Dayi 250g Cooked brick April 1994

One of the lost puerh tucked away inside a tin box. No big fan of Dayi, almost like drinking a Mondavi's house Merlot, meanwhile you know they also make Opus. But sometimes I just want to enjoy something simple or less poetic, when deadlines and challenging design solutions start to pile up.



Perhaps the reason I picked this up was the blooms covering the brick. As you can see, it also blossomed on my '94 Monte 4.
The surface of the cake still looks oily with nice shine, and that's the way I like my aging to be.


Cloudy afternoon, around 85% humidity, and temp in low 70s. 6 grams with 150 ml pot. Boiling water flash rinsed twice, and rest for 2 mins.
1st brew 5s. Clear, dark amber, aroma of 70% coco dark chocolate with dried wood. No chew even though the soup look dense and oily. Very nondescript and mild. Deep water throatiness all the way to chest level.

2nd brew, push 20s. Cold semi-sweet chocolate right out of the fridge, the sweetness is not detectable, but you know it's there!? Clean, light and refreshing. Hint of balanced bitterness paring with woody maple. No qi at all but good quenchless.

3rd brew, pushed even harder, since I am only using 6g with 150ml water. Rich maple syrup front and finishing with coco aftertaste.... is this a puerh?
Comfortable and familiar effects, besides the cold chocolate part. Overall easy and single dimensional. A good during lunch dim-sum tea.

reference: cigarfan.wordpress.com

A view of Aging Cigar by Min Ron Nee. Part 3 of 3

At this point, hope you are enjoying or at least learning something new from these posts about the similarity of aging tea and cigar. I do want to point out that all of these experiences are very much personal, and there is no right or wrong in doing what you think is good... just the result and consequence of anyone's choice. For me, I prefer to take the action of practicing them, rather than blind googling or listening to vendors or "masters' online. That's the reason I started this blog to begin with.

There are some interesting things about learning both 'hobbies', just looking at these jars shown above and the concept behind it and then comparing to Tea Jar that we use for storing puerh, Strong Coincidence?

Speaking of Coincidences, I have been fortunate enough to meet up with like-minded aficionados by random accident. I was filled with joy and excitement this morning when I received a mail from Mr. Nino who had the pleasure to meet with Min Ron Nee twice!! So I break out this Double Coronas Partagas and kick back on a Thursday afternoon..... Enjoy!

A view of Aging Cigar by Min Ron Nee. Part 2 of 3

If one of the World's most respected cigar collectors wrote about the link between aging Habanos and Puerh, there are much wisdom to learn from....

First, on the previous post where the author mentioned in interesting note (blue):
Do cigars need to breath while aging? Applying the same idea to aging puerh, I found those in which I open storage with good ventilation for the new - 2 yrs old bings. The darken color (fever) marks were obvious. After the first couple of years, the tea oil shine on the surface dried up and became matte. Moreover, the floral notes were flattened and its character/aftertaste were less complex than those I refined storage. So if I want to drink young puerh in 5 years and prefer a bit more 'aged' character, I might want to open storage it. But if I am going for the mandarin's style... I would not give up any of my 'granny powder' for any shortcuts.

The funny thing is, once you know the difference, it's easy to tell. And there is no way someone could hide the false and reverse what's been done to the tea. Any thoughts?


My rose, talc cosmetic nub that started it all....

A view of Aging Cigar by Min Ron Nee. Part 1 of 3

Just finished a Monte 2 from 2002. An the mysterious 'Granny face powder' showed herself in the third stage.... the same character of a Nannuo. As Salsero pointed out on teachat regarding the same encounter: "...Bill had a very strong impression from his childhood of the aroma of Granny Face Powder which he remembers as a flour-like Coty powder that could fill a room it was so light. For a while he thought he detected some of that aroma, but it was only one of so many fleeting smells and tastes that we were pretty bowled over by the tea and after losing track of the number of infusions (all quite short) we were too tea drunk to continue...."

I would like to share a dialog with cigar enthusiasts and pureh aficionados based on some personal experiences and facts, regarding these two subjects on aging Cigar and tea and how they changes the profile in the coming posts.

source and credit to Mr. Min Ron's An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars