fermentation.html
It’s basically impossible due to the difference in the composition of a sheng vs. shou after the initial processing. The only thing you can really change is the humidity level.
You did say your longest stretch for aging 2-3 years, I suggest waiting even longer for the flavor of the shou to change more. However, getting it to taste close to a sheng is highly doubtful.
I am getting a kick out of this ressurected thread!
Ive surrendered and just decided to buy cooked pu for the rest of my life…for now.
Sounds like traditional storage pu erh would be your thing—shu was made to imitate it! Sheng maintains a certain spice/astringency/bitterness over shu, even after 15 years, so you can still tell it’s not shu, but it’s close.
Some good older sheng is nice though. I agree with TeaLife.HK as traditional storage will be close.
Yeah I live in vegas, its going to be very hard to age sheng here without a really elaborate setup. So Ive decided the best course of action is just go tea club, and then drink whatever the heck they send me… lol! Young Sheng, Old Sheng, Shu.. I just drink it when I get it..
Haha there’s hope. You should just pick up a ton of samples or do what Ken does. I’ve found that it’s pretty obvious that certain pus are cooked, but a higher quality definitely does have some sheng characteristic to it, just subtle and not incredibly obvious. It’s hard to make a tea taste close to something it’s not.
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