How old is "aged" sheng?
I am trying to bone up on my pu-erh knowledge. I’ve seen some discussion of this topic at least tangentially before. But, to whine for a moment, I am finding the search engine on Steepster harder and harder to use the more threads accumulate on the boards. This is how I justify asking a question that may have been asked before.
I’ve googled this, and I can’t really find a definitive answer. Some sites seem to say that anything over three years is aged. Others seem to draw the line at 10. Still others say it’s 20.
I’m not sure it really matters all that much where you draw the line, but maybe it does? The reason I’m asking is because I’m deep into a yixing pot seasoning project and I’ve read that some people have one pot for young sheng and another for aged sheng. I just seasoned a pot with sheng from 2005, thinking that was old enough to be considered aged. But then I read something that said maybe it wasn’t.
If I wanted to have an old/young division, would ten years be old or young? Or on the fence? (So confused.)
Thanks!
2-5 years young, 5-10 middle aged , 10+ aged, anything over antique. Still drinkable in all states. Age of course will depend a lot on storage. Wet stored will age much quicker than dry stored. Maocha ages faster than pressed teas.
Ah ok, so it sounds like my 10 year old is sort of on the border and could go either direction. I don’t think I have anything older. At least I didn’t find anything with an older date on a cursory pass through my stash. Pretty sure none of mine have ever been wet stored.
OK, I just noticed that I really used a 2004 — I just had it in my head that I used at 2005 because I have a lot more of those. LOL. It was the oldest I could find in my stash. So it is 10+ but obviously not 20.
I was just trying to figure out the distinction between aged and antique, it sounds like they are the same thing?
I have 10yrs old sheng that is dry stored and highly compressed. It tastes like 2-3 yrs old. Depends on a storage too, not by age. Wet stored taste aged. The color of soup is bronze or even red but they could be 8-10 yrs old. If you trying to separate yixing pots, try it first In Gaiwan. Then see where it belongs
I agree with this – I always try a tea first in a gaiwan or ceramic pot. Nothing goes into one of my yixing pots until I’ve tried it – then you know which pot it belongs in, or if it’s not good then it might not belong in any of them.
They are your pots and you should do what ever works for you, but age doesn’t always define taste….JMHO :))
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