Let's talk about ripe pu'erh

Interesting idea, but I haven’t heard of any. There are apparently some more lightly processed ripes out there, but I think the fermentation still takes it significantly past the 10-15 year mark. You may be interested in Yunnan Sourcing’s “Green Mark” ripe/raw, which is a blend of ripe and raw teas, which could yield an interesting experience. Also, I think their Green Miracle ripe puerh has a lighter processing, so it might hit the mark of what you are looking for. Unfortunately, I haven’t had either, so I can’t offer any taste comparison.

Still, neither of these fit what you are looking for, I think. It would be interesting if a ripe manufacturer experimented with it!

Yeah they put out a message with their sale on ripes, I ordered a cake of Green Miracle and Green mark! Ill put up tasting notes when they get here in about a month.

You may try Lao Cha or as they are called ‘Old Tea Head.’ They are nuggets from the process of making shou that have all the pectin in. They clump together and then they are unable to be separated for the steaming process of making cakes and bricks. They usually contain a few different years productions in them.

Aged ripe does not taste that much like aged raw in my opinion.

> Ripe pu’erh is trying to imitate 30 year old traditional stored pu’erh

Not sure I really agree with that. Ripe puer and traditional-stored raw are similar in that both can make black-dense soup from short infusions, at least at first, but there the similarity ends. Though I suppose if you stored the ripe in a damp tropical basement for a year or so, then let it air out for a bit, the likeness might be more convincing.

Anyway, I have heard talk of different “levels of fermentation,” or basically controlling how long the leaf composts, and how ripes that aren’t so heavily composted have more potential for changing with age, which sort of makes sense.

I find that I have reached my limits with Raw young pu. And now my body only accepts sheng with at least 10 years and if those 10 are in higher humidity..all the better.
I’ve been getting into shou and I really want to try the YS Purple ripe. I do really like the flavor of purple teas and hope that it’s strong flavor profile will come through.
On notes about the Green Miracle, I do like it, and as it has been resting for 6 months in my relatively high RH. It has started to show a slight sweetness, overall I think it is smooth and it is gentle on my body.
As for ripe imitating age, according to a study I read on PLOS. The compounds collected (bacteria and fungi) from both were very similar but there was about a 7-10% variation. I always believe natural w/ time is the best recipe so I will continue to collect young sheng so enjoy when I am an old man.

Sources:
http://yunnansourcing.com/en/2015-yunnan-sourcing-pu-erh-teas/3533-2015-yunnan-sourcing-green-miracle-wild-arbor-ripe-pu-erh-tea.html
http://yunnansourcing.com/en/search?controller=search&orderby=position&orderway=desc&search_query=purple+ripe&submit_search=Search
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0157847