Just to clarify a bit,

When I talked about a black puerh "deteriorating" I was actually
referring to deterioration that occurs when any puerh is "over"
oxidized. There is a point where further oxidation actually begins to
break down the organic matter and results in decay. Even with green
puerh some collectors will discourage further oxidation after 30 years
or so by wrapping the tea in cellophane because the tea will start to
loose aroma and other subtleties.

Black puerh is oxidized to varying extents during the processing
stage. Not all black puerh is oxidized to its fullest extent and
therefore some may benefit from aging, but the benefit will be slight.
I have some cakes that clearly marked as "Shu" that are only about 40%
oxidized and taste rather green and brew to a golden liquor. These
probably would improve over time somewhat. However I also have some
that are about 80% oxidized or more. They brew up to a dark red almost
black liquor. These are the ones that could actually deteriorate if
encouraged to oxidize too many years.

I must admit that whenever I have bought older vinatages it has always
been green not black, although I have tasted a few old blacks. The
older naturally oxidized greens just seem to have so much more depth
than an black of equal age so I never invested in an old black.



On 1 Feb 2004 12:18:47 -0800, (Cameron Lewis)
wrote:

From what I've been able to gather there are two schools on the
usefulness of aging cooked/black puer. Pu-erh.net and other sources
that I unfortunately can't remember at the moment state that it is
either useless or actually harmful to age a black puer cake. Does
this mean that all of the aged cooked beencha that can be bought from
sources like the Imperial Tea Court are actually inferior to their
younger brethren? Many commercial sites as well as tea shops I've
visited in Hong Kong, Thailand, and Malaysia claim that black puer
improves in complexity and smoothness with age. I understand that
they have a vested interest in claiming such, but they really did seem
to believe it.

I don't have enough experience with puer yet throw my lot in with
either side, though I will say that the far and away the best cooked
puer I've ever had was from a 30yr old beencha.

Can someone with more experience with puer of various ages shed some
light on this issue?

Regards,

Cameron


Mike Petro
http://www.pu-erh.net
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