> Danny, I've noticed some distinct sweet flavors in aged Pu'erhs from the
> 1950's and 1960's that might be described as plum-like or even date-like
> in
> the sense you are describing. Is that it?
>>
Hi Michael, yes, in a broad sense, that's it. Only that these days, the art
of imitation has been near perfect, a hydro-thermal fermented pu'er that's
not more than 6 months old can produce these fragrances, not so much in
flavours...

>> If this is foreign to you, Jason F, which I suspect it may not be, talk a
>> walk in Chinatown, stop by the asian grocery store, and ask for dried red
>> dates. Buy some home - there should be a lot of it now in Chinatown, it
>> is
>> close to Chinese New Year and we love this fruit in our cuisine during
>> this
>> festive season.
>
> I went down to our Chinatown a year or so ago and picked up some dried
> plum
> to get the feel of what "plum" means in regard to Pu'erh. We have plums
> all
> over our grocery stores here in the States, but the Pu'erh plum essence
> has
> nothing to do with them. I'll repeat the search, this time for dates.
>>
You may be hunting down the wrong lane. You should be looking for prunes,
specifically, black prunes which are usually sold in medicinal halls and
used as a medicine. The sweet flavours in Pu'er have nothing to do with the
tastes of red dates or black prunes, these are in the fragrance of the tea,
not in the taste...

>> Take a deep sniff of the dates, register the notes and fragrance, and
>> then
>> brew the tea, using really hot water.
>
> That's the ticket. By the time you go to all that trouble, it's simply
> mind
> over matter, or in this case, matter over mind. (Just joking.)
>
Haha! Not really though, by the time one goes through all that trouble, the
fragrance of a red date is a distant memory, and one has to reconstruct that
fragrance to see if it matches the one that's whiffing from the cup in front
of you...and that should be fun to see how our mental faculty can help, or
fool, us.