On Mar 14, 3:25 pm, Lewis Perin > wrote:
> Will Yardley > writes:
> > On 2008-03-14, An Sonjae > wrote:
>
> > > Aged green teas? I very much doubt it. The received wisdom is that the
> > > delicate flavour of Korean green tea (at least) goes away after two
> > > years at most, and sometimes much earlier.
>
> > Well as I understand it, green pu'erh is essentially green tea - the
> > kill green process is the same, and it's not bruised or oxidized first.
>
> No, I think the kill-green process for green Pu'er is gentler or, to
> look at it differently, less complete. The enzymes in the tea leaf
> that contribute to (one kind of) fermentation/oxidation aren't
> completely destroyed. So the fermentation, given the right
> environment, will continue, but slowly. So-called black Pu'er starts
> with the same partially-kill-greened leaf, using heat and humidity to
> speed the fermentation.
>
> /Lew
> ---
> Lew Perin /

Yes, "aged" green tea isn't going to really improve in any way I can
see... at least none of the greens I drink. I can taste a notable drop
off after about 3-4 months even with good storage and I really can't
drink them much past a year or year and a half. I've had some jasmine
pearls that held up to two years without too much trouble or loss. I
have had some straggler packets of green tea lost to the sands of time
(2, 3, 4+ years) but none were ever better for it.

Chinese greens are a different story and while I've explored a lot of
them now I still couldn't speak for all of them. I'd imagine it safe
to say that greens just go stale and really never bounce back to
something desirable.

- Dominic