I almost died today

One of the intentionally aged teas, Pu-Erh has a loyal following.


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Aug 13th, '08, 19:32
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by heavydoom » Aug 13th, '08, 19:32

you can get a nicely aged tea from 2002 for under $30 on the net. i can. you can. why wait? the world may end in 2014 and then all your bengs in the pumidor will have rotted for nothing. :cry:

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Aug 13th, '08, 20:09
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by tony shlongini » Aug 13th, '08, 20:09

heavydoom wrote: the alternative is to buy aged green tea for consumption. screw aging it yourself. that would be my suggestion.

i mean, come on, how much tea can you drink in a week? i think at the rate i am going, my pu cakes will last a long time. if you use a wee amount with long infusion times, you can maybe have like 6 sessions of tea with the yi xing pot. man, that cake may last three months. by that time, you can buy another aged cake. if you put aside a dollar each day, you can have 30 bucks a month, 90 in three months, enough for those fancy smancy pu cakes over there at HOU DE.....
With all due respect, I disagree.

I'm not interested in aging it myself so as to be able to one day enjoy aged puerh. As you point out, I can do that now by simply buying it. Rather, I'm interested in aging it myself so as to have a large selection for my personal use in the future without being at the mercy of whatever market exists at that time.

Want to drink a 25 year or older Bordeaux? You'd better be prepared to pay through the nose, and accept whatever is available. I, on the other hand, have an extensive selection of the top 82's and 90's because long ago I took the necessary measures to ensure that I would have them. I'd like to do the same for puerh.

Now puerh will either improve with age or it will not. If it does, as evidenced by the huge following it's garnered and the hefty price it commands, then I should be every bit as capable of properly storing it as some toothless farmer in a thatch hut. I've managed to successfully age some very delicate items, from cigars to Burgundy, and one thing I know for sure is that the time will fly by.

Who here doesn't wish they purchased 100 select beengs back in the 80's?

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Aug 13th, '08, 20:14
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by Salsero » Aug 13th, '08, 20:14

RussianSoul wrote:shogun, your avatar gives a double-take every time I see it.

Like "WAIT! I didn't write this!", and then - "Oh..."
Me too, but his looks like it died.

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Aug 13th, '08, 20:19
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by Salsero » Aug 13th, '08, 20:19

heavydoom wrote: you can get a nicely aged tea from 2002 for under $30 on the net. i can. you can.
Doom,
I agree that there are a lot of nice 2002 bings around at a modest price, but most sheng drinkers seem to consider a 6-yr-old cake as a baby. They call 10 to 12-yr-olds adolescents. When I buy a 2000 or 2002 cake I am thinking about it's aging potential just as much as when I buy a 2008. Otherwise I agree with you. No one wants to see their tea outlive them!

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Aug 13th, '08, 21:03
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by heavydoom » Aug 13th, '08, 21:03

i know, to each his own.

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Aug 13th, '08, 21:41
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by ABx » Aug 13th, '08, 21:41

I agree with Sal and Tony.

Anything less than 10 years is really still too young. Though there are some exceptions, I still want to see how they'll turn out in the long run (which often just means buying more than one). You can still drink younger stuff now, but keeping some for long term aging at the same time can be beneficial on many levels.

A lot of the stuff I buy now for aging is the more expensive stuff that I will never be able to afford once it gets old (particularly the "premiums" like Yan Ching Hao, Chen Guang He Tang, Xi Zhi Hao - especially the Din Ji cake for which there were only 15 in the USA, to name but a few). Not to mention just the quantity of puerh in general. I can spent several hundred over the space of a year or two now and have a great stock to choose from in 10-20 years, or I can wait and only hope that I can afford a small piece of something I might recognize when someone else ages it.

In the meantime I do buy adolescents, semi-fermented, and wet stored stuff that I can drink now without costing too much. I keep a decent selection of these as well so that I can enjoy them as they age as well. The bulk of what I drink daily is shu and oolong, including some aged oolong that can be just as complex (if not moreso) than aged puerh.

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Aug 14th, '08, 09:54
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by shogun89 » Aug 14th, '08, 09:54

Salsero wrote:
RussianSoul wrote:shogun, your avatar gives a double-take every time I see it.

Like "WAIT! I didn't write this!", and then - "Oh..."
Me too, but his looks like it died.

he he, I really looks like it died? I thought it was just a cute baby panda that fell on his stomach or something.

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Aug 14th, '08, 10:54
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by TIM » Aug 14th, '08, 10:54

[quote="tony shlongini"]

"I, on the other hand, have an extensive selection of the top 82's and 90's because long ago I took the necessary measures to ensure that I would have them. I'd like to do the same for puerh..."

Dear Tony,
Care to swap some 82's B with some of my 80's Puerh?
Kindly let me know and I am serious - T

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Aug 14th, '08, 11:32
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by greenisgood » Aug 14th, '08, 11:32

reading this thread makes me once again amazed at the incredible variety and complexities of Tea as a whole. i have never really drank good pu-erh and am more interested right now in Japanese tea where one is concerned with retaining freshness over a few months at the most or waiting for a gyokuro to age over maybe six months. but waiting 10-20 years!? i suppose i wouldn't know to judge whether it's worth it, but wow!

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Aug 14th, '08, 11:39
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by Dizzwave » Aug 14th, '08, 11:39

shogun89 wrote:a cute baby panda that fell on his stomach or something.
With the little "reflection" that the TeaChat puts under the avatar, it makes it look more like a levitating cute baby panda to me. :)

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Aug 14th, '08, 11:48
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by shogun89 » Aug 14th, '08, 11:48

Dizzwave wrote:
shogun89 wrote:a cute baby panda that fell on his stomach or something.
With the little "reflection" that the TeaChat puts under the avatar, it makes it look more like a levitating cute baby panda to me. :)
You are so right! hahahahaha

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Aug 14th, '08, 11:58
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by Salsero » Aug 14th, '08, 11:58

Dizzwave wrote:
shogun89 wrote: a cute baby panda that fell on his stomach or something.

With the little "reflection" that the TeaChat puts under the avatar, it makes it look more like a levitating cute baby panda to me.
Well, in the interests of the poor baby Panda, I am going to see him as a levitating panda in the future.

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Aug 14th, '08, 13:54
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by tony shlongini » Aug 14th, '08, 13:54

TIM wrote:Dear Tony,
Care to swap some 82's B with some of my 80's Puerh?
Kindly let me know and I am serious - T
I don't know. Some of those 82's are worth a lot :roll:

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Aug 14th, '08, 13:55
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by tony shlongini » Aug 14th, '08, 13:55

Dizzwave wrote:
shogun89 wrote:a cute baby panda that fell on his stomach or something.
With the little "reflection" that the TeaChat puts under the avatar, it makes it look more like a levitating cute baby panda to me. :)
I noticed. What is that? It makes my wife look naked. :shock:

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Aug 14th, '08, 14:23
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by TIM » Aug 14th, '08, 14:23

tony shlongini wrote:
TIM wrote:Dear Tony,
Care to swap some 82's B with some of my 80's Puerh?
Kindly let me know and I am serious - T
I don't know. Some of those 82's are worth a lot :roll:
haha, but don't under estimate the power and price for 80's sheung : )

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