After all the Puerh talk here, I decided it was time to give it a try. I
received an order from Teaspring Saturday, (sorry Jim, I haven't had much
luck in the Asian markets here, but I keep trying). They generously
included some Puerh samples for me to try.

The first one I tried was a 2 year old green Puerh. I used 1 heaping tsp
and boiling water and steeped for 2 mins. I immediately recognized the
musty, dank basement taste I've heard mention of. Better than the only
other Puerh I'd tried (Organic Puerh ZH25 from Upton Tea), but I still
wasn't sure I was getting what all the fuss was about. Then Bam! it hit me,
this strong, delicious, fruity aftertaste. Totally took me by surprise. It
was so totally different than the taste of the tea itself. I found myself
wanting more of the tea, not for the flavor of the tea, but the lingering
aftertaste.

Yesterday I tried some of the 10 year old green Puerh. Once again, I
immediately recognized the flavor from descriptions I'd read. This time it
was the clean horse barn, or to me 4H fair taste. It was smoother than the
2 year old, but lacked the delicious aftertaste.

I'm still not sure I'm getting it, but from experience it sometimes takes a
few times with a new tea for me to warm up to it. So I'll keep
experimenting, and enjoying a new sensation. I also have a 2 year old black
Puerh, 10 year old black puerh and some Puerh in bags to try. At the
moment, I don't think it will replace the Sencha's and Keemuns that I'm so
fond of, but who knows.

Blues

PS. If anyone is interested, the Long Jing and Bai Mudan I received in the
same order were excellent. The Ying De Hong and Yunnan Gold I received
weren't my cup of tea, so to speak. There are some Yunnans that I love, and
a lot that don't do much for me, so that isn't to say they were bad teas
just not for me.