"Lewis Perin" > wrote in message
news
> "Blues Lyne" > writes:
>
>> "Lewis Perin" > wrote in message
>> news
>> >
>> > There's also his cheap loose green Puerh (P-GPE-1), with a bold,
>> > brothy, collard-greens-and-hambone taste.
>>
>> As strange as it may be to some ,I like collard-greens and hambones.
>> Although I've had some strange health problems that have made hambones
>> off
>> limits. So a tea with that warm brothy flavor would be appreciated.
>
> I didn't mean to suggest it was a bad tea, and sorry about your
> potlikker problem.

Oh, I didn't take it as bad, just the opposite. I just didn't think that
description would appeal to the majority of tea drinkers. However, it
caught my attention

>> I noticed that Holy Mountain has a loose leaf green puerh with the
>> designation P-GPE-1, any idea if it's the same tea? They have a
>> reasonably
>> priced sample.
>>
>> When I first started drinking good teas many greens and pouchongs had a
>> salty, brothy, sometimes fishy flavor that took me by surprise at first,
>> but
>> I learned to really enjoy it. Then it seemed like my taste changed and I
>> no
>> longer get that from any tea. I had a Taiwan Pouchong from either Upton
>> or
>> Special Teas that reminded me of my mothers oyster stew with some flowery
>> notes thrown in. It was amazing. Now it just tastes flowery and
>> perfumey
>> to me. I love good senchas, and at first they had salmony sea like
>> notes,
>> but now I don't taste them. I noticed the same thing with beer. My
>> first
>> tastes of beer was much different than how it tastes to me now.
>
> You're onto something there, to be sure. I haven't had Silk Road
> P-GPE-1 in quite a while now, and I *think* I'm hoping it would still
> taste the same to me.

I think I'll try a sample from Holy Mountain. I also called and asked for
Silk Road's catalog, but it seems like I read somewhere that there was a
500g minimum order. That might be more than my budget can take in one hit.
But then again Christmas is coming soon.

>
>> Drinking the last of my Xiaguan Green Tuo Cha from Teaspring.com
>
> What's it taste like?

It took me a while to get this one right. I don't have a scale, so I've
been eyeballing the amount of tea. Once it expands in the water it looks
like what I would expect from a couple of teaspoons of leaves. At first I
was using fairly hot water and experimented with steeping for around 2-4
minutes. That produced a horribly astringent, tarry tea with a really
intense long lasting, sweet, fruity after taste. I loved the after taste,
but the tea was another story.

After reading some of the recent discussions here, I've been brewing it with
160-170 degree water for one minute for the first steep. The tea is nice
and smooth, a little smokey, some fruitiness, mildly astringent with a
sweetness that gets stronger through progressive steeps. I usually have the
water in a thermos here at work, so I don't increase the temperature for
each steep, but do increase the time after the 3rd or 4th steep. The sweet
aftertaste is still there, but more subtle and haunting. It's a very
reasonable tea at $5.90/100g

The only other Puerhs I've had are some samples that Teaspring was kind
enough to send with one of my orders. The Xiaguan isn't as smooth and
doesn't have the musty, earthy flavors that the 10 year old green Puerh
sample had, but has a nicer aftertaste I also had a sample of their 2 year
old Menghai Tuo Cha. I think it was maybe smoother and had more clean horse
barn in it than the Xiaguan, but had a similar sweet fuity aftertase. I
had it about six months ago, so I'm going on memory.

The black puerh samples I've tried give me a mild headache and quesey
feeling. I think I'll stick to greens. They also sent some green puerh tea
bags. Those were actually quite nice also. I was kind of surprised by
that.

>> and listening to Luther Allison Live in Chicago.
>
> Listening to the muffled sounds of the foundation of a new office
> building being dug 14 floors below me in Manhattan.

I think I'll stick with Luther. ; )

> /Lew
> ---
> Lew Perin /
> http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html