I recently decided to try some pu-erh since everyone on the group was
raving about it. I went down to a cute little local tea shop and
bought Republic of Tea pu-erh.

When I opened the can, it smellef faintly of a horse stable and had a
very dark red-brown color. When I say horse stable, I mean the mixture
of hay, horse sweat, and maure. I brewed up a pot and the horse stable
smell was very strong. The flavor of the tea was good.

Is this what pu-erh is supposed to smell like?

wrote:
> I recently decided to try some pu-erh since everyone on the group was
> raving about it. I went down to a cute little local tea shop and
> bought Republic of Tea pu-erh.
>
> When I opened the can, it smellef faintly of a horse stable and had a
> very dark red-brown color. When I say horse stable, I mean the mixture
> of hay, horse sweat, and maure. I brewed up a pot and the horse stable
> smell was very strong. The flavor of the tea was good.
>
> Is this what pu-erh is supposed to smell like?

Hehe, yes, there are varying degrees of "earthy" smells from different
puerhs depending on age and style, and "horse stable" would be one of
them. I often associated cooked or black puerh with that of my compost
pile out back on the day after a rain.

Mike

http://www.pu-erh.net

" > writes:

> I recently decided to try some pu-erh since everyone on the group was
> raving about it. I went down to a cute little local tea shop and
> bought Republic of Tea pu-erh.
>
> When I opened the can, it smellef faintly of a horse stable and had a
> very dark red-brown color. When I say horse stable, I mean the mixture
> of hay, horse sweat, and maure. I brewed up a pot and the horse stable
> smell was very strong. The flavor of the tea was good.
>
> Is this what pu-erh is supposed to smell like?

There's a wide range of aroma and taste profiles in Pu'er, but yes,
that sounds like one of them.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

It can taste that way like the Xiaguan CNNP you find in Chinatown.
There are others of 'higher' grade that don't taste that way but you
can't completely escape the earthiness. I call the taste you described
as 'rancid' and it grows on you. You can change the taste by adding a
piece of dark chocolate and telling your friends it is an expensive
coffee from Columbia by mule. Yours is a class called sheng or ripe.
Off the bat you might like the class called shu or unripe better if you
are familiar with bitter green teas.

Jim

wrote:
> I recently decided to try some pu-erh since everyone on the group was
> raving about it. I went down to a cute little local tea shop and
> bought Republic of Tea pu-erh.
>
> When I opened the can, it smellef faintly of a horse stable and had a
> very dark red-brown color. When I say horse stable, I mean the mixture
> of hay, horse sweat, and maure. I brewed up a pot and the horse stable
> smell was very strong. The flavor of the tea was good.
>
> Is this what pu-erh is supposed to smell like?

Oops. Switch the terms sheng and shu. I've botched two posts this
morning. Not bad.

Jim

Space Cowboy wrote:
> Yours is a class called sheng or ripe.
> Off the bat you might like the class called shu or unripe better if you
> are familiar with bitter green teas.
>
> Jim
>
> wrote:
> > I recently decided to try some pu-erh since everyone on the group was
> > raving about it.

Space 10/27/06


> Oops. Switch the terms sheng and shu. I've botched two posts this
> morning. Not bad.

Sorry for totally unnecessary previous interference.
Michael

It wasn't easy digging out the Jing post, then 2003 sounded right, then
you couldn't find it, then 1995 as I remembered but thought that
another post but couldn't find it, shu and sheng I more or less have to
look up if it's been awhile, ripe-unripe-green-black-cooked-uncooked I
don't.

Jim

Michael Plant wrote:
> Space 10/27/06
>
>
> > Oops. Switch the terms sheng and shu. I've botched two posts this
> > morning. Not bad.
>
> Sorry for totally unnecessary previous interference.
> Michael

Space 10/27/06


> It wasn't easy digging out the Jing post, then 2003 sounded right, then
> you couldn't find it, then 1995 as I remembered but thought that
> another post but couldn't find it, shu and sheng I more or less have to
> look up if it's been awhile, ripe-unripe-green-black-cooked-uncooked I
> don't.
>
> Jim

Jim, if the terrible truth be known, this will all mean about as much in a
hundred years as it did a hundred years ago.
Michael

I got it. It smells like an old 'shu'. Now if I can remember to undo
spring back, fall forward.

Jim

Michael Plant wrote:
> Space 10/27/06
>
>
> > Oops. Switch the terms sheng and shu. I've botched two posts this
> > morning. Not bad.
>
> Sorry for totally unnecessary previous interference.
> Michael

[Jim]
> It can taste that way like the Xiaguan CNNP you find in Chinatown.
> There are others of 'higher' grade that don't taste that way but you
> can't completely escape the earthiness. I call the taste you described
> as 'rancid' and it grows on you. You can change the taste by adding a
> piece of dark chocolate and telling your friends it is an expensive
> coffee from Columbia by mule. Yours is a class called sheng or ripe.
> Off the bat you might like the class called shu or unripe better if you
> are familiar with bitter green teas.

[Michael]
Just in the interests of exacticity, you have it
backwards: Shu is ripe/cooked, while sheng is
unripe/raw/green/uncooked. Any of these terms
will suffice. Jim, you're typing too fast again.
On the main point of course you're 100% right:
That taste does grow on you.

wrote:
> I recently decided to try some pu-erh since everyone on the group was
> raving about it. I went down to a cute little local tea shop and
> bought Republic of Tea pu-erh.
>
> When I opened the can, it smellef faintly of a horse stable and had a
> very dark red-brown color. When I say horse stable, I mean the mixture
> of hay, horse sweat, and maure. I brewed up a pot and the horse stable
> smell was very strong. The flavor of the tea was good.
>
> Is this what pu-erh is supposed to smell like?

Like hay/stable/horse/horse sweat/manure

Green/uncooked is different, my mother describes it as more of a
cigarette/cigar ash smell. I don't get that and find it much more easy
on the palate.

Puerh varies wildly and then the aging changes it again so the range of
flavors and aromas is almost infinite. I have had very good cooked
puerh and I have had pretty nasty stuff too. The best thing is to hit
up some samples from a place like Jing Teashop and give a few a try. I
wouldn't let anything made by Republic of tea stand as an example of
any type of tea, especially puerh in a can. Puerh needs to breathe.

Its an assault on the senses for sure, and as many of my previous posts
I often ask myself why anyone loves this stuff when lovely normal teas
exist in abundance. But I am kind of drawn to it for some unexplainable
reason too... so I can't talk.

- Dominic
Drinking: Mountain Dew (and then some Assam in a bit)

On Oct 27, 1:52 pm, "Dominic T." > wrote:
> Green/uncooked is different, my mother describes it as more of a
> cigarette/cigar ash smell. I don't get that and find it much more easy
> on the palate.

I might be wrong here, but I consider the cigarette ash taste a
negative. I've noticed it in cheaper Xiaguan tuos.

Alex wrote:
> I might be wrong here, but I consider the cigarette ash taste a
> negative. I've noticed it in cheaper Xiaguan tuos.

Oh, I consider it negative too, but I just don't taste it even in a
cheap Xiaguan tuo. I normally have a pretty accurate palate too so I'm
not sure why I'm missing it but I don't ever get that note. She tends
to detect it in many green puerhs, and she isn't a tea buff so I tend
to believe her when she brings up tasting certain flavors or aromas.
Her exact quote was it smells like a Dinobli cigar ash. (Dinobli's are
strange little Italian Cigars my great-grandfater smoked)

- Dominic
Drinking: slumming it with a lipton teabag and white sugar.

On Oct 27, 4:17 pm, "Dominic T." > wrote:
> Alex wrote:
> > I might be wrong here, but I consider the cigarette ash taste a
> > negative. I've noticed it in cheaper Xiaguan tuos.Oh, I consider it negative too, but I just don't taste it even in a
> cheap Xiaguan tuo. I normally have a pretty accurate palate too so I'm
> not sure why I'm missing it but I don't ever get that note. She tends
> to detect it in many green puerhs, and she isn't a tea buff so I tend
> to believe her when she brings up tasting certain flavors or aromas.
> Her exact quote was it smells like a Dinobli cigar ash. (Dinobli's are
> strange little Italian Cigars my great-grandfater smoked)
>
> - Dominic
> Drinking: slumming it with a lipton teabag and white sugar.

Lucky for you that you can't taste it! It's pretty nasty.

On Oct 27, 4:17 pm, "Dominic T." > wrote:
> Alex wrote:
> > I might be wrong here, but I consider the cigarette ash taste a
> > negative. I've noticed it in cheaper Xiaguan tuos.Oh, I consider it negative too, but I just don't taste it even in a
> cheap Xiaguan tuo. I normally have a pretty accurate palate too so I'm
> not sure why I'm missing it but I don't ever get that note. She tends
> to detect it in many green puerhs, and she isn't a tea buff so I tend
> to believe her when she brings up tasting certain flavors or aromas.
> Her exact quote was it smells like a Dinobli cigar ash. (Dinobli's are
> strange little Italian Cigars my great-grandfater smoked)
>
> - Dominic
> Drinking: slumming it with a lipton teabag and white sugar.

Lucky for you that you can't taste it! It's pretty nasty.

"Alex" > writes:

> On Oct 27, 1:52 pm, "Dominic T." > wrote:
> > Green/uncooked is different, my mother describes it as more of a
> > cigarette/cigar ash smell. I don't get that and find it much more easy
> > on the palate.
>
> I might be wrong here, but I consider the cigarette ash taste a
> negative. I've noticed it in cheaper Xiaguan tuos.

Yeah, I think a little of that ashy taste goes a long way, like
sarcasm. But there are those who believe that ash in a young raw
Pu'er is a marker for a vigorous old age.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html
apposite entry: ku wei

Lewis Perin wrote:
> But there are those who believe that ash in a young raw
> Pu'er is a marker for a vigorous old age.

Wait, in my mother or the tea?

Just because she tastes ash doesn't mean she is of "vigorous old age."
Sheesh the things anonymous online folks will say...

- Me
(I'm just joking in case anyone missed that)

Lewis Perin wrote:
> "Alex" > writes:
>
> > On Oct 27, 1:52 pm, "Dominic T." > wrote:
> > > Green/uncooked is different, my mother describes it as more of a
> > > cigarette/cigar ash smell. I don't get that and find it much more easy
> > > on the palate.
> >
> > I might be wrong here, but I consider the cigarette ash taste a
> > negative. I've noticed it in cheaper Xiaguan tuos.
>
> Yeah, I think a little of that ashy taste goes a long way, like
> sarcasm. But there are those who believe that ash in a young raw
> Pu'er is a marker for a vigorous old age.
>
> /Lew
> ---
> Lew Perin /
> http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html
> apposite entry: ku wei

As far as I'm aware, from what I've been reading these days, the
ash/smoke/cigarette smell is a product of the processing, usually of
the raw leaf, and really shouldn't be there if the tea was handled 100%
properly.

The most likely source of this is when the leaves were left to dry
under the sun, the weather did not cooperate. So instead of drying
under the sun, the farmers dried it on top of their stove using heat
from that, thus the smoke.

There are other possibilities too, like when the cake was pressed and
smoke got into it, etc

MarshalN
http://www.xanga.com/MarshalN

"MarshalN" > writes:

> Lewis Perin wrote:
> > [...young Pu'er that tastes like an ashtray...]
>
> As far as I'm aware, from what I've been reading these days, the
> ash/smoke/cigarette smell is a product of the processing, usually of
> the raw leaf, and really shouldn't be there if the tea was handled 100%
> properly.
>
> The most likely source of this is when the leaves were left to dry
> under the sun, the weather did not cooperate. So instead of drying
> under the sun, the farmers dried it on top of their stove using heat
> from that, thus the smoke.

That's an interesting idea, but wouldn't you expect a tea marred by
this to taste like charcoal rather than cigarettes? (I'm thinking of
badly fired oolongs.)

> There are other possibilities too, like when the cake was pressed and
> smoke got into it, etc

As in employees smoking: this seems plausible. But it couldn't happen
if the cakes were manufactured here in smoke-free New York City!

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html
ironic and recently update: mei wei

MarshalN
> As far as I'm aware, from what I've been reading these days, the
> ash/smoke/cigarette smell is a product of the processing, usually of
> the raw leaf, and really shouldn't be there if the tea was handled 100%
> properly.

> The most likely source of this is when the leaves were left to dry
> under the sun, the weather did not cooperate. So instead of drying
> under the sun, the farmers dried it on top of their stove using heat
> from that, thus the smoke.

I do not doubt you, but are you sure that this is true
for all the different "smoke" tastes and aromas you
can get from young sheng Pu'erh? The one we think
of as similar to cigar ash seems quite different from
the charcoal-like smoke smell we get occasionally
from other cakes. If you are right, it puts a new
spin on smoke.

>
> There are other possibilities too, like when the cake was pressed and
> smoke got into it, etc

So, do you see no possibility of some kinds of smokey
tastes being more intrinsic to the leaf?

Michael

Lewis 10/27/06

> "Alex" > writes:
>
>> On Oct 27, 1:52 pm, "Dominic T." > wrote:
>>> Green/uncooked is different, my mother describes it as more of a
>>> cigarette/cigar ash smell. I don't get that and find it much more easy
>>> on the palate.
>>
>> I might be wrong here, but I consider the cigarette ash taste a
>> negative. I've noticed it in cheaper Xiaguan tuos.
>
> Yeah, I think a little of that ashy taste goes a long way, like
> sarcasm. But there are those who believe that ash in a young raw
> Pu'er is a marker for a vigorous old age.

I should have read this post before I hit the send button.
Are you implying that there can be *too much* sarcasm?
Come on, Lew; you **like** that cigar thing, don't you?
Eh??

Seriouisly, I've come to appreciate a touch of it, when the
smoke is in balance with other qualities. Sometimes,
however, it ain't (in balance, that is).

Michael

Michael Plant > writes:

> Lewis 10/27/06
>
> > "Alex" > writes:
> >
> >> On Oct 27, 1:52 pm, "Dominic T." > wrote:
> >>> Green/uncooked is different, my mother describes it as more of a
> >>> cigarette/cigar ash smell. I don't get that and find it much more easy
> >>> on the palate.
> >>
> >> I might be wrong here, but I consider the cigarette ash taste a
> >> negative. I've noticed it in cheaper Xiaguan tuos.
> >
> > Yeah, I think a little of that ashy taste goes a long way, like
> > sarcasm. But there are those who believe that ash in a young raw
> > Pu'er is a marker for a vigorous old age.
>
> I should have read this post before I hit the send button. Are you
> implying that there can be *too much* sarcasm? Come on, Lew; you
> **like** that cigar thing, don't you? Eh??

Ah, thanks! Just the right amount of sarcasm.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html
New entry: Ma Lian Dao

10/27/06


>
>
> On Oct 27, 1:52 pm, "Dominic T." > wrote:
>> Green/uncooked is different, my mother describes it as more of a
>> cigarette/cigar ash smell. I don't get that and find it much more easy
>> on the palate.
>
> I might be wrong here, but I consider the cigarette ash taste a
> negative. I've noticed it in cheaper Xiaguan tuos.

Here in NYC, we've had some very interesting discussions on
the nega- and posit-tivity of that quality. Negative, you say?
It's downright disgustin'

Michael

[ladygreyer]
>> I recently decided to try some pu-erh since everyone on the group was
>> raving about it. I went down to a cute little local tea shop and
>> bought Republic of Tea pu-erh.
>>
>> When I opened the can, it smellef faintly of a horse stable and had a
>> very dark red-brown color. When I say horse stable, I mean the mixture
>> of hay, horse sweat, and maure. I brewed up a pot and the horse stable
>> smell was very strong. The flavor of the tea was good.
>>
>> Is this what pu-erh is supposed to smell like?
>
>> Like hay/stable/horse/horse sweat/manure
>
[Dominic]
> Green/uncooked is different, my mother describes it as more of a
> cigarette/cigar ash smell. I don't get that and find it much more easy
> on the palate.

[Michael]
Your Mother is intuitive and wise. It's actually the smell
of the ash of a White Owl left to soak and dry and reek
for a week in a post-party ashtray.

D
> Puerh varies wildly and then the aging changes it again so the range of
> flavors and aromas is almost infinite. I have had very good cooked
> puerh and I have had pretty nasty stuff too. The best thing is to hit
> up some samples from a place like Jing Teashop and give a few a try. I
> wouldn't let anything made by Republic of tea stand as an example of
> any type of tea, especially puerh in a can. Puerh needs to breathe.

M
Aha. So, only *some* young sheng Pu'erhs provide the
essenses your Mother identified. Who knows what taste
and smell adventures await. Will you find the holy
grail of Pu'erh? Will you share it with your Mom?

D
> Its an assault on the senses for sure, and as many of my previous posts
> I often ask myself why anyone loves this stuff when lovely normal teas
> exist in abundance.

M
A truly old fine aged Pu'erh is a gentle delight, not an assault.
It's young Poo of which you speak.

D
>But I am kind of drawn to it for some unexplainable
> reason too... so I can't talk.

M
Could it be the additives?

Sorry for unmitigated ridicule.

Michael