Ricky

I’ve been drinking this all day and I’m super bored of it. Onto my eight infusion. It’s still kicking strong.

The good thing about pu erh is I typically make small cups (normally 3oz) since I don’t want a crap load of caffeine so I can get thru the infusions faster.

Ooh, this actually makes me want to try pu erh.

Cofftea, someone on the discussion board said that pu erhs are pretty much caffeine free, so happy sipping! :)

I’m sure they’re quite knowledgeable but it seems every resource has conflicting info about caffeine. It’s not just a caffeine issue. 12 infusions at 2oz each go faster than ones at 6 so I can move on to something else quicker and not get bored. I hate tossing leaves just because I’m bored or sick of them.

That seems like a smart way to avoid wasting the leaves :) are the little cups stronger than the larger cups? or could you possibly get even more infusions if you did small “normal strength” cups? I’m looking to trying pu erh, so I’m trying to learn more about how to steep it!

I’ve been making mine about 6oz, but yes, 2oz ones would definitely go quicker. Anyways, Bana’s little instructions go something like 10sec,20sec,30sec,40sec,1min,2min, yeah I’m going to stop typing now. As for the caffeine levels, I think it varies. Some contain as much as black, some contains as much as whites. Luckily I’m feeling sleepy, so I know the caffeine is wearing off. I was definitely a lot more alert earlier in the day. I would think a smaller cup is more concentrated. More water same steep time = you’re diluting it. I think $10 for 7 samples isn’t a bad deal. I mean each one lasts about 10 infusions if you really want to drink it for that long. I’ve been on this all day. It’s starting to finally fade. So you are getting about 7 cents a cup of tea.

Shanti, Carolyn gave me great advice for preparing pu erh. For both cooked and raw pu erh (not sure if this would apply to a nest, I’ve only had loose and cake):

1g of leaf per oz of water
Pour the appropriate amount of boiling water over the leaves (I use just below boiling as someone said boiling water kills the health benefits), let steep 15 sec and decant. This is your rinse, discard this infusion.
Pour more water over the leaves steeping 20 sec this time before decanting. This is your 1st drinkable infusion. Continue to steep for 20 sec til you find the flavor too weak for your taste then increase by 10 sec.

So to answer your question, no the litte cups are not stronger. It’s like making 1 cup of green tea vs a 24oz pot. The flavor doesn’t change, just the amount does. …All this talk of pu erh makes me want some!

Haha, ahh yes, it really does depend on the amount of leaves you use. I was thinking of a normal cup. I used the whole packet 7g of leaves for 6oz of water =]

Thank you cofftea! I’m going to bookmark this :)

Yeah when I get this I’ll probably split the samples into 2, 2, and 3oz cups. The only thing about small cups is you need to save that kinda tea for when you have a lot of time to make tea. Making a new infusion (even a 20 sec steep) every 2oz (it doesn’t take me long to drink 2oz of tea) is quite time consuming. Maybe not the best tea choice for work when you’re being paid to do something other than make and drink tea lol.

And here I was thinking of bringing this tea to work, hahahah. I think I just wanted to finish it off so I wouldn’t have to drink a whole day of pu-erh again. That might be why I’m always hesitant in starting one.

Nice recmomendations, Carolyn/Cofftea. My attempt with Maiden’s had me steeping for…gosh, I don’t know. A few minutes, anyway. Maybe I should back the steep time down and try again. I don’t know if that would change the flavor much, but maybe it’d back the intensity down. Thanks for the rundown!

sophistre, I’ve found treating a cooked pu erh like a black tea (~5min) is completely revolting to my personal taste but I don’t mijnd the shorter steep w/ more leaf… and I would enjoy even more if I enjoyed black teas. I wonder if the difference is as drastic to other people’s taste buds.