Puerh Storage Jars

Storage of Puerh - what a topic, right? If there would be a statistic, which define most discussed topic betwen tea people, the storage of puerh surely is going to be on the top. So what can I, still bigginer here, add? Not much, just a few thoughts and experiences... Nevertheless, I look forward to hear any thoughts and practices of my readers - thoughts and experiences about what I am going to present here as well as about storage generally.

I made my first "cake jars" in autumn 2009. Those two jars were originally made for my customer, but I have used unsuitable clay and cracks on bottoms, which have shown after firing, made those jars unsellable. Thanks to this, I can see now, after two and half years, how cakes are doing in those jars... so far, they smell and taste great. I store there cakes from first LongFeng production (spring teas from 2009). No jar will make a magic here. My too dry and cold storage conditions are successful decelerators of aging. But jars protect tea from dust and smells. And more importantly, they helps to create microclime as well as reduce drying out essential oils from leaves. On the picture below you can see color of Purple Lable (leaves shoudl be from old threes from Ai Lao)

Leaves are darker and whole profile sligltly "ripen"...

  

  

As time went on, more and more tea loves asked me to make storege jars for them. And also my stock ( I do not fell like collector yet:)) has been growing. I started make bigger jars, basicaly in two sizes. For 400-500g cakes and for 200-250g ones. Into one bigger jar you can put 10-11 cakes. It means between 4-5kg of tea.

This information can give a notion about to what kind of puerh drinker is it for. When one starts, having cake or two, sampling around, then just love for ceramic can make him think about buying such piece. On the other hand, if you buy cakes mostly in tongs, continuously for years, then you can welcome it as a sample box. Yes, there are puehr fans who build their houses from tea or, at least, fill their flats to roof... but I believe that most of us just buy cake here, brick  there. And despite of fact that we know that we are not living in the best areas for aging tea, we can not help ourselves and we buy more then we drink right now. That is why I find those jars convenient for me. My mixture of different cakes, touchas and bricks looks much more happy in several ceramic jars then laying in shelves.

but there are shapes and sizes which are not easy to fit...

I was never in fever to buy and stock a lot of  young tea in order to safe money and get some great aged tea after 20-30 years. I always prefer to pick variety of teas in sense of years, styles, areas...And ENJOY IT NOW! I have learn to buy teas for what they are now, not for future, dreamy brew.

Dry vs Wet

I have (or had) very pleasant dry stored teas as well as wet, or traditional stored teas. I am not afraid of moisture (I can recomment to read and think about "sharp" Marshal's post here). But I am not afraid of dry or natural storage either. Recently I have two - three samples from around 2000 and I would love to have cake or two from each of them. All were obviously dry stored - green leaves, smell and color of first breaves say that. One of them was stored in Taiwan, one in Kunming. Complexity of the taste make me wonder - would it be any better in HK? Or here in Czech Rep.? I dont know, but I know that there are many wet and, many dry teas worth to try. I have to say that I start to like teas, which went thru some wet period. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to find good, traditional (wet) stored tea, here in the middle of Europe. You can find many muddy like shus, from poor to great young shengs and some decent dry stored aged shengs. But I know just about one company selling rather good, traditional stored shengs here (declarations and prices are another story) Then there are some, from good to great, rather wet stored teas from EoT. Do you know any interesting source of traditional stored puehrs in Europe? Or some safe bets in Asia or US? Please share!

Tea taste better in rainy day... 

Many friends and customers ask about my experiences with long term storage. Is this jar the right choice for my premium cakes? What clay is the best for such puehr jar? For oolongs? What shape and what size? Well, I can just guess and use common sense. If you have any findings on this field feel free to jump in...



Thanks for reading!

Gem Number Five- Nebulae

The series of new ware, from which I have chosen these cups to my Gem Collection, was inspired by Korean Boncheon ( Punch'ong) ware. I like the simplicity and humble energy  which radiate from many Korean buncheong pieces I had a chance to meet. And this energy is what I was going for. These cups are even darker and maybe more distinct then I thought they will be. On other hand cups are soft and pleasant to hold. Looking to any of those cups, you can easily be conquered by your imagination and travel far away...

For more pictures of the set please visit this page. If this "Ten Gem of Ten Kilns" project is new for you, then read this post first.

Thank you for reading!

Czech Yixing- part two

Attentive readers of this blog maybe remember- there was 1,3kg of the Zi Ni clay delivered to my workshop and for first three teapots I have used only half of it. We unloaded kiln with the rest of the clay in it several days ago. As you probably already anticipate, I have remodeled it in to teapots. This time, I have tried to make them smaller and with different shapes.

But first, take a look at few pictures from loading of the kiln...

Some small stoneware teapots, partly glazed by Nuka...

Smallest teapot from the Czech YiXing serie...

Finally there is enough horsetail growing around so I can use it for decoration  on our pots ( you can't find  that weed during winter)

Black Magda Teapot- slip glaze (which we call "Black Magda") on porcelain body...

Thick Nuka glaze- kind of ash glaze. Yes, it is the one which you can see on "Gem Number One"

Here you can see two of those "YiXing" teapots...in coldest part of our kiln.

And the same part of the kiln after firing...

And finally, here you can judge all four "Czech YiXing" teapots I made...

For more pictures of these, please visit this picasa album

 It was pleasure to get know and work with this clay. I hope that those teapots will bring pleasure to their new owners and are going to make their teas better.

Thank you for reading!

Concubine oolong from Lu Shan

Since my last post, I have several topics to write about. I have enjoyed many teas, worked on tea ware as well as on our garden- all this was stired by wonderful but speedy spring time. It created many stories but has taken all my free time. 

When I have an early morning tea I rather stay focused on the teapot then switch on my PC to write about it. This post is going to be short too and with just few impressions from one of several teas I recently had. There will be another "pots post" soon. So please, stay tune...

During sunny days I take my teatable on our terrace...

This tea arrived (with many others) from Stéphane couple of weeks ago. When it comes to oolongs I am still more on the darker, more roasted or ripe side. In most cases, those too green-sweet-fragrant ones does not fit to my stomach. So when I was opening the first vacuum package of it I was very, very curious. I was not quite sure what to expect. Albeit label on the package indicates many things...


Here is what the label says:  Tea- Gao Shan Concubine Oolong
                                          Origin- Lu Shan (1600 m), Taiwan
                                          Harvest- Fall 2011 (August 25th)
And one shot of dry leaves...

  Dry, rolled leaves smell pleasantly sweet with light roasted tones. But already preheated leaves show more of the roast and I am happy about it. It is very close to some more fragrant Wui oolongs. Tastes and aromas have very interesting progression thru brews. It is still sweet. But during first brews it is more honey-nutty, then it goes thru honey-fruity phase, to honey-flowery.

 This tea is like a very fine mixture of three characters- roasted oolong (wui, hungshui), darker Oriental Beaty and floral, light, Gao Shan. When I sniff wet leaves "Wui-HungShui" aspect dominate. When I sniff to infusion I smell Oriental Beauty. And when I sniff to empty cup there is thousand flowers in it. In my mouth all those aspects are mixed together in to very pleasant nectar. And probably the best part is that it fits to my body. It is strong, energizing tea but without trowing out of balance effect on my stomach.

An unconventional tea jar- gift from my friend and colleague...

As all higher quality oolongs this tea lasts for many infusions. If you will have a change to try it then I can recommend to make it "all-inclusive"- with good, on charcoal heated water, in proper tea ware and with your full but relaxed attention. Then it can make you day as it made my.



Thank you for reading!