Day before I left for L.A. I received my class materials for a correspondence course in Intermediate Aged Pu-erh that I am taking from a Hong Kong professor. Exciting!
Then in my absence, another box arrived to further my tea studies. The second box includes the recommended 2005 Chen Guang He Tang as well as three mystery samples for fun. Really- I want to quit my day job and taste tea all day. But since my tea and other habits take a rather plump wallet to sustain, I only took an extra vacation day today.
For each person embarking on a discovery of pu-erh, you can wander a lot in the forest without ascending enough ground to see the peaks and valleys of the land. One often stumbles on poor examples and you can also get pleasantly mired in the thicket of mediocre teas. My big thrust for this year is to determine whether or not to pursue aged sheng. With high-end young shengs going well over a hundred dollars, one could just enjoy some aged stuff with that kind of cash.
The first fork in the road you come to with aged sheng is traditional storage. (I'll just put a link on Aaron Fisher's article here instead of regurgitating the basics.) I've had a handful of traditionally stored teas thus far and my immediate personal reaction has been somewhere between gag reflex and nose wrinkling. Since I love other musty moldy flavors in salumi and cheese, I'm puzzled. Before I rule out such stored teas altogether, I want to make sure I've had the chance to taste good examples of it's type.
The "fuzzy taste" of Hengli Chang was a bit much for me- like early jazz recorded on wax cylinders where the static is so overwhelming, one cannot properly enjoy the music. Is the wet-stored taste more of an artifact to be tolerated to get to the tea underneath or is it something integral to the taste of vintage sheng? Aaron Fisher suggests the former, that one doesn't drink aged sheng for the flavor but for the qi. Proper humidity and heat is essential in keeping the qi alive as dryness can kill a cake. So what's a little moldy taste on the way to experiencing great qi. However if you happen to enjoy that moldy wet-stored taste, more power to you since you can't avoid it if you have any interest in vintage sheng.
Our tastes and preferences are strongly shaped by cultural context. Men who declare a preference for "high meat" probably wouldn't do so if it wasn't considered macho by other men. I've unintentionally swallowed high meat and it's gross. I definitely would not wait for the body to ripen and fall off a the head of a hung pheasant before cooking my bird. In the world of Western pu-erh drinking where we don't have much of a history or context at all, we are in theory freer to make up our own minds on what we truly prefer. But even if we are left to our own devices we tend to rely on peer reports to guide our opinions. That's why blind tastings are so useful.
I tried five teas today. I didn't want to report on them until I've had them at least three times under different conditions. I think I have to change my drinking protocol as having too many teas at once, I can't differentiate a tea's impact on the body. I'm just jittery all over and now must go running to shake it all off.
For each person embarking on a discovery of pu-erh, you can wander a lot in the forest without ascending enough ground to see the peaks and valleys of the land. One often stumbles on poor examples and you can also get pleasantly mired in the thicket of mediocre teas. My big thrust for this year is to determine whether or not to pursue aged sheng. With high-end young shengs going well over a hundred dollars, one could just enjoy some aged stuff with that kind of cash.
The first fork in the road you come to with aged sheng is traditional storage. (I'll just put a link on Aaron Fisher's article here instead of regurgitating the basics.) I've had a handful of traditionally stored teas thus far and my immediate personal reaction has been somewhere between gag reflex and nose wrinkling. Since I love other musty moldy flavors in salumi and cheese, I'm puzzled. Before I rule out such stored teas altogether, I want to make sure I've had the chance to taste good examples of it's type.
The "fuzzy taste" of Hengli Chang was a bit much for me- like early jazz recorded on wax cylinders where the static is so overwhelming, one cannot properly enjoy the music. Is the wet-stored taste more of an artifact to be tolerated to get to the tea underneath or is it something integral to the taste of vintage sheng? Aaron Fisher suggests the former, that one doesn't drink aged sheng for the flavor but for the qi. Proper humidity and heat is essential in keeping the qi alive as dryness can kill a cake. So what's a little moldy taste on the way to experiencing great qi. However if you happen to enjoy that moldy wet-stored taste, more power to you since you can't avoid it if you have any interest in vintage sheng.
Our tastes and preferences are strongly shaped by cultural context. Men who declare a preference for "high meat" probably wouldn't do so if it wasn't considered macho by other men. I've unintentionally swallowed high meat and it's gross. I definitely would not wait for the body to ripen and fall off a the head of a hung pheasant before cooking my bird. In the world of Western pu-erh drinking where we don't have much of a history or context at all, we are in theory freer to make up our own minds on what we truly prefer. But even if we are left to our own devices we tend to rely on peer reports to guide our opinions. That's why blind tastings are so useful.
I tried five teas today. I didn't want to report on them until I've had them at least three times under different conditions. I think I have to change my drinking protocol as having too many teas at once, I can't differentiate a tea's impact on the body. I'm just jittery all over and now must go running to shake it all off.
Hster,
ReplyDeleteHow cool. I can't wait to hear the results of your aged-puerh-class tastings. I think I have come to like the musty taste in many puerhs that have been around for awhile, but I enjoy a tea way more if there is something else going on besides. I love your musical analogy. If you can't hear Jelly Roll or Papa Charlie Jackson beneath the crackles, it's just noise. But, if the music comes through, and still knocks you out, what's a little surface noise? The Hen Li Chang, from my memory, had a great thickness in the mouth, good bitterness and a profound huigan. And it was one of the most soothing teas I've had in awhile. Just a tension-melter. I just ordered 100 grams of the thing. Excited to get back at it.
-Israel
Israel,
DeleteI was actually thinking of a Blind Blake wax recording my husband has that just hurts my ears. Blind Blake did a recording with Papa Charlie I listened to on youtube just now and sadly the noise is just brutal.
How did you "come to like the musty taste"? I also really want to enjoy that granny powder trad stored taste but find that I just can't because my brain keeps decoding it as gross. I think it's cultural as well as I don't think Koreans or Japanese would like that musty moldy taste.
h
When I first started listening to a lot of 78 rpm records (or digitized recordings thereof), the noise interference on many of them was a distraction, at best. At the very worst, pops and scratches can present a "brutal" impediment. I guess I have just come to tolerate a certain amount of interference in much of the music I listen to because I like what was being captured by talent scouts and the relatively young record companies in the 20s and 30s. Obviously, the cleaner the copy of a recording, the better. (There are clean Blind Blake sides out there. He was a fabulous guitar player.) I would not say that I love the scratchiness of many records, but that I am so used to it I don't experience it as I would my skull upon a cheese-grater- in fact, it has become somewhat comfy as many familiar things do.
DeleteAt the risk of belaboring the music/tea analogy, I would say that I don't experience a modicum of must as a great impediment to enjoying a tea. The Heng Li Chang has some basement taste, but I don't remember it being that overwhelming. I like a thick, heavy tea with rounded edges that has seen some moisture. Especially if it has pleasing effects upon the body and mind. I agree with Emmett regarding the need to "look no further than within" ourselves for such ease and comfort and the whole notion of exchanging money for qi is really pretty hilarious. But as long as it does not land me broke and in the gutter in a pile of sodden Nei Fei, I need all the help I can get in the ease department.
I also enjoy the elegance of a tea like the 03 Bulang Jinpin, which I revisited yesterday. Though I detected a slight taste of pencil lead which I don't remember, could be storage. The Jinpin is a very pretty tea, but it does not deliver quite the shoulder rub that is provided by the Heng Li Chang. I like em both.
Hster, interesting your comment about culturally determined tastes. Have you read "That's Disgusting" the newish book by Robin Henig about the science of the gag reflex? I'd like to and I wonder if there have been any studies about human responses to mustiness. Even though Kim Chee is one of the most delicious fermented concoctions on the planet, I know and have read about many folks who just can't handle the fizzy, gone-south flavor of the stuff. Particularly people who did not grow up eating much fermented food.
-Israel
Israel,
DeleteOn looking within for qi, I think you and Emmett are still young and hale. Many older men might find their qi in decline and do not mind exchanging money for qi.
I definitely have to find "That's Disgusting" at the library as I got my gag reflex triggered severely today by some CGHT.
Plenty of people find Kim Chee and other Korean foods disgusting but I think Koreans will find wet-stored taste equally disgusting as well.
h
p.s. None of my teas have yet given me a "shoulder rub"- how do I train them to do so?
Send your bings to massage school. There must be a bunch of options in Berkeley.
Delete-Israel
I was not a huge fan of the Hen Li Chang Bulang. Pleasant, but too wet, and it takes far too many brews to really get going, and the good part is over too soon. Doesn't help that I have far better Bulangs, like the 2003 Jipin Houde used to sell, to compare it with.
ReplyDeleteI cannot get what the big thing is about the wet storage. The much prefer a good 10 year old dry storage to a 1980's wet. The flavors are way more enjoyable to me when they are not muted by the wetness. I think that some of my favorites have been well balanced, slightly wet stored then moved to dry storage, they are aged tasting but still with the flavors of youth in the background. I drink tea for many reasons, but for chi we need look no further than within ourselves, we don't have to spend thousands of dollars for some old cha-chi. The young well made teas hold chi also. We should just enjoy every tea for what they are. Of course everyone's taste is different, and good thing there are so many different shengs to fill all our cups.
ReplyDeleteI am totally with you on wet storage Emmett. But still I want to make sure I'm not put off by bad examples rather than by wet storage itself. I have enjoyed your Hoffman samples much more than the Heng Li Chang. (I really really owe you some tea and will get my act together this month. I was actually going to buy something from Hoffman. )
Delete>> "We should just enjoy every tea for what they are."
I wish I could share your "taste no evil" philosophy but not all teas are entirely enjoyable and not all reasons are due to personal taste. For me, exploring why I dislike something is just as important as why I love a tea- it's the critical unsentimental thinking which makes me grow as a tea drinker.
H
I try to find something good in all of them, but I will say I have had to throw out some teas after the first brews which were just very bad, even some well recommended ones. I think the worst for my taste was the 2000 brick from Jing Tea, I just could not keep it down. But others say it is a top tea.
DeleteI do recommend the 99 Xiaguan a little wet, and 99 Menghai very dry, from Hoffman, I will send you a bit of those if you would like. Email me. He just updated his tea list. Some prices went up though.
Shah: I quite agree about these two, but aren't they too different to compare really? Although there are some elements of the 2003 style Bulang in the 1997 one, I agree.
ReplyDeleteWhat helped me with the Heng Li Chang was to use less leaves and longer steeping times. Still, I would not call it anything better than good.
I suppose it should be said that there are better done wet storage cakes out there, especially if you accept what they bring. A big part of the issue is that wet storage is so often a euphemism for poor storage. Cakes like Sunsing Bada '03 or Changtai Jifengyuan from Houde have very clean and nicely done wet storage. The Hen Li Chang is very clean, in that it's dried out, but it's traditional storage and relatively wet dry storage after the warehouse phase. Would work better for blends, really.
ReplyDeleteWell, I always thought they were kinda similar, the Jipin being younger and prettier, and more rough. However, yeah, it's probably a Banzhang of some kind rather than from anywheres down south near the border Bulang. Probably not fair.
Shah8,
DeleteI think you win the award for pithiest pu-erh review of the year: "Pleasant, but too wet, and it takes far too many brews to really get going, and the good part is over too soon." So true.
Why do you suppose so many love this cake?
I traded some LBZ for the Hen Li Chang and some 03 Sunsing Bada. I only had a very tiny portion of the Bada and it's still too wet for the likes of me. I'm happy to expand my aged sheng horizons but I wish I liked them both. I have a few more samples to before go before I totally close the door on wet storage.
H
Shah8: Yes, you're quite right in pointing out that, at least on the internet, "wet storage" is often used as a euphemism. There's good and bad "wet storage" (the better ones I prefer to call traditional storage) and really well done ones basically don't exist on the internet for purchase.
ReplyDelete