I will say that I am not entirely serious about the title of this post, although it is somewhat amazing. Today when I was searching for a tea I wanted to drink I came upon an amazing realization. I have 3 cloth boxes underneath my "tea table" which are separated into the following categories Korean and Japanese, Non-puerh Chinese, and Puerh. Which I think is a nice organization system, although opening the boxes tells an interesting story.
The Japanese and Korean box looks incredibly empty, as most of those teas are green teas which are mostly out of season.
The Non-Puerh Chinese box at least looks less empty, but over half the tea in the box are teas which I am running "aging" experiments on, although I am less enthused about these than when I started them and am considering no longer having them set aside for aging.
The Puerh box is what honestly concerns me the most. I rarely feel in the mood to drink puerh anywhere near as often as I wish to drink teas out of the other boxes, but the puerh box is completely stuffed. This is especially shocking considering I have placed far fewer puerh orders than orders for any other type of tea, and it all goes back to what I call the "puerh mindset." The "mindset" is seemingly the very convincing cartoon devil standing on your shoulder when you are placing a puerh order. It whispers sweet things in your ear such as "a lot of people likes these cakes, so you will to, so why sample first, when the cake is a little of double the price of the sample?" Along with the one that seems to really infect people new to puerh, and I know I was guilty of it: "Buy more than one, so you can see how it ages, and you know it will age into something great, as all aged puerh is great."
The thing is I know it is not just me that has become jaded towards the puerh mindset. I may change my mind about the puerh mindset later in life, should I ever get a spot that I feel would be suitable to store puerh for the long term, but even then certain things will probably still be true. As much as I enjoy puerh from time to time, I consider aged puerh, young puerh, and everything in between much the same way I view Green TGY. That is I can tell when I am drinking a good one or a bad one, but it is not a tea I want to drink often.
After realizing that at the rate at which I am drinking the puerh I currently have on hand it would likely last me at least half way to 2020 likely further, I am actually a bit concerned. So not that I have ever directly believed in new years resolutions but we are getting closer to Jan 1st, that I might think a tea related one might be to have at least one session of young puerh a week, just so I can reduce my supply at a much quicker pace.
2 comments:
Accumulating Puerh is probably a relatively harmless vice in the big picture. =)
It is in the long run harmless, though, I feel bad having as much as I have, when I drink it as seldom as I do.
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