KeithA wrote: ↑Mon Nov 13, 2017 1:55 am
I never could warm up to ripe. It may be that I just haven't found the right one. Actually, I am sure there is some ripe out there that I would like. I just love that raw complexity. I buy cakes like I buy wine...I like that middle price range. I have a brick of "Tibetan" ripe pu erh at the Zen Center. I have to be careful not to drink to close to practice, as it is very energizing!
Agreed on the middle price range! I've not spent more than $40 on a cake (I don't think), and I've had some really excellent affordable cakes, even aged. Yunnan Source releases a cake every year at a very good price-point -- I recently just finished off a 2011 cake of their annual ripe (I forget its name), and I think it was only like $9 to $11 or something along those lines.
And ripes can get quite complex too! They just don't change in profile as dramatically over time, I've found. What changes for ripes over the course of aging is the body thickness of the liquor. A 2016 ripe will still brew dark, but it's also.. "clear", if that makes sense? Under light, it becomes a brilliant amber. An older ripe will get thicker, block out more light, and the mouth-feel changes significantly. (Actually, this is the one thing I think is true of both raw and ripe: the mouth-feel becoming thicker as the tea ages.) But the flavor, I agree, is not going to change very much from year to year, especially compared to a raw.
So... I ended up drinking a ripe over the weekend anyhow. I want to see these older raws transform a bit more, I think. But I also have this huge cake of Burmese puerh-style tea I got from What-cha. I should try that while it's still sorta young (2014); it's probably going to enter the 'awkward' phase next year.