Lifting the Lid on Tinned Puerh
Lifting the Lid on Tinned Puerh marks an episode in the puerh storage saga of the Puerh Junky. About a year ago, I took a few productions and placed them in various vessels, some tins, some glazed caddys, and others in porcelain. Seals on the vessels varied in tightness and material. The main reason for this experiment had to do with a desire to hasten transformation and adjust for what I noticed to be a bit of drop off in the pizazz primarily of the Fohai. Altogether, I placed about five different productions in five different vessels and then proceeded to compare the performance of the vessel-stored productions against the cakes. The caddies are stored mostly in the door of the dead refrigerator, which seems close to ideal.
Findings: May 2022
After better than a month with the lit removed, the Fohai was back to its original sparkle. Notable for the Cherry Blossom was greater sweetness and a stronger fruit nose. All of the items improved from removal of the lid with the actual vessel being of no discernible significance. The exception being the items stored in porcelain. None of the porcelain-stored treasures had their lids removed because they did not exhibit the same undesired tendencies. If anything they got better.
It’s difficult to say that any of the the tinned have aged appreciably more than their respective cakes. What can be said, however, is that their performance is noticeably better than the cakes. Whether lid-free tinning produces appreciably better effects than setting the cake out for a few days before drinking probably depends on the production itself and the conditions in which the tea sets out. It’s my suspicion that the Fohai probably fares better in the tin than if it were just set out, but this is merely a hunch.
