Pu-erh TEA.

boomchakabowwow · Mar 24, 2023

my mom gave me some. no exaggeration it is probably 100 years old. she said her mom gave it to her.

my mom was telling me there is some tool and 1000 years of tradition to use it. she about gasped when I broke off a chunk with my Leatherman pocket tool and dumped the piece into hot water.

I dont have time for 1000-year old tradition. hahah...anyone like it? I finished off a disc and it took me years. my wife found the second disc, double bagged an in an airtight container. I thought I was out! I like to bring some to have at dimSum houses. they dont have a problem just giving me a pot of hot water. usually, or they just charge me something.

I am going to start in on this new disc.

miggus · Mar 24, 2023

Oh. Yeah. Puerh... a hobby I sank many times the time and money into than into knives

boomchakabowwow said:
my mom was telling me there is some tool and 1000 years of tradition to use it.

Hmm, maybe she was referring to Gong Fu Cha? Or Zisha (=Yixing) pots?

Anyhow, the 1000year old stuff is very similar to Japanese Knife marketing. It's mostly that: marketing. But, sure, there are roots to be traced back. I'd be interested to see the info sticker on the tea in more detail, although I probably can't tell you much about it

May I introduce my Kunzan Tetsubin? It's a water boiling kettle handmade from cast iron in Japan. Hundreds of years of... you get the idea.

Those are really cool - the pattern is made by hand into a clay mold and only lasts for casting a few pots. Obviously, truly handmade ones are quite pricey (this one is on the lowish end of handmade cast iron kettles at around 500 EUR / USD) , so most of these are actually machine made. This is what prepared me for carbon knives

If you boil water in cast iron, you need to take A LOT of care not to have it succumb to rust quickly - oiling them on the inside is not an option, so drying them immediately after boiling the water is the only option. Plus, cast iron is brittle and temperature shocks might cause it to crack in no time. Take care of them though and t hey will last decades.

And, yeah, Puerh... it was really affordable until a few years ago, Oolong and Green Tea used to be the stuff for wealthy people. But at some point in the 80s and 90s, Puerh was discovered, prices skyrocketed so extremely that there was a literal puerh bubble, I kid you not. After it burst, prices remained high for high quality stuff.

Classical puerh is aged, but young / fresh puerh is also really nice, and what I drink most of the time.

It can lead into binges quickly, because the stuff can be stored and aged like wine. So you can buy as much as you want, unless you mess it up big time, it won't go bad, but age and develop more depth and character.

Another internet rabbit hole, no doubt. But still more potential for socialization ,since you can sit together with people, drink tea and chat for hours on end.

Speaking about it - high quality puerh (and other tea) can get you something of a high effect. Not totally unlike cannabis, but milder and less intoxicating. That isn't well researched, but is likely related to theanine, an interesting substance that has SOME relation to cannabinoids. Don't ask me about the chemistry though, I don't know the details and don't understand the research papers.

Nice hobby, can highly recommend

mockit · Mar 24, 2023

Could never get into it. I love various oolongs but Puerh is like the laphroaig of tea for me lol. Beautiful set up though

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dragjp · Mar 24, 2023

mockit said:
the laphroaig of tea for me

Have to +1 here as a coffee, tea & whiskey holic

Rangen · Apr 1, 2023

I have way too much pu erh aging in humidified coolers in my garage. Can't drink the young stuff any more; my stomach does not like it. Fortunately, it's all passed the magic 11 year mark by now. My oldest one is from the '60's.

And, um, yeah, a bit of a gasp. You're supposed to do repeated short infusions in a little clay teapot, and enjoy how it develops over many infusions. We even throw away the first infusion, mostly because the caffeine makes it too bitter to be good.