Tuesday, March 27, 2007

How to store your pu-erh tea

During the past few days some questions came up about Pu-erh tea.
Why is it called; “Pu-erh" ?Pu-er, Pu-erh .. English representation of very old, Yuan Dynasty (1271 ~1368), town name: 普耳 in Yunnan Province (雲南 "south of the clouds").
Pu-erh town was the collection/staging point for tea produced in the surrounding areas, being readied for shipment on the “Old Tea Horse Road.” “Cha Ma Gu Dao”
Now the modern town of: Xishuangbanna (西雙版納) easy for you to say!
What's the best/right way to store Pu-erh ?With friends living in various regions of the world, Temp and Humidity are main concern that affect tea in storage.
The most important being:-Avoid direct sunlight.
-Avoid other fragrances. (Kitchen - Cigarettes - perfumes- etc)
-Maintain a humidity level of 60% to 85%
-Maintain a proper air flow.
-Avoid wide fluctuation of temperature.

Importance of Humidity:
A certain level of humidity is required to allow proper fermentation. Humidity levels as high as 85% are ok, provided there is proper airflow, to dry the tea and allow some period with a lower level of humidity around 60%.
In California, I have No special temp. humidity controls, normal house temp. With slightly dryer air, tea will take a little longer to age. If it gets too dry I supplement using small bowl of water or damp cloth, adjacent to tea in storage.

Keep the bamboo leaves on bundles:
The bamboo leaves will help to protect the tea from excess humidity because when the weather gets a little bit humid, the fiber from the bamboo leaves expand thus blocking the humidity.

Storage:
Storing cooked (black)and raw (Green) pu-erh tea together?
(That's how they are in the shop when you you buy it!)
It’s ok to store cooked and raw pu-erh together in the same room. It’s also possible to mix them for storage, mixing them together, will allow teas to benefit from each others fragrances.

However, Purists will always prefer to store raw pu-erh away from cooked pu-erh even storing pu-erh tea from different factories separately so that the characters of the tea are not mixed.
Some have specially constructed Tea Cellars (like storing wine) with sophisticated control systems. They use the annual control charts to back up claims when they sell their tea.

Main thing is to enjoy your hobby .. the are; NO Hobby Police.

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