oceanica said

Pu-erh, a beginner's experiences

Warning, this will be a pretty long post, so please bear with me.
I had tried several pu-erh teas over the last few years and until I found this forum and did more diligent investigating, I had been very disappointed. Now things are different. I thought I might relate my recent experiences to help some understand a beginner’s perspective ( or at least my perspective ).
In the last few months I have been able to try about 10 different teas, three ripe and the rest raw. Ages ranged from the mid-1980’s ( at least that is what the vendor claimed ) to the mid-1990’s and early 2000’s and one that is 2010. I won’t review these here since I do not have enough experience yet to do so, but may post tasting notes later after some more sipping.
First, my personal taste — I just can’t get by the funk of shu ( ripe ) teas, no matter how old. It takes a while ( up to 10 steeps ) for the funky compost fungal flavors and aromas to fade, and even though the sweetness left is pleasant — for me it is just too much work for too little enjoyment.
The sheng ( raw ) tea is a completely different animal. The younger sheng tends to be pretty astringent and slightly bitter — I believe this is due to " rough " tannins, similar to a young red wine that is meant to be aged. In wine, these early tannins change over time into what are referred to as " noble " tannins which impart a wonderful roundness, backbone and a slight sweetness to the wine. I suspect that aging sheng accomplishes much the same thing. The tannins turn sweeter and rounder and recede into the background leaving the tea less astringent and less bitter. Also, successive steeping leaches out some of the astringency. Now for me, the bitterness even in the younger teas was only slight and not really as much of an issue. The astringency tended to mask some flavors ( astringency being the sort of dry quality that one finds if one steeps black tea for a long time then drinks it ) but after about 5 steeps the other flavors would start to come through.
Some flavors that appear immediately were vegital, camphor or menthol, and sometimes a slight sweetness — much of this depended on the age of the tea as older teas which were less astringent, with less vegital flavors.
After about steep 5 things really get interesting! Amazing flavors start to rise from the tea, I could not even taste some of them until later steepings, they seem to come from nothing! I have never experienced this in anything before — not wine, not tea, not anything. Some teas tasted like various dried fruit ( dates, prunes, apricots ), some had floral notes creeping in, spices, leather, slate, tobacco, muc like a really good Bordeaux really amazing. Often new flavors would come after swallowing ( especially if I exhaled through my mouth ) even 10 or so seconds after swallowing the tea. This is almost a mystical experience, so now I am hooked. The other thing is that pu-erh lasts much longer than other teas. I can usually get 5 to 8 steepings out of most Wulongs before they run out, pu-erh can last 20! And, it keeps changing over time.
Regarding huigan, the mouth and throat feel of many of these teas is also unique, very hard to describe. It is almost a numbing sensation or a slight tightness in the throat, but it is more, it has flavors also, accompanied by a fullness. This experience was most pronounced in younger sheng and must be due to other chemical that oxidize as the tea ages. I would love to see gas chromatography of young vs. old sheng…
Regarding cha qi; I did feel " tea drunk " a few times, I have had this experience with Wulong so it is not unique to pu-erh, but is a bit stronger in the pu-erh. Now I am a big guy so I don’t get drunk on anything easily. The effects were fairly mild most of the time. I would describe some of the effects as attributes of caffeine — increased heart rate, increased alertness, but without the jitters, a relaxed alertness, accompanied by a heaviness behind the eyes and just a bit of a buzz. It passed pretty quickly ( less than an hour most of the time ). The teas with more camphor notes and pronounced huigan had the strongest effects.
So, my conclusion, pu-erh is worth working on, at least for me, I had to try a lot of tea ( 30 total ) to find about 6 that I ordered again, but wow what an experience. I am happy I stuck with it.

4 Replies

I’m not a pu-head, but I’ll drink it occasionally when I’m in the mood. It’s been a little more than four years since I started drinking pu’erh. I took to shou before sheng. I only tasted dirt, loam, and leather when I first started drinking shou, but the comforting thick, earthiness hooked me in faster. I quickly learned I prefer shou that are very dark right off the bat and taste like dark chocolate and fruits. I don’t care much for lighter feeling shou and ones with notes of leather or musty libraries.

It took me longer to acquire a taste for sheng, which simply tasted like green bell peppers and grass. Granted, all of my first sheng were young. What especially kept me drinking sheng, I think, was the qi. After a session, I felt bouncier (cheerful, more energetic). I thought it would be worth it to continue drinking sheng. Plus, Steepsterites had a lot of positive things to say about it, and I decided to be influenced by their attitude. After some time, I began to bypass the grass and the bitterness and taste the young sweetness, the cooling notes, and the huigan. I’ve not yet had much sheng older than ten years, but I might prefer the bite and sweet freshness of young sheng.

Incredible how one’s taste evolves so quickly and how pu’erh can test it.

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andresito said

this is where the term “tuition tea” comes from :)

mrmopar said

Indeed. I started on shou and now gravitate more to sheng. Albeit good shou can be tasty. I stick mainly to the bigger factories stuff.

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Ken said

I like both shou and sheng and depends on my mood, what im eating, if I just feeling like brewing a puerh at all.

Give Toby the guy who does the curated tea box a message, he might be able to help you, he has some very lightly fermented ripes.

Also you might want to try a heicha at some point. I got a couple form white2tea on their monthly club.

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