TeaChat

It has come time to experience an expensive sheng and have been having battles in my mind over which one to get for days. Please give me some guidance on which one might be better. The order is going in tonight so please help asap.

http://www.puerhshop.com/index.php?main ... cts_id=546

http://www.puerhshop.com/index.php?main ... cts_id=552

Thanks for all your help everyone!

I've had the 2003 Dayi Yiwu and it was quite a good drink. The way I would look at it in terms of those two choices, for $2 more you can get the 1998 Hongtaichang which is a whole 5 years older. If you feel so inclined though i'd go for both of them

I haven't had the Dayi, but I found the 1998 Hongtaichang earthy, sort of coffee flavored, a little sweet, and thick on the lips in the only session I have had with it.

Thanks for the replies everyone, I actually did not get around to ordering tonight so tomorrow it is. I think the '98 is the winner.

I know this probably won't be very helpful, but I have a strong compulsion to say so. "Expensive" is a fantastically poor indicator for drink-now sheng. A lot of expensive things taste like crap.

Personally I have not cared much for the 'intermediate' (90-2000) vintages in either wet or dry storage as drink-now material. I have had a pretty broad range of samples upon which I base this claim. This includes samples of cakes that are selling for over $300 US.

Thank you for bringing that to my attention brandon, I'm just trying to broaden my range of tastes and I think that tasting some aged, even whether they are good or not will help me along my journey. You mentioned you have sampled many pu erhs, Where do you buy your samples and can you recommend any?
Thanks

Almost all of my sheng samples are from Hou De, and many of them have sold out.

I can reiterate what many have surely told you already - the best value in a drink-now sheng that is readily available is the 2003 Keyixing YiWu cake.

In the 90-2000 vintage, this is one of my favorites:

http://www.houdeasianart.com/index.php? ... 55584b65cf

Storage and leaf quality is the biggest factor in all of this, and are hard to see on a web page. Price and relative age, and even the vendors description, give no indication of the quality of the tea. You will have to find for yourself what to look for and share notes with others.

A certain member who is lurking has taken to sourcing all his puerh locally for these reasons -- those of us on the east coast are sadly out of luck.

why not get both?

thanks for the link brandon. Thats some expensive stuff, I'm sure its delicious though. For right now I think I'm just going to get the Dayi because I've heard a lot of good things about it where as th'98 I haven't heard a whole lot.

Alright the order is in, hers what I got.

1 ea. 2002 Tangerine Wrapped Pu-erh Tea $1.16
1 ea. 2003 Keyixing Yiwu Pu-erh Tea Cake Sampler $3.99
1 ea. 2006 Old Tree Banzhang Pu-erh Tea Cake Sampler $3.99
1 ea. 2003 CNNP 7581 Pu-erh Tea Brick $12.99
1 ea. 1998 Premium Hongtaichang Pu-erh Tea Cake 2 oz $16.00

That 2003 CNNP brick sounds really good, has anyone had that? Its funny because its in a picture of a puerh shop in china in my book The Story of Tea.