Alex,

I've also gotten a number of Puers from Silk Road. While I will never have
anywhere near the expertise these other guys have, FWIW I can tell you how
I've been making the "Large leaf from Old trees (P-PE-2)", which I too got
on DLH's recommendation: 2 measuring Tablespoons in 12 oz. for 4 minutes
with full boiling water, with an initial 10-15 sec rinsing steep. That may
sound like a lot of tea, but the leaves are very large, irregular and
volumnious, and, like other such teas, don't measure volumetrically worth a
darn, but I don't have a scale (yet). I find this a very mild Puer, so the
above is not at all too strong (at least by the standards of strong Puers
I've tried.)

I also have the Pu-erh Fangcha 1999 P-PFC-99 (also recommended by DLH).
Though I've only made it a few times so far, this is how: 1 measuring
Tablespoon in 12 oz. for 3 min. with approx. 190 deg F. water, with a 15
sec. or so pre-rinse. I'm not sure if you're supposed to use full boiling
water with green Puers, but I haven't with this one, except the first time,
and it was a little bitter.

People actually do gongfu Puer. I haven't yet, as I don't have a Yixing for
it (yet), and I never think to try it in one of my porcelain gaiwans when I
have the time to do it. I'm sure others here will have suggestions in that
direction (which I would be interested in as well).

A couple questions for you: I have Silk Road's "Spring Tea List", from March
2004. I don't see any "Mini Menhai (sp?) Beengcha 1999" on it. Is your
catalog later? What is the catalog number of the tea? The only Menghai
beenchas I see are P-GMBC-99 (a green, 4/5 pound), and P-MBC-00 (presumably
black, 250 gm), neither seeming to deserve "Mini".

I will also be very interested in what you think of the Gold Bud.

Doug



"Alex Chaihorsky" > wrote in message
. com...
> The puerhs has arrived, so now I would very much like to be taught how to
> drink it.
> I have
> Greens:
> Mini Menhai Beengcha 1999
> Dai Bamboo Pu-erh (P-DBB-6)
> Fangcha 1999 (which Lew will give you more details on)
>
> Blacks (Dave's recommendation)
> Large leaf from Old trees (P-PE-2)
> Small leaf (P-PE-4)
> Gold bud Beencha 1999
>
> Do you gongfu green puerh? I doubt that you gongfu black puerh, but I what
> do I know?.
> So, please, I am listening humbly.
>
> Sasha.
>
>