Pu'er Part 2: An Investor's Guide to Shou

Pu'er is a culture within a culture. I spent eight months meeting with a pu'er master every week and I have only touched the surface of all there is to know. This is because no two bricks are alike. A great Dragonwell green tea is just that. It changes only for the worse as its flavor fades over time. All Shifeng spring harvest Dragonwell is essentially the same if it is processed in the same way. The chemistry of fermentation that goes into pu'er production introduces so many more variables that the possibilities cannot be exhausted in a lifetime. For example, two identical bricks stored at two different humidities will be completely different. The more humid environment will cause the brick to age more quickly and with different results. A brick stored in plastic will age much less quickly than one stored in paper. Even after 50 years of careful aging, you have to break a brick apart, which is a skill in itself. If you break the leaves while chiseling at the brick, you will make a bitter tea. In addition, pu'er is not limited by a single growing region or size of tea plant. Some pu'ers are made from ancient tea trees, and others from smaller shrubs.

The important point is that delving into pu'er culture is like being dropped into the middle of an ocean with no raft. You have no direction where to paddle and nobody to help you. It is easy to be cheated, or buy an inferior product and then be turned off from pu'er forever. My hope is that with a little help, you can start buying pu'er with confidence. In my last post, I discussed the main characteristics of a good sheng tea. Today, I will talk a little about shou pu'er.

Shou, (literally ripe) tea is a relatively new innovation. As people began to realize that sheng tea could be treated like fine wine, valued for what year it was produced, and appreciated for its aged flavor, the prices skyrocketed. Demand for pu'er went up, especially because of its health benefits to digestion, and because of the boost to one's social status of taking out a 20 year old brick to share with friends. Some entrepeneurs started trying to accelerate the aging process to pass off a 1 year old tea as a 25 year old tea. To do this, moisture had to be added to the leaves to greatly accelerate fermentation by encouraging cultures to thrive. This had to be done in a very controlled way to stop the tea from looking moldy. The first shou pu'ers were these rip-off bricks, and they tasted horrendous.

Later, the technique was adopted by people interested in finding a way to make shou taste good. They started using higher quality leaves, and introducing the moisture slightly more slowly. The resuts were promising. A brick, exposed to intense moisture in a clean environment develops a rich flavor immediately. This flavor is not the same as an aged sheng like people had originally hoped, but it has come to be appreciated as a different kind of fine pu'er, much like both red and white wines can be savored in different ways.

Today, more people like to drink shou pu'er because it is almost immediately ready for consumption. It is not bitter and dry at the beginning of its life like many sheng teas, but it still matures over time into something greater. It is also sweeter and smoother as a general rule. However, it has a very distinctive taste that some people find acrid. Getting used to pu'er is like learning to drink coffee or appreciate cheese. The taste seems overwhelming at first, but over time you learn to appreciate its subtleties.

So, how do you evaluate a good shou? What characteristics should it posses? First, be sure that a certificate of authenticity is pressed into the leaves. This certificate should match the wrapping. The outer wrapper will have a date of manufacture stamped on the back. This date is the single most important factor in valuing the tea, so be sure you know the age of the brick. Next, examine the color of the leaves. They should be dark brown for large leaf pu'er, and lighter orange-brown for budset pu'er. Occasionally the two types of leaves are mixed in one brick with interesting results. There should be no whitish film over the brick, as this means it has molded. Next, smell the tea. It should have a strong smell similar in texture to the smell of hay. There should be no broken leaves or twigs embedded in the brick. If you smell any fishiness, then the brick was poorly aged, and has turned sour from thriving cultures.

Next, try to have a sample prepared in-store before you make a purchase. Look at the tea water itself. It should be dark, but not murky. Be sure that it is transparent to translucent. Depending on the shou pu'er being made, the color of the water can range from bright orange to almost pitch black (not an opaque black but an almost crystalline black). When you taste the tea, it should have a signature sweetness along with the strong taste that is shou's signature love-it or hate-it flavor. This flavor walks a fine line near bitter or sour, but should never cross this line. It is more of a texture and strength in the mouth than a real flavor, and it should not linger. Instead, the aftertaste should be sweet. Acceptable shou bricks leave a caramel or brown sugar flavor in the mouth. Finer pu'ers build on this sweetness with a creamy richness. Even finer pu'er will diverge into many different complex possibilities. One common complexity is a camphor flavor. Another is like the taste of fragrant rice. Sometimes pu'er will have the taste of apples or even flowers in it. The most expensive bricks made from very small buds tend to develop a roasted flavor similar to Big Red Robe in the aftertaste. be sure to steep the tea at least five times before making a decision. Often, cheaper pu'ers will turn bitter or dry after a few steepings. A fine shou can be steeped for 10-20 infusions without trouble.

The age of a shou will have a slightly lesser impact on its flavor than a sheng, but age is still considered important. The oldest shou pu'er has a texture to it described as "ancient flavor." This is a kind of smokiness, where the flavor of the tea seems to dissolve into vapor as you drink it. The dynamism and unpredictability of this experience makes it difficult to describe tangibly. A shou between ne and five years old probably lacks complexity beyond sweetness and richness. a 5-10 year old shou can be quite excellent. Anything over 10 will begin to pick up the "ancient taste."

Storage of shou is exactly the same as sheng. They can all be put together in a cardboard bow away from smells and humidity. Open up the box at least a few times a year to evaluate the progress of your tea's evolution.

To prepare shou pu'er, use either a devoted yixing clay teapot, or a gaiwan (covered bowl). Be sure to discard the first steeping as the flavor may not be ideal. A tea aged for ten years needs to be washed off once or even twice to wake up the leaves. The first 1-2 steepings that you drink will be light, a little flat even. The 3rd and 4th steepings will be the best, full of the tea's complexity. After that, a high quality pu'er may change in flavor in interesting ways for 10 more steepings before fading. Begin by pouring the water out from the teapot or gaiwan immediately unless you are using an English-style large teapot. Add a few seconds to the steeping time each infusion. The finest pu'ers can be put in a large cup and steeped all day while you sip from the top without making the tea bitter. The leaves will sink to the bottom and you will be free to enjoy. Add more water when you get down to about half. This is a convenient alternative for those of us on the go, or without proper equipment. This does not apply to sheng pu'er which will get bitter if steeped for more than a few seconds. I do not recommend using a large teapot for sheng.

If you are interested in buying pu'er, leave me a comment and I will help you look on the web for whatever flavor profile you would want. I happy to be of service.