/6/04

> & snip snip snip
and snip
>
> I don't think I've even drank any pu'er of that age! The closest I've
> drunk, according to its owner, is a 40 year old cake. Question: you
> mentioned that the leaf quality is quite poor, how do you determine that?

Easily. When the chunk of the cake falls completely apart in the water after
several steepings, it shows as twiggy, stemmy, ratty, with small bits of
leaf. Others show whole leaf, sometimes small sized leaves, which would
indicate a higher quality.

> Are they uncooked or cooked? Spread them out and sample them over the next
> couple of years, I'm sure they'll get even better!

Both. Mostly uncooked. I will do that, of course.

>>,,,,I would like
>> to read *anything* about 100 year old Pu-erh.

> I'm not sure if Mike Petro's site has any info on this, the other links I'm
> giving here are of chinese websites:

OK. Thanks. I'll use Babelfish as my translator. I can't do better than that
right now.
>
> http://www.888tea.com/
> http://www.peinfo.net/ - you have to register to enter...
> http://www.puerh-teapot.com/index.jsp
> http://www.858tea.com/
> http://www.wwwart.com.tw/tea/

snip

> I don't think anything's absolute when the age of a Pu'er is determined
> through aural examination of the cake, unless it comes with more evidence
> (factory's inner flyer which includes the date - rare, or date of
> manufacture on the wrapper, etc) then can only one make a better estimate on
> the age. So I'll go with relative. It is possible for two cakes of the
> same manufacture date to age differently, the storage area, the handling of
> the cake, etc, will contribute to its ageing process. On the other hand, an
> old chinese tea saying goes that Pu'er is a social cake, meaning that for
> the cake to mature nicely, it has to be kept with other Pu'ers, so they can
> all age gracefully. How does that come about I have the faintest idea, I
> suppose there must be some symbiotic relationship somewhere.

The reason undoubtedly is that a merchant, when selling you a really
expensive Pu-erh cake, can convince you to buy another as a companion for
the first. (So you would go with the relative theory too. It makes sense.)

Michael