Hi Mydnight,

Yes very interesting. I am familiar with most of what you said but the
bridge thing is new to me. Can you get me more details about it
please?


Mike
http://www.pu-erh.net

On 20 Mar 2005 08:48:34 -0800, "Mydnight" > wrote:

>Thought you guys and gals would find this bit of info interesting:
>
>I learned from a tea shop boss tonight, one that specializes in Yunnan
>pu'er (I've known him for over a year), that one of the original
>reasons why pu'er began to be compressed is because it was easier to
>transport. Knowing this, it can be said that it's easier to find older
>loose tea because they first only tried to transport the loose leaves.
>They could fit about 50 kilos of tea uncompressed without the carriage
>becoming overloaded and 75 compressed.
>
>The tea was transported from Yunnan to other places like Tibet,
>Guangdong, etc by horse and carriage only and it would take a very long
>time. While the tea was in transport, it would become better in
>quality due to 'fermentation'/oxidation. The transport could take up
>to a year to complete, and it was open to the elements to aid in it's
>aging. As long as the weather held up, you could have some very good
>tea by the time it reached it's destination.
>
>This was called Cha Ma Gu Dao (literally: tea, horse, old/ancient,
>way). At the end of the 'tea road' there was a small bridge called
>qing qiao (we forgot the exact name, it's still there) that you had to
>cross to get out of Yunnan at that time and it's an important part of
>the history of pu'er tea.
>
>Also, the boss said that maybe the best time to drink the pu'er tea is
>from 25-35 years because it's virtually impossible to find real tea
>that is older than that. It is terribly easy to lie about the age of
>the tea because there are so few people remaining that can actually
>judge age vs. quality to tell how old the tea is really. Many of the
>experts are very old now. And, if the tea is much older than 35 years,
>the tea can become too old to drink. The tea leaves will acquire too
>much dust or foreign particles and also the tea can die. It is highly
>dependent on storage, the original tea leaves, the air, the weather,
>and the skill of the shifu (master) whether you have a good tea or not.
> Regardless, he still said 25-35 was the best.
>
>Even the boss admitted that he has trouble finding good 15 year old
>tea, let alone 30-40 year old tea and he also said it's very hard to
>judge the fake from the authentic. He's been in the business for 20 or
>so years and is from Yunnan originally.
>
>Interesting, no?

"Mydnight" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Thought you guys and gals would find this bit of info interesting:
>
> I learned from a tea shop boss tonight, one that specializes in Yunnan
> pu'er (I've known him for over a year), that one of the original
> reasons why pu'er began to be compressed is because it was easier to
> transport. Knowing this, it can be said that it's easier to find older
> loose tea because they first only tried to transport the loose leaves.
> They could fit about 50 kilos of tea uncompressed without the carriage
> becoming overloaded and 75 compressed.
>
> The tea was transported from Yunnan to other places like Tibet,
> Guangdong, etc by horse and carriage only and it would take a very long
> time. While the tea was in transport, it would become better in
> quality due to 'fermentation'/oxidation. The transport could take up
> to a year to complete, and it was open to the elements to aid in it's
> aging. As long as the weather held up, you could have some very good
> tea by the time it reached it's destination.
>
> This was called Cha Ma Gu Dao (literally: tea, horse, old/ancient,
> way). At the end of the 'tea road' there was a small bridge called
> qing qiao (we forgot the exact name, it's still there) that you had to
> cross to get out of Yunnan at that time and it's an important part of
> the history of pu'er tea.
>
> Also, the boss said that maybe the best time to drink the pu'er tea is
> from 25-35 years because it's virtually impossible to find real tea
> that is older than that. It is terribly easy to lie about the age of
> the tea because there are so few people remaining that can actually
> judge age vs. quality to tell how old the tea is really. Many of the
> experts are very old now. And, if the tea is much older than 35 years,
> the tea can become too old to drink. The tea leaves will acquire too
> much dust or foreign particles and also the tea can die. It is highly
> dependent on storage, the original tea leaves, the air, the weather,
> and the skill of the shifu (master) whether you have a good tea or not.
> Regardless, he still said 25-35 was the best.
>
> Even the boss admitted that he has trouble finding good 15 year old
> tea, let alone 30-40 year old tea and he also said it's very hard to
> judge the fake from the authentic. He's been in the business for 20 or
> so years and is from Yunnan originally.
>
> Interesting, no?

Yes!


--
~~Bluesea~~
Spam is great in musubi but not in email.
Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.