Official Pu of the day

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


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Jul 23rd, '12, 18:18
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Re: Official Pu of the day

by AdamMY » Jul 23rd, '12, 18:18

As I had no green oolongs, I had to make due with somewhat young puerh today. 2009 Essence of Tea Nannou ( The plantation one not the other one). Glad this tea seems to be coming out of the funk it was in last year. Good solid mouth feel, the tastes are not super strong but somehow leave me feeling incredibly satisfied. After about two gaiwan fulls of tea I'm feeling rather relaxed but intently alert. I like the qi of this tea.

Jul 24th, '12, 00:06
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Re: Official Pu of the day

by bryan_drinks_tea » Jul 24th, '12, 00:06

Deb,

I understand that Bonay tea is another name for puerh, but is it different/unique in any way? also, where did you acquire it?


happy tea-ing. :D
Last edited by bryan_drinks_tea on Jul 24th, '12, 22:44, edited 1 time in total.

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Jul 24th, '12, 22:12
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Re: Official Pu of the day

by debunix » Jul 24th, '12, 22:12

What was different about this tea for me was the combination of the smooth earthy sweetness I associate with aged puerh with a strong cinnamon spice aftertaste. It's quite nice stuff.

And I inherited it--found it in the cabinet where Dad kept his teas, sitting in a ziploc bag, fragmented but with the wrapper carefully folded up with the remains of the beeng. Any further provenance is guesswork--I know he traveled to Hong Kong & Singapore several times, and visited San Francisco's chinatown regularly, but he also got gifts on occasion from recipients of his calligraphy pens and pen-making equipment from all over the world.

Jul 24th, '12, 22:52
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Re: Official Pu of the day

by bryan_drinks_tea » Jul 24th, '12, 22:52

Remember this? it's the 2004 Xiaguan Yin Cang Yu Er. Total Piece of Crap.
At least, it was crap when it was stored in a gluey blue box, as pictured below. I've only kept it in just it's wrapper, along with the other two, since they came in. I took this one out today to air and to see if it's made any progress.
It's lost it's gluey taste, thank goodness, and it's made some moves towards tasting like puerh. It's smoother, a touch sweeter, and while it still has ample bitterness, it's rounded out a bit. I brewed this extremely light- only 4 grams, as I was concerned about the last time I brewed this. 7 grams was enough tea to make it feel like it was peeling away my gums.
All in all, it's gotten a little better. Hopefully the storage will keep doing it's job and I can look forward to drinking these when I'm 57 or so. :lol:




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Jul 24th, '12, 23:27
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Re: Official Pu of the day

by GreenwoodStudio » Jul 24th, '12, 23:27

JRS22 wrote:
GREENWOODSTUDIO wrote:Last of my sample of Moonlight White 2007 Sheng from Bana. I think I'll probably get a cake of this, it's very nice. No bitter, nice and smooth, sweet with a pretty long complex aftertaste. Really relaxing, meditative qi.
How did you brew it? I've still got some of my sample packet, but my first try wasn't as successful as yours.
JR - I'm so new to sheng that I'm pretty much just following the vendors instructions for each sample tea and all have seemed to work out well. I continued enjoying this tea into today, brewed the heck out of it, probably 10-12 steeps :) I used about 4 g (half the sample) in a 100 ml porcelain pot.
Last edited by GreenwoodStudio on Jul 25th, '12, 11:09, edited 1 time in total.

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Jul 25th, '12, 02:52
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Re: Official Pu of the day

by MarshalN » Jul 25th, '12, 02:52

bryan_drinks_tea wrote:Remember this? it's the 2004 Xiaguan Yin Cang Yu Er. Total Piece of Crap.
At least, it was crap when it was stored in a gluey blue box, as pictured below. I've only kept it in just it's wrapper, along with the other two, since they came in. I took this one out today to air and to see if it's made any progress.
It's lost it's gluey taste, thank goodness, and it's made some moves towards tasting like puerh. It's smoother, a touch sweeter, and while it still has ample bitterness, it's rounded out a bit. I brewed this extremely light- only 4 grams, as I was concerned about the last time I brewed this. 7 grams was enough tea to make it feel like it was peeling away my gums.
All in all, it's gotten a little better. Hopefully the storage will keep doing it's job and I can look forward to drinking these when I'm 57 or so. :lol:




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Sounds about right! It should age well enough once you've had it for 40 years or thereabouts.

Jul 28th, '12, 14:50
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Re: Official Pu of the day

by iovetea » Jul 28th, '12, 14:50

MarshalN wrote:Looks like a cooked pu. This cake is no older than 1995, or at least, the paper that it came with is no older than 1995 (probably more like late 90s at its earlier). The 8 digit phone number was introduced in 1995. It's likely a decent cake though, with "shang" stamped on the paper, indicating its quality, I think. Next time I go by there I can ask them about the stamp.
thank you, from you i can learn a lot. its really nice to know that stuff like with the 8 digit number...

Jul 28th, '12, 14:53
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Re: Official Pu of the day

by iovetea » Jul 28th, '12, 14:53

TokyoB wrote:
tst wrote:Peet's also carries quite an array of teas.

http://www.peets.com/shop/tea.asp

They offer puerh, TKY, Phoenix Mtn, Dragonwell, etc. However, I too haven't bothered trying them. I was taken off guard to see these teas sold by Peet's, though I'm not surprised. It makes sense from a marketing POV I suppose.
FWIW - Peet's teas are generally pretty decent, unlike Starbucks.
hey i like starbucks green tips, i think its a very nice tea.

Jul 28th, '12, 15:16
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Re: Official Pu of the day

by iovetea » Jul 28th, '12, 15:16

shah82 wrote:Well, let's not quite get too spun around. It's an assumption, and like in a blogpost by Gingko, where longjing sellers have problems because people don't believe it's good longjing at good prices, we *could* be assuming that the perfectly mindblowing GFZ is not actually what it is, due to our misconceptions about the market.

Now, we generally think this way because there is a pattern of elite consumers having leedle hidey-holes full of organic gardening and ranching created specifically for the safe consumption of the Party Bosses (check LA Times somewheres), while normal people have to wonder whether their pork is safe to eat, and make a run to HK for their baby formula. So, it's not a stretch to say that there are specific areas of LBZ, GFZ, Bingdao, etc, etc, etc, as well as places we've never heard of, that are not actually available to us mortals.

However, this is just a heuristic, and as heuristics go, it can be pretty poisonous to enjoying your tea! Besides, I suspect that elite demand generally circles around tea that few/nobody else has ever heard of. So it's really just your usual well-off Chinese, and all the tea merchants that cater to them that are the competitors.

The price of GFZ @ Nadacha is correct for decent GFZ. GFZ is about $200/1kg. The normal retail price is that the retail bing (357/400g) is about the same price as the per-kg cost. That pays for wrappers, shipping, pressing, travel, enough maotai to kill an elephant, cover cost of tea that don't sell, and profit.
first of all i have the same crazy believes there for it can't be true ;)


but anyway why cover cost of tea that doesn't sell?? if the tea gets older they just charge more anyway, so you pay them more for the next price increase?

i heard maotai now also gets really expensive

Jul 28th, '12, 15:37
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Re: Official Pu of the day

by shah82 » Jul 28th, '12, 15:37

Every time you increase the prices, you decrease potential market share. Moreover, tea has to be promoted, and brand awareness has to be around in the decade down the road. There is quite a bit of tea in China, if you haven't heard. That's a lot of noise to cut through. Dayi, Xiaguan, their brand helps keep their older cakes relevant. Sanhetang promoting their newest teas helps keeps their older stock relevant. Especially if you're someone like Nada, unsold stock can be pretty dangerous. There are quite a few good teas made by brands that are no longer extant out there, but nobody knows them to buy them. It's a matter of safety that you hedge for unsold stock. Of course, you can sell more valuable older tea later on, but I wouldn't count on it. For example, I am no longer able to buy tea this year, when I could last year. There are always new entrances like Bannacha, TeaUrchin, etc...chasing after what is a very small market for boutique tea. Trends can always change, and then surprise! Old Dayou teas are super-popular! Or all the Chinese are buying out all the Hawaiian kava there is, forget about puerh! A business is always a chancy operation...even if you're good at what you do and manage well, you are ultimately at the mercy of the prevailing economic conditions and social trends.

Jul 28th, '12, 15:54
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Re: Pu of the day

by iovetea » Jul 28th, '12, 15:54

pgho wrote: Nothing like a pot of 1998(1999?) Red Stamp Big Green Tree Yiwu to start the New Year.
never thought about it but 99 is a pretty cool date for a pu erh you drink, together with your birthday or other memorial days. yes actually 99 is a nice number, because of the new year..

does have 99 have any bad meaning in chinese??

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Aug 1st, '12, 15:52
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Re: Official Pu of the day

by teaisme » Aug 1st, '12, 15:52

some nice loosened up shu mixed with two tiny compressed pieces of young sheng

almost almost :mrgreen:

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Re: Official Pu of the day

by TomVerlain » Aug 3rd, '12, 21:21

Today and tomorrow I will be visiting this tea I got on my trip to Seoul earlier this year.

I bought two, a 1980's shu, and this, a 1994 sheng.

No factory specified, and I did not get much of the history, if it had one.

It is a loose tea and has very long leaves, 3 to 4 inches for some of them. A bit more stems than I would have liked (as you pay just as much for them as the leaves), but it is all part of the package.

Unbrewed, the tea leaves range in color from a rusty red to black, there is a uniform foggy white on some leaves, perhaps a bit of the wet came down upon them at some time.

Brewed, they come in colors from olive to black. The leaves are still a bit "rubbery" and don't just fall apart. The liqour is not really ruby red, but a darker brownish red.

The tea has a lot of body, a nice round mouth feel, with no astringency at all. Not as "mediciney" as other aged teas I've tried, and some sweet after tatse.

A "peaceful easy feeling" is a trite song lyric that actually does sum up this tea. Not the cha qi of an 88 cake, or the hand warming ability of a fully loaded aged pu'er, but it is distincly pleasant.

Overall, I am glad to have it. It is a quality tea though it is a bit outside of the normal cake parameters. I'd probably try a different tea if I were to go back to the shop, not that this is a poor choice, there were lots of other teas from the 90's there that I would like to take home too.

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Aug 4th, '12, 02:40
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Re: Official Pu of the day

by debunix » Aug 4th, '12, 02:40

Enjoying more of the two 2012 Yunnan Sourcing purple teas I compared yesterday, eking out some more flavor in another half dozen infusions apiece from the same leaves. The smoky element is gone from the Dehong tea now, and it is more similar to the YiWu than before--more similar than different, really. And nothing is sour about either one.

Aug 5th, '12, 18:57
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Re: Official Pu of the day

by Antihero » Aug 5th, '12, 18:57

Enjoying a nice 1998 Menghai Tea Factory 8582 tonight :)

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