Yesterday I went out to get the mail and there were two boxes in my garage.
One from Generation Tea containing the two gaiwans I had ordered, a white
and blue 6oz. to use for the Japanese and Chinese greens my wife and I share
in the evenings, and a 4oz. yellow zisha to replace the one I broke
recently. I use the yellow zisha gaiwan to brew young raw pu-erhs at work.
They included a 2oz. sample of Organic Hunan Pu-erh. It's a loose leaf
cooked pu-erh.

The other box was from Hou De with the 10g sample of the 70's GYG that Mike
recommended. They threw in a 20g sample of a 1994 MengHai Factory #8582 raw
pu-erh.

I have never tried a cooked pu-erh that I really liked. I don't mind the
taste so much, but usually get a headache and queasy feeling in my stomach.
The Organic Pu-erh from Generation Tea seemed to agree with me just fine and
had the added surprise of the sweet, somewhat fruity aftertaste I love from
young raw pu-erhs. None of the cooked pu-erhs I've had have had this
quality. I brewed it in a mug with boiling water and a 3 minute steep.

Later in the day I brewed some of the 1994 MengHai #8582 in the zisha
gaiwan. I usually brew my young raw pu-erhs with spring water around 160F
starting with a 20 second steep and adjusting for taste on each subsequent
steep. I did the same with the MengHai. It had the camphor taste that I
have heard mentioned, but never tasted in the younger raw pu-erhs I've
tried. However, it lacked the sweet, lingering aftertaste that I love in
younger raw pu-erhs. It held up to many steeps, but never developed the
sweetness. Maybe this is normal for adolescent pu.

Next I need to try the '70's GYG. It is my first and maybe my only 30 year
old pu-erh. Should I brew it like a young raw pu-erh with 160F water? Or,
should it be brewed with hotter water, more like a cooked pu-erh? I don't
have much here, and while I know it's all a matter of my taste, I want to
get the most from my sample.

Thanks,

Blues

>Next I need to try the '70's GYG. It is my first and maybe my only 30 year
>old pu-erh. Should I brew it like a young raw pu-erh with 160F water? Or,
>should it be brewed with hotter water, more like a cooked pu-erh? I don't
>have much here, and while I know it's all a matter of my taste, I want to
>get the most from my sample.

Hi Blues,

I recommend a water just off a boil for and pu, they can handle it.
Some friends and I practice something that has been coined "wrong-fu"
where we go heavy on the leaf and use flash infusions. This works well
with a good aged pu. I don't know which vessel you use for this tea
but I use about 1g-1.2g per 20ml of vessel capacity (use a smaller
vessel if you don't have much leaf), quick rinse, after the rinse let
it stand 1-3 minutes before brewing the first infusion, let the first
infusion be a quick one like maybe 5 seconds, then let the taste and
your perceptions guide you as to how long to infuse the remaining
steeps. I often do flash infusions for the first 5 or 6 steeps before
I start lengthening the steep time. 10 or more steeps can usually be
had from a good tea using this method.

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

I enjoyed the sample of hunan that came with an order from Generation
also.
Mike's wrong-fu method works well here.

I snagged a tong of green bings to hide in the closet.
I am getting smarter now and order an extra one loose so I don't have
to open the stack.

Something funny...

A lady commented to her tea teacher, "I have brewing aged pu'er every night
for my husband, he has high blood pressure you see, and I hope the tea will
help."

"Is it effective?" asked the tea teacher.

"Oh, it's too early to tell," the lady replied. "I brew the first & second
rounds for him all the time, so that the he can absorb the best properties."

"Huh?! & the other brews?"

"Oh that, I use it as footbath, it is really relaxing, you know."

"samarkand" > writes:

> Something funny...
>
> A lady commented to her tea teacher, "I have brewing aged pu'er every night
> for my husband, he has high blood pressure you see, and I hope the tea will
> help."
>
> "Is it effective?" asked the tea teacher.
>
> "Oh, it's too early to tell," the lady replied. "I brew the first & second
> rounds for him all the time, so that the he can absorb the best properties."
>
> "Huh?! & the other brews?"
>
> "Oh that, I use it as footbath, it is really relaxing, you know."

For those who haven't had the pleasure yet: It's common for the taste
of aged Pu'er to improve dramatically starting around the eighth steep
or so.

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

"Lewis Perin" > wrote in message

> > "Huh?! & the other brews?"
> >
> > "Oh that, I use it as footbath, it is really relaxing, you know."
>
> For those who haven't had the pleasure yet: It's common for the taste
> of aged Pu'er to improve dramatically starting around the eighth steep
> or so.

Do you need aged feet to brew it that way ?

Kuri

[Lew]
> For those who haven't had the pleasure yet: It's common for the taste
> of aged Pu'er to improve dramatically starting around the eighth steep
> or so.
>
Genau!

:")

I would recommend that you get three cups. For the first two rounds, pour
them into 2 cups for each round. Start drinking from the third round, and
continue to the 5th.

Increase your steeping time on the GYG on the 6th to about 2 minutes, and in
the mean time, while the taste of the 'cleaner' rounds are on your palate,
taste the 1st and 2nd rounds. This will tell you how far well or poorly
stored the tea is.

Rinse your mouth after that, and enjoy the 6th, till you have exhausted the
tea. When the liquor becomes pale and flavour thins out, put a clean pot
with 1 cup of water to the boil. Throw in the used the leaves. When the
water boils up again, turn off the power, then the water cool off slightly,
and enjoy the tea.

Danny

"kuri" > writes:

> "Lewis Perin" > wrote in message
>
> > > "Huh?! & the other brews?"
> > >
> > > "Oh that, I use it as footbath, it is really relaxing, you know."
> >
> > For those who haven't had the pleasure yet: It's common for the taste
> > of aged Pu'er to improve dramatically starting around the eighth steep
> > or so.
>
> Do you need aged feet to brew it that way ?

Maybe Crymad can answer this one?

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

Danny wrote:
<Increase your steeping time on the GYG on the 6th to about 2 minutes,
and in
the mean time, while the taste of the 'cleaner' rounds are on your
palate,
taste the 1st and 2nd rounds. This will tell you how far well or
poorly
stored the tea is.>

What should one be aware when tasting this? What telltale
characteristics indicate poor storage?
Thanks
David L.

> Hi Blues,
>
> I recommend a water just off a boil for and pu, they can handle it.
> Some friends and I practice something that has been coined "wrong-fu"
> where we go heavy on the leaf and use flash infusions. This works well
> with a good aged pu. I don't know which vessel you use for this tea
> but I use about 1g-1.2g per 20ml of vessel capacity (use a smaller
> vessel if you don't have much leaf), quick rinse, after the rinse let
> it stand 1-3 minutes before brewing the first infusion, let the first
> infusion be a quick one like maybe 5 seconds, then let the taste and
> your perceptions guide you as to how long to infuse the remaining
> steeps. I often do flash infusions for the first 5 or 6 steeps before
> I start lengthening the steep time. 10 or more steeps can usually be
> had from a good tea using this method.
>
> --
> Mike Petro
> http://www.pu-erh.net

Thanks Mike. Hopefully I'll give it a try tonight. That's pretty similar
to how I do my young raw pu-erhs, except I use lower temperatures and start
with 15-20 second steep times. I'll be using a 4oz Zisha Gaiwan. With the
tea leaves and filling it about 3/4 full of water it makes enough tea to
fill my 2oz Japanese tea cup. That should allow me to get about three
sessions out the 10g sample.

I've been brewing the cooked pu-erh I received from Generation Tea in a 6oz
tea cup with boiling water, 1-2 tsp. of tea and 3 minute steep. I tried it
this morning in a small gaiwan using the wrong fu method you mentioned. It
was very enjoyable. I'm kind of wishing I had ordered some cooked samples
with my order from Jing. I'd never had one before that left a sweet
lingering aftertaste. I think I still like the raw ones better, but this is
nice.

Blues

> I would recommend that you get three cups. For the first two rounds, pour
> them into 2 cups for each round. Start drinking from the third round, and
> continue to the 5th.
>
> Increase your steeping time on the GYG on the 6th to about 2 minutes, and
> in the mean time, while the taste of the 'cleaner' rounds are on your
> palate, taste the 1st and 2nd rounds. This will tell you how far well or
> poorly stored the tea is.
>
> Rinse your mouth after that, and enjoy the 6th, till you have exhausted
> the tea. When the liquor becomes pale and flavour thins out, put a clean
> pot with 1 cup of water to the boil. Throw in the used the leaves. When
> the water boils up again, turn off the power, then the water cool off
> slightly, and enjoy the tea.
>
> Danny

Thanks Danny, I'll give that a try. What do you look for in the first two
cups compared to the third thru fifth?

Blues

> Amongst other things, some of the easiest red flags to recognize are
> "wet laundry", mildew, or mold notes which indicate wet or overly
> humid storage. Another trick is storage inside of camphor wood boxes
> to impart a camphor flavor in the tea, if this is the case the camphor
> notes will dissipate in the first half dozen steeps. True natural
> camphor flavor will persist through all of the steeps.
>
> --
> Mike Petro
> http://www.pu-erh.net

Guess I should have updated my reader before posting my last question, since
it was already asked and answered!

Blues

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 18:41:26 -0800, "Blues Lyne"
> wrote:

>> Amongst other things, some of the easiest red flags to recognize are
>> "wet laundry", mildew, or mold notes which indicate wet or overly
>> humid storage. Another trick is storage inside of camphor wood boxes
>> to impart a camphor flavor in the tea, if this is the case the camphor
>> notes will dissipate in the first half dozen steeps. True natural
>> camphor flavor will persist through all of the steeps.
>>
>> --
>> Mike Petro
>> http://www.pu-erh.net
>
>Guess I should have updated my reader before posting my last question, since
>it was already asked and answered!
>
>Blues

No sweat, I am sure Danny will have more to add. I think he is offline
for a day or two so I just kicked in a bit.


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

>> Hi Blues,
>>
>> I recommend a water just off a boil for and pu, they can handle it.
>> Some friends and I practice something that has been coined "wrong-fu"
>> where we go heavy on the leaf and use flash infusions. This works well
>> with a good aged pu. I don't know which vessel you use for this tea
>> but I use about 1g-1.2g per 20ml of vessel capacity (use a smaller
>> vessel if you don't have much leaf), quick rinse, after the rinse let
>> it stand 1-3 minutes before brewing the first infusion, let the first
>> infusion be a quick one like maybe 5 seconds, then let the taste and
>> your perceptions guide you as to how long to infuse the remaining
>> steeps. I often do flash infusions for the first 5 or 6 steeps before
>> I start lengthening the steep time. 10 or more steeps can usually be
>> had from a good tea using this method.


Tonight I broke up my 10g sample and divided it into three portions as equal
as I could get them without a scale. Since I was using my zisha gaiwan to
brew about 2oz. of tea, this should work out to around 3.3g to 60ml of
water. The leaves were mostly black with some brown highlights.

I placed one portion in my gaiwan and did a quick rinse. I used spring
water just off the boil and started with around 5 second steeps. I saved
the first two steeps as Danny suggested. In steeps 3-5 a musty flavor
predominated. After steep five I drank the first two steeps. They were
more musty and stronger flavored, but nothing I'd relate to mold, mildew or
dank laundry. The cooked pu-erhs I've had have had a dank basement or pond
sort of flavor, but this was more of a musty attic taste. It was a flavor I
related to old books and my great aunts mostly unused upstairs where we
slept when we visited as a child. Her upstairs had a lot of wood (floors
and paneling) and old books and furniture in storage. All of the steeps
were very dry on the tongue.

The sweetness showed up in steep six. As I continued the sweetness became
stronger and the mustiness became less until around steeps 10-12 they seemed
to become fairly equal. Also during this time I began to note a hint of
camphor. It never became a predominate flavor, but lingered after the other
flavors. It was nice mixed with the sweet and reminded me of a gum I had
when I was young. It bordered on a wintergreen flavor when mixed with the
sweet aftertaste. The '94 MengHai #8582 that came along with the GYG had a
very pronounced camphor taste, but not much sweetness. It reminded me more
of my grandmother's medicine cabinet. The GYG was much more subtle.

I lost count but I'm sure I steeped over 16 times. After this the taste was
thinning out. The sweetness and mustiness were still there, but the flavor
became thin and seemed done. I followed Danny's suggestion for the spent
leaves and enjoyed another cup of tea. Not as great as some of the earlier
steeps, but not bad at all.

I couldn't say I liked it enough better than younger pu-erhs to pay $379 for
a beeng (not that that would be an option anyway). But, it had a nice
complexity and certainly didn't have the astringent properties of the
younger pu-erhs. I did miss the touch of fruitiness that accompanies the
sweetness in some younger pu-erhs.

I should be able to get two more sessions from the sample. I'm sure I'll
notice more complexity and flavors as I get more accustom to the tea.
Thanks for the tips, it's a fun journey.

Blues