From the many years … decades that I have been drinking puerh tea I have formed a strong belief that one of most powerful practice for a tea enthusiast is comparative tea drinking. In repetition and under the right context, comparative tea drinking develops a person’s senses to pick out hidden characteristics and subtle nuances, opening opportunities to more wide-ranging experiences that allow the drinker to gain new perspectives and deeper insights into tea. That said one common mistake I see being made by newcomers is in assuming that teas within close proximity of age are equal in maturity. It is a very wrong assumption that will muddle and confuse your perception of age tea.
Let us look at 2 age teas of 20 years. The 1st tea is mellow with a mild sweetness, exhibiting easy drinking characteristics. The 2nd tea is raw and bitter, retaining rough characteristics with a dense and rigid/tight mouthfeel. Faced with such polar opposites most newcomers would assume the tea with the more welcoming traits imply higher quality. In the world of puerh tea such a simple observation only scratches the surface of the multi layered and complex associations interwoven within age tea. For puerh tea, pleasant and approachable traits are not assurances for quality nor does rough and bitter equate to a bad tea. Looking beyond such illusions through experience eyes the core issue is the level of maturity to be found in both teas. Despite being the same age at 20 years, the 2 tea are at very different points in their respective maturity. In part production, alongside the effects of differing storage conditions the 1st tea has reached 80% in maturity whilst the 2nd tea exhibits only 20% development in maturity. Such a gap equates to eating and comparing a hard green banana to a ripe banana that has softened and turned yellow. The example of the green banana helps to highlight the raw and unpleasant trait that exists at the state of being unripe. Individuals who can draw on the memory of eating and chewing on an unripe green banana ... it is this very comprehension that allows us to better understand the transformative stage within the process of ageing. The ripening of raw puerh tea towards reaching its own maturity follows a similiar path albeit over a much longer period of time. Being able to gauge the maturity of a tea beyond the age presented in numbers is an advanced skill that will elevate your understanding and ability to assess age tea.
