Tag Archives: puerh storage

Puerh: Winter Effects Natural Storage

Posted on by Yang-chu
25 Jan

Winter Effects Natural Storage finds Puerh Junky in a meditative mood.  Here we see him discussing the oft-raised issue of puerh storage.  Specifically, he wants to approach the issue of climate control based upon his findings using primarily natural storage in Los Angeles.  Puerh Junky is agnostic regarding the matter of climate control.  Individuals are welcome to like whatever.  Hard conclusions about the best storage are dicey, for reasons not the least being storage climate and the contingencies of each production.  Here PJ wants to share his own findings at the height of the winter months ’24.  We find him in his silk and velvet smoking robe, resplendent colours of gold, black, and green. . .

Puerh Storage Direction:

When we come to the topic of puerh storage we must consider directionality.  Puerh is dynamic, undergoing a constant state of either expansion (outward) or contraction (inward).  Outward movement means that it is taking in more moisture.  Warmer seasons are the time of expansion.  Conversely, inward movement is when material contracts and thus releasing moisture.  Obviously, the picture is more complicated if one lives in the desert, where summer temperatures may give rise to a measure of expansion but not so much or even contraction if there is little humidity to move in.  Similarly, if winter spells a rainy season then contraction may be greatly tempered despite lower temperatures.

The relative state of each production determines whether it needs to expand or contract.  Dealing with dry-stored productions, it’s fair to conclude that expansion is preferable, but there will come a time when the latter is true.  In a recent conversation with a fellow enthusiastista, we were both rather dreading the customary hibernation that accompanies the cooler temperatures.  However, in the case of some productions, such trepidations proved unwarranted. Let’s take a closer look by examining two LME productions.

Puerh Winter Awakening

For a puerh production to undergo winter awakening, the production must exhibit flat attributes in the warmer months.  Assuming that we’re not talking about dry flatness, then the only other possibility is wet flatness.  Either dryness or wetness can give rise to flatness.  Many GD, HK, and wetter stored productions can exhibit flatness.  It can also be the result of insufficient air exposure or all the above.

Such has been the case of a certain LME production that I’ve had on hand for around three winters now and which I first introduced on Discord of Nov ’23.  Its leaves are uncharacteristically black, suggesting that it underwent a period of considerably heavy storage, though no humidity can be detected.  This heavy storage seems to have been followed up by storage where very little air got to it.  These are conjectures.  At the right spot, it exhibits a bright, high-note and refreshing nature.  By April ’23, storage strategy went whole hog humid with most unsatisfactory results, buy by the uncharacteristically early fall and fall-type weather of climes points east, the cake started to blossom with less fussing on this end.  Presumably this case has benefitted from both expansion and contraction, though it is decidedly performing best in its contraction phase presently.

Hideout, on the other hand, has been written about on the Junky’s Log a few times.  By summer ’23 it had flattened, and it seemed much, to this Junky’s horror, that it had piqued and died.  Subsequently, this wasn’t the case and might be attributable to two factors: one being in a transition phase and the other to requiring the contraction of winter.  Hideout presently doesn’t have the spicy traits as before, having now evolved into a grapefruit stage.  Most distinguishable from summer horrors is that the astringency is back.

Wrap Up

A recurrent theme of discussions on storage in the Puerh Junky Logs (PJL) has been that we’re dealing with a moving target.  There are numerous reports that essentially endeavor to time freeze the natural process of aging.  Perhaps this is possible under certain conditions, not the least being time in which a production is consumed.  Most all Puerh Junky comments regard older productions, i.e., ’14 and prior.

Key to assessing the performance of a production is its specifics relative direction, i.e., expansion and contraction.  Here two LME productions were placed under the spotlight to illustrate storage complexities for which winter conditions served as the elixir to remedy flatness.  Warmer seasons are the time of expansion and cooler contraction.  How a production performs depends upon its particular contingencies, which is why it is rash to make make any dogmatic presumptions about storage in general and even season specifically.

Many puerh enthusiasts are careful to control conditions of storage.  The Puerh Junky cannot speak to such methods, though there’s possible cause for philosophical musings based on his environmental specifics where temps range from the 40s-90s.  It is presumed that puerh is a live product given its production methods and transforming nature.  Within the ambit of puerh, shengtai is considered superior to plantation, and wild superior to shengtai.  This is because the wild plant gets exposed to stressors that make the plant work harder to compete within its environment.  With competition chemical responses occur to boost survivability.  It’s hard to imagine that such a phenomenon could be occurring with an entity that is already picked, but it seems possible that a puerh production constitutes its own micro-environment where an analogous process unfolds.  Subjecting one’s treasures to the same old conditions could end up boring the the micro-climate, whereas the stressors of seasonal variability (under LA condition mind you) could vitalize the micro-climate.  Though this is conjecture, it is not without empirical basis.

 

 

Turning Up Heicha

Posted on by Yang-chu
26 Apr

Turning Up Heicha came about from a reflection upon a number of dry-stored productions from about ’98-’07 that possess a quintessentially heicha character.  “Heicha” is a class of tea to which puerh belongs but is processed in different provinces.  “Puerh” is a trademarked name similar to champange, so technically other places technically cannot use the term.  Other types of heicha are fucha and liubao.  Typically, heicha’s association with puerh is with ripes given the processing technique, but older raws venture into the heicha category as well.  Puerh Junky will be visiting raw with heicha expression in this post.

HK Returns Cake, Zhongcha

Among the varying HK Returns offerings from ’07, the HK Returns Cake proved the burliest.  The lack of sweetness acquired in ’16 constituted a continuing conundrum.  I porcelained a portion about two years ago in ’21 Spring.  The porcelained version is not recognizable from previously associations, though the listing blurb duly notes that it strode a road toward berry fruit-osity.  Another portion of the same cake, stored differently, still possesses the tobacco tinge.

Only one tasting of the ’21 acquisitions (about three) transpired, and it expressed camphor sweetness indicative of greater humidity.  Overall, the HKR Cake has great durability and depth, with some of the stronger character from its youth coming though.

HK Returns Iron Cake, Zhongcha

Since we’re talking about heicha and Zhongcha and HK Returns, there’s the Iron Cake.  The pauperly Puerh Junky only has one of these for sale.  It’s absolute magic.  To be perfectly honest, were I looking for this taste, I’d probably venture into Dancong’s.  It’s extremely well constituted: sweet, thick, and with lemony notes on the top.  Lemonene expresses in Hideout, LME, but Hideout has an identifiably puerh character and complexity.  The HK Iron could be easily classified as a well preserved dancong or better yet, a well-stored fucha of about 8  yrs old.

Macau Raw Brick

The 2000 Macau Raw Brick isn’t for sale, but it serves as a solid touchstone for appreciating the transformation of raw puerh.  It has a depth that perhaps surpases heicha at it current stage.  Mind you, Puerh Junky doesn’t do much heicha drinking.  The variables of Mainland storage, travel, and storage on the LA side albeit separate intersect.  By the time the MRB reached performance level, it was difficult to determine which variable factored most.  This brick happens to be referenced in the Puerh Yearbook. It’s devoid of any humidity, so there’s no “old taste” per se, but it’s aged fully.

Du Qiongzhi 7532

The ’03 Du Qiongzhi 7532 comes in a bold Red Mark wrapper and progressed beyond the initial tobacco stage.  This particular cake, acquired in ’15, has never received full treatment. . . or maybe it has to its detriment.  It received the “top-shelf tx,” productions that were more enclosed and even placed in the sexy cardboard boxes aptly fitting single cakes.  The thing is that the cardboard aroma bleeds into the cake while zapping it of certain essential esscenses.  It’s been much work trying to bring this cake around.  It’s going on two years now, and if it’s been tinned, I don’t know where such tin is stashed.  In any event, it seems it wants to emerge as the porcelained version of the HK Returns Cake does but just hasn’t juiced up enough given the top-shelf tx.  It’s from Meitra Du’s own collection, so the junky side of me thought to be extra careful with little basis for knowing what extra care meant given my conditions and the conditions of the cake.  An Aug ’22 session produced by far the most enjoyable session and this summer seems to be a good time to really give it a push.  I do have two non-cardboard affected cakes.  The wrapper is thin cotton paper of distinctive quality.  Though horribly tattered at the edges, I don’t recall any staining.

’03 Du 7532

Thick Zen, Zhongcha

Thick Zen epitomizes the enigma of puerh.  My first encounter with it was around ’17.  It looked horrible and tasted of absolutely nothing.  I knew it must be good, but I didn’t know how long it would take.  Its viscosity clung to me and anticipation of it morphing into root beer oozed from my being.  I drank and sampled much from the first two cakes, convinced it was Yiwu.

The second batch of TZ has the same thickness, but the storage was dry, it appears, beyond the stage of turning camphor, wood, or rooty.  Could be the material as well.  Batch two is far sassier, with the fruit note far more up front, with stone fruit sour, a bit of raisin in the nose.  It’s like a strong boiling of dried cherry and peach without the sugar added.  Picking up some grape nose as it rehydrates.  By June ’23 it should be in good form, it’s already much sweeter than at the beginning of the month and there’s even some vanilla and complexity that garned its praises previously.

What’s not Heicha

Neither Poison nor some Yiwus are coming off as heicha.  I’d say the Yiwu Gratitude is venturing toward heicha, but the Prince is holding true to a darker note.  A number of the 6FTM Yiwu on hand have turned petrol in the same time frame.  All of these hail from backgrounds of decidedly more humid conditions.  When and how much humidity gets applies plays a major role in how the production will manifest.  Raw puerhs possess a degree of dynamism that cannot be found with other heicha, but through prolonged dry storage with heat they manifest as a bona fide heicha character.  Counterintuitively, ripes take considerably longer to have heicha traits to emerge.  The exception to this is the big leaf sancha, which might be processed in a fashion quite similar to liubao.

Wrapping Up

This desultory passage on raws Turning Up Heicha is just one of the ongoing reflections upon storage.  Although ripe puerh technically fits within the category of heicha, it doesn’t possess the fruit character until considerably aged and often never (there are obvious exceptions).  Conversely, raw puerh can turn up heicha quite often given the right measure of heat and dryness.  Raw productions like the HK Returns Cake and the Du 7532 that previously fell under the tobacco class have been marching ever resolutely toward heicha brightness.  Both cases demonstrate how slight variations in storage variables can produce notable differences.  The HK Returns Iron was first sampled last year, ’22.  There was no need to taste before then, because it was clear that offerings of this nature needed a solid 15yrs storage before sampling. It’s certainly the most outstanding among the HK Returns Series.  Age being what it is, there are nevertheless great storage matters requiring tending.  The Thick Zen second batch is every bit as thick, but needs some loving before performing optimally.  Complex notes are starting to form and it’s possible that storage intensity may reawaken its puerh essence, but for now it’s trending decidedly in the direction of heicha.  Finally, some reference points contrasting from heicha provide the reader with the Puerh Junky’s thinking on the matter.

 

 

Replicating Puerh Brewing Results

Posted on by Yang-chu
07 Sep

Replicating Puerh Brewing Results extends a conversation regarding Drury Lane at the end of June ’22.  In late Aug of the same year, Puerh Junky endeavored to replicate the splendid results.  The upshot?  Setting the brick out for a few days before brewing reproduced the desired results.

Although it would be nice to just grab from the stash and brew something up, each treasure has its own personality that will be greatly influenced by storage conditions and season.  Only you know your storage and climactic conditions.  Relating my own only demonstrates that there are no hard and fast rules and you’re only going to find what’s right for you through experimentation.

This time Drury Lane sat out for about three days before being brewed.  The results were superb.  It’s fair to say that any brewing without sitting out a few days would be a waste.  One caveat: so long as it remains in the same storage space, the fridge.

Since April ’22, the fridge has become a power-storage space.  Whereas previously, some humidifiers were placed here and there in the fridge, the current setup has a shelf where a tray of humidification resides.  It consists of a simple large plastic take-out food container with two florist sponges about an inch thick.  The tray is filled with water mixed with perhaps 1/8th, maybe less, of food-grade propylene glycol, used to discourage mold.  If I see mold growing on the sponges, then I add a more concentrated mixture.  I don’t just pour the pg into the tray.  It needs to be mixed.

Precision Humefaction

The tray sits uncovered because there is no risk of spillage and because it diffuses faster than if it were covered.  Most all the other storage containers have a similar setup but with lids that have numerous holes melted into them.  I heated a big screw with a kitchen torch to make them without cracking the plastic.  Two of the very big containers have one-gallon jugs cut to accommodate a big sponge and a good amount of water.  Both containers are accessed frequently and allow more airflow than the fridge, so this seemed to be the best way to get lotsa humidity into the containers.

Dodger tape optional

One such container holds ripes.  The morning of Sept 2nd, ’22 occasioned its opening to sample Snake.  The blast of air upon opening promised good “juice-ification” for the treasures therein.  It’s been hot and humid these past few days.  This setup makes for power humidity, enlivening the ripes, making them richer and sweeter.  Right now it’s ultra primo storage, as the air flow and heat is much greater than the fridge.

Already, 2022 has been the Snake‘s best year, so checking in on it was simply to determine whether it would also require a few day’s airing given the difference in storage.  Findings?  No airing necessary.   The plastic container provides nearly ideal conditions with this humidifier during the hot season.

The most current stint of heat has been quite humid so the amount of water that the fridge has been drinking is actually less than June and July.  It could also be that the tea has reached a certain saturation level, but I’m guessing that it has more to do with ambient humidity.

In general, I’m not worried about mold.  It’s never been a problem and the returns are huge in terms of how happy it makes the puerh.  This applies to both raw and ripes.  From mid-Nov to the beginning of July, temperatures will normally only get into the 90s (27c?) maybe a total of 15 days.  September and October will be burners, but usually the humidity will be quite super low.  Perhaps this newly outfitted humidifiers will work with the dry heat to keep up a juicy cooking, but the main purpose is to prevent excessive drying.

Much could be said on these seasonal changes, but the focus here is on reproducing the same effects for an excellent ripe which had started to drop off from excessive dryness and didn’t impress after conditions had switched to greater humidity.  It turns out, the original charm blossomed after sitting out for a few days.  Visiting the Snake confirmed some of the weaknesses of storage in the fridge.  As an aside, it should be noted that there are other items stored in the fridge that don’t seem to need any airing.  Again, each production has its own personality, shaped by material, compression, and mysterious variables necessitating constant fiddling to bring out the best from each.  Don’t be afraid to experiment.  Puerh is super forgiving.

 

Puerh Junky Visits Langhe Ripes

Posted on by Yang-chu
14 Aug

Puerh Junky Visits Langhe Ripes takes a turn toward the oft neglected shu puerh.  Here the Langhe TF garners the spotlight, in particular the ’06 Peacock Tribute.  This offering has been spending its days in Los Angeles since 2014, back when I would buy onezies instead of at least threezies.  The Peacock Tribute isn’t for sale but it provides a good opportunity to talk about fermentation and storage.

Langhe is a very well regarded factory for their ripes, but don’t take my word for it here’s Scott at Yunnan Sourcing’s blurb:

  Langhe 郎河 : Langhe is a factory of Menghai 勐海 that was founded in 1995. Since then it has built a strong reputation, won awards, and has become one of Yunnan’s most renowned brands. Langhe ripe teas are the most sought after from this tea factory. Classic Langhe recipes include 9599, 9579, 9559, High Mountain Ripe, and Gong Ting Ripe. Langhe ripe teas are excellent for long-term aging because they employ traditional light fermentation “wo dui” technique. This light fermentation allows for gradual aging of the ripe teas and retain much of the character of a raw pu-erh tea.

Now it’s official.  Curiously, there isn’t much chatter about Langhe.  A quick check on the puerh group on FB for example turns up only maybe four posts.  One of them is simply of the neipiao and another conjectures about authenticity.  There’s such paralysis around fakes that people don’t get that the only productions/factories that are faked are the ones that everyone knows.  It’s simply not cost effective to fake everything.  You fake what you know will sell.  Yes.  Langhe has a strong reputation, but that’s among those who know more than Dayi, Xiaguan, and Yangqinghao.  Faking is a business decision and until quite recently where prices have made widespread faking more justifiable, it just has made no business sense to fake lesser known brands and productions.

Boss Neifei

The Peacock Tribute possessed all the attributes of a Kunming dry-stored acquisition.  However, in contrast to some of Langhe’s other ripes, it is next-level astringent.  Is this what all the “small batch” craze is about?  In any event, whereas other treasures like the ’11 Imperial Round and the ’06 East is Red came into form relatively quickly, the former in six months and the latter 18, PT had never come into something resembling form until the tasting of 12 Aug ’22.

East is Red

It’s not because it is a gongting production because so are the aforementioned.  Neither is it because it hasn’t had sufficient time, as its age is identical to the East is Red.  Nor can storage be entirely attributable to its lack of performance because all three were and are essentially stored the same.  No.  It has to do with PT‘s needs or its personality.  Now, I can see a production with little sweetness and hella astringency striking some drinkers’ fancy, especially those who like to add milk and sugar to their brew.  Unfortunately, even those drinkers might be a shade disappointed because there’s no floral note to speak of like black teas, i.e., hongcha, that take doctoring.  Anyway, if I want kind of astringency, I’ll go for Lipton.  Ripes (or raws for that matter) should not be astringent like this.  If they are, then they’re impersonating a hongcha of questionable quality.

Gongting Scene

It seems that this astringency has to do with the processing.  Langhe is known for their ripes because of their light processing, which makes for good storing and resemblance to old raws.  With the PT, it appears that they took their processing to the next-level of “light.”  Even though the most recent tasting was considerably better, a year or two of a good Guangdong punishing would do it well.  That said, let’s get onto the specifics of the session.

Knowing this tea’s personality, I decide to mitigate against the astringency by flash brewing in gaiwan, 120ml, with 5.5g.  Immediately, the Peacock Tribute possessed a sweetness that wasn’t there before.  We’re not talking heavy sweetness, but nonetheless mild and pleasant.  The flavour of walnuts prevails and there’s a light camphor note at the end that matches the sweetness.  The aroma is unpleasant.  No other words to describe it but unpleasant.  The qi is strong.  The gaiwan choice successfully tames the astringency and there isn’t much to complain about in the first infusion.  Clarity, as with all Langhes, is outstandingly gorgeous.

Subsequent infusions always possess a weirdly unpleasant aroma, which fortunately doesn’t carry over into the brew.  The sweetness continues for about six infusions never building.  The same can be said for the camphor.  Walnuts is its overriding taste.  The most outstanding qualities are clarity and qi, both ranking at a five.  The body of is light, not thin but light.

Gongting Cashed

At the end, I let the brew sit overnight to see what the morning would bring.  More of the same only lighter.  Positively no sweetness.  Overall, the experience was greatly improved through gaiwan and emergent sweetness, but it’s still very “young” given the astringency and lack of full sweetness.  Peacock Tribute will need another couple years and a move to more intense storage in approach a satisfactory stage in the Puerh Junky’s book.  Far superior offerings in a similar vein include T8371, Macau Brick, and Silver Peacock.

 

 

Puerh Personality Via Drury Lane

Posted on by Yang-chu
28 Jun

Here’s a chance to chat upon Puerh Personality Via Drury Lane.  Every puerh treasure has it’s own personality requiring varying storage and preparation conditions.  When a few of your sessions don’t measure up, the last thing you want to do is conclude that your treasure has lost its way.  You first want to consider storage and preparation factors.  We can illustrate the matter of preparation by looking at a recent experience with Drury Lane.

Drury Lane is a twiggy 250g ripe brick from ’02.  It made its debut in spring of ’21.  At the time of posting, after sitting a few months to revive from its original storage, Drury Lane possessed a sparkling character, a woody sweetness with a refreshing camphor thread and an overlay of vanilla muffin.  It was the kind of ripe puerh that distinguished itself not for thickness but for a perfection of flavors that made you want to keep drinking.  The cocoa aftertaste that is in no way cloying also hits the summertime spot as far as ripes go.

A bit of an upgrade in containers occurred around Dec ’21.  It’s likely that most of the ripes spent a few months in conditions even drier than usual.  A tasting around the time of the lunar New Year ’22 nevertheless reflected the hibernation to be expected from the cold. . . by LA standards. In May moved the brick into more humid conditions and tried again about two weeks ago.  Myeh.  I tried again three days ago and the result was equally unimpressive, mottled and not particularly sweet.  I let the brick sit out over the weekend and tried on Monday morning.

Drury Lane Jun 2022

The results from the morning were as good as I knew Drury Lane to be.  It had lost none of its original pizazz.  Having the brick sit out in the open for a few days made all the difference.  Nothing with the variation in storage had affected its expression, but some changes in storage have made it necessary to modulate preparation.  Experienced drinkers will often talk about taking their treasures from storage a week or two in advance of actually drinking, sometimes also referred to as “waking” (醒茶), the same name given for the initial rinse.

In at least one previous post, your Puerhness has spoken about the importance of air in storage.  Here, the matter involves air for preparation.  Not all productions require airing before consuming.  This is where personality comes into play.  Some productions would much rather be brewed immediately upon leaving storage.  It’s not too much to assume that seasonal differences will also come into play.  Keeping a mental note or physical record of these nuances become more important the further out you get from the date of acquisition.  If you’re able to quaff down your purchases within three months, then this post isn’t going to matter much to you.

 

Lifting the Lid on Tinned Puerh

Posted on by Yang-chu
09 May

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.

Puerh Junky Reform School

Posted on by Yang-chu
28 Apr

Puerh Junky Reform School is a post that is sure to leave many a puerh enthusiast crestfallen.  No. It’s not about reforming tattoo and piercing hipsters from the notion that that oolong-processed “gu-shu” from ’19 is puerh;  rather it’s about how the Puerh’s Junky continues to get schooled by some real late bloomers.  The reader is left crestfallen because his junkiness deigns to make out like his irascibility has been earned by developing a reservior of knowledge, while it becomes ever clearer that it is simply his posturing.

Those ’07s Turn 15

First of all we should start with those much disparaged Zhongcha ’07s, which turn 15 this year ’22.  Whereas treasures like the Thick Zen and Water Blue Mark blossomed two or three years ago, the same could not be said about the likes of the Pig, the Blue Mark Iron Cake, HK Returns Iron Cake, or Beijing Olympics.  Among these, certainly the the Pig continued to beg the question:  “Why or how could it be possible for the makers to produce such a crappy tea”?

Against my better judgement, I opened the Pig up a few weeks ago.  What a difference!  There’s no need to go into the gory details.  The takeaway is what’s important: that is many flat, boring, or crappy productions are simply not what you think they are and only time will reveal their secrets.  This boils down to processing, a subject that many including myself have discoursed upon a great deal.

’07 Pig, ZC

Whether the the old-school processing methods are better than the new-school ones is going to boil down to preference, intention. . . and disregard for the the time variable.  If one intends to store the newly processed ones, then it’s anyone’s guess what the results will be, compounded by the complexities of storage conditions.

Pig 2016

Pig 2022

I nearly destroyed my silver needle storing it among the raws, and similarly catastrophic results developed with a couple tasty Nahan, Lincang cakes.  It is clear that those puppies require a great deal more air than traditionally processed puerh.  Any fears that air will cause the treasure to lose its aromatic intensity and pizazz should be laid to rest.  The opposite is true.

’18 Nahan

Nahan 2018 Shot

The pinkishness to the hue of that pic is obvious.  Evidently, this is supposed to mean “glory.”  The material is no doubt good, but creatures of this sort are raised in the same pen as the Pig.

As market demand has driven demand for more puerh that can be drunk now increases, it appears that some of the newer methods have creeped into even how Zhongcha is making some of the older productions.  If the Lunar Series serves as any indication, we see that compression at the very least is one of the differences.  This in itself may be sufficient for allowing quicker transformation, but there’s more.

For example, there’s a huge difference in appearance between the of the ’07 Pig and the ’14 Horse.  Wholeness and choppness is going to impact the final result.  Ostensibly the Pig and Horse recipes are the same, comprised of primarily Lincang material with some Menghai thrown in.  However, the sweetness has already started to emerge with the Horse despite being seven years younger than the Pig.  They’ve both been stored here in Los Angeles for about the same amount of time.  It seems unlikely that this difference could be chalked up exclusively to compression, though it is imaginable that both required somewhere around the same amount of storage time under Los Angeles conditions to blossom, seven years.  Still, the Puerh Junky’s hunch is that there’s changes in processing that are driven by the market.

Pig w/ neifei and neipiao modesty

Horse brazenly immodest

The Lincang villages not including Mengku and Fengqing specialize in fruity expressions that are sweet very early.  This is due to processing.  However, old-school Zhongcha productions comprised of Lincang material are no more expressive at a young age than those from Yiwu.  The differences depend not in terroir but upon the ones processing the maocha, just how much they feel they can reasonably cook the tea without losing the intrinsic character.  Obviously, some have assumed a devil-may-care attitude knowing that the drinker hasn’t any inclination to store the production, so they cook the hell out of it. . . or is that into it?

Wrap-up

This confession has gone long enough.  I can think of at least three different productions that have been stored since before ’16 from the ’07ish time period that didn’t blossom till this year, all from different factories with varying measures of market cache.  Some of these productions are still not ready but do benefit from a good deal of cooking.  My experience with some of the Lincangs that have specialized in sweet processing longer than other regions is that they require different care from the old-school productions.  Even here, however, it seems that the craft tends toward more conservative processing the more special the production.  That is to say, real Xigui and Bingdao won’t get the fire of less recognized villages and even they will require some wait of a year or two.  That’s another reform school lesson for another time.  By the way, have you paid your tuition?

 

 

 

Puerh Storage Update Jun 2021

Posted on by Yang-chu
26 Jun

Puerh Storage Update is part of an on-going saga involving our villain, the Puerh Junky, and his paltry puerh storage attempts.  Since Feb ’21 he has been engaged in a recovery project: convalescing top-shelf puerh cakes sedulously stored in puerh perfect cardboard boxes, which ended up fiendishly robbing the cakes of flavour and possibly qi, while imparting a cardboard taste.  As our camera zooms in we see the Puerh Junky rifling through his stack of convalescents.

“The 6442 isn’t going to be in here.  It’s not convalescing.  Still, now is a perfect time to balance the ’09 Bluemark, DQZ’s fruitiness, summer sublimeness.” He reaches through and grabs a generic bazhong wrapper, gives it a whiff, is satisfied, and examines what it is.  “Ah-haa!  The 8582 with the sexy aqua blue neifei.”

Aqua Neifei

Later during confession. . .

“I bought this in ’18 under no pretenses that it was real.  It was a ping to the vendor, as well as an opportunity to snatch up a bazhong wrapper with a unique neifei.  It was not up to standard till being stored for one year.  Whereupon it imparted a Zen cum root beer taste with a creepingly wicked qi.  Quickly, I checked to see if any more of that offering was available but it was long gone.

In a puerhitious attempt to baby or otherwise elevate its status, the 8582 was removed from one storage unit, placed in a puerh cardboard box, and stored among the top-shelfers of the Stash.  All the Stash top-shelfers can never become Collection offerings because they’re mostly simply not available.  These can sometimes be sent out as little treats for general edification and to show off some of what I consider top-shelf.

So, from Jun ’19 to Feb ’21 the 8582 lay in that cursed cardboard in my least favourite storage container– the fridge.  Day-after-day, month-after-month, that poor treasure received nothing short of the worst possible treatment.  The worst!  The fridge is essentially suspended animation.  Transformation is slow.  The perfect parameters have not been worked out.  Where things are placed and whether it is in plastic matters.  There are many variables that also depend on where the individual production is and what direction it needs to take.

In the case of the 8582, I was not looking for transformation, just storage.   The fridge is close to ideal for suspension, though it does has some undesired storage effects.   Still, it doesn’t even approach what cardboard does.  Let me say this as emphatically as I possibly can. . . cardboard isn’t ideal.”

By this time the priest is considering calling in for reinforcements.  The Puerh Junky goes on. . .

“Cardboard in the fridge is just a nightmare.  The fridge already does something to make the tea “stuffy” in the first place, and the cardboard worsens matters by bleeding its essence into the tea, while sucking from it as well.

These boxes are Dracula to puerh.!” he expostulates, while the priest reaches for his ultra-tetra-inter-hyper caring science gizmo.  Seemingly oblivious the Puerh Junky goes on. . .

“In ideal conditions perhaps it’s less of an issue.  I nevertheless removed all my tuo from their fancy boxes, despite fantastic storage containerdom.  Most have been stored box free anyway.  The thin box of the Dali Tuo worries me little.  The thin brown paper bags of the same material as cardboard worry me even less.   So, my sleeves of tuo remain in sleeves, much as the rain in Spain, if you catch my drift.

Positively none of the ripes have ever warranted cardboard boxing, but I removed my treasured ripe Monkey from its gift box.  Some Poison is stored in a big gift box and there are a few boxes in which productions arrive that I’ve been storing productions, but not in the fridge.  Some of those have been covered in plastic, as I’ve noticed that can make a big difference.”

Ripe Monkey in Gift Box

Later at the sanitarium in a lecture before no one. . .

“In any event, the subject here is rehab.  Rehab in this case consists of bagging the the treasure in packages that are waxy or plastic lined with the outter covering being white cotton or brown paper bag material, a close relative of cardboard.  I recently placed an order for a bunch of them, which I want to make available.  I think I got the ones that are white cotton.  That’s what the 8582 was placed in, in its original wrapper, unsealed, into the convalescent and archive tomb. ”

At the World Body of Puerh Nihilists, sanctioned and licensed by the world body of sanctioning, we find the Puerh Junky at the sanitarium standing before his gizmo wristwatch, synched with his thoughts through a super-convenient injectable nanobot luciferase care gel in a Zoom lecture.  He’s about to conclude.  . .

Findings

Tomato Shape

Aroma dry and in the heated vessel inviting.  Deep notes of root beer.  Evocations of Imperial Roots and the Tulin tuo that I’ve been tracking for a more affordable price and lost in the water in April.

250g Tulin raw

Overall, its association with Imperial Roots is impossible to avoid.  Hasty conclusions might lead one in the direction of Poison, but the latter is more camphorous whereas the former is peatier.  It’s a bona fide root beer, with more ginseng and less cardamom.

Storage, that’s the focus, determining the results of a four-month rehab for the 8582.  The matter here is not the 8582 itself, but how the findings contrast from before rehab entry. The findings are unequivocally positive, not ebullient but nonetheless unequivocal.

The 8582 is not as stultified as it was before entry.  Beyond that it is now a pleasure to drink.  All the attributes that made this treasure top-shelf are present.  At the same time, it has changed but so have I.  One of my own changes is in finding a more appropriate use for the tomato-shaped pot, which I’d previously believed to be best with tippy teas.  Now I’m thinking the opposite.  Obviously, the 8582 cannot have been changed by its cardboard ordeal.

I’ll keep it in rehab till October when it goes back to the fridge without cardboard (obviously) and in package, probably sealed.

Puerh Junky Harassment!

Posted on by Yang-chu
23 May

Seems Puerh Junky Harassment is omnipresent these days.  Your Puerh Junkyness can’t go anywhere without being hectored by the rabble about my tinning developments.  “Yo PJ!  What’s up with the ’06 Fohai you still haven’t posted?” shouts the bedraggled woman with the big nose and colourful shawl covering her greying hair.  “PJ, hey PJ!  Are you ignoring my texts?  What the word with the Lucky 7542, DQZ you’ve had in clay well nigh two months already?  Why you ghosting me?” read the email from someone in some place called “Topeka.”  Some dude with his eyebrows tattooed, one reading “Puerh” and the other “Junky,” in a pink Dodgers baseball cap in a big red Dodge Ram rolls down his window at a stop light asking, “Hey man, you still got the Water Blue Mark in porcelain?”  How did he know that?!!

I tell ya, it’s getting hectic out there, a real cramp to my Puerh Junky anonymity.

As luck would have it, there is word on a few productions that I can share.  Speaking of luck, lets start with the aforementioned Lucky 7542, DQZ, which has been in zisha since late Feb/early Mar 2021.  If you’ve had occasion to gander this production, you’ll know that there are two storage options avail, wet and proper.  Yes.  If it’s called wet, the storage is the opposite of proper, so the objective of claying it was to do something about the detestable dank oppression.  Findings are highly favourable.

There’s zero dank in the first five infusions.  There’s a nice balance, thickness, and sweetness that didn’t previously exist because the garbage taste was too loud.  It’s about half way seasoned presently, part of the age and nature of 7542 also factoring.  It was set aside for the next day, which produced even more sweetness and pleasantness for an additional 6-8 infusions.  Clay seems to be the very best way to season wet-stored puerhs where they can actually become drinkable.  At six weeks storage give or take, the effects are quite pleasing, sufficient to make it a top-shelf offering for puerh drinkers with fairly high standards.

Since we’re on the topic of clay, it’s worth noting that the ’01 Yiwu Huangpian has received similar treatment but for different reasons.  If I were to guess, it was subjected to a period of heavy wet storage and then a very long period of dry storage.  Upon taste, the Yiwu Huangpian receives high marks for storage and taste but some finishing touches never hurt.  Claying in this case provides volume that takes a good production to the next level.

Oh yeah, the Fohai, 6FTM.  It’s coming along in the tin.  The first couple weeks it was bright, ebullient even in the vein of the Fu or the Bulang Business, which I delisted, as somehow I’m only down to one left.  Anyway, about two weeks I checked in on the Fohai, which is the old name for Menghai, and it’s changed dramatically.  There’s much more petrol, the taste is much more serious in a scotch kinda way, even though I hate scotch and find the petrol vibe far more interesting.  Findings for the Pig, 6FTM have been similarly positive.

Fohai’s Tin

I’ve been letting those productions just have their way in the tins.  I’m not taking pains to manage air exposure, for example.  I am wondering how such measures will influence their root beer potential.  The ’04 Monkey, for example, is in full root beer glory.  It’s never been broken up and all dalliances with it have only involved moving it from one ring of the storage circus to the other– and out from the cursed cardboard, sometime relatively late in the game.   The Monkey has hardcore compression, as do all the 6FTM offerings up til 2010.  The ’11 Rabbit is shockingly agey, with a petrol expression that emerges much later in its tightly pressed predecessors.

I’ve referenced a few unlisted items here. Just touch base if you’re interested in any samples.

Puerh Clay Storage

Posted on by Yang-chu
07 Mar

Yesterday one of my chief drinking buddies came by for a shesh.  We had some leftovers, a ’18 Bingdao and ’07 Yiwu both huangpian.  He was very myeh regarding the latter, saying, “I’ve had it with the fruity and floral and want more like your ’98 Red Mark.”  What’s a proper Puerh Junky to do?

Yeah, I have a few late 90s raw puerhs in the stash.  One is a “Red Mark.”  It is one of those aged raws that have been punished with a good deal of heat and a dash of humidity imparting that detestable dry old-book newspaper vibe.  That bugger has been placed in the detention container with the rest of the cardboard-stored creations that have lost their pizazz due to my own dunderheadedness.  That Red Mark, however, was none of my doing.  The hope is that I can work a little PJ magic on it and something jucier and complex can emerge.  Of course, the reader knows that that taste is highly regarded in some circles but in the eyes of the Puerh Junky such storage is deeply flawed.  But I digress. . .

I was talking about my tea compadre’s request for that humid aged taste.  What better chance to try out the recently “tinned” Lucky 7542  DQZ, but minding my junky etiquette I gave him an option.  “Well, I have a wet-stored ’06 Mengku that is aggressive and floral or we can try the wet-stored 7542 from tea meistra Du Qiong-zhi.”

Lucky 4524, DQZ

“Oh, 7542?  I’ll definitely take that,” trying to restrain his enthusiasm.  “Now, you do know that this isn’t a Menghai TF?  It’s from someone who worked her self through the ranks of Menghai TF before breaking out on her own in the late 90s during the restructuring,” I warned.  “I’ll have that,” he assured me.

The Lucky 7542 got transferred to a clay caddy around mid-Feb 2021 as part of the tinning project initiated after the fabulous findings from Fu.  Whereas most of the productions thus transferred reside in metal, the Lucky got clay.  Since I had previously moved a hideously wet late 80s Tulin tuo to a clay caddy with a glazed exterior to great result, Lucky’s humidity informed placing it in clay.

Now the Puerh Junky could regale you with all the details about that ’89 Tulin tuo, but the focus here is regarding the findings from Lucky after only three weeks.  For starters, the wet storage smell is evident in the clay itself.  My compadre upon one whiff went into a reverie about his childhood, memories of his grandfather.  I personally detected a note of cinnamon which is a very good sign in light of storage and age.

Recently, the floral-designated pot (150ml) has been getting quite the work out.  It pours slowly, so I only used 4.5g.  Far be it from the Puerh Junky to be at a loss for words, but suffice it to say that a production that I found unsatisfactorily stored is now close to perfect.  The layers of complexity to the tea are now much more evident.  Even the floral notes are more precise.  The overall effect results in what tastes like the ideal 7542, the archetypical 7542.  Are there better 7542?  Well duh, but this captures everything that the 7542 is supposed to be including the humidity.

The Puerh Junky’s wife is keen on the humid productions and just happened upon the scene of the crime to join us right when the first pot was being poured.  Both mi amigo and mi wife remarked upon the sweetness.  What stood out for moi was the volume in terms of breadth imparted by the clay storage.  Imagine Miss Brown Eyes Blue Crystal Gale and her long strait locks getting a good dose of 80s hair mousse. Pour some sugar on me, baby. . . sans the spandex.  The interplay between flowers, minerals, and humidity could not be detected in previous sessions with Lucky but with clay storage, I detected such complexity causing me to completely revise my assessment of the material’s underlying quality.