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Well, I bought my last XZH in early feb of 2011...

Anyways, by the time I got started in 2010, the old teas worth having (for my buds) that I knew of were $300+. That takes a lot of confidence to buy when you didn't have much tea to start with. So the best "aged" taste tea I have is the 2003 Ji Pin Bulang.

In any event, premium old tree newer tea has gotten almost as scarce, and looking at the prices Sanhetang wants for their tea on their website, well, can't say I didn't get while the going was good and locked myself into plenty of future good drinks. I just wish I had as long to get comfortable in buying older tea. Closest I ever got was that XZH 80's shu-- $190 for, like 250g? of shu. Good shu full of wavy qi, but dang...

shah82 wrote: ... Anyways, by the time I got started in 2010, ...

You must learn very quickly about pu, from knowing virtually nothing to now in just 2 years. I bet you glue in font of the computer looking for every info about pu in every waking hours!

shah82 wrote:Well, I bought my last XZH in early feb of 2011...

Anyways, by the time I got started in 2010, the old teas worth having (for my buds) that I knew of were $300+. That takes a lot of confidence to buy when you didn't have much tea to start with. So the best "aged" taste tea I have is the 2003 Ji Pin Bulang.

In any event, premium old tree newer tea has gotten almost as scarce, and looking at the prices Sanhetang wants for their tea on their website, well, can't say I didn't get while the going was good and locked myself into plenty of future good drinks. I just wish I had as long to get comfortable in buying older tea. Closest I ever got was that XZH 80's shu-- $190 for, like 250g? of shu. Good shu full of wavy qi, but dang...

well considering you can still buy pu er from before 1900... i dont believe new premium pu erh will not become nowere near as "scarce" in the near future". just look at tai ping hao or whats its called, dr tea said only 30 kg are produced every year... but still you can buy it nearly everywere...

i honestly believe the only thing that is scarce is money....

but ofc i still rather pay double the amount for a good tea, then half the price for a bad tea ofc....
life is to short for bad tea.

Of course, I can get monomaniacal with the lust for bargain shopping...or something. In a sense, I was also merely doing research, using tea as a nicely illiquid savings vehicle


ilovetea, this is true of JinJunMei and other shine today, dull tomorrow fancy blacks. The major difference with puerh is that ultimately, you can't fake the qualities of a well stored old tea, or what a true old tree tea behaves like. That's a major reason why people geek out over puerh, because it's generally worth it to do so, whereas a controversy over a tasty longjing is generally immaterial. Of course, this is also a major reason it's now getting hard to get high quality puerh (in the West) when that didn't use to be the case--people with money can discern quality with relative ease and hoard it. Sell back out the underperformers and didn't like anyways teas.

shah82 wrote:Wait, a Xiaguan iron cake was ready? I've heard the '99 version is still pretty harsh...

I think depends a lot on the storage.

I've got a '99 one which I think is fairly pleasant to drink (though not super "aged" tasting by any means). The seller said it's had some traditional storage, but, because of the tight compression, it really doesn't have any obvious signs of the storage (not much staining, no white frost, no strong storage taste).

After about 5 months of storage at home I tried the 1985/86 Xiaguan Tuo Cha from Hou De.

Good Aged flavours, good creamy feeling and flavour. The qi made me feel as if I was starting to levitate, and my mind became incredibly clear and effortless. I 'floated' back to my room after 15 cups and fell asleep, which was also pretty interesting due to the clarity of my dreams.

The dry storage became more apparent in later cups, as a dry/astringent feeling crept along the back of my tongue and throat. The dry storage was also seen in the leaves, as a few leaves were noticeably green looking.

As far as aged pu goes, it's okay. The feeling was the most enjoyable part.

I wish I had grabbed one of the tuo's from houde. the one from eot may be better to drink now but houde will be better in a couple years.

I have been brewing the the 80's "lotus" shu from banna tea. I have never been fortunate enough to try the 81 (I think) Golden Needle White Lotus. But if it is simillar to this but better it is probably pretty amazing.
Generations sells a 80 gnwl. they also sell a 90s gnwl which takes a way what little faith I had in the 80s being genuine since I heard that the gnwl was only made once in 81. More knowledgable tea nerds feel free to chime in and tell me im wrong. It would be great if someone could authenticate the gnwl at generations at around $1.50 I gotta believe thats a good price for the real deal.

81 is called White Needle Golden Lotus. Later edition named Golden Needle White Lotus. The leaf grade is higher, ie, larger than the 81.



2g each from digital scale, different angle but tried to keep zoom / distance the same.

The Bana tea is similar in taste to 81, but the qi isn't there and the price is way below the market. Might be my imagination, but I have done a lot of side by side tasting of these teas and this is my belief.

I think the Bana tea is nice, anyway.

brandon wrote:81 is called White Needle Golden Lotus. Later edition named Golden Needle White Lotus. The leaf grade is higher, ie, larger than the 81.



The Bana tea is similar in taste to 81, but the qi isn't there and the price is way below the market. Might be my imagination, but I have done a lot of side by side tasting of these teas and this is my belief.

I think the Bana tea is nice, anyway.

The real one was only 20-30 percents cooked. With bloom covered grade 0 buds.

1980's Xiàguān Xiāo Fǎ Tuóchá from EoT, the first shú I tasted which I actually liked:

The best old shu have been traditionally stored for a while - they develop a unique taste that no amount of dry storage will develop. Still, I find old shu to be really expensive and not really worth the amount of money spent...

Today I had a 90's Traditional stored Xiaguan Tuo from Henry Trading co.. It is hard to believe but Trad. storage actually removes alot of fermentation funkyness. Making the tea lighter. while nothing really mind blowing did have an interesting berry flavor.

I have wanted to try the purple print Menghai shu aswell. They also have it for sale in sample form @ dragon tea house.

gasninja, traditional storage removes a lot of?

I have had great experience with dry stored 80's shu. Tastes like what piano keys smell. Monster qi. Not durable at.all.