Excerpt from "Homo Deus"

from "Homo Deus" by Yuval Noah Harari p. 239-240.

Experiences and sensitivity build up one another in a never-ending cycle. I cannot experience anything if I have no sensitivity, and i cannot develop sensitivity unless I undergo a variety of experiences. Sensitivity is not an abstract aptitude that can be developed by reading books or listening to lectures. It is a practical skill that can ripen and mature only by applying it in practice.

Take tea, for example. I start by drinking very sweet ordinary tea while reading the morning paper. The tea is little more than an excuse for a sugar rush. One day I realize that between the sugar and the newspaper, I hardly taste the tea at all. So I reduce the amount of sugar, put the paper aside, close my eyes and focus on the tea itself. I begin to register its unique aroma and flavor. Soon I find myself experimenting with different teas, black and green, comparing their exquisite tangs and delicate bouquets. Within a few months, I drop the supermarket labels and buy my tea at Harrods. I develop a particular liking for 'Panda Dung tea' from the mountains of Yu'an in Sichuan province, made from the leaves of tea bushes fertilized by the dung of panda bears. That's how, one cup at a time, I hone my tea sensitivity and become a tea connoisseur. If in my early tea drinking days you had served me Panda Dung tea in Ming Dynasty porcelain goblet, I would have not appreciated it any more than builder's tea in a paper cup. You cannot experience something if you don't have the necessary sensitivity and you cannot develop your sensitivity except by undergoing a long string of experiences.

What's true of tea is true of all other aesthetic and ethical knowledge. We aren't born with a ready-made conscience. As we pass through life we hurt people and people hurt us, we act compassionately and others show compassion to us. If we pay attention, our moral sensitivity sharpens, and these experiences become a source of valuable ethical knowledge about what is good, what is rightand who I really am.

Puerh Samples from puerhshop.com

All are from puerhshop.com

2013 Yiwu Zhongshan ripe puerh cake $18 for a 400 g cake

A fairly bland tea. I finished the cake without a problem, but I don't think I would get another. I wish it had a little more something in the flavors profile to make it stand out.

2007 Jingmai Laoshu Gongting Pu-erh sample ($23.90 for a 357 g cake)
This has a bit more interesting going on that the aforementioned cake. I'm not sure if I would get a large amount though.

2010 CNNP 7572 Yellow Mark Pu-erh sample ($17.99 for a 357 g cake)
Oddly enough, this tastes like the yellow mark I remember from several years ago and had quite a lot of (I think it was 2004 give or take a few years). Good stuff for a drinking daily. Probably worth getting some of this. Ordered 3 cakes.

2015 Zenpuer 1501 Year of the Goat Ripe Pu-erh sample ($15.99 for a 357 g cake)
Impressive for such a young product. Ordered 1 cake.

2008 CNNP Grand Red in Red Ripe Pu-erh sample ($23.99 for a 357 g cake)
Mediocre.

2013 Boyou JYMT Ripe Pu-erh sample ($20.98 for a 357 g cake)
This tea has a really nice smell. Some complexities but not bad.

2006 Mengku Old Tree Ripe Pu-erh sample
Hard to describe this one. Not good in comparison to the other samples in this order though.

2007 CNNP Win Ripe Pu-erh sample ($29.98 for a 380 g cake)
This has a good smell reminding me of the first type of pu I bought a decent amount of, but the flavor profile is a bit disappointing.

2011 MGH 1104 Ripe Pu-erh tea brick ($8.95 for 200 g portioned brick)
Standard fare for this sort of a pre-sized brick. Decent staple, but not much going on.

2009 Yiwu Qing Yun Ripe Pu-erh tea
Has a somewhat cloudy brew with lots of small particles.

2010 Banzhang Ripe Pu-erh tea
Has a somewhat cloudy brew with lots of small particles.

On Water Quality

Water quality is something that I have had to deal with now that I live in the midwest USA. The main issue is that most of the water has a very high dissolved solids content, measurements typically yield what is called "total dissolved solids" or TDS. The measurement for my water was about 450 mg/L making it right on the border of brackish water, note that Brita filters and simple solutions like that do nothing to alleviate this problem. Boiling a single kettle of water would result in some lime deposits starting to form. Worse than that, the high mineral content definitely altered the tea making getting decent tea entirely pointless. Fortunately, where I am they treat the water with chlorine gas so that is easy to get rid of by letting that blow off. I now have a fairly solid solution that gets the water to something quite decent for tea. The procedure to get water to an acceptable level will vary depending on where your water supply comes from, how it is treated, and how it gets to where you use it. My solution was to first have a water softener to remove the hard ions, magnesium and calcium. Then the water is run through a 3 stage reverse osmosis setup, with the 1st and 3rd being carbon filters and the 2nd being the active part with the reverse osmosis (RO) membrane. Unfortunately, this is not an inexpensive solution and an alternative is to buy water from the store, but if it is a local brand likely they are just bottling the same garbage water that you get. That makes it critical that the water have gone through a reverse osmosis treatment (my preference) or is distilled to keep the high concentration of ions out. Reverse osmosis was able to take my 450 mg/L TDS down to somewhere in the tens of mg/L. For the tea vendors and aficionados out there I highly recommend using/getting reverse osmosis water for treating most areas water supply as a minimum. Without this you can be missing out on the quality teas you are getting because the high mineral content really overshadows any flavors the tea has making it not noticeably different from standard low quality teas. There can still be other contaminants to be dealt with depending on where you live (nitrates and volatile organics come to mind), but RO treatment goes a long way. The one place I have been where the water was really nice was Eugene, OR, conveniently the home to J-Tea.

2012 Yiwu Zengshan Pu-erh

From puerhshop.com $15 for a 400 g cake

This is a big surprise. I think this is the first ripe puerh I have had where there is absolutely no fishy/swampy (duiwei) aroma at all, which is remarkable especially considering it is a 2012 vintage. It leaves me wondering how they did this and whoever is responsible did a great job. If only they could help all the other producers know what works it could really help the reputation of ripe puerh and raise the quality. This really is a what I would consider a standard ripe puerh. If all ripe was produced in this fashion maybe it would get a better reputation. Its also nice to see some reasonable consistency in the leaf quality and fewer stems and finely chopped material.
(I had found this saved as a draft since I wanted to buy a decent amount before posting. Here it is two years later, it is sold out, and I didn't get any more. Oh well, on to find the next decent ripe cakes.)

Midnight Beauty

From J-Tea  $20 for 1 oz.

This is yet another solid Eastern Beauty Oolong from J-Tea from the 2015 season. My one minor issue is that the leaves are a bit smaller that some of the other Eastern Beauties, but that could be my fault since I have shipped this package around the world twice. The smaller leaves make throwing the tea in a cup and adding hot water a bit more challenging to filter while drinking with the small leaves floating around.

2008 Menghai Qizibing Pu-erh

From puerhshop.com $17 for 357 g cake

The brews are a bit cloudy with particulates for my preference. A mediocre tea that I should be able to finish the cake of this slowly mixing it in the rotation for something different.

2010 Charming Menghai Pu-erh Tea Cake

From puerhshop.com $17 for a 357 g cake

The search for a ripe puerh to stock up on continues. This is the first from an order I recently placed with puerhshop.com. This seems a reasonable well rounded tea. Surprisingly nothing really stands out to me to form much of an opinion, good or bad. This might make for a nice daily tea, which is what I am looking for.

The Ripe Puerh Showdown

I am moving to where I presume getting good tea will be costlier. Therefore, I plan on stockpiling some tea now to last me the next few years. I have placed a larger than normal order of samples of mostly ripe pu-erh since that's what I drink most of on a day to day basis. Here is my recap of the brewings in relatively short order of brewing two to four a day for ease of reference and not having to remember too much for too long. Below are a few notes about each.

2006 Menghai Sonji Cooked Puerh 601
Smells nice somewhat malty. Taste is a bit flat

2008 Menghai "7672" Ripe Puerh
Something reminiscent of a cooked puerh that I am familiar with. Very faint fishy aroma, which is surprisingly not offputting.

2007 Menghai "Jade Dew" Ripe Puerh
Similar to the tea just above but worse all around

2005 Menghai "Ba Ji Pu Bing" Ripe Puerh
Good aroma and flavor, slight hint of sweetness.

2005 Hai Lang Hao "Jin Hai Lang" Ripe Puerh
This is a competitor for the worst tea I have had.

2000 CNNP "Lincang" Ripe Puerh
Slightly smoky aroma. Strange metallic taste.

2005 Mengku Gong Ting Mini Ripe Cake
This seems like an oversized single use ripe puerh with mostly particulate tea, leaves are non existent.

2012 Xiaguan "7663 Classic Ripe Cake"
Mediocre all around, not bad but not great. The one cake of this is drinkable.

2012 Nan Jian 703 Organic Ripe Puerh
Aroma is mediocre, slightly strange. Fairly bland body. This is a step in the right direction for organic teau. My experiences with organic tea have all been not good for now.

2013 Yunnan Sourcing Yong De Blue
Reasonable aroma and smooth flavor profile. A decent pressing.

The contenders for what I will get are:
2008 Menghai "7672" Ripe Puerh
2005 Menghai "Ba Ji Pu Bing" Ripe Puerh
with 2006 Menghai Sonji Cooked Puerh 601 as a far outside chance.

2012 Yunnan Sourcing "Nan Nuo Duo Yi Zhai" Ancient Arbor Raw Pu-erh

From Yunnan Sourcing $80 for a 400 g cake

This tea seems rather average with most of the flavors and aromas limited to the "bite" when the you are drinking the tea. There is not much left after that. There is a faint something that lingers around but it seems rather shallow. Maybe I am missing something but it seems a bit on the high end for what it is. I probably wouldn't get this even if reasonable priced, but I could see how some people might like this.

Interesting Papers

- Tea for preserving pork patties, straight from Meat Science.
" Influence of natural extracts on the shelf life of modified atmosphere-​packaged pork patties" Meat Science 2014, 96, 1, 526-534

-"Does tea prevent cancer? Evidence from laboratory and human intervention studies"American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2013, 98, 6(S), 1667S-1675S

-A full issue on tea
"Tea – from bushes to mugs: composition, stability and health aspects" Food Research International 2013, 53, 2.

-"Determination of ionic species in tea infusions by ion chromatography" Scientific Bulletin. Series B, Chemistry and Materials Science 2013, 75, 3, 65-78

-"Effects of water solutions on extracting green tea leaves" Scientific World Journal 2013, 368350

-"Caffeine in tea Camellia sinensis — content, absorption, benefits and risks of consumption" Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging

-"Tea Polyphenols as Novel and Potent Inhibitory Substances against Renin Activity" J. Agric. Food Chem., 2013, 61, 40, 9697–9704

- I'd take tea that has been irridated over fumigated any day.
"Comparative effects of irradiation, fumigation, and storage on the free amino acids and sugar contents of green, black and oolong teas" Radiation Physics and Chemistry 2013, 86, 96-101

- Heres a cool way to make silver nanos using tea
"A novel green chemical route for synthesis of silver nanoparticles using camellia sinensis" Acta chimica Slovenica 2010, 57, 4, 808-812

- Effect of Boron Deficiency on Photosynthesis and Antioxidant Responses of Young Tea Plantlets, Russian Journal of Plant Physiology 2013, 60, 5, 633-639

Maeda-en Sen-cha Reserve

From local Asian grocery store: $14 for 85 g

This was a fairly muted sencha with nothing really that great about but nothing bad either. I would have liked some more vegetal/grassy notes which were for the most part absent.

2012 Yunnan Sourcing "Yong De Blue Label" Ripe Pu-erh

From Yunnan Sourcing $15 for 357 g cake

This is very similar to the 2011 Ye Zhuang Shuang Li "Red Label Yuan Xiang Bu Lang" I recently had. In its current form it not good with overpowering swamp/fish aromas. Maybe after a few years it will mellow out a bit, but it is still relatively new. (If anyone knows where to get the nice storage boxes for puerh in the pictures I would like to get some more for convenient storage)

2011 Ye Zhuang Shuang Li "Red Label Yuan Xiang Bu Lang"

From Yunnan Sourcing $15 for 357 g cake

This one calls for a wash and trashing of the water to get some of the funk off of it. After that it is somewhat alright although some unpleasant stuff still hangs around. I'd be surprised if this improves much over time. It feels like this could use another year or so to air out the stuff that the first wash gets rid of. Nothing to special or noteworthy about this.

2011 Xiaguan FT "Mushroom Tuo" Raw Pu-erh

From Yunnan Sourcing $14.5 for 250 g mushroom

This is a surprisingly nice find. It ranks high on my list with a decent amount of camphor. This raw has a very medicinal feel to it. So far I have tended to brew this fast and light.

2012 Yunnan Sourcing "Chen Xiang" Aged Raw Pu-erh of Wu Liang Mountain

From Yunnan Sourcing $29 for 400 g

 This is one of the top few the best smelling raw pu I have had. It is of course camphor rich, which is my favorite. The body was lacking, being fairly simple and not leaving me wanting to drink to much. This is unfortunate since it smells so great, maybe the soup will mellow out after a few years, but I wouldn't bet on it.

2012 Yunnan Sourcing "Qiu Yun" Wild Arbor Raw Pu-erh tea of Yi Wu mountain

From Yunnan Sourcing $17 for 250 g

This tea is a really nice production by Yunnan Sourcing. This is what I think of as a great example of a raw puerh, especially for someone new. Its not so much that it is a great tea as it is that it is one of he most solid representations of raw puerh I have had. It was much more forgiving when brewing than many raw pu-erhs. Also not overly complex where I feel like there's something I should be appreciating but am not. For a beer analogy I think of this teas as the Pabst Blue Ribbon or Budweiser of raw puerh, and I mean that not in a derogatory way, quite the opposite. In my opinion, in the current market of raw puerh that seems to be dominated with rare but more expensive greats and flooded with fairly bad examples it is nice to have this bedrock around.

5 Year Aged "Menghai Golden Pu-erh" of Bu-Lang Mountain

From Yunnan Sourcing $7 for 50 g

I'm not sure what exactly to make of this one. It has citrus aromas, mostly orange, that I do not really like. It is also really malty which makes for a strange combination. Interesting and worth a try, but not much more than that. On a good note it avoids the unpleasant flaws that most cooked pu has, but seemingly at the expense of developing the strange malty/orange combination.

2012 Yunnan Sourcing "Autumn Yi Wu Purple Tea" Raw Pu-Erh

From Yunnan Sourcing $19 for a 250 g cake

 Interesting tea. It is young, but has aromas of an tea that is several years older that this is. The body is very smooth as well, nothing complex, but something that is nice to have when I am in the mood for a simple tea. Sort of like the 'steak and potatoes' for puerh, it works well for day to day drinking. Definitely worth getting a cake or two, especially at this price.

2012 Yunnan Sourcing "Lao Cha Tou Brick" Ripe Pu-erh tea brick

From Yunnan Sourcing $12 for a 250 g brick

I really wanted to like this one. The texture of the brick is much nicer than most making it easy to break chunks off. The tea was a perfectly decent ripe. However, this is where I draw the line for treasures found in tea. Drinking puerh I have come accustomed to finding the occasional treasure in the tea and find it mildly entertaining picking around it. One of the most common treasured is hair, I'm sure anyone who has had the pleasure of going through a couple their own cake/brick or whatever compressed tea  is at hand has found a hair or two. This tea had the most hair I have ever seen in compressed tea. It was to the point that I just dismantled the brick after carefully harvesting enough for a couple of sessions. I would have gladly paid a a higher price for a less hairy version. I consider myself fairly tolerant with things like this but the rest of this brick is unfortunately going in the trash. It really is too bad to see this go, since it was decent tea.

2005 Xiaguan "Xiao Fa Tuo" Ripe Pu-erh

From Yunnan Sourcing $17 for a 100 g tuo

This was all around mediocre. It surprisingly still has some slight fishy smell to it. I finished it, but was content with that.