Pu-erh Order: Let it rest & air out!?
Ahoi there,
today I received a sample package which I was waiting for more than 3 weeks. As nowadays common those samples came in zip airtight bags aka doypacks but in this case those ones with the coffee bean filter on the back.
Anyway – I noticed that nearly every of those samples got a very flat scent to it also the taste of the first immediately tested Bu Lang one was not very intense! Normally I never needed to wait after a package arrived not with Yunnan Sourcing or with W2T but this time it is strange.
So this thing about airing out and resting came into my mind and I searched around the net. What I was wondering is – does airing out even make sense if the tea isn’t a heavy scenting one (like some heavy wet stored Shou’s)? I am talking about mostly fresher ones from 2009-2017 and only Sheng!
And I was also wandering: Does “letting it rest” also come in handy if I keep them as they are within their doypacks? I mean does “the resting effect” only apply in combination with airing them out or also when the Pu’s are kept within their doy’s for around 2-3 weeks?
Thanks&Cheers~
Philipp
This is the way I approach sheng samples.
I open each bag and let them begin acclimating to their new environment. If the sample is 20g or greater I’ll try one or two teas from the vendor as soon as I can. If the tea seems flat I’ll try them again in a few weeks. If the tea sample is less than 20g I’ll let it sit for a few weeks before I brew it up.
I have received samples that seemed flat on arrival and they did seem to improve after giving them some rest. Whether that is due to resting the tea or my tasting apparatus was working more effectively that day, I really don’t know.
I’ve been drinking sheng daily for over a year now and it still baffles me :)
In my very limited experience, simply resting a flat puer in the open air hasn’t done much to revive it, I’ve had better results resting with some humidity which perks it up.
I live in a NYC climate.
Some tea has been stored too dry, and letting the tea soak up some humidity for several weeks (or longer) can REALLY help
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbayJx5lR2T/?taken-by=tealife.hk
Drank this yesterday! I had the tea airing out for months before I tried it again.
Because of the cold outside and the heating inside the actual humidity here is really bad majorly around 42% sometimes it climbs up to 50% but not for a longer term. Not within the cold season! I store all my Pu-erh within their doypacks in a big closed cardboard box. For better storage I think I would need to buy an defective wine fridge or Mini fridge but in my case it is really the question if that’s necessary because I don’t plan to age Pu-erh’s on my own on a longer term. I just want to keep them fresh and vibrant as long as possible!
There are in my understanding two different arguments about puerh tea and low humidity. One that it actually damages the tea and the second is that it will age much slower or not at all. All of my ripe tea is in dry storage in the New York humidity and I find it does ok. I am not as convinced about my sheng.
Resting will almost always make the tea better. I think it needs proper humidity to brew at its best. Also when preparing the tea let it sit for 10 minutes or so to let the water get into the leaf.
You can’t seal pu’er tea. That will ruin it!
I know but if the environment you’re living in doesn’t provide a good aging or for pu-erh breathing/developing atmosphere then it doesn’t make any sense keeping it outside! Here it is by far really strange. On one hand it is very dry during winter season but on the other hand three whole cakes I stored in the past (a couple of years ago just for some months after I bought them on the outside [on such Pu-erh frames) caught yellow mold – every one of them! So since that time I am quite sensitive about storing my Pu! Like I mentioned I am not into aging my stuff for decades to come. I want to provide the best intense and full bodied taste and bouquet for as long as possible. That’s more my intention.
And for smaller parts and pieces like 30g or 25g what alternatives are left except storing each of them in doypacks! especially if you got around 30-50 of those 30g portions. I can’t afford money and place storing each of those smaller portions in a clay char container!
That sealing puer ruins it is debatable. See the “Sealed Storage” section here:
https://teadb.org/puerh-storage/
ZeroZen, Scott from Yunnan Sourcing told me to open the sample packets and set them upright. If the packets will be stored for a longer period then just a few weeks, don’t completely seal but fold over the packet and put a rubber band around it.
If you’re not storing puer for aging, then you don’t have a lot to worry about. I live in a place with four seasons. It doesn’t matter so much what’s going on outside the house, its the conditions inside the house that matter. Humidity inside our house ranges from 35% to around 65%, and the temperature 65F to 75F, depending on the season. The sheng I’ve had in storage for over a year is fine, both samples and cakes.
The environment is really crucial to Pu’er. It do need some light, not that strong light, like sunlight. It need ventilation. So, I put it in my bookshelves，not strong light, also exposed to air.
I don’t think Pu’er need some fancy pot to contain, just don’t break the cake into small pieces
I also curious about pu’er tea. Almost all the old pu’er which was placed for a loog time even several years taste better than the new pu’er tea.
That usually depends on whether it was a good tea in the first place. A bad tea that is aged will still be a bad tea. The problem with buying old tea is that there are so many fakes and no way to double check a sellers claim. I came across one on EBay today where the seller is asking $50,000 for a cake he claims is 65 years old but he has no proof.
And it also depends on your taste. Some people prefer young sheng, so wouldn’t agree that aging makes the tea taste better.
Just do a search for Puerh tea on EBay and you will see the obvious fakes. There is one seller selling a brick he claims was from 1962 but he wants only $7 plus shipping of about $1. Anyone with half a brain and a little knowledge of tea knows you don’t get a real 1962 tea for under four figures but they are all over EBay now. They seem to have migrated from Aliexpress. Even Yunnan Sourcing when they posted a picture of a cake they said was from the 1950’s and worth $100,000 would not have the sort of proof to get me to spend that money if I actually had it.
But again is the process of “resting” only blessed with success if the actual pu’s are exposed to air? I mean do they also acclimate kept in their doypacks or not really? I mean I think recalling the past that many of those doypacks I got quite longer in stock now are definitely more intense and vibrant when I open up those packages and take a deep breath of the deliciously inside :)
Some people have reported success with this method. I guess it depends on the conditions you keep the doypack in, and what the humidity inside the pack is like!
What I do during the low-humidity months in New England is run a humidifier in a closed room to bring the humidity up to about 60%. I then open all my sample packs and stand them up in open boxes for a few hours to suck up the humidity. I believe this helps. I keep the best stuff in the sample packs inside my pumidor. In my case, this is just a tightly closed cooler chest that cost $5 at a rummage sale.
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