While intrepidly exploring rec.food.drink.tea, Teahub - JinYuXuan
rolled initiative and posted the following:

> Hi Derek,
>
> We actually call the rinse process "to wake up tea". As the name
> suggests, it serves the purpose of preparing the tea for
> drinking. As you may find out from our web site
> (www.teahub.com/puerhtea.htm), different pu-erh requires
> different rinse time.

And yet, not everyone who consumes Puerh does the initial rinse.
Hence, my comment that it's a preference.

I now rinse, and find that it improves the flavor. But the best
thing I can do is to dump a little Comte Gris in with the puerh.

> You mentioned the unpleasant taste of unrinsed pu-erh, my guess
> is that the pu-erh you were drinking was not aged raw pu-erh.

Actually, it's cave aged. So you'll have to guess again.

--
Derek

The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shorline of
wonder. - Ralph W. Sockman