Love and hate are not opposites. They are two sides of the same coin and something that at first may be offputting can become a passion.
This tends to be the way with Ripe or Cooked PuErh (Shu or Shou Cha).
But let's first make sure that the tea is good quality. If you brew up some Ripe PuErh and the wet leaves smell like dried squid or fish then you may have some badly made tea on your hands and there is a lot of bad Ripe PuErh out there. It may be that the tea was made quite recently or stored poorly so let's give it a chance. Give the tea a good rinse (maybe two) and then smell the leaves. If the smell comes from youth or storage then it should smell clean and cavernous. Still fishy? Then throw it out pronto.
The fishy smell comes from the wrong kinds of microorganisms developing during the ripening process. Unfortunately there is so much of this cheap tea out there and this is most people's first experience of Ripe PuErh (and usually their last unless they are curious to try others).
A good Ripe PuErh smells and tastes like wet caverns, cellars and attics. They can be spicy, antique wood or wet, humid forests. They are autumnal and aged tasting and they can be sweet with dried fruits.
There is really nothing like a good Ripe PuErh, they are the most cleansing and digestif tea in the world and we love them. But we know many people who turn their nose when they first sip that dark black red brew - it reminds them of their Grandmother's old house. To those people I say, keep sipping and I know that many will be become hooked once that hate flips over to love.
