Bamboo Pu erh

 

I happened to have a bamboo-tube pu erh in my collection.  I had purchased it from my earliest trip to Guangzhou tea market. This tea had been in my collection for more than 15 years.  

You can see from the pix that this 500g tea was 'stored in this bamboo tube.  I had seen pictures that .....tea was actually stuffed into the bamboo tube and some pressure was applied  (by hand) to compress the tea into the tube. In some instances, some of these producers even placed these tea filled tubes over a fire to 'roast' the tea. 

This tubed pu erh I had opened was a ripe or shou pu erh. It had 'Yong Ming" brand on its label. The tea was moderately compressed. The quality was not high grade.... broken tea leaves and stems.  When I brewed up the tea, the tea was clean with a good taste and aroma. 

I had tried a few bamboo pu erh during my travels.....one was smoky while another one was quite woody in taste. My thoughts are that if you are a pu erh tea drinker, you should get a bamboo pu erh just for its novelty.     

Xiang Mu Hai Black Tea Ball

This is the Xiang Mu Hai black tea ball.  There are 500g of black tea in the box.  More specifically, there are 120 black tea balls in the box with 6 balls packed in a small self sealing pack. This would worked out to about 4.1g per ball. 

This tea was designed for convenience and all you need was to pop the tea ball into a mug of boiling water.  I found that I could refill my mug with boiling water to get another round of tea as well. Good for 2 infusions. 

The regular teabag from supermarkets has about 2g of tea. This black tea ball instead has 4.1g of tea.  The tea when brewed is strong and aromatic. I am not a fan of tea balls but this tea was very good and very appropriate for use in a busy office or while travelling. 

However, I felt that Xiang Mu Hai that produced this tea could had made a marketing error in naming this tea 'little black men'.   This label is not appropriate if this tea was marketed internationally.  I hope the tea factory would change the name for this tea. 

Bai Mu Dan White Tea - Fukien Tea Shop

 

I was in Hong Kong in 2008 sampling tea at Fukien Tea Shop, when the owner Mr Yeo asked me whether I wanted some white tea.  He said he had ordered some new Bai Mu Dan and found them to be quite good.  I purchased 500g and requested that the tea be packed into 4 smaller packets. Upon reaching home, I stored them in empty tea tins and only trying this tea today. 

This white tea was very aromatic even when I was unwrapping the wrapper. It was like a light perfume with nice floral notes. I used about 5g of tea in a 180ml teapot and I could get more than 6 good infusions. Lightly sweet in the aftertaste. I could enjoy the tea hot and even when it had cooled down. I think it will make a cold tea as well. 

Though this white tea tasted very light and delicate, I hesitate to drink this tea in the evening as my last experience drinking white tea kept me awake way past midnight.  An enjoyable tea and I am happy to have it in one of my tea caddies.  

An Older Mei Zi Jing Pu erh Cake

 

I opened an older Mei Zi Jing raw pu erh cake. No date chop on the wrapper but I had kept this cake in my collection for more than 12 years.  Mei Zi Jing is an area or region in the Lincang district of Yunnan, China. This 400g cake was produced by Yongde tea factory. 

Most of pu erh tea in my collection that were harvested from the Lincang area had a smoky background. This cake was non smoky and It was interesting when I had a tea session of this tea. 

With more than 12 years of storage in my collection, this tea is mellow and smooth.   The taste of the tea was mainly dominated by a woody taste. It was a little bitter but I could not detect any other flavours in the tea.  The after taste is nice with a pleasing salivating sensation after I had drank a cup of this tea. 

But I digress. Tea collectors like myself store away our pu erh for 10-15-20 years.  Even though we take pains to ensure proper storage for the pu erh to age, there will be many instances where the aged tea will not be what we imagined or desired. We may wish for a strong aged tea with complicating taste and aroma but there will be some tea that will come out extremely well and some not too well.  If you are intending to store and age your pu erh tea, be prepared for a wild adventure.    

Perhaps Less Is Better

 

Over the past two years, I had 2 tea buddies complaining to me that they had a tummy upset when after a tea session.  These two buddies are to me quite hardcore Chinese tea drinkers. They drink Chinese tea (mainly raw pu erh) on a daily basis and they brew their tea really strong. These two tea buddies of mine are not related; one resides in USA and the other in Malaysia. They had been drinking and brewing Chinese tea for more than 10 years. 

I can understand that drinking or brewing your tea strong is nice. The aroma and taste is more pronounced. One may get very warm and may feel slightly intoxicated as well. Many Chinese tea drinkers I know are looking out for such tea and are willing to pay a handsome price to acquire such tea. 

However......a few tea masters from China had already warned me not to make my Chinese tea too strong. I was told to drink the tea 'dan dan' (mild in Chinese) and still enjoy the taste and aroma of the tea. I was further told that drinking strong tea frequently is bad for the digestive system and may weaken the body in the long term. 

I do not know or able to prove the points made by my teamaster friends. However, looking at the Chinese tea sets in the past,  there were many Chinese tea sets that were smallish......in that the teapot and teacups were really small. Teapot size were 60-80ml with cups at 15-20ml in size. It was almost like sipping tea and I would need to drink quite a number of cups to drink the amount of tea that I am drinking using my current set up ( I drink at least 500ml  per tea session). 

Maybe Chinese tea should be enjoyed in smaller portions.  It way be less stressful to your digestive system than if you indulged in drinking strong Chinese tea daily.  You will save on your tea if you use small amounts of tea in your tea sessions.......may even last for a few generations if you use less tea leaves.   

2019 Taetea Dayi Raw Tuo

 

I recently opened a 2109 Taetea Dayi raw tuo.  The tea was moderately compressed and I easily opened the tuo with the help of a tea pick. 

My recent sampling of newer raw pu erh tea was not very exciting as many of the newer raw pu erh tend to be very lightly processed. The new pu erh lack the raw strength in both taste and aroma. There is hardly any bitterness or complication of taste in the tea. Yes, most the new raw pu erh is easy to drink and can be drunk now without the need for long term storage. I suppose this style of processing is to appeal to the newer or younger tea drinkers who want to drink their tea purchases now and are not wanting or have any desire to store their tea for more than 10 years before consuming the tea. 

This Dayi tuo is actually quite pleasant. It is not that 'green' in that I could taste a little of the traditional pu erh processing in this tea. There is light bitterness and a faint sweetness in the aftertaste. 

I prefer my pu erh to be on the stronger side than this greener kind.  Maybe I am too fussy. 

All Things Tea On The Internet

 

You can buy tea from the internet.  With a few clicks you can purchase your tea and have your tea delivered and even air flown to your doorstep.

You can even glean much info on tea from the internet as well. From blogs like you are reading now and the various social media sites like Instagram. Go to Youtube and you can find two elderly but distinguished gentlemen brewing and commenting about the tea they are drinking. There are also discussion groups where you can find out what tea drinkers are thinking about the tea that they had purchased.  

All seems good.  Except that the main contributors on tea on the internet are the same people for the past few years.  We need you, the reader to contribute your thoughts on tea, your pictures of tea and tea ware, or even tea videos and share them with the tea community. I had written about Chinese tea for more than 10 years and I feel that I should be passing the baton to the next person.  Whatever things I had found out about tea, I share the information gleefully on my blog and Instagram posts. We need a fresh reboot. We need a new James Bond or Princess Leia.  We need you.