On Mar 14, 3:25 pm, Lewis Perin wrote:
Will Yardley writes:
On 2008-03-14, An Sonjae wrote:

Aged green teas? I very much doubt it. The received wisdom is that the
delicate flavour of Korean green tea (at least) goes away after two
years at most, and sometimes much earlier.

Well as I understand it, green pu'erh is essentially green tea - the
kill green process is the same, and it's not bruised or oxidized first.

No, I think the kill-green process for green Pu'er is gentler or, to
look at it differently, less complete. The enzymes in the tea leaf
that contribute to (one kind of) fermentation/oxidation aren't
completely destroyed. So the fermentation, given the right
environment, will continue, but slowly. So-called black Pu'er starts
with the same partially-kill-greened leaf, using heat and humidity to
speed the fermentation.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /

Yes, "aged" green tea isn't going to really improve in any way I can
see... at least none of the greens I drink. I can taste a notable drop
off after about 3-4 months even with good storage and I really can't
drink them much past a year or year and a half. I've had some jasmine
pearls that held up to two years without too much trouble or loss. I
have had some straggler packets of green tea lost to the sands of time
(2, 3, 4+ years) but none were ever better for it.

Chinese greens are a different story and while I've explored a lot of
them now I still couldn't speak for all of them. I'd imagine it safe
to say that greens just go stale and really never bounce back to
something desirable.

- Dominic