Ron Gilmour

When last I visited pu-erh tea, I was prepared to leave it as an interesting curiosity of the tea world. I had done my duty by trying a pu-erh and could now move on to some other exotic corner of teadom, maybe white tea or matcha. But I had a nagging feeling that people would not likely devote entire blogs (and lots of money) to the muddy, smelly cup that I experienced. So I continued to lurk on the pu-erh list over at TeaChat in hopes of finding some suggestions for further exploration.

Last month, the idea came up on the list for a community tasting of some teas from Puerhshop, which offers convenient (and very generous) collections of samples. We decided to start with a collection of five samples called “Year of Green Pu-erh.” I wasn’t too afraid of wasting my money, as the entire bag of five sizable samples cost a mere $12. So I decided to be adventurous and see what pu-erh had to offer.

As mentioned in my previous post, pu-erh comes in two general types, raw/green (sheng) and cooked (shu). The composty stuff that I tried earlier was shu, while all five of these teas were sheng, and relatively young sheng. The five teas were:

• 2006 Arbor Yinhao Tuocha
• 2004 CNNP Old Tree Green
• 2007 Mengsa Arbor
• 2007 Old Banzhang Arbor
• 2007 Menghai Feet of Crab

I was tremendously surprised at the vast difference between this young sheng and the shu that I had tried earlier. Sheng is very interesting stuff and for the most part fairly delicate, although some of them have a rather aggressive astringency, especially in the first couple steeps. At its worst (e.g., the 2007 Old Banzhang Arbor), it is a weak, fishy substance with little to recommend it. At its best (e.g., 2006 Arbor Yinhao Tuocha and 2007 Mengsa Arbor), it is sort of oolong-like, but with a woody umami quality replacing the floral notes of most oolongs. The color is usually an attractive gold, and the tea responds well to a potentially huge number of very short steeps (I usually get tired around 6 or 7). In fact, some of these teas taste best around the 4th or 5th steep, after some of the bitter and astringent properties have been washed away.

Encouraged by my experience with “Year of Green,” I ordered a few more pu-erhs from Puerhshop. I ordered another tasting kit called “Best of Puerhshop” which contains the following:

• 2006 Tongxing Hao
• 2004 Menghai Superior Grade
• 2005 Green City Peak Arbor

The set also contained another 2006 Arbor Yinhao Tuocha, which I gave to a friend. It’s a nice sheng, but not something I feel the need to keep a lot of. So far, I’ve only tried the 2006 Tongxing Hao. I’m drinking it now and I would characterize it as a typical young sheng (insofar as my limited experience allows me to call anything typical). Nice golden color, woody flavor, a little harshness in the early infusions, but not bad.

With my order of the “Best Of” sampler, I also ordered a sample of 2003 Dayi Yiwu Arbor. I wanted to see what an older and more expensive sheng tasted like. Well, this stuff was a revelation. I had a session with it two days ago and it was without doubt the best pu-erh I’ve tried so far. It has a rich smokiness combined with fruity flavors…maybe apricots. Just a beautiful tea. The bad news is that it’s $100 for a cake, so my tiny sample is all I am ever likely to taste, but it was still educational. Perhaps some of my young sheng samples will taste like this if I keep them around for a few years.

To sum up, thanks to the generosity of Puerhshop and the expertise of my fellow TeaChatters, I have learned a great deal about sheng. It’s a fascinating area of teadom and I will probably continue to drink it. I will definitely be looking for deals on some of the older stuff.

I have also acquired some samples of shu recently, but I think I will save those for another post.

When I was a senior in high school, my classmates and I were forced to read Emma by Jane Austen. I hated it. Not that there was anything wrong with Emma, of course, but Jane Austen does not and never will play well with adolescent boys.

So, while taking a break from Trollope’s Palliser novels, I decided to give Aunt Jane another chance, hoping that my literary taste might have matured somewhat in the last couple of decades. After all, Trollope had made me accustomed to domestic comedy. Much of the action of The Small House at Allington would not have been out of place in Austen’s world.

Emma Woodhouse is the much doted upon daughter of a wealthy and idle hypochondriac. She enjoys her position as the preeminent single woman in her small social circle. She tells herself, though, that she is destined only to make matches for others and not to marry herself, being content to care for her aging father. Her comical ineptitude in her quest to make and predict the marriages of others is the basis for the book’s drama and humor.

The first victim of Emma’s well-meaning folly is Harriet Smith, a silly young woman of uncertain parentage. Emma hopes to raise Harriet’s social standing by befriending her. She teaches her to reject the love of an honest tradesman and to hope for that of one Mr. Elton, a clergyman. Mr. Elton develops an attachment, not to Harriet, but to Emma. Emma is taken entirely by surprise, although most readers will have seen this coming, and soundly rejects Mr. Elton’s proposal. Harriet is distraught.

The life of Highbury is enlivened by the arrival of two persons: Mr. Frank Churchill, the son of Mr. Western (the new husband of Emma’s former governess) and Miss Jane Fairfax, a poor but genteel orphan related to Emma’s neighbors Mrs. and Miss Bates. Emma is slightly envious of the accomplished Miss Fairfax and is somewhat cold to her, also suspecting her of being the recipient of an improper affection from one Mr. Dixon. Regarding Frank, an engaging and handsome young man, Emma engages in a degree of flirtation and even suspects that he may be in love with her, but does not herself harbor any very substantial feelings toward him. This is fortunate, as Frank turns out to be engaged to Miss Fairfax, a condition which shocks the whole of Highbury. Emma, and even Franks doting father and step-mother, are shocked that he should have come among them with the appearance of being single while secretly engaged. So, once again, Emma is mistaken about romantic alliances.

Emma’s final folly is on her own account. Mr. Knightley is a gentleman of impeccable character some years older than Emma, who has known her for her whole life. Late in the novel, Harriet, apparently finally having gotten over Mr. Elton, conceives a fascination with Mr. Knightley and believes her affection to be returned. Upon news of this, Emma is suddenly seized by the realization that Mr. Knightley must marry only herself. Happily, Harriet is mistaken and Mr. Knightley in fact loves Emma. And so the novel ends with three marriages: Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax, Emma and Mr. Knightley, and poor Harriet and the tradesman who had proposed to her early in the novel.

The great problem with Austen is that the stakes are so small. While the news of Frank Churchill’s secret engagement is enough to send the inhabitants of Highbury into paroxysms of horror, it can hardly have that effect on the modern reader. Appreciating Austen is the opposite of appreciating opera. Where opera demands that we accept a ridiculous grandiosity of action and emotion, Austen demands that we adapt our imaginations to a small stage and learn to see the concerns of her limited world as her characters see them.

Even if we fail in this endeavor, there is still much to love in this novel. Emma Woodhouse is without doubt one of the great characters of literature, ranking with Hamlet and Stephen Daedalus. Her combined cleverness and cluelessness are endlessly charming, as is her obsession with the loves of others while ignoring her own heart. She is the ultimate extrovert, attending only to the outside world, but seeing it through the lens of her romantic imagination. She has a restless energy, which, for instance, will allow her to develop elaborate schedules of reading, but not to follow them. Her energy chafes against the smallness of Highbury, too great for the petty concerns with which it has to contend.

When I read Emma in high school, I regarded it at best as an interesting period piece, a historical record whose representative nature made it a fitting subject of study, but which lacked the universality of great literature. I must entirely recant that view. Austen’s talent with character is superb, and even her plot demands respect within its own boundaries. High drama it is not, but it is a truly delightful depiction of a very human character.