My first Puerh experience
Yesterday my Basics Ripe Puer Tea Sample Set arrived from White2tea. I decided to try the Old Reliable house blend. 6 grams went into a 100ml gaiwan. I did two quick cover and dump washes and then a 5 second steep using 212F water. In total I did 7 rounds: 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 seconds, and 3 minutes.
I found the brew to be pretty blah. I was expecting more intense flavors. It tasted good though. What I got was mostly a meadow hay taste and an interesting smokiness. There was also a little tannin and bitterness. It was interesting watching the taste profile change. Tonight I think I’ll use 7 grams and see if the flavor bumps up some, or maybe try longer steep times in the beginning.
I was worried about how I would react to the caffeine but I found it wasn’t a problem. I ripped though the 7 rounds pretty quickly. I got a little tea drunk, which was interesting. I didn’t get a headache, feel irritable or have a queasy stomach. I mostly felt happy and my stomach felt slightly like it used to when I smoked weed in my younger days.
As a result of the good experience I’ll soon be replacing my bag tea at work with loose tea. I ordered a 50ml gaiwan and small tea tray for that purpose this morning! :)
Oh, by the way, my wife participated in this and she enjoyed it to. :)
Welcome new initiate! The basics is,.. well “the basics”, but if you enjoyed it then you’ll definitely enjoy some of the more powerful complex pu-erhs out there!
You will find lots of stuff out there. Welcome to your journey. On another note I usually use at least 10 grams when brewing shou.
The Old Reliable is a reasonably good quality ripe as far as those in the low end of the spectrum go. I tried the tea and liked it myself. If your looking to try a ripe that is a little better than Old Reliable you might pick out something by the Menghai Tea Factory, also called Dayi and TaeTea. They are available from a variety of sources and the “7572” is one of the baseline products that is less expensive. I am particularly fond of their “0532” version. They do not make that every year. The 2008 0532 is very good as is the 2012 0532. They also made a 2016 0532. I have not yet tried that. You will find out the the “named” Dayi products are more expensive than the “numbered” Dayi products. Menghai Tea Factory invented ripe tea back in 1973. If you see something on Aliexpress claiming to be older than this it is a fake. One of my other favorites is the 2008 Dayi Song of Chi Tse available from Berylleb King Tea on EBay and available under a different name from Yunnan Sourcing. I forget what Yunnan Sourcing calls their version. And of course the pinnacle of Dayi ripe tea is the Golden Needle White Lotus which is I believe made every year. Older versions of this tea are quite expensive but you can get one from 2013 or 2014 for a reasonable price at Yunnan Sourcing. 2008 versions now sell for over $100 on Aliexpress. You might find it cheaper on Taobao but you also might be getting a fake. The price range for a 2013 or 2014 GNWL should be between $50 and $60 give or take. If you see someone selling it for $25 on Aliexpress it is probably a fake. The best advice anyone will give you as you are starting out on puerh is buy samples where you can. Some cakes will be so cheap they don’t offer a sample. Sometimes cheap ripe can end up being pretty good actually but it really depends on the ripe. This cheap ripe from Yunnan Sourcing is a good example of a cheap ripe that is really better tasting than it’s price would suggest. There are several reviews of this one on Steepster.
http://yunnansourcing.com/en/xinghaiteafactory/3713-2008-xinghai-grade-7-ripe-pu-erh-tea-brick.html
This is the Yunnan Sourcing version of the Song of Chi Tse.
http://yunnansourcing.com/en/menghaiteafactory/2979-2008-menghai-qi-zi-zhi-ge-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake-357-grams.html
@Allank
The “2008 Dayi Song of Chi Tse” I call “2008 Menghai Qi Zi Zhi Ge Ripe Pu-erh tea cake * 357 grams”
That 2008 Xinghai brick is an incredible value…
I know the 2008 Xinghi Brick is an incredible value that’s why I bought four of them in my last order with you. If priced because of it’s taste it would cost a lot more. I found it really good and I know of one or two other Steepster people who loved it too.
@YunnanSourcing, I liked that tea so much I’m tempted to order thirty or forty bricks, wait for you to sell out and then sell them for twice the price, tempted.
Another blatant fake you will also see on Aliexpress is a ripe tea claiming to be from 1980 or so and having the modern Dayi logo on it. In 1980 the Menghai Tea Factory, to the best of my knowledge were still using the Zhong Cha style logo. I believe the modern Dayi logo design didn’t start use until around 2000 or a little later. In the early years of ripe puerh all Chinese Puerh factories used the Zhong Cha style logo. Individual puerh companies didn’t start using their own designs until around the turn of the century. This is because at one point all puerh factories were still government owned and used the CNNP logo to use another word.
Yeah I am gonna triple the price tomorrow… better get on it. LOL. I will raise the price a bit with the next couple of months. ;-)
Learning to ‘Distinguish’ real Dayi from fake Dayi is instrumental as well as other tea brands. Puerh tea is the number one counterfeit item produced in China. Know your sellers and if the garner your trust use them for your purchases. You can always ask the people on here if you need help as well.
Got this in an email. It is exactly what I mean by a blatant fake from Aliexpress. Ripe Puerh was invented in 1973. This one claims to be from 1970.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/China-Ripe-Tea-Cake-357g-Chinese-Naturally-Organic-Matcha-Yunnan-Ripe-Puerh-Tea-Puer-Tea-Qizibing/1645089791.html?tracelog=rowan&utalgorithmid=2&utcontentid=976&ck=in_edm_other&rowan_id1=eclc_en_7_1_en_US_2016-09-22&uttaskid=37002&rowan_msg_id=ackeUTT_37002_%24e3c9b2bce25d41659142976ab479813a
@AllanK wow that is so blatant!!! Even if ripe Pu-erh existed in 1970 a cake like that would go for well over $10,000 USD. My friend Hai Lang has a real 1960’s Jia Ji that goes for around $30,000 USD per cake. He also has a 50’s Red Mark… which is worth close to $80,000 USD per cake now. He has two cakes. He told me that when he bought them 15 years ago for $14,000 each his mom was screaming at him. I guess he got the last laugh.
I would bet that the forty year old cake from Aliexpress has not lost a drop of it’s fermentation flavor too. Probably fermented in 2016 or 2015 at the earliest.
@AllanK thanks for posting the example. I was looking for gaiwans and came across Aliexpress. I did some research on the company as a whole and decided to move on.
It’s scary how many 5 star ratings are attached to this listing…
@curious If you want to buy tea from Aliexpress I recommend King Tea, very good. No forty year old puerh offered I think. Although thtey do have some as old as 1996 that I bought. Lao Cha Tou nuggets.
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1220054?spm=2114.10010108.100005.4.LC3NfZ
@AllanK Thanks, I’ll keep them in mind. Yesterday I ordered 12 samples of puerh from Yunnan Sourcing. I think that will keep me busy for a while after it arrives. :)
@curious Thanks for giving us a chance. I hope you find some teas you really like in there. After you drank them I’d be curious to hear which ones you liked.
@YunnanSourcing You’re welcome. :) I will definitely let you know which ones I like. I’m excited to try them!
Tonight we tried 2015 Milk, Cream, & Alcohol from white2tea, my first raw. It was pretty underwhelming for the first three infusions but on the fourth we got a fruity explosion, the fifth was sustained bitterness. I found the feeling the tea imparted to be less satisfying than the ripe puerhs. There was also less caffeine.
We tried the small leaf from the white2tea sample pack yesterday and the large leaf tonight. Of the three ripe puerhs we’ve tried I like the large leaf best. It went from campfire smoke to losing taste, to fruity and sour smoke. It’s interesting how the taste profile changes and it’s fun to chase the flavors by tweaking the steeping time. I’m hoping to find a few puerhs I really like and then play with them, slice and dice them. :) I’m not sure what the terminology is but hopefully you understand…
@ mrmopar I think you’re right. I have a good feeling about this. The anticipation… :)
@Curious Have not tried the w2t stuff. Love the term “slice and dice”… I am imagining pu-erh cakes and tuos cut up and mixed together on a platter.
I’m putting together an order of mostly samples at Yunnan Sourcing. This is what I have chosen so far:
2012 yunnan sourcing “spring xi kong” ancient
2008 menghai qi zi zhi ge ripe pu-erh tea cake
2008 xinghai grade 7 ripe pu-erh tea brick
2013 bai sha xi “run zhi fu” fu zhuan tea from hunan
Are there any that I should avoid in that list?
Any other good quality sample suggestions from YS? I like my scotch smoky, from sherry casks. For beer I like Russian Imperial Stouts. I’m imagining a fruity, complex, smoky, bitter brew… Or something along those lines. ;) Really I just want to try a wide swath of good puerhs. Since I’ve only tried two now, my imagination is a bit lacking. :)
If you can spare another six bucks, I highly recommend a sample of the 2013 Golden Needle White Lotus. Another four bucks will also get you a sample of the 2015 Green Miracle. Two frickin fantastic shous.
The 2012 Lian Ge Zhai has some smoke left to it. A lot of XiaGuan teas carry left over smoke as well. For bitter notes, Lao Man E, Bulang, Bang Pen, Mang Fei and Lao Ban Zhang all carry a punch. On a note most of these teas are faked a lot. All of YS’s teas are legit and transparent on where they come from. For fruity teas Yiwu and Jingmai are nice, Jingmai can have a touch of citrus sometimes.
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