Buying my first cakes

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


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Mar 16th, '12, 16:33
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Re: Buying my first cakes

by BioHorn » Mar 16th, '12, 16:33

Teaisme
so why push us newbies away from finding it by suggesting something you find 'comfortable and secure'.
a. I am not pushing anyone away from anything. I suggested he purchase some aged sheng. That is all.
b. I was not answering your post. I was addressing Poohblah, the original poster. Granted, he was looking for a newer cake from YSLLC in the +-$40 range. I simply suggested a different option.
c. Please do not quote me for something I did not say. I did not buy tons of crap tea. Tom has a point in sometimes purchasing a smaller quantity at higher quality.

As I was drafting this Tom wrote:
And certainly people have different tastes - but if you want to understand and appreciate "real" puerh - it costs money as the people with experience and taste are competing for it.
It eloquently supports the direction of my suggestion.

Please let me know what you mean by "properly finding" tea? I do not understand. Do you mean with proper storage?

----

Poohblah:

I tried most of the YSLLC Sprin 2011 Sheng Pu offerings. For the price you mentioned I suggest the Ai lao. The Mu Shu and Nan Po were also excellent. They are a bit over your budget and may lack some smoke, but were very nice. For something a little older, at $28 a 2006 Jinuo Shan You Le might fit your request:

http://www.yunnansourcing.com/store/pro ... roduct=483

-------------------
teaisme wrote:hah I guess thats one to look at it.....but considering most of the heavy long term puerh drinkers started from buying young cakes for cheap and storing them (intentional or not)....or getting semi aged and storing...vs buying aged, I think our logic is just fine as long as we are not buying completely blind from a stranger...

I already ordered a bunch of samples from eot, and a bunch from other vendors too. After a yr or so of sampling I feel now I am at a point where its time to buy some cakes, both for consuming now (like the mellow ones that pooh is looking for), and cakes for aging. I'm sure with the right amount of asking around, research, and intuition, we can find some cakes to suit our own individual needs pretty easily :mrgreen:
BioHorn wrote:Life's too short to have piles of crap tea sitting around because you bought cheap tea to have more.
well just stop buying tons of crap (hastily), it is my current understanding that good young puerh does not have to be expensive, it just needs to be properly found, so why push us newbies away from finding it by suggesting something you find 'comfortable and secure'. I understandthis advice comes from not wanting us to be burned by our mistakes, but I am not too worried about learning things. Btw, we asked about young cakes $20-40...not 10g samples of 70's puerh.

Thanks drax for the suggestion .

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Mar 16th, '12, 17:25
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Re: Buying my first cakes

by teaisme » Mar 16th, '12, 17:25

bah please don't be upset with me or take what I have to say too seriously, I wasn't trying to attack you, I just need some sleep and food :cry:

I accidentally highlighted your post over toms quote, that is why your name appears, I know you did not say that

properly finding= not buying too fast, asking good questions, no blind buying, taking time to find good value instead of jumping on what everyone else is clamouring for

I do find it slightly humorous that you are trying to exclude me in your post though, even though me and poohblah are both looking for the same thing as stated earlier, thanks for the suggestions anyways even though they were not for me :cry: (I had been eying that ai lao and you le for some time now)

Also...thanks tom for the shu recommendation, I will try some out when I feel like it is time to drink some shu.

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Mar 16th, '12, 20:56
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Re: Buying my first cakes

by BioHorn » Mar 16th, '12, 20:56

Hello Teaisme.
Lack of sleep and food is such a bad combination for anyone! Sorry if my retort was too strong. Thank you for your message. Forums can be a tough place to catch nuance.

I agree that sampling is quite a good way to go. It is at times difficult to not want to jump on the bandwagon so to speak and try "all those teas" that people are talking about. I have done my fare share of those sorts of purchases with fair to very good results!

I have meant to write up my observations from summer sampling, but time has been short. The best deal of the bunch was the Wu Liang, but that one is now sold out (!) It went quite quickly, which may have had something to do with Hobbes' write-up. I think it drank on the level of Nan Po and Mu Shu, but at about 1/2 -1/3 of the price. The Wu Liang had a nice mix of floral/fruity flavor with tobacco-y intensity. Scott's leaf from Spring '11 was impressive in it's cleanliness and pressing. Almost all the cakes had a nice medium-low level of compression.

The Gao Shan Zhai YiWu was also very good, but at a significantly higher price point.

Teaisme, another one I liked was the Hai Lang Hao Ba Ma Gong Chun. I tried the '05 and '10 back to back. They were surprisingly similar. For the money, the '10 is a much better way to go. Then you can control the aging. :mrgreen:


So, please accept my apologies if I sounded like too much of a grump!


There were some good Autumn 2011 sheng puerhs from YSLLC. I have not been as organized with those sessions.

teaisme wrote:bah please don't be upset with me or take what I have to say too seriously, I wasn't trying to attack you, I just need some sleep and food :cry:

I accidentally highlighted your post over toms quote, that is why your name appears, I know you did not say that

properly finding= not buying too fast, asking good questions, no blind buying, taking time to find good value instead of jumping on what everyone else is clamouring for

I do find it slightly humorous that you are trying to exclude me in your post though, even though me and poohblah are both looking for the same thing as stated earlier, thanks for the suggestions anyways even though they were not for me :cry: (I had been eying that ai lao and you le for some time now)

Also...thanks tom for the shu recommendation, I will try some out when I feel like it is time to drink some shu.

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Mar 17th, '12, 01:00
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Re: Buying my first cakes

by Poohblah » Mar 17th, '12, 01:00

BioHorn wrote: Poohblah:

I tried most of the YSLLC Sprin 2011 Sheng Pu offerings. For the price you mentioned I suggest the Ai lao. The Mu Shu and Nan Po were also excellent. They are a bit over your budget and may lack some smoke, but were very nice. For something a little older, at $28 a 2006 Jinuo Shan You Le might fit your request:

http://www.yunnansourcing.com/store/pro ... roduct=483
Thanks! I'll try some samples of those next time I order from YS. For now, I will get the cake from my local teahouse and I will share some info about it when I do. Maybe next week. I'm out of town right now.

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Mar 20th, '12, 00:25
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Re: Buying my first cakes

by Poohblah » Mar 20th, '12, 00:25

I read somebody else's review of the ai lao and it did not sound too attractive to me. I ordered from the ys.us site for the sake of expedited, cheaper shipping, which is better for smaller orders. I got samples of these four, chosen more or less arbitrarily and at random based on their description and my desire to try things that were different ages, prices, and from different mountains:

http://www.yunnansourcing.us/store/prod ... product=10
http://www.yunnansourcing.us/store/prod ... roduct=174
http://www.yunnansourcing.us/store/prod ... product=46
http://www.yunnansourcing.us/store/prod ... product=87

I also got some Yunnan hongcha because I love Yunnan hongcha. Well, that is most of my tea budget for this month. I'll let you know what I like and don't like about those teas when I try them so that you guys can help me make more refined decisions. My girlfriend has also expressed great interest in tasting these with me, since she really enjoyed the sheng pu that we tried at the aforementioned tea shop, which was also her first pu :) I think it will be a fun week for me in terms of tea.

edit: wait, I just realized that the first tea was not the one I thought I ordered... oops :lol: guess I'll try it out anyway :)

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Mar 21st, '12, 13:50
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Re: Buying my first cakes

by teaisme » Mar 21st, '12, 13:50

Poohblah wrote: edit: wait, I just realized that the first tea was not the one I thought I ordered... oops :lol: guess I'll try it out anyway :)
Maybe its better ! :)

Thanks bio for all the suggestions esp the Ba Ma Gong Chun I totally did not see that. Seems right up my ally. The higher oxi looking darker young cakes have been nice to me in my beginning pu journey so far! Kinda feel like the super green stuff is just a lil too much for my constitution to drink everyday without feeling too 'jolted'.

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Mar 31st, '12, 14:09
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Re: Buying my first cakes

by Poohblah » Mar 31st, '12, 14:09

I was tasting my teas and one of them tasted suspiciously like shu. I checked my order, and sure enough, I didn't notice that one of the samples was shu rather than sheng.

I feel like a moron.

I don't want to throw it out just a couple steeps in. But shu is one of those things that I just can't have if I'm not in the right mood.

And I'm not in the right mood.

I'm gonna go ride bikes.

Apr 19th, '12, 14:39
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Re: Buying my first cakes

by kasey » Apr 19th, '12, 14:39

You want to spend $40 on two cakes and $19 on shipping?

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Apr 19th, '12, 16:12
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Re: Buying my first cakes

by Poohblah » Apr 19th, '12, 16:12

Yunnan Sourcing has a US site, yunnansourcing.us, that ships from Oregon and charges a lot less for shipping, but the selection is smaller.

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