Freshly Pressed Puerh "Calming Down?"

Freshly pressed pu has water vapor in the leaves from the steaming stage of production. Generally that takes about 6 months to dissipate entirely, and less time for raw vs ripe. This watery taste is personally the only thing I have noticed on freshly pressed cakes vs mao cha.

I have never really noticed raw teas needing time to calm down. On the other hand ripe teas freshly fermented need some time to adjust and clear a bit. That is why makers of ripe like Menghai Tea Factory let their ripe sit a while before they begin selling them.

Also, I can’t remember if I tasted a sour note to the 2016 Fade?

I would allow at least 6 months to settle a bit. I even go as far as waiting a month or so after I get my tea in from shipping before I drink it. Sheng , as noted previously will settle quite a bit faster than shou.

Would you guys advise waiting 6 months from production or 6 months from when I receive it?

Calming down… from my perspective is three-fold.

1. Allowing the mao cha to “sweat” (发汗) after processing makes it less green and develop a more rounded and thick taste. Sweating also serves to allow the leaf to dry more. Pressing within a month of tea being processed freshly into mao cha will often lock in those greener tastes and the tea will age more slowly in the first couple of years.

2. After pressing into a cake or brick, the tea should be allowed to “Dry out” (退水气). During pressing the mao cha is weighed and put into a cotton bag and then put over a funnel of steam to soften the leaves enough for pressing. After pressing, the cakes are put in a dry hot room (about 40C) and allowed to dry. Even after they are dry enough to pack into wrappers and tongs there is still a higher than normal water content in the tea. The water content of the bamboo leaf tongs (which are also steamed to make them soft) will also contribute to elevated water content in the tea. Typically 2 to 4 weeks after pressing is enough time for that vapor to dissipate to the point where the tea can safely be sealed in plastic for shipping. If you drink a cake that’s just been pressed a few days ago, up to a month (or was pressed recently and then sealed in plastic for shipping) it has a watery taste (水味) that tends to make the taste of the less pungent and crisp.

3. After being sent in the mail, the tea also needs to acclimate to the new storage condition. The water content on arrival may still be a little too high and might interfere with the overall taste.

Typically it’s easy to wait these periods of time, since after we secured our batches of mao cha we must take 250 grams of each batch and send to a lab for pesticide tests. This testing process takes 2-3 weeks typically.

After pressing, the tea usually sits in the tea factory for awhile until all our batches are done… this typically takes a month, with the tail-end teas having more of a “watery taste” than those pressed first. We list the early pressings first, and for the first month or so we use desiccant packs when we seal and send the cakes to customers. We never once had a cake arrive moldy, but I do think people should allow these freshly arrived cakes a month or more to acclimate to their new home.