TeaChat

I went to check out a local tea shop and picked up a small bing of pu erh that was in a stack labeled "Menghai cakes." I am a total novice when it comes to pu erh and I also don't read Chinese, so I didn't think about it much in the store, though I did notice that the label on the one I bought appeared to be different from the rest of the ones in the stack.

Well, I got it home and searched some of the characters on the label, and it's apparently not from the Menghai factory, but rather from the Chunming factory, which if I knew anything about pu erh would have been obvious from the elephant's butt symbol.

In any case, this was supposed to be a 2005 shou cha, but since it was apparently mixed in with the wrong stack, I really have no idea what exactly it is. Can anyone clue me in? I have no idea whether this tea is particularly good--it tastes a good deal better than the cheap pu erh I've been buying from my local Vietnamese market, but that's not really saying much.

This is from the Xinxiang label. Not exactly fancy stuff, made in 2006.

Isn't the elephant logo for Chun Ming ?

Definitely from the Xinxiang factory.

I dont understand. The characters below the elephant say "Yunnan Kunming Xishan district Chunming tea factory" very clearly, and the elephant logo does look like the Chunming label from what I've been able to look up. Is Xinxiang a sublabel of Chunming, or a knock-off label or something?

xin xiang is the trademark of chunming factory.

gingkoseto wrote:xin xiang is the trademark of chunming factory.

agreed

I see. Thanks!

So, if this is "not exactly fancy stuff," is it also not generally considered to be crap? I feel like it was somewhat expensive at $25 for a 100g cake. I do like to support local businesses when possible, and I expect to pay a bit of a premium to do so, compared to online vendors. But does this seem like an unreasonable price?

$25 for 100g is a bit high for this thing, I think. Never tried it, but for that price you can get a lot more Dayi shu.

saxon75 wrote:I see. Thanks!

So, if this is "not exactly fancy stuff," is it also not generally considered to be crap? I feel like it was somewhat expensive at $25 for a 100g cake. I do like to support local businesses when possible, and I expect to pay a bit of a premium to do so, compared to online vendors. But does this seem like an unreasonable price?

It's not cheap but they're in business for making money. If it's worth it is up to you, but they'll never be able to compete with online shops like Yunnan Sourcing price wise. You can find pretty much everything in life that is purchaseable for less money than the place where you saw it first.

Yeah that's a bit on the high side....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2008yr-Yunnan-X ... 45fd60456d

This might be my ignorance showing, but is comparing a 2008 sheng to a 2006 shou apples-to-apples?

the 2008 sheng cake is about $4.00 per 100g shipped. The shou is $25.00 for 100g. I think the point is it is really overpriced. You're right that they are not completely comparable, but the quality of either of them makes the year/type moot.

here is a eminently drinkable Dayi 7262 for $6.30 per 100 g. The whole cake costs less shipped than the 100g the OP bought.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Menghai-Dayi-72 ... 45f38ee189
(no idea if the seller is good or bad, just a random ebay listing)

Supporting local stores is great if you can go in and drink a few teas, talk to the owner who is intelligent about tea, and pay a small premium for this privilege. However, there is a point where you can get such better selection and price online, that if the local store is so far away in terms of price and quality, you go and buy online.