How to distinguish between the warehouse flavor and the aged flavor of Pu'er tea?

YuanJia131

For tea enthusiasts new to ripe Pu'er tea, the aroma of ripe Pu'er can be described in various ways: some call it "storage flavor," others "aged flavor," and some "pile flavor." While these three terms share similarities and may easily be confused, they are not the same—differences between them are quite significant.
1. Warehouse Flavor Classification:
1. Moistened tea, musty flavor (Actually, this cannot be classified as warehouse flavor, though it may sometimes be difficult to distinguish from poor drinking quality).
2. Moisture and Dampness Flavor: Unlike the dry-warehouse aging flavor.
3. Moldy Warehouse Flavor: The flavor of moldy and returned goods. After mold growth, when stored in a dry warehouse for several years, the mold is completely oxidized and decomposed, resulting in no undesirable tastes such as astringency or throat locking.

II. The aged flavor in dry warehouses also comes in several types, and distinguishing them is quite complex
1. Excessively dry aged tea exhibits a stale taste, characterized by the oxidized and charred stale dust flavor on the surface of the tea leaves, which some also refer to as "dead tea.".
2. Naturally aged and mellowed, always stored within an appropriate temperature and humidity range, achieving natural aging, richness, and purity.
3. With slight humidity, early storage moisture absorption or compressed cake moisture content may lead to the development of aged, mellow flavors over a few years, while maintaining a clean tea base.
3. The flavor of ripe tea, sometimes mistaken for a stale taste, differs from warehouse or dry-warehouse aging flavors.
The difference between warehouse flavor and dry warehouse aging lies in the richness. Richness plus depth is naturally the best. Tea with warehouse flavor is mostly not rich, let alone deep, especially in the first few infusions. However, warehouse-flavored tea tends to develop plum-like aromas.
Properly stored Pu'er tea does not have a "warehouse flavor." The dry-warehouse aged Pu'er is renowned for its "bright, mellow, smooth, sweet, pure, and aromatic" characteristics, with a rich natural camphor aroma. Its color, fragrance, and taste encompass the entire cold fermentation process of Pu'er tea, achieving the realms of "the older, the more fragrant" and "the flavor beyond flavor.".