The slippery slope

[tst]

I like elements of Shah's arguments. I fear the man who has drunk the same tea 1000 times much more than the man who has drunk 1000 teas just once.

Beautiful use of words. I agree.

[bagua7]

I like elements of Shah's arguments. I fear the man who has drunk the same tea 1000 times much more than the man who has drunk 1000 teas just once.

Me too, and unfortunately this is a business and the Chinese know really well how to squeeze the cash cow, especially nowadays where puerh has become a commodity already.

Sampling is a must though or you'll end up collecting useless cakes. I got a couple here I wouldn't hesitate using as cow manure.

[Tecnorobo]

Ahhh puerh tea. It's a slippery slope, isn't it?

[shah82]

I don't think so.

You eventually run out of spare money or spare room or spare tolerance of family members.

[TwoDog2]

To Shah's argument, there is a middle ground. How about this for a plan:

Step 1) Figure out a general direction of what you like. Sample one decent Bulang, one decent Yiwu, one decent Lincang, one decent gongting shu, one decent big leaf blend shu. (These are just general suggestions, I think picking a few disparate teas is the key)

Step 2) Based on the teas you tried, you should have an idea of whether you like intense bitterness or flowers or earth or whatever characteristic. Now, buy a cake of the 3 you like best of those 5, and slowly drink your way through them.

I think you have to do at least some basic sampling. Otherwise, you might hate kuwei and mistakenly buy a Laoman'e cake. Then what? You will learn a lot... about how much you regret buying a cake from Bulang.

You need to have a general direction in which to hike. When you know the direction, then I agree with Shah, getting very familiar with a certain tea has great value. Once you have had a cake (or more) of a certain tea, you get to understand its ins and outs like a family member.

I very much like Shah's analogy

Puerh is not green tea. People have relationships with their teas as they grow older. Sometimes good, like a toddler in a good mood. Sometimes bad, like a sullen teen.

- well said. And to take this a step further, even with a single cake, if you drink it everyday, you realize the amount of variation that can occur; puer can be very moody. There are good days and bad days, highs and lows. Like with most relationships, the real test is whether you can live together. And living together will teach you more than dating ever can.

[Tead Off]

I like elements of Shah's arguments. I fear the man who has drunk the same tea 1000 times much more than the man who has drunk 1000 teas just once.

How about the man who has drunk 50 teas 100 times? The equation becomes useful and you have something from which to make a decision about. I don't know anyone who only drinks one tea although there probably are people like this. Practical experience leads to sound judgement. Specialization comes out of the 'general', not vice versa, I think. But, let each person come to their own way of proceeding. These are merely suggestions.

[AdamMY]

I like elements of Shah's arguments. I fear the man who has drunk the same tea 1000 times much more than the man who has drunk 1000 teas just once.

How about the man who has drunk 50 teas 100 times?

He fails at arithmetic if he was only supposed to drink tea 1000 times.

[TomVerlain]

When I first started out in 2006 menghai cakes could be had for close to $10.00, so it was easy to buy lots of different things. Most of what I bought is sitting, aging very slowly. The 2007 7542 I bought for $19.60 is 5 years old, and has a looooong time to go before it will be the way I want it to be. By 2008, I realized I like aged tea the best, and rather than buy lots of cheap tea and wait twenty years, buy a few cakes of good tea, to enjoy daily. I like some shu, and drink probably half fairly current shu and half 90's or early 2000's tea that is what I consider ready. While a good cake is 5 to 10 times the price of the 2007 7542 cake, the value propisition works for me. I buy tea a few times a year, for current consumption, all that early stuff can wait until it really is ready. I still occaisonally splurge on stuff that I probably shouldn't buy, but the majority is quality, and drinkable now.

I think the slope evens out after a bit, once you realize that alot of stuff you have is not what you want to reach for to drink every day. Drinking the tea has surperceded the pleasure of buying it.

[Tead Off]

I like elements of Shah's arguments. I fear the man who has drunk the same tea 1000 times much more than the man who has drunk 1000 teas just once.

How about the man who has drunk 50 teas 100 times?

He fails at arithmetic if he was only supposed to drink tea 1000 times.

The arithmetic was not the point. The broadened experience was the point. People need a basis for making choices. The only way you develop this is through experience, varied experience. In this way, you have a database from which decisions are drawn from. This is the way the brain works.

[AdamMY]

I like elements of Shah's arguments. I fear the man who has drunk the same tea 1000 times much more than the man who has drunk 1000 teas just once.

How about the man who has drunk 50 teas 100 times?

He fails at arithmetic if he was only supposed to drink tea 1000 times.

The arithmetic was not the point. The broadened experience was the point. People need a basis for making choices. The only way you develop this is through experience, varied experience. In this way, you have a database from which decisions are drawn from. This is the way the brain works.

I got that, but skewing the numbers that much, is like asking, who would you trust in their judgment of a teas merits... Someone who has had one tea a week for two years, or someone whose had a tea a day for a year?

When you change the total number of teas by that much you throw off the comparison in an uneven fashion. But to fix it for you but still get what you are going for, we could ask: "What about someone who has had 50 teas 20 times each?"

[debunix]

I did something pretty close to the 1 tea, 1000 times--I was drinking only two teas, always the same version from the same brand, for many years, before I suddenly started drinking a lot of different teas. The years of limited tea varieties did prepare me to recognize the differences when I broadened my tea horizons, but it was sampling a wide variety of teas that really got it going.

[the_economist]

Lol funny! Obviously 1000 is not some magic number. The point is that I agree with Shah in some regards, such as eventually settling down and really learning more deeply about a tea. I agree with sampling too to some extent.

[BioHorn]

You eventually run out of spare money or spare room or spare tolerance of family members.

Shah,
You have a gift distilling the essence of a situation.

Has anyone else told their children they will be inheiriting your tea collection?

[blairswhitaker]

I don't think so.

You eventually run out of spare money or spare room or spare tolerance of family members.

I must say I have encountered issues with all three problems... not just with puerh though, other tea and teaware as well.

spare tolerance of family members is by far the worst though.

[nada]

I drank this thousands of times before discovering Puerh. It didn't prepare me in the slightest!