Holy cow, GWR, is this a fabulous board or what! I only hope a great percentage of Dopers are among the survivors of the apocalypse so civilization can be rebuilt, better than before.
The World Tea Expo? That must be an incredibly interesting event. Cute couple… esp. your wife. 
Thanks for your recommendations, Parenchyma.
It comes in individual little cakes - I think I got this one which I like quite a bit but I haven’t tried any of the others. The samples you can get from Upton are very nice, BTW.
Are you aware of the fact that the SDMB is directly responsible for the creation of the tea for the zombie apocalypse? It’s called “Mr. Excellent’s Post-Apocalyptic Earl Grey.”
The thread “Twinings changed Earl Grey tea - How do you feel?” started it.
I told the whole story in this blog post.
It was announced on the Straight Dope in this thread.
And here are some notes about the logo.
I have much to learn, Sensei.
<Thelma bows humbly>
Admitting you have much to learn is the first step to becoming the master, grasshopper. We all have much to learn – but it is different for each of us.
I find all this tea talk fascinating. I’m not much a tea drinker, and it’s like I knew there were all sorts of teas out there, but I never knew that GWR owned a tea shop and I’d never heard of puerh before until this thread!
See and here I was gonna go with the how to hit on a waitress at Cracker Barrel. As in, “You sure are a Puerh tea thing.”
This has to be one of the more interesting descriptions I’ve heard in a while. Makes me want to try it for some reason.
For those still following along, here is a very sweet videoshowing a precise and ceremonial way of preparing puerh tea. It has captions/subtitles but the audio is strictly music.
This interesting one shows a casual dude making tea. Why does he pour the tea *over *the pot so that it is swimming in a pool of water? is it to keep the pot warm?
Try not to stare at his crotch. What are those noises in the background?
For the win!
These two videos make a great demonstration that there’s no single “right” way to make tea. I’ve had pu-erh tea gong fu style in a bunch of different tea houses. None of them do it exactly the same, and none did it exactly like either of these videos. My personal process isn’t the same as anyone else’s that I’ve seen. It works for me, and however you decide to make your pu-erh should work for you.
That’s a lot more equipment than I have for gong fu, but the procedure is basically the same as what I do. I skip a lot of the purely ceremonial moves. My only real objection to that video is that it’s made for people at sea level. Instead of referring to boiling water, they keep saying “100 degrees C.” I live at 5500 feet (about 1700 meters), and water boils here at 194.5 C (202 F).
Fascinating. He likes his tea HOT, and half of his moves are about heating the Yixing pot and heating the cup. I have no idea why he slops the water and tea all over the place, or why he dumps his second infusion into a glass container of water. He seems to be using a ton of leaf, and his “casual” process takes about twice as long as I take when I’m making pu-erh just for me.
Yixing teapots are great, by the way. The clay is unglazed – at least on the inside and often on the outside as well – and it absorbs the characteristics of the tea you prepare in it. Most aficionados will use any given Yixing pot for one and only one type of tea.
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:32, topic:671013”]
My only real objection to that video is that it’s made for people at sea level. Instead of referring to boiling water, they keep saying “100 degrees C.” I live at 5500 feet (about 1700 meters), and water boils here at 194.5 C (202 F).
[/QUOTE]
Please describe your method, including the proper temperature of the water.
Boiling. When I’m steeping pu-erh at sea level, the water temperature is 212F. At home, 202F. Either way, the water is boiling.
Most of the time, I make my tea using an infuser (I use an IngenuiTEA at home, but there are a lot of similar devices). I put a tablespoon or so of leaf in the infuser (if you’re weighing it, go for 7 or 8 grams) and fill about 1/4 full with boiling water. I swish that around for 5-10 seconds and drain off the water. That’s the “rinse” step.
Next, I fill with boiling water and let it steep. For loose-leaf shu pu-erh, usually a minute or so. For sheng, about twice that. For single-serving tuo-cha, I add a minute or so to the first infusion to give the tuo a chance to break up. All of this is subjective, of course, and you may want to steep twice as long – or half as long – as I do.
You can easily use the leaves 7-10 times, and the flavor and aroma will change as you move through the infusions. The later infusions also contain significantly less caffeine, as most of it is pulled out in the first few cups.
This guy also pours hot water and the rinse water from rinsing the leaves *over *the pot, which is sitting in a shallow bowl. He said that repeatedly pouring the tea rinse over the pot will eventually give it a glossy exterior.
This is a particular kind of pot, but I didn’t catch the name of it.