Arbor teas recommending a 5-10 minute brew time for their pu-erhs

nothing against them but some real puerh gong fu style would probably be way better.

not sure who recommended , but we don’t drink pu-erh tea like that in Kunming. Maybe if tai di cha – bush tea or green tea , then yes. Because it’s not multi steeping tea. Arbor is. 4-6g into 100-120ml gaiwan if shu pu-erh , 6-8g if sheng , it’s ok. 1st infusion fast cleaning / soaking. Then following infusions around 5-10s , depends on tea leafs and how strong tea you like.Also depends if loose leaf or pressed , if pressed also depends if hard or soft pressed . U will see how fast leafs release the “juice” . The biggest mistake of beginners is to make strong tea. Sheng doesn’t have to be like dark yellow soup with astringency and bitterness that make your teeth squeak. Check some videos on Youtube how to brew in gaiwan.

The short steep-times are used when you have a lot of leaf in a very small steeping-vessel (gaiwan or a tiny pot). Whereas the 5-10 minutes they recommend is for a small amount of leaf in a much larger vessel (the 6-8oz cup recommended there).

Puerh, shu in particular as that’s all they carry (I believe) is not as astringent as black tea, so it’ll definitely come out much more muted with milk.

Puerh teas are classified into two types – ‘raw puerh’ (some people refer to this as green or semi-green puerh but these terms are not correct) and ‘cooked puerh’ (also sometimes known as finished or ripe puerh). Raw puerh is made by withering, pan-firing to kill the enzymes, rolling and kneading, then sun-drying for high quality leaf or air drying for less expensive teas. The then immediately be steamed and compressed into round cakes or flat rectangular slabs or it may be left loose. The tea is then allowed to mature for a year or more before being compressed. The maturation period allows a slow, natural fermentation in naturally warm and humid, well-ventilated conditions. Because of the water content in the tea and the oxygen in the air, the leaf slowly ferments (this really is fermentation and is different from the oxidation that takes place during the manufacture of black and oolong teas) and turns the leaf from green to red and then to dark brown. The loose or compressed teas are then aged for up to 50 years in conditions where humidity and temperature are carefully controlled to encourage the puerh to develop a mature, complex, earthy flavour and aroma. As the tea ages, the less astringent and bitter and the sweeter and smoother the flavour becomes.