Best Mini Tuo Cha ?

[TomVerlain]

the only advantage that a mini-toucha has is its size is conveniently consistant. Getting loose puerh (which is very easy to measure) or a cake and breaking and weighing removes the only advantage of the mini toucha, and opens you up to using much higher quality tea. The thermos you gave the link to has a "nesting tea basket" so all you need to do it add the loose tea or broken up piece of cake and your boiling water and you're set. I'd recomend some sort of shu, and a decent menghai cake is $15-20 for 357 grams. (enough for probabaly 200 brews in your 14 oz thermos) You could also jsut get a bigger thermos and put the tea in a disposable tea bag. 14 oz of tea would not last very long for me.

[MarshalN]

Just break the cake up into small pieces and brew those instead of minituo. Seriously, you're wasting your time with minituos.

[laura99]

Just break the cake up into small pieces and brew those instead of minituo. Seriously, you're wasting your time with minituos.

+1 This is what I do for work. I have only tried Mini Tuo twice, which were claimed to be not the normal low grade stuff. But were undrinkable for me! You cannot get quite as consistant an amount, but you can measure up a few chunks at home to get a feeling for what to use.

[chrisd]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I decided against getting mini tuochas and ordered some cakes, tuos, and samples instead. Even threw in a proper gaiwan and bamboo table as well. I think I should be able to break off some chunks for the thermos at work, and brew them up proper in the gaiwan while at home.

I hope my choices were good.
2008 King of Bulang Ripe Puerh 357g
2008 Xiaguan FT Baoyan "Mushroom Tuo" Raw Pu-erh tea -250g
2008 Xiaguan FT "Happy Tuo" Raw Puerh Tea in box -100g
2008 Menghai V93 Premium Ripe Puerh Tuo -100g
2009 Menghai Day Yi Gong Tuo Ripe Puerh Tea -100g
Raw Puerh Sampler:
2008 Menghai 8582 25g
2008 Menghai 7542 25g
2008 Menghai 7532 25g
2008 Xiaguan Exquisite Elegance 25g
2008 Xiaguan Yun Mei 25g

[shogun89]

Seriously, you're wasting your time with minituos.

Could not agree more

[MarshalN]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I decided against getting mini tuochas and ordered some cakes, tuos, and samples instead. Even threw in a proper gaiwan and bamboo table as well. I think I should be able to break off some chunks for the thermos at work, and brew them up proper in the gaiwan while at home.

I hope my choices were good.
2008 King of Bulang Ripe Puerh 357g
2008 Xiaguan FT Baoyan "Mushroom Tuo" Raw Pu-erh tea -250g
2008 Xiaguan FT "Happy Tuo" Raw Puerh Tea in box -100g
2008 Menghai V93 Premium Ripe Puerh Tuo -100g
2009 Menghai Day Yi Gong Tuo Ripe Puerh Tea -100g
Raw Puerh Sampler:
2008 Menghai 8582 25g
2008 Menghai 7542 25g
2008 Menghai 7532 25g
2008 Xiaguan Exquisite Elegance 25g
2008 Xiaguan Yun Mei 25g

Be prepared for some strong tea.

[chrisd]

I know that all of these choices are pretty young teas, but where is a good source to get some aged sheng?

[odarwin]

good thing you have finally decided to abandon your mini tuo purchase...
and if you still have time to change your order...

here is what i think might be a better choice in terms of ripe teas...
in my opinion, your selection might all just taste the same, and may even have the fermentation taste in them...

of the ripe teas i got from YS before, the only ones i enjoyed were the nanjian 100g tuo... which is out of stock already... that came first through a sample then i placed in an order. another one is an 05 xg 250g tuo... which is also out of stock now. and the last one is a 250g tuo from lang he... that was the best out of the 3.... and sadly, also out of stock already...

however, id suggest you to get any of the lang he factory ripe teas... i find them really light and easy to drink... id pick the gong ting cake if i were in your shoes... i think its lighter and easier to drink and might be cleaner tasting

as far as aged sheng goes...
but i usually get my stash from hong kong... and usually if you have friends, they can help you out... but ive tried cloud's precious aged raw tea... he has those i think in 100g packs. ive got some of those 2-3 years back... he told me that they were +/-10year "medium wet stored" cakes that are broken up. i think its a decent intro to sheng that wont turn you off... try looking at his site

i hope this helps

[kasey]

All this talk about minis is disappointing. I just ran across this.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2004-Year-Aged- ... H_DefaultD
omain_0&hash=item4d0096d633
It looks really appealing because it's so old but very green but I'm not that pu-savvy yet. Does anyone have any experience with this tea or its vendor?

[Catfur]

Looks like compressed "dust and fannings" to me.

[odarwin]

Id stay away from it, get a propper cake instead

[kasey]

Thanks Catfur, I think I see what you mean.

[kasey]

I just found the same green pu mentioned above in 100 gram tuo chas from the same manufacturer on Ebay. They go for $12.95 a pair. For what it's worth...