As Davelcorp rightly suggested -- this should be a topic on its own.

To answer Mike Petro's question -- I was defining wet storage the way
people in the trade seem to define it in Hong Kong, meaning that it is
stored in a dark, high humidity storage space that's usually in the
basement or near a hill (i.e. a building that's built on a slope, so
the ground floor is essentially in a basement type environment).
Humidity is usually at 80% or higher in these places, but not so much
that the walls are dripping with water. In fact, I was reading in an
issue of puerh-teapot where they talked about storage and how they
actually try to control the humidity through the use of chalk, I
believe, by spreading it on the ground so that it will soak up some
moisture lest it gets too moist.

Then after this treatment, usually lasting one to a few years, the tea
will be taken out of this storage space and placed in a dry storage
environment, typically called, literally "recede storage", i.e. to get
rid of the nasty smell of the wet storage. It takes longer than the
wet storage phase itself.

At the end of that, the product you've got is a tea that is well aged,
will usually yield a liquor of bright to dark red colour (depending on
the tea, I believe, and the amount of wet storage it got), somewhat
sweet, has the nice "chen" aroma that we are familiar with, etc.

I've had wet storage teas that I don't find offensive at all. In fact,
they are quite mellow, nice, flavourful (better than cooked puerh).
They look nastier than dry storage stuff. They're usually duller in
its appearance (whereas dry storage pu is shinier on the surface).
They have less of the dry "bite". But it doesn't mean it's bad.

I think the obviously bad ones are usually the ones that do get mouldy.
That, however, is not the goal of wet storage. Some will tell you
that's good for aging the tea, going so far as to say these are what
they call "sugar coating" (the white mould). And indeed, mouldy tea
with white stuff on it do taste sweeter, but again, it's not the goal
of the storage process, as far as I am aware.

I went to a traditional HK teashop during the summer where they
specialize in wet storage puerh. Some of the cakes I tried had white
mould on it. They don't taste half bad. Looks bad, but if I don't
show you the original cake, you probably won't know.

I think any tea over 20 years of age that claim to be "pure dry
storage" should be taken with a grain of salt, at the very least. The
idea of "pure dry storage" really didn't come into currency until
later, and in the 80s people were wet storing everything. In fact,
they would consider that to be the proper way to handle a puerh cake.
That's why I say most of the older vintage stuff you or I have had have
probably gone through some amount of wet storage. There are, of
course, dry stored stuff out there that are old. You can sort of tell,
sometimes, by the way the leaves are when brewed, etc, but it's not
always very obvious, especially if it's only a sample. I certainly by
no means am good at telling them apart.

10/15/06


> As Davelcorp rightly suggested -- this should be a topic on its own.
>
> To answer Mike Petro's question -- I was defining wet storage the way
> people in the trade seem to define it in Hong Kong, meaning that it is
> stored in a dark, high humidity storage space that's usually in the
> basement or near a hill (i.e. a building that's built on a slope, so
> the ground floor is essentially in a basement type environment).
> Humidity is usually at 80% or higher in these places, but not so much
> that the walls are dripping with water. In fact, I was reading in an
> issue of puerh-teapot where they talked about storage and how they
> actually try to control the humidity through the use of chalk, I
> believe, by spreading it on the ground so that it will soak up some
> moisture lest it gets too moist.

That is very interesting. Eighty percent
is high, but during the summer is not at
all uncommon in the ambient air of New
York City. Aparments with steam (radiator)
heat have very low humidity in the winter.
Air conditioners also bring humidity down in
the summer.

> Then after this treatment, usually lasting one to a few years, the tea
> will be taken out of this storage space and placed in a dry storage
> environment, typically called, literally "recede storage", i.e. to get
> rid of the nasty smell of the wet storage. It takes longer than the
> wet storage phase itself.

I believe that Sun Sing does something very
similar to what you describe.
>
> At the end of that, the product you've got is a tea that is well aged,
> will usually yield a liquor of bright to dark red colour (depending on
> the tea, I believe, and the amount of wet storage it got), somewhat
> sweet, has the nice "chen" aroma that we are familiar with, etc.

Yes. Grand Tea sells a 1970's yellow label
which they say is 70% green and 30% black.
This is very curious. If they mean wet and
dry stored, then *perhaps* they refer to your
description of years above. Or perhaps they
mean exactly what they say. I've tasted this
tea on several occasions and I don't believe
that there is truly 30% *cooked* leaf.

> I've had wet storage teas that I don't find offensive at all. In fact,
> they are quite mellow, nice, flavourful (better than cooked puerh).
> They look nastier than dry storage stuff. They're usually duller in
> its appearance (whereas dry storage pu is shinier on the surface).
> They have less of the dry "bite". But it doesn't mean it's bad.

I've seen cakes that were *very* shiny.
It was almost as though somebody had
basted them with butter. (I refer only to
the shiny look.) What do you think? Is
there a special treatment that produces this?

> I think the obviously bad ones are usually the ones that do get mouldy.
> That, however, is not the goal of wet storage. Some will tell you
> that's good for aging the tea, going so far as to say these are what
> they call "sugar coating" (the white mould). And indeed, mouldy tea
> with white stuff on it do taste sweeter, but again, it's not the goal
> of the storage process, as far as I am aware.

That is also very interesting. Recently
we bought some 1990's cakes that had
a good deal of this white mold. The taste
of the tea was off. Do you have a suggestion
for improving the taste of such a cake?

> I went to a traditional HK teashop during the summer where they
> specialize in wet storage puerh. Some of the cakes I tried had white
> mould on it. They don't taste half bad. Looks bad, but if I don't
> show you the original cake, you probably won't know.

Hmmm. Our cakes tasted off. Not awful, but with an off-taste.

> I think any tea over 20 years of age that claim to be "pure dry
> storage" should be taken with a grain of salt, at the very least. The
> idea of "pure dry storage" really didn't come into currency until
> later, and in the 80s people were wet storing everything. In fact,
> they would consider that to be the proper way to handle a puerh cake.
> That's why I say most of the older vintage stuff you or I have had have
> probably gone through some amount of wet storage. There are, of
> course, dry stored stuff out there that are old. You can sort of tell,
> sometimes, by the way the leaves are when brewed, etc, but it's not
> always very obvious, especially if it's only a sample. I certainly by
> no means am good at telling them apart.

Well, your point is well taken. Who really
knows what a 30 or 40 year old cake has been
through during its life? My stored cakes in
ambient NYC air are being wet stored during
some seasons and dried stored during others,
according to what you wrote way above. I have
no air conditioning, but I do have steam heat.
Some have told me that this is not at all bad for
Pu'erh cakes.

Cordially,
Michael

Michael Plant wrote:

> That is very interesting. Eighty percent
> is high, but during the summer is not at
> all uncommon in the ambient air of New
> York City. Aparments with steam (radiator)
> heat have very low humidity in the winter.
> Air conditioners also bring humidity down in
> the summer.
>

As far as I know anyway, this is a permanent state in the wet storage,
which means it's always pretty moist in there. Even in a place like
Hong Kong where it gets very wet during the summer, there are days when
it's drier (say, down to 60-70% humidity), but if it's ongoing,
everyday of the year.... I'd imagine it pretty much stuffs the puerh
with moisture.
>
> I believe that Sun Sing does something very
> similar to what you describe.
>

Sunsing started off as a wholesaler of puerh of the older style, so I'm
sure they used to trade a lot in wet stored puerh. The Sunsing
operation that we know now is pretty new -- only three or four years
old, at most. It was started by the son in the family who wanted to
try his hand at high end tea in retail.

> Yes. Grand Tea sells a 1970's yellow label
> which they say is 70% green and 30% black.
> This is very curious. If they mean wet and
> dry stored, then *perhaps* they refer to your
> description of years above. Or perhaps they
> mean exactly what they say. I've tasted this
> tea on several occasions and I don't believe
> that there is truly 30% *cooked* leaf.
>
I just had a raw/cooked mix cake a few days ago that was simply
fantastic. I know my friend who gave me the sample dry stored it since
she got it.... probably for 10 years. I think they mean exactly what
they say.

>
> I've seen cakes that were *very* shiny.
> It was almost as though somebody had
> basted them with butter. (I refer only to
> the shiny look.) What do you think? Is
> there a special treatment that produces this?
>
I believe it's just good, dry storage, with nice leaves. Unless you
are referring to tea with lots of hair?
>
> That is also very interesting. Recently
> we bought some 1990's cakes that had
> a good deal of this white mold. The taste
> of the tea was off. Do you have a suggestion
> for improving the taste of such a cake?

As far as I know anyway -- this is from other people who've had more
expeirence with this sort of thing -- what you're supposed to do is to
unwrap everything -- whether it's in a tong, in paper, or whatever.
Leave the cake out in an airy place (but not so much that it's always
being blown by some sort of draft). Leave it until the cake seems dry,
and when you tap it, it rings a bit hollow, much like a dry stored
cake. Then you can rewrap it. If you want to get rid of the white
stuff, just buy a new toothbrush, wash it clean with water, and then
(make sure it's dry of course) use it to scrub the surface. This is
routinely done at teashops in Hong Kong. Sometimes it's just to get
rid of years of dust accumulation, but it also gets rid of other
undesirable things, like white spots.
>
> Hmmm. Our cakes tasted off. Not awful, but with an off-taste.

Give it some time, I think it will get better. Rinse it twice when you
drink it might also help. I bought some bricks that were most likely
wet stored, or just stored poorly. When I first opened the packet, it
smelled rather nasty, and had small white bugs living in the bricks.
The bugs are now gone -- I think they must've died because the
environment isn't what they can live in (yes, I guess I'm going to
drink them!), and I also took the wrapper out under the sun to cook it
for a few hours. The really awful smell is also gone, and I'm going to
taste it in a month or so to see if the off taste is going away.

Michael Plant > writes:

> [...]
>
> Grand Tea sells a 1970's yellow label which they say is 70% green
> and 30% black. This is very curious. If they mean wet and dry
> stored, then *perhaps* they refer to your description of years
> above. Or perhaps they mean exactly what they say. I've tasted this
> tea on several occasions and I don't believe that there is truly 30%
> *cooked* leaf.

You mean you think they wet-stored some loose leaf and dry-stored some
loose leaf and pressed a mixture?

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html
recent, apposite addition: mei wei

Lewis 10/16/06

> Michael Plant > writes:
>
>> [...]
>>
>> Grand Tea sells a 1970's yellow label which they say is 70% green
>> and 30% black. This is very curious. If they mean wet and dry
>> stored, then *perhaps* they refer to your description of years
>> above. Or perhaps they mean exactly what they say. I've tasted this
>> tea on several occasions and I don't believe that there is truly 30%
>> *cooked* leaf.
>
> You mean you think they wet-stored some loose leaf and dry-stored some
> loose leaf and pressed a mixture?


I was thnking more along the lines of the amount of time the cake was "wet"
stored and the amount of time it spent in "dry" storage. If he says 30%
cooked and 70% green, and he means exactly that, he is saying the leaf is
mixed between oxidized and non-oxidized leaf at that ratio, no? But the tea
is a little better than excellent.
Michael

Michael Plant wrote:

> I was thnking more along the lines of the amount of time the cake was "wet"
> stored and the amount of time it spent in "dry" storage. If he says 30%
> cooked and 70% green, and he means exactly that, he is saying the leaf is
> mixed between oxidized and non-oxidized leaf at that ratio, no? But the tea
> is a little better than excellent.
> Michael

I think that's what he means - the cake is a mix of cooked and uncooked
leaves.