Start drinking Pu'er with ripe Tea, because it's easy to enjoy, especially some of the traditional old tea heads, which are smooth and sweet, very delicious, though they lack a lingering aftertaste. As you continue drinking, you begin to try raw tea, and you'll find that every time you drink raw tea, it's a different experience.
Pu'er tea enthusiasts are mostly cultivated through their immersion in tea; they love Pu'er for its unpredictability, the observable changes over time; they love Pu'er because they can, after storing it for N years, take out a Cake of tea and tell friends, “I've stored this tea for a few years,” the distance of time is as shallow as a glance, within a few years… it feels like sitting across from each other.
During tea competitions, someone asks: Why do people choose to drink Pu'er? There are many answers, ranging widely. Some say Pu'er has a strong character, others say it has good Health benefits, while others praise its lingering taste, and so on, the list goes on.
Drinking Pu'er tea
The first incurable condition:
Is the habit of traveling to tea mountains to select new teas for personal storage. New teas appear every year, and no one knows if they will improve in the future, it's all about taking a gamble. Every year, people buy new teas in dribs and drabs, gradually building up their private tea storages.
What will happen to these teas in the future is unclear. But people still have the mentality of “better to err on the side of caution than miss out.”
The second incurable condition:
Is missing opportunities to buy good teas at low prices, only to purchase them later at several times or even ten times the original price.
Many tea enthusiasts lament, “That tea used to cost so little, but now it's so expensive.” This is a common phrase heard during tea gatherings.
Drinking Pu'er tea
The third incurable condition:
Is the continuous buying and storing of tea. Honestly, you already have plenty of tea, but you still keep buying more. When you encounter good tea, you often struggle to control your spending. When you find tea you like, you simply pay with a credit card.
Drinking Pu'er tea
Syndrome:
Many tea enthusiasts have experienced this: every time they bring tea home, family members ask why they keep buying more when they already have enough to last a lifetime. However, upon closer reflection, they realize that there are many teas they are reluctant to drink.
This is a strange phenomenon. A friend mentioned that he would open any other tea, such as Tieguanyin, regardless of how expensive it is, costing thousands or even tens of thousands per pound, without hesitation. Yet, with Pu'er, he often hesitates to open it.
Do you often hesitate before opening a new cake of tea, feeling like once opened, it's gone, and you feel a sense of reluctance?
Why is that? Because many teas were stored by you, and the thought of drinking them makes you genuinely hesitant, especially those with limited quantities.
Pu'er enthusiasts have a certain mindset: after great effort, they buy a cake or a bundle of good tea, but then are unwilling to drink it. Digging deeper, there's a feeling of wanting to show a particular tea to fellow enthusiasts and say, “I have this tea, you don't, hehe!”
Another mindset is seeing other enthusiasts with a specific good tea and going to great lengths to acquire some, just to say, “I also have this tea,” but that tea is often also too precious to drink.
As their tea storages grow, their sense of satisfaction increases, but the number of teas they're reluctant to drink also grows. They open new teas without hesitation, but after several years, when those new teas become aged, they become reluctant to drink them. Consequently, the amount of tea increases, as does the number of teas they're unwilling to drink.
Based on these mindsets, you might think, “I'll buy one or two cakes of new tea, but I won't want to drink them, so I might as well buy one or two bundles.” After a few years, you realize that even with one or two bundles, you're still reluctant to drink them, and you might not even want to break down the original Bamboo wrappings! So, you decide to buy entire cases, thinking that having more means you won't be as reluctant to drink them.
As a result, enthusiasts who started with one or two cakes slowly upgrade to one or two bundles, and then again to entire cases. Even as case enthusiasts, they still struggle, thinking, “With so much tea, I can't possibly drink it all myself, even the best tea will get boring after an entire case.” At this point, you exchange these teas with fellow enthusiasts for other teas. After trading, you find that the quantity of each tea is still limited, typically only one or two bundles, and you remain reluctant to open them.
Finally, you reconsider and decide that tea is meant to be drunk, so you gather the courage to open a cake and drink it. After one serving, you think, “How satisfying! This tea will definitely be better after further aging,” so you store it away again.
Sometimes, when fellow enthusiasts visit, you readily take out your treasured teas and open them to drink, telling them how long you've stored them. If your friends compliment your tea, you feel incredibly pleased, but if they criticize it, you inwardly complain that they don't appreciate its quality!
More often, during gatherings with fellow enthusiasts, you readily take out a cake of good tea and open it to share with everyone. If the fellow enthusiasts enjoy it, you generously give them some of the tea as a gift, feeling particularly happy.
Looking back, you see that many of the teas in your storage are ones you're reluctant to drink, but you're actually willing to share them. After all, storing tea is not just for personal consumption but also for sharing with fellow enthusiasts, embodying the spirit of Pu'er drinking – the joy of sharing rather than hoarding!
