From experience, I let puer rest as the flavor changes quite a bit. The best rule of thumb that you hear from many tea sellers is to let your puer rest a few weeks after shipping, about as long as it took to ship to you. After a few weeks, I generally put the tea into the pumidor. I used to drink new teas right away but I have so much and notice tea changes so much, I tend to wait a bit.
Shipping does weird things to tea, especially with longer transit times. In the warmer months, I open boxes with tea feeling warm to the touch, with the fragrance of hot plastic bags. I’ve heard other tales of shipping making things go vinegary bad due to being shipped on a boat for 2 months. Tea, especially puer, is sensitive to smells. Tea being trapped in a plastic box, surrounded by other weird packages, in temperatures that jump from freezing to crazy hot in a back of a truck, plane, or boat, does painful things to tea.
Besides shipping, young puer needs settling time. The leaves were steamed in order to be smashed into fun shapes. These days tea sellers sell their cakes and bricks right away. From there the puer tea changes in flavor over the next year as it adjusts then ages. I’ve been frustrated as a tea reviewer with puer as I only capture that moment of the tea’s profile. Young puer changes as it settles and ages, so my review of a brand new young puer becomes irrelevant easily 6 to 12 months, and more so in 2 years.
However, I can say all these things but the education is in the tasting. I chose probably the worst tea for a comparison – Bitterleaf Teas’ 2018 Bitter End Lite Lao Man E Huang Pian.
This tea expected to be bitter and pressed tight enough to draw blood. I purchased this tea right away, it arrived quickly for shipping from China to Washington state.
For all tastings, I used 1 gram of leaf per 15ml of vessel size. I did gongfu style infusions using boiling water.
No Rest or Shipping Respite Tasting
For the first round, 2018 Bitterleaf Tea’s Bitter End had an 18 hour open air rest. This was a summer tea order that came to my door in a ripping hot 90F sweaty bubble wrap plastic. My mail arrives late in the day so rarely can I drink the same day I get tea. The hot leaf smells like sour dandelions and a hint of floral.
First and Second Infusion: The Bitter End Lite is… bitter. It hits you right away, BAM BITTER you are chewing on aspirin. It is a single note of bitter in your face, reminding me of bittermelon. The bitter flavor evaporates quickly to a butter savory broth, as the rest is quite watery like this is the last infusion.
I don’t know if it’s the bitterness, but I am getting some salivation and the texture is on the buttery side. Silver does things to bitter teas, and in a silver cup, The Bitter End Lite barely has any flavor and what I could detect tastes like butter.
Third and Fourth Infusion: The flavor is getting stronger but it certainly is a fleeting tea at this point. It sips in buttery bitter, a bit of sourness, then the flavor quickly makes itself scarce into the ocean of tea, like a school of fish scattering when the big owl shark is spotted. I give Bitter End Lite points for the texture of butter and slick lip feel.
Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Infusion: I got a sour and stewed tasting tea. Some sips I get the original bitter melon taste. It still has a watery fleeting feel to it, but the sourness lingers in the mouth after you drink it. The sixth infusion was really light, so this tea is dead already. I let my cup of tea cool some while I waited for the water to boil, in which I found the cooling let some sweetness pop out. Strangely, this is the best infusion as it is less watery. I tried for a 7th infusion power steeped and it was like drinking stewed greens and aspirin.
Gut rot level is moderately high and I started feeling it on the 4th infusion. I feel my stomach regretting what I was doing, but it mostly is entering hangry for greasy cheesy carbs… Kraft macaroni and cheese sounds pretty dang good. By the 7th infusion, I needed that bitter flavor out of my mouth and I needed food STAT or there will be pain.
Five Week Rest Tasting
I took time away to let the Bitter End Lite brick rest, about 5 weeks open air. If you want to get technical, this room is my tea room which was rocking 65-75F/24c 18-temperature with 60-75% humidity. 5 weeks was enough time to forget how much of a PITA Bitter End Lite is to break. It is a solid piece of tea, with little to grab onto. This brick needs a saw, chisel, and hammer to pinch pieces off or rage bashing on the counter with sharp knives.
The hot leaf smells like wafting pungent with brain tickles.
First and Second Infusion: Well, this is bitter pungent sour. Bitter End Lite is in your face in the first cup, but quickly I get used to it. The sip is smoothly light, a bit like sour pineapples, but the sip grows strong, bitter, and pungent.
Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Infusion: Bitter End is thickly texture, and the bitterness is like I’m gargling medicine. It sips in soft, but it quickly is a sharp tea of concentrated underripe pineapple, medicinal bitter, and sour grapefruit. With each infusion, the soft start is shortened, but I love the thick creamy texture and the slick lip feel. Give it a minute after each sip and you get a white grapefruit aftertaste.
Seventh and Eight Infusion: Bitter End Lite just got lighter in flavor and lost the face punching bitter, going to more sweet and sour rocks, so it is time for the power steep.
Ninth and Tenth Infusion: I power steeped Bitter End Lite for 10-20 minutes. It is wow momma sour bitter grapefruit. It isn’t unpleasantly bitter and the dryness is starting to feel weird on my teeth. Leave it a few minutes and the dryness travels down the throat. I wanted to salt it. Yes, I was raised on salting my grapefruit.
Gut Rot level was moderate. I wanted salty greasy food this time which only kicked in on the final infusions.
Comments
Regarding Bitter End Lite
Bitter End Lite is a great buy. You can’t beat a $20 something Lao Man E that is pleasant as bitter bitter teas go. It is horrible to break tea off, as with Huang Pian are, so I will be throwing my brick into the back of my pumidor hoping age will brittle it. It is a solid heavy mass of tea that you can probably beat someone over the head with it. You do not want to be chipping away at this tea as is, go in with the hammer/saw if you are ready to drink it all. Bitter End Lite is Lao Man E, it is not for the faint of heart – the people who want this tea are going in knowing it is bitter death hell and this one is just a teaser as Bitter Leaf Teas have 2 more levels of bitter hell available. I will be reviewing The Bitter End and The Bitter End Xtra in the future. As a teaser, my pick is The Bitter End between the 3 LME teas.
Regarding the Difference Between Respite and 5 Week Rest
First off, there is no control for here was whether the shipping or youth was the bigger culprit in the flavor change. I got more infusions with the 5 Week Rest but also a sharper and more interesting flavor. It bitterness seemed less bad too, grapefruit bitter vs. chewing on an aspirin bad. I enjoyed the rested tea much more, it was less harsh, had a thicker texture and body. The no respite tea was quite watery and not as complexly flavored. It felt like I under leafed the first session but also over steeped it.
Flavor changes in puer make my job as a tea writer hard. I rather just have waited 6 months or so to review stuff and make my own judgment, but the pressure is on from readers and sellers. You guys wanna know where to spend your money before stuff sells out and tea sellers want the review fast so they can make said money. However, the tea rapidly changes so as readers you should consider when the reviewer wrote their tasting and whether they let it rest.
That said, LET YOUR TEA REST before making a final judgment on it. Every puer seller likely has a story of a buyer upset their tea wasn’t good but changed their mind in a month.
