Alex,

I have to eat a little crow here. I checked again with some Chinese
Tea experts and you are quite correct. It took a little bit of coaxing
to get it out of them. The thing is in China they never move the puer
around like you are having to do because they have naturally wet and
dry seasons. So when I asked people about moving the tea back and
forth from wet to dry conditions they always told me that it was not
necessary, what they didn't tell me was that for "them" the reason it
is not necessary is because it occurs naturally.

After a bit of prying I was told that the wet and dry seasons did
indeed help the tea to mature faster. They also said that keeping the
tea in a very consistent environment, like a year round climate
controlled home, would slow down the maturing process. However they
also said that a simple trip to the beach for a week would probably
not be long enough to simulate the wet seasons they have there.

Over the years Humidors have been discussed many times, in this group
and others, in relation to keeping tea and have usually been found to
hold the RH too high for most teas. Puer would be the exception. The
thing is that most of them use salts that only have one specific
humidity value and cannot be adjusted so leaving the puer in them year
round would not be appropriate. However, in your case Alex it might be
the perfect solution, get one set to 75-80% RH (higher RH than the
average cigar humidor), or just get the appropriate salts, and take
the puer out of the humidor and store it in your naturally dry air
every other quarter. The downside would be that this wont do anything
for your love life at all..... ;-)

It turns out that the Chinese have a machine specially made to quickly
mature puer using similar methods, switching between humid and dry
conditions. I am attempting to find out the specific variables that
they use. I also found out the places using Air Conditioning actually
adjust the humidity up and down to simulate the wet and dry seasons.


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





On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 00:44:49 GMT, "Alex Chaihorsky"
> cast caution to the wind and posted:

>OK, Mike -
>You do it your way, we do it our way and in 30 years lets get together and
>see
>who is right
>My info coming from Roy and two different Taiwan tea traders.
>
>When I go to SF (I live in Nevada which is very dry) I usually take my
>puerhs in a large wooden box with me and have them breethe ocean air for
>several hours while me and my friends cook shashlik on the beach (making
>sure the crate sits upwind from the grill). It feels right and attracts
>pretty women who strolls aimlessly along the beach. Many a romantic victory
>was won this way
>I also feel like my puerhs know that I try hard to treat them with love and
>respect and share my life with them. Somehow romantic ladies find this
>irresistable. So, even if I lose something in puerhs fermenting, I make up
>for that and much more in other areas.
>Just one of my examples of how else puerhs (and teas in general) can be used
>to increase love and humanity.
>
>Sasha.
>
>
>
>"Mike Petro" > wrote in message
.. .
>> 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..
>>
>


Mike Petro
http://www.pu-erh.net
remove the "filter" in my email address to reply