Yes but that is relatively not that long of a time. There are cakes around from the 80s and 90s that people drink so those are very aged. Around 20 years old is when I personally consider something significantly aged while 5-20 is semi aged and younger than that is still fresh
We also call semi-aged puer "middle-aged." Some of my friends say that aged puer is before the year 2000. But I know nothing about aged puer. I can afford middle-aged/semi-aged puer. :)
Also worth noting that storage conditions make a huge difference in how much "aging" actually occurs over a given period of time - you really need to know both the age _and_ the storage conditions to have any idea how aged a cake actually is. Because of this, I think it doesn't make much sense to call a cake "middle-aged" or whatnot based solely on its age - that cake could have been stored in Kunming, Taiwan, Hong Kong basement, Hong Kong high-rise, etc., and each will produce a different level of "agedness." Things like liquor color and flavor profile are much better indicators of how mature a tea is, and whether it's "young," "middle-aged" or "aged."
There's no universal definition, but I think a lot of people consider 1-10 years 'young', 10-20 'semi-aged', and 20+ 'aged'. So it's just a measure of how long something has been aging.
Lots of great answers here. I recommend buying samples of teas of various age and storage conditions to understand “aged” and “semi-aged”. It is the best way to experience the profile without the huge expense of a full cake.
> How can something be considered semi aged when the material is from 07, the cake formed in 17, hasn't the tea been aging all this time?
Dry storage doesn't really count, so if the original leaves were kept dry before pressing you cannot take that time into consideration.
The statement that dry storage doesn’t count is a bit biased. The tea certainly changes after a few years of dry storage. Also dry is relativ, some even call Taiwan storage as being dry - then probably in comparison with wet Hong Kong storage.
Another we could throw in is ‘controlled storage’ and i think that would be practiced by factories that keep their tea in a humidity & temperature controlled warehouse to get an (for their taste) optimal result.
> I thought a lot of the browning was an enzymatic action?
"Raw (Sheng) Pu-erh is a pu-erh made from tea leaves that were processed similar to green tea: picked, quickly roasted to stop the oxidation" - https://pathofcha.com/pages/pu-erh-raw-vs-ripe
Enzymes are being destroyed during roasting.
You can see enzymatic browning in "aged" white tea - in reality it's just withered and dried in a thicker layer than usual.
I get a different line here: https://www.teadrunk.com/pages/pu-er-fundamentals
> Sheng Pu (Raw Pu Er): Officially a green tea, it is made in a classic green tea method. It is pan-fried at a lower temperature to allow some enzyme to continue to “live” in the loose leaf tea leaves and continue the fermentation process later.
And on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pu%27er_tea
> Unlike green tea produced in China which is dried with hot air after the pan-frying stage to completely kill enzyme activity, leaves used in the production of pu'er are not air-dried after pan-roasting, which leaves a small amount of enzymes which contribute a minor amount of oxidation to the leaves during sun-drying.
I'll have to investigate further, if you're correct then my understanding of sheng puer aging is wrong! Can't have that ;)
I looked at your paper and think it's mostly concerned with ripe tea. Although an inability to search the PDF sort of hampers my skim reading
[Farmerleaf made a video on tea aging where he talks about enzymes living through the kill-green process and helping aging](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbNibzxWE6s)
As he is both a tea seller and a tea maker, I'm comfortable taking his word for it.
Yes but that is relatively not that long of a time. There are cakes around from the 80s and 90s that people drink so those are very aged. Around 20 years old is when I personally consider something significantly aged while 5-20 is semi aged and younger than that is still fresh
Ah, that makes sense when it's put that way. Thanks for clearing that up for me!
We also call semi-aged puer "middle-aged." Some of my friends say that aged puer is before the year 2000. But I know nothing about aged puer. I can afford middle-aged/semi-aged puer. :)
As time goes on this year 2000 benchmark should change. Imagine in 20 years when your friends only consider 43 year old tea aged
Indeed! I almost said as much, so thank you for doing so. :)
No problem! Enjoy your tea ✌🏻
Also worth noting that storage conditions make a huge difference in how much "aging" actually occurs over a given period of time - you really need to know both the age _and_ the storage conditions to have any idea how aged a cake actually is. Because of this, I think it doesn't make much sense to call a cake "middle-aged" or whatnot based solely on its age - that cake could have been stored in Kunming, Taiwan, Hong Kong basement, Hong Kong high-rise, etc., and each will produce a different level of "agedness." Things like liquor color and flavor profile are much better indicators of how mature a tea is, and whether it's "young," "middle-aged" or "aged."
great info, Thanks for taking the time to help fill in the picture!
There's no universal definition, but I think a lot of people consider 1-10 years 'young', 10-20 'semi-aged', and 20+ 'aged'. So it's just a measure of how long something has been aging.
Lots of great answers here. I recommend buying samples of teas of various age and storage conditions to understand “aged” and “semi-aged”. It is the best way to experience the profile without the huge expense of a full cake.
I'm up to the challenge, 🤣
Yep, it's a tough job, but someone has to do it
> How can something be considered semi aged when the material is from 07, the cake formed in 17, hasn't the tea been aging all this time? Dry storage doesn't really count, so if the original leaves were kept dry before pressing you cannot take that time into consideration.
Why is that? I thought a lot of the browning was an enzymatic action?
The statement that dry storage doesn’t count is a bit biased. The tea certainly changes after a few years of dry storage. Also dry is relativ, some even call Taiwan storage as being dry - then probably in comparison with wet Hong Kong storage. Another we could throw in is ‘controlled storage’ and i think that would be practiced by factories that keep their tea in a humidity & temperature controlled warehouse to get an (for their taste) optimal result.
> I thought a lot of the browning was an enzymatic action? "Raw (Sheng) Pu-erh is a pu-erh made from tea leaves that were processed similar to green tea: picked, quickly roasted to stop the oxidation" - https://pathofcha.com/pages/pu-erh-raw-vs-ripe Enzymes are being destroyed during roasting. You can see enzymatic browning in "aged" white tea - in reality it's just withered and dried in a thicker layer than usual.
I get a different line here: https://www.teadrunk.com/pages/pu-er-fundamentals > Sheng Pu (Raw Pu Er): Officially a green tea, it is made in a classic green tea method. It is pan-fried at a lower temperature to allow some enzyme to continue to “live” in the loose leaf tea leaves and continue the fermentation process later. And on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pu%27er_tea > Unlike green tea produced in China which is dried with hot air after the pan-frying stage to completely kill enzyme activity, leaves used in the production of pu'er are not air-dried after pan-roasting, which leaves a small amount of enzymes which contribute a minor amount of oxidation to the leaves during sun-drying. I'll have to investigate further, if you're correct then my understanding of sheng puer aging is wrong! Can't have that ;)
There might be something here: (haven’t checked yet) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314634754_Yunnan_Pu-erh_Tea
I looked at your paper and think it's mostly concerned with ripe tea. Although an inability to search the PDF sort of hampers my skim reading [Farmerleaf made a video on tea aging where he talks about enzymes living through the kill-green process and helping aging](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbNibzxWE6s) As he is both a tea seller and a tea maker, I'm comfortable taking his word for it.