Newbie Puer question, old versus new

[JacksonChar]

A friend gave me some puer tea and they told me it is from the late 1990's. It is a raw tea. I only have had younger raw teas until now, so this one was very different. It tasted much smoother and tasted a little bit like mold, he said that is because it was in Hong Kong before. Ok, so that is the background, here is the question! When I tasted it, it tasted like ripe puer tea to me, and the leaves looked like ripe puer tea to me too. What do the steeped leaves of older and raw puer look like? Can someone explain this to me!!

And i forgot to say, the color of the soup was very dark! I did not expect that, i thought it would just be orange, but it was brown/red

[thanks]

Hong Kong teas are usually exposed to more humidity than most other areas, and therefore age "faster" than they would in a drier climate such as Kunming. This isn't a bad thing, per se, but it usually loses a lot of subtle nuances in sacrifice for a smoother, darker tea. The result of this is a characteristic wet storage taste which could be perceived as moldy. Wet cellar floors, old books, a pile of fall leaves, forest floor, etc. I would expect a Hong Kong stored tea from the late 90's to fit your description. The leaves would probably look like a lightly fermented shu.

As far as telling you what steeped leaves of older raw puer should look like, I'm afraid that it is something that kind of comes with experience. I have teas that have been in only my possession since being produced from the same year that look a little different from each other. I'm only talking about teas that are six years old as well. There seem to be many variables that go into what the spent leaves should look like after certain periods of time.