Hi Alex,

I am curious where you got this information. You are the second tea
connoisseur in the USA that I have heard this from and I highly
respect the other gentleman as well. I suspect it came from either Roy
Fong or David Hoffman but I disagree with it nonetheless. The thing is
that I have asked this exact same question to many people in China who
are in the business. Factories, Vendors, Tea Market Owners, as well as
some very serious collectors who have collections worth thousands of
dollars and not a single one of them have corroborated this practice.

When I asked the question often what I got was more don'ts than do's.
I have documented the don'ts fairly well on my website but I have had
a difficult time nailing down specific do's. I got many different
answers but when taking the natural climate of the person answering
the question into consideration I drew some conclusions. The most
commonly used conditions were around 70% relative humidity and 75-85
degrees F. In really humid areas like Hong Kong air conditioned
warehouse are used, in Kunming unconditioned warehouses are used, and
yes in some areas of Xishuangbanna caves were used. The closest thing
to the practice you mention that I have heard was that some vendors
rotate their stock to even out the way a large stockpile ages. The
reasoning being that Qi Zis in the middle didn't have as much air flow
as bundles on the outer layers of a large stack of puer bundles.

With regards to the small amount puer that most individuals would have
in their homes I would recommend one or more of the larger zisha clay
canisters that are available. They breathe adequately and they are
attractive. For example I have one that holds 9 whole bingchas. Bamboo
wrapped Qi Zi stacks do not require such a container, in China they
simply use loosely woven baskets to hold the Qi Zis. The fact is that
conditions that are "comfortable" for most humans will suffice for
aging puer and the average climate controlled home will do just fine.
Attics and basements may or may not be suitable. The main thing is to
avoid the don'ts, suffocation, extremes of humidity and temperature,
odors, and moisture,

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


On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 05:12:33 GMT, "Alex Chaihorsky"
> cast caution to the wind and posted:

>Actually if I understood my Chinese sources right, it is good to have puerhs
>moved for a short time to a less dry places, so they absorb some moisture
>and then back to drier (but never too dry) environment. That way it
>"breathes" and the bacteria not die out from drying out.
>Remember - there are very few really dry places in China. I know that the
>teas that I have here in Nevada are too dry and do not age well.
>It looks like the famous "caves" work real well in Chinese humid climate and
>not that well in drier zones. France is not too dry, anyway, so you may be
>in a good place to age puers without extra effort. But even then, moving it
>from place with less humidity to drier places ripen them better. The best
>way to age puers, however, is to have a really knowledgeable Chinese trader
>to take a look and smell them once -twice a year and follow his
>recommendations.
>
>Sasha..