teakkurim

22 adar 5781   i had another 7542 and it was worlds different than the last ones i had . it is all because of storage. the previous ones were aged in Kunming and stored in a very dry environment in the states. this one was ‘dry’ (aka: naturally) stored in hong kong. this one was bitter and had more bite, 2012 is fairly young, and although the PuerhShop 7542’s were lacking in flavor and texture, they were not as bitter because they were older.  the flavor i was getting from the 2012 was very different from the PS ones. this one was on the side of dark, plummy, some coffee tastes vs the PS one was grassier and very minerally.  the 2012 one was also a bit more stimulating. it didn’t give many quality infusions but that may also be a byproduct of its young age i am guessing. these statements are not groundbreaking or earth shattering for me. if you drink puer or read about it, these are some pretty standard statements. so why am i even writing about it? im one of th...

1 adar 5781   i was very inspired and pleased by MarshalN’s post about blends. it hits on some of the main points on why it is hard to be a serious tea nerd in amerika. besides not having access to a certain portion of physical tea, we have limited access to the scaffolding of tea culture. part of the desire to age puer in the west is for enthusiastic hobbyists, but also because it is hard to affordably access fully aged puer in the west, so we might as well do it ourselves.    in China, aging is done by tea makers and tea sellers. besides aging puer cakes (bricks, maocha, etc), tea shops would have their own signature blends for their customers. a little bit from this cake here, a little bit of maocha there. some young sheng, some old sheng, and some ripe mixed in to balance it out. these blends were unique to each shop and very affordable. this sounds like something i would love especially as someone who loves cooking, experimenting, and creating.   in that same b...

1 adar 5781   im gonna be doing a few posts today because i am snowed in and might as well. one of the reasons i moved out to the PNW was to get away from the snow and cold, but here it is. i cant go anywhere and it's too cold for me to romp around much. but it does look very pretty especially on the property im on so i will be drinking lots of tea, eating soup/stew and reading a lot. on to the teas. after drinking my puerhshop samples, i am starting to learn how much difference storage makes. these teas were all dry stored and then dry- er  stored in the US in the PS warehouse (kept at room temp but at 45% RH). all 7 of PS teas i drank had a mineral/clay-like aftertaste that came out around steep 4 and held on til the end. i am guessing had to do with the storage. each vendor imparts their own particular storage taste, just like each house has its own unique odor…   i also learned about how my body feels about teas that are only slightly aged. a ...

1 adar 5781 (rosh chodesh) first, the first of the month of adar lines up with the Chinese Lunar New Year. Happy New Year to those who celebrate! (fun fact: the Jewish calendar has lunar months but has a solar year. i dont understand astronomy enough to explain what this means, but it's pretty cool).   on to the tea review. yes, i said tea review (which i dont enjoy writing), but this post talks more about my continued learning and what i am starting to pick up on more than a specific tea.   this is the last tea i wil be writing about from Puerhshop for now. ive had more but they weren’t worth writing about (that means you: 2005 yiwu zhenghsan, 2007 ronshen, and 2007 mengku big tree). this tea is called Yiwu King of Kings Anceint Tree from 2006. i have not had a ‘Yiwu’ before.  Yiwu mountain is one of the ‘six famous tea mountains’ within Mengla County in the Xishuangbanna prefecture of Yunnan. Xiashuangbanna is the southern most prefecture in Yunnan and is regarded as ha...

28 shvat 5781 this is my third 7542 from Puerh Shop. they have all been pretty similar. these are the only 7542s i’ve had. they are all from the same vendor and they have all been dry stored. they still brew a light orange despite being from 98 , 04 , and 06. so although they supposedly have some years, they still seem only mildly aged.    this is when i wish i had some tea people to talk to. what do other 7542’s taste like, how do these compare?    in regards to taste, they are not very impressive. theres not a lot of depth. theres not much of an after taste or hui gan. the mouthfeel is decent. drinks pretty smooth but not too impressive overall.   the qi seems similar for them all and it is what threw me off the most. i was expecting some hard hitting stimulation. maybe some sweats maybe some boosts of energy. i didn’t feel that. the qi for these teas seems clarifying (which felt good today because my anxiety is a little up right now). not what i expected. im ...

  21 tevet 5781 after the previous samples ( 1 & 2 ) i tried from, Puerh Shop i was getting pessimistic about the teas and also about my own knowledge of how to distinguish between a tea’s quality and my quality as a tea drinker. thankfully, i liked this sample more.   it is not super flavorful, but has more discernable flavors. there is that familiar puer ‘leathery’ taste, a pleasant smokiness, some mushroom flavor, and some nice earthiness. it also has a little more thickness and coating of the mouth, not much, but more than the previous 7542’s. the listing says it is from the Bulang region so i will have to see if other Bulang cakes share some of these same flavors (ie: earthy and smoky).   the PS website says it was aged in Kunming for 10 years and im guessing this was natural/dry storage. the broth is darker than the 1998 7542 which makes me more confident that the 1998 might not be from 1998 (or it has just been kept in very dry conditions). the pictures don’t ...

12 tevet 5781 to put the Puerh Shop dayi 7542 i tried in context, i wanted to drink a puer i know the best. this is one i bought from Yunnan Sourcing as my first bing. it was cheap and i didn’t know enough to buy a sample first to give it a try. oh well (a phrase which im sure appears many times on this blog). ive had this cake for about a year and i keep it in a plastic ziploc which i add some steam to every now and then. the dry leaves still give off a nice aroma so i don’t think it has dried out too much.   it is a better tea than the PS Dayi i tried. whether this is because of storage conditions (traditional vs dry storage), storage quality, or some other reason, i prefer the 2007 Bo Nan. but why?   the flavor is better. it is less bland, has more middle and high notes (still not many deep notes and not a lot of complexity, but more than the PS dayi). the mouth feel is better. it has a little more texture, is a little smoother, and has a lil bit of returning sweetne...

12 tevet 5781 after being disappointed with the Dayi 7542, i wanted to try other 7542 i got from Puerh Shop. was the Dayi what 7542’s taste like, was it because it was dry stored, was it because it has gotten very dried out over time, was it because its not actually a Dayi 7542? theres only one way to fid out and that is to be there for the whole process of making that cake and i cannot do that, so i will continue to try 7542’s to compare.   firstly, this 1998 CNNP 7542 brews very light. it comes out as a medium orange which seems very light for a tea from 1998 even if it is dry stored. is this really from 1998? what else is true or untrue about it? if only i could be a sleezy partner and rifle through this puer’s text messages to find out what is  really  going on…   this post will not be long. it felt a lot like the previous 7542. it was bland, not bitter, but boring. a little mushroomy, pretty mineraly, and a lil hay and dirt taste. smooth, but  not much...

10 tevet 5781 i wanted to spend this winter getting to know sheng puer better. i was excited, i was committed, i was intimidated, i was cheap. i am still cheap. in the past ive had a couple samples from YS, i bought a $40 cake from YS, and ive had good aged sheng at New Century Tea Gallery but didn’t buy any. that’s it. i have not had a lot of aged sheng.    i did a lot of internet research and compiled a bunch of sites that i thought would be good to buy from. for my first mini haul of samples i chose Puerh Shop. they are very cheap/affordable, have lots of options, and have puer that is at the actual aged stage (7-10 plus years). so i pulled up the pages that listed all their aged sheng samples and bought about 8. they arrived very quickly shipping from PS’s headquarters in Michigan. because they have just been stored in a room temperature setting in the Midwest, i popped the sample bags is a tupperware with a boveda pack and added steam to the tupperware and the bags every...