I did get lazy and stop logging the RH, but it has leveled out and is staying consistently between 68% and 71%RH. This could be a result of the tea having absorbed it's proper amount of moisture. This could also stem from my not opening it every couple hours to check the humidity, like I was doing before. Lastly, it could be from having a greater volume of water, which I don't think is the case because all the vesicles holding the water still have the same surface area as before.
I've been swapping out water every two weeks, cleaning the dishes with soap, and rinsing them very well before putting them back in. The cleaning is keeping the water from growing any mold, and the hefty rinsing is to keep all the odor of the soap away from the tea. I've been striving to keep the cabinet clean. This means washing hands before handling all puerh so as not to contaminate them.
I acted on commenter Stephane's advice, who suggested that I store a chunk of the puerh on a nearby shelf. Down the road, this will hopefully determine differences between the two storages. The victim of this experiment is a 2004 Xiaguan tuocha that I picked up from Puerhshop last fall.
I wrapped the pieces in tissue paper to best keep all other storage aspects identical.
I decided to chop a chunk off of one of my purple leaf cakes. This, I thought, was a good idea because purple leaf puerh is fairly new to the market, so it's aging process is widely unknown. SO in the interest of scientific advancement....
I broke my knife. Damn. Next puerhshop order, I'll snatch the Pu-erh Sacrificial Death Knife. For now, I'll have to find a replacement. I still managed to get a chunk of purple out. This new experiment box has gone onto the top shelf, just above the pu-erh chamber. It now contains 1 Chunk 2007 Purple Leaf, 1 Chunk 2004 Xiaguan, and 1 mini-tuocha for good spirits. Some time after this picture, the humidity is reading at 52%, and still dropping.
I must admit that my hygrometer might be reading a bit low. I performed a shifty experiment that is supposed to determine how far off the mark a hygrometer is, and mine read 8%RH below. Well, I don't think this is saying much yet as there are too many factors that could have resulted in this bad reading. I'll try it a few more times and see how it goes.
Now that experiment is in order. I want to show you my other invention for puerh drinkers.
That's it. A can to collect pu-erh leaves. Please, save the Lemelson-MIT award, really. ...Ah, the meaning of the can. Well, there were too many times when I was done breaking up some puerh, and had a smathering of crumblings and dust left over. I also found that after I finished my samples, I would be left with a few chunks which weren't enough to make a pot. I decided to stop throwing them out the window, and to collect them. JF is doing something similar, I believe he's wet-storing them. These are going to stay dry (well, in my enlosure). This will probably benefit my other teas in one way. That is, when I finish an expensive aged puerh sample, I can keep some crumblings in this can. I hope this will serve to more quickly introduce all the friendly bacteria that develops on puerh over time.
Check back in a few years to see how things are developing!
3 comments:
Despite having a spammer as your first post, this was a great update. Thanks.
Wow how did you manage to break a metal puerh knife on a cake? The only knife that I've broken was a cheap bamboo one, but good choice with your replacement as I have one and I am very pleased with how well it works.
I think the work you have done is great. We really need more research on Puerhs.
Understanding aging. I want to discuss the things we should consider when aging puerhs by first looking at aging a totaling different tea, oolong teas. If you are aging oolongs you need to make sure the moisture level around 3%, and then sealed and put away, in average home living temperatures, no air and no light. Now puerhs are another breed they need about 12%. Most of my puerhs stay wrapped in calligraphy cotton paper and keep green puerhs with black puerhs away from each other. Because the teas are different in composition, black puerhs are piled (1week to over a month) again depending on the macro and micro environments, the post fermentation pile is kept under 60 degree Celsius (°C) degrees [140'F] by rotating and churning the pile which is about a meter high and long as the piling room, leaves need some added water (sprinkle not flood) and after the entire black puerh processing then are packaged and can be sold. When you buy and take the black puerhs home and want to store/age them in an area, remember to keep the blacks from the greens ...... green puerhs which are non-piled puerhs both can be aged so you can have young black puerh and aged black puerh, and the same logic follows for the greens, young green puerh can be kept with aged green puerh. Ideally only the same age/type/quality/variety should be kept together; but that’s too complicated. For the average collector just have two places one for greens and one for blacks. Many people are now calling a “puerh tea” any post fermented tea that come not only from Puerh city but all of Yunnan as well. On your storage, cardboard is fine and breathable, even though I like untreated bamboo baskets, and covered with cotton paper to keep dust out. I agree with the water but you should first let it de-gas to let the chlorine come out, also that plastic on the cardboard is great for keeping in the humidity but terrible on the breathability of the puerhs, if no air, the puerhs can die or not oxidize/ferment.
this is some more info...
http://teaarts.blogspot.com/2008/07/puer-teas.html
http://teaarts.blogspot.com/
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