tea/tè

TeaHouse
Teance, 1780 Fourth St., Berkeley, CA 94710
Asha, 2086 University Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704
Hidden Peak, 1541-C Pacific Ave. Santa Cruz, CA 95060


Online Tea Shops
Hidden Peak
Yunnan Sourcing
Rabbit’s Moon Tea

 

About Pu-Erh
I found Pu-Erh the most ceremonial tea that can take you to a different state of consciousness. When you drink it in the evening it helps you with dream yoga, or simply it allows your dreams to reveal information that you need or you are ready to embrace. Of course it is a journey and, as such, only you can allow the ‘spirit’ to guide you.

Few words of wisdom from  Cornelius Boots, the most refined and knowledgeable connoisseur I know of the pu-erh tradition.
“Shou (also called cooked) is the name of the type that brews darker, that most of us first discovered as being “pu-erh” and it is by far the type that I love and drink. It is post-fermented in a method like composting and makes the rich macrobiotic feast within the tea.  Unfortunately, when this is done badly or with bad materials or stored badly afterwards, it is far far worse than regular tea that is “bad” in my opinion.  So many many many many of these shou pu-erh that people I meet talk about and drink are undrinkable for me. I can tell after the rinse of the leaves, 90% of the time I don’t even drink it now.  But the best kinds, are very good! Amazing…
Sheng is the type that brews clearer or greenish, seems more like bizarre green tea and is call “raw”.  This is actually the original way of creating pu-erh, it is the same idea of post-fermentation, but done in a natural slow time frame, such that if it does brew dark, that means it has been aged like this over 20 or 30 years, and will also be very expensive if it is good.  Originally, often this was done inside a bamboo tube buried in the ground. Dig it up 20 years later and boom!
People who need more fire like this tea, people who need more earth (ayurvedically) needs the shou. That’s oversimplified but true a lot of the time. A few rare people like both types equally, but they are very different flavors and experiences.”

Read more here about the difference between Shou and Sheng tea.

Cornelius favorite Pu-Erh
Unblended Brick 2006 (shou)
~ Trinity
~ Big Blessing 2008 (shou)
~ 7572 2007 (shou)