The Gushu Puerh Conundrum

2019 loose raw gushu puerh from Lancang

Teas differ in intensity of taste. The lightest teas are the least oxidized: green and white tea. In the middle, we have Oolongs, which are naturally sweet and therefore can be brewed more concentrated without tasting bad. And the most powerful of all teas is sheng old arbor puerh! These leaves grow wild at high elevations and are by nature full of flavors. This different degree of taste explains why many green tea drinkers feel that puerh is too aggressive to their taste, and why many puerh drinkers feel that white/green tea tastes weak like scented water.

For that reason, and I generalize a little bit here, puerh drinkers will also tend to brew their teas with more and more leaves, because they are particularly enjoying the punch, the kick in the (taste)buds! Bitterness isn't feared, but expected and ridden like a mighty dragon jumping on the tongue.

The paradox with gushu puerh, especially single origin -not blended-, is that its beauty isn't simply more power. After all, power is rather easy to obtain: more leaves and/or longer brewing time and the result is more concentrated flavors. No, the beauty of a gushu puerh (= tree that is over 100 years old) is its purity and thickness in scent and taste, even when brewed lightly! Or I should even say especially when it's brewed lightly. Because that's when you can experience the amazing purity and long aftertaste of a tea that should be light. Any other tea brewed with so few leaves would have little taste.

And it's not just the taste that is thick, coats the palate, evolves from bitter to sweet and feels very pure, natural. By reducing the power, you are taming the wild beast. Everything feels more relaxed, less aggressive, clean and pure. Instead of a rock concert, it feels like the solo piano of Ludovico Einaudi in Seven Days Walking.

This is gushu puerh conundrum: many tea lovers drink it for its immense power (a tea friend told me once that he got so tea drunk on one occasion that he felt physically ill) and thereby they are missing its other, even more amazing quality, IMO, its purity and deep finesse! A good example of such a gushu puerh is this loose sheng puerh from 300+ years old trees from Lancang from spring 2019. It's the puerh I'm having in this zhuni teapot! And it's amazing!