From looks alone, Is this Raw or Ripe?

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


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Aug 12th, '12, 03:23
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Re: From looks alone, Is this Raw or Ripe?

by Charlotte_J » Aug 12th, '12, 03:23


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Aug 12th, '12, 07:07
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Re: From looks alone, Is this Raw or Ripe?

by MarshalN » Aug 12th, '12, 07:07

How much is the asking price?

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Aug 12th, '12, 10:38
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Re: From looks alone, Is this Raw or Ripe?

by debunix » Aug 12th, '12, 10:38

Charlotte_J wrote:I still don't know whether to buy it or not
None of us here can tell you to buy it or not--unless the price is crazy high, if you like it a lot, it's probably worth it, and if you don't like it, it's not.

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Aug 12th, '12, 10:59
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Re: From looks alone, Is this Raw or Ripe?

by Charlotte_J » Aug 12th, '12, 10:59

It is a little over $ 100 (US) - do you think it is a good or bad price?

I like the tea a lot, but I am not so sure it is what they say it is or not!! Do u have any opinion Marshaln? About the tea - how is looks?

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Aug 12th, '12, 11:12
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Re: From looks alone, Is this Raw or Ripe?

by TomVerlain » Aug 12th, '12, 11:12

$100 for a cake ? The price causes some disbelief. Though the reddish brown on the dry leaves looks sheng like, the compression does not.

So, it comes down to taste and mysterious cha qi properites.

Considering current run of the mill cakes can cost $30-50 - if this has any special qualities it is well worth the price.

Aug 12th, '12, 12:43
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Re: From looks alone, Is this Raw or Ripe?

by theredbaron » Aug 12th, '12, 12:43

Charlotte_J wrote:It is a little over $ 100 (US) - do you think it is a good or bad price?

I like the tea a lot, but I am not so sure it is what they say it is or not!! Do u have any opinion Marshaln? About the tea - how is looks?
I do not like the look of the leaves, neither wet nor dry.
100 US$ for an 80's Pu Erh is far too cheap to be of any quality (if it even is that old, which i doubt very much).

I think you would be much better off to spend the money on a young, or a semi-aged (5 to 7 years old) tea of known quality. So far every single affordable Pu Erh i have sampled over the net supposedly from the 90's or earlier has been a huge disappointment - either fake, or so bad quality that it was just a stale soup at best.
An 80's tea for 100 US$ - sorry, but i have huge doubts.

Aug 12th, '12, 13:47
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Re: From looks alone, Is this Raw or Ripe?

by apolon » Aug 12th, '12, 13:47

theredbaron wrote:I do not like the look of the leaves, neither wet nor dry.
100 US$ for an 80's Pu Erh is far too cheap to be of any quality (if it even is that old, which i doubt very much).

I think you would be much better off to spend the money on a young, or a semi-aged (5 to 7 years old) tea of known quality. So far every single affordable Pu Erh i have sampled over the net supposedly from the 90's or earlier has been a huge disappointment - either fake, or so bad quality that it was just a stale soup at best.
An 80's tea for 100 US$ - sorry, but i have huge doubts.
May I ask which affordable puerh, that you sourced from the net, are you talking about?

Aug 12th, '12, 14:45
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Re: From looks alone, Is this Raw or Ripe?

by theredbaron » Aug 12th, '12, 14:45

apolon wrote:
May I ask which affordable puerh, that you sourced from the net, are you talking about?
I prefer not to, as i do not want to name particular dealers here, which i would have to, as none of them are any big name teas. I have tried many dealers, and many teas. I haven't tried though old teas that would be way out of my price league (i would not pay more than 100 to 150 US$ at most for a cake - this is just my limit, and i better am patient, buy them younger and wait some years until they get older).

On the positive side - i have bought some nice inexpensive semi aged teas, in particular from Yunnansourcing. I just got 2 cakes of the now sold out 2002 Yiwu Ancient Spirit, as an every day Pu Erh, which is already very nice to drink, and cost 40 something a cake. I also got 2 cakes of 2003 Wu Chi Dao "Menku Zheng Shan" for 44 US$ a cake, which will in a few years be very nice, i hope. Both of those teas were stored for some years in a more humid climate, which accelerated the aging process. I would not buy these teas if they were stored in Kunming as the dry climate makes for very little change - i have tried ten year old Kunming stored teas which were still very green tasting.
Also Red Lantern has some nice not too expensive semi aged teas.

Usually, when i like a tea after it is ten years old, i try to put one cake aside for long term storage, so that one day i will have access to 20 year plus tea of a quality i would not be able to afford to buy. I have a few already that are now up to 15 years old. A few more years... ;)

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Aug 12th, '12, 20:36
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Re: From looks alone, Is this Raw or Ripe?

by MarshalN » Aug 12th, '12, 20:36

Indeed, $100 does cause some disbelief. Your pictures are hard to assess - the sample size is too small, and requires touching, which I can't do, obviously, to evaluate the tea. I didn't think the wet leaves look that promising, actually. The colour is a little too uniformly black/dark for what it claims to be, but there can be large variations in pictures. Do they unfurl if you tried to unfurl them? Do they disintegrate?

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