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.