I haven't been on here in awhile. Mostly hang out on reddit now. But how are things going?

I wish there was more intelligent tea conversation on reddit, but oh well....

Warren Peltier > writes:

>I haven't been on here in awhile. Mostly hang out on reddit now.

Not Twitter? Do you have Great Firewall trouble?

>But how are things going?

Pretty slow around here.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://babelcarp.org

On 2014-05-07 15:10:26 +0000, Warren Peltier said:

> I haven't been on here in awhile. Mostly hang out on reddit now. But
> how are things going?
>
> I wish there was more intelligent tea conversation on reddit, but oh well....

I just put in an order from Teaspring for a bunch of teas, including my
favorite Dancong oolongs. An interesting one that I am looking forward
to is the Wuyi puerh brick - could be really good!

Today I'm drinking a handmade sencha and some Bailin Congu.

How was the Wuyi brick tea? It's not really puer, but yes, looks like puer. They're actually an inspiration taken from the Song-style brick teas called Dragon Phoenix cake. But those teas back then were green teas.

Those Dahongpao tea bricks do take on an aged taste, but to me, they're nothing really spectacular.

Hey Warren welcome on back over here. I used to have an old pal named Bill Peltier. You any kin to him? When traveling in Merry Olde England we often stop by the Palace to have tea and crumpets with the Queen. Do you like crumpets with your tea? We might need to know about the Reddit place. Dont make us go googling. Thanks.

On 2014-05-16 14:32:39 +0000, Warren Peltier said:

> How was the Wuyi brick tea? It's not really puer, but yes, looks like
> puer. They're actually an inspiration taken from the Song-style brick
> teas called Dragon Phoenix cake. But those teas back then were green
> teas.
>
> Those Dahongpao tea bricks do take on an aged taste, but to me, they're
> nothing really spectacular.

It's difficult for me to ascertain exactly what processing the Wuyi
brick has undergone. It does have an earthier taste reminiscent of a
cooked puerh, so I'm not sure I would rule out microbial aging quite
yet. If I could read Chinese a little bit better it'd help a lot.
It's good, brews up a nice deep red liquor. Like puerh it can sustain
many infusions.

I will be keeping a few bricks for a few years in order to determine if
it ages well. My collection of puerh and other teas undergoing aging
is getting so big that it now completely fills a standard sized kitchen
cabinet. Feels good to have a stash like that.

That's great that you can enjoy Wuyi brick tea. The processing is simple. After the tea is oxidized/shaken, fixated, it's then rolled in a rolling machine. The rolling machine breaks up the cell walls and expresses juices to the outer leaf. This tea is then spread out to rest on plastic sheets or on bamboo baskets. Once its at this naturally sticky stage, it can be compressed into a number of forms. Then the tea can be baked and allowed to completely dry naturally.

Any Yancha can age, and can age well - provided it was baked heavily. So it's an advantage to have Yancha brick tea which can be left for a number of years to age.

You are also right that there will be some microbial action on the leaf - depending on humidity, etc. The baking produces baked flavor, aging produces aged flavor. Well aged tea is like well-aged fine wine. The taste should be smooth, tasty, earthy.


> It's difficult for me to ascertain exactly what processing the Wuyi
>
> brick has undergone. It does have an earthier taste reminiscent of a
>
> cooked puerh, so I'm not sure I would rule out microbial aging quite
>
> yet.