Teaspoon said

Pu erh help

I went to a oriental market this weekend looking for tea/teaware. All the tea I found was of course in chinese or another language and the clerk didnt seem willing to help me pick out any. I asked her for gunpowder and she had no clue, anyways I grabbed a green box that read Yunnan Tuocha sheng xia guan cha chang chupin and thinking it was yunnan tea but found out after bringing it home its Pu erh. What I gather on the slim information I read online is, its a cheap tea, raw pu erh, and is good for high colesterol. I have no idea how to brew this, its a nest/bowl form. Do I just chunk off a piece like the size of a teaspoon? Its very dark brown looking, not much smell to it. How long do I brew? I like to make a cup of tea at a time not a teapot. Any help would be appreciated, since Ive never tried pu erh before.

5 Replies
IdentiTEA said

For pu erh, break apart a teaspoon or so of leaves per 8oz cup. Break up the leaves as much as you can so it looks like regular loose leaf tea (but don’t grid them into dust). Place the leaves in the brewing vessel of your choice. You can either boil the water or bring it just under a boil for this tea. Once the water is hot enough, rinse the leaves by pouring hot water into the brewing vessel (in which the leaves are in, duh), placing on the lid, giving it a quick swirl, and pouring the water out. Then, pour fresh hot water into the brewing vessel and steep for 15-30 seconds. Pour the brew into a cup and enjoy. Repeat the steeping process (not the rinsing) as desired. You can get somewhere around 6-10 infusions out of pu erh (sometimes even more than that). Personally, I think the best cups come from the 2nd and 3nd infusions. :)

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Cofftea said

There are already several threads on Pu Erh w/ great advice. Please check those before starting a new thread.

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Teaspoon said

Thankyou for the information identiTEA, and sorry for the thread.

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IdentiTEA said

No problem, Teaspoon. If you have any other questions in which you are afraid may be moderated by a non-mod… heh… just PM me. I’d be happy to help.

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Another thing to try with pu erh pressed cakes or tuos: although it is nice and convenient to store them in their pressed form, sheng (uncooked) pu erh is actually better stored broken up. But a bit of background first: Ideally pu erh has been aged in Taiwan, Hong Kong or Vietnam in its pressed form. More ideally: it was broken up for at least three months before it reached you so that it could age in the more humid, warm climate in these places. You’ll find with any pressed, uncooked, wet-stored pu erh tea that if you break it up upon purchase and store in a glass or earthenware bowl/vessel with a cheesecloth or cotton covering that the flavour mellows out much faster over time and it loses some of the green “bite.” Pu erh, if aged and stored properly, should leave a velvety smooth returning sweetness on the tongue, something the Chinese call “hui gan.”

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