New Cake, Help Apreciated

[shogun89]

OK heres the deal, for my birthday I would like to get a nice Puerh. I already have some young raw cakes and some cooked. I want something that has some of the qualities of an aged Puerh but for under $60. Heres some considerations. Please tell me what you think and if you have any other cakes in mind please tell me about them. Thanks for your help!

http://tinyurl.com/5tuegk

http://tinyurl.com/5tfs23

http://tinyurl.com/55xtdu (whole cake not sample)

http://tinyurl.com/6dmu47

[hop_goblin]

OK heres the deal, for my birthday I would like to get a nice Puerh. I already have some young raw cakes and some cooked. I want something that has some of the qualities of an aged Puerh but for under $60. Heres some considerations. Please tell me what you think and if you have any other cakes in mind please tell me about them. Thanks for your help!

http://tinyurl.com/5tuegk

http://tinyurl.com/5tfs23

http://tinyurl.com/55xtdu (whole cake not sample)

http://tinyurl.com/6dmu47

The cakes do look interesting. Of course it is hard to tell if they are any good just using a picture. However, I have personally tasted the Liming Menghai and I enjoye it. Still to rough IMHO to drink but it may age well. As for the others, Green Peak looks interesting also. Although, I am quite leary of buying from small factories especially during the height of the pu-erh craze. There have been many academic debates about small factories and whether they are worthy to buy during the perioed of 2001 until now. Tons of small factories sprang up trying to cash in on the pu-erh craze. One consideration that buyers must know is that mao cha was and is extremely expensive for these small factories and as a consequece, many of these beengs were adulterated and made of leaves made from outside of Yunnan or blended with yunnan leaves. Although it has aged for 3 years, you would be better off buying something else. The same could also go for the Puerhshop beeng. The price should be a dead give away. No way will you find a beeng made of 2003 YiWu mao cha for under 40 dollars. It is more likely a blend which contains just a small amount of yiwu leaves if it has Yiwu at all. An authentic yiwu beeng from 2003 should cost 3 sometimes 4 times as much. The Long Yuan looks IMHO some what rough. The leaves look like lower grade probably 7-8 grade. However, this is not what really concerns me is the color. It does not look like a dry stored beeng. Although wet stored beengs can be great the rusty color looks some what disconcerting. It just might be the picture, but from my stand point it really looks somewhat odd. Please take this all with a grain of salt. You of course have to be the ultimate judge.

[Salsero]

I had a sample of the 2000 Long Yuan Hao last year and it was quite good. Not so good that I ordered a cake of it at $58, but that may say more about me than about the cake. It still tastes quite young, but it is on its way.

I have also had a sample of the 2005 Green City Peak from Puerhshop. In fact I just had it a couple nights ago. I was relieved to see that Puerhshop has only samples remaining so I wouldn’t be tempted to buy still more puerh! At $28 a cake, I’d say “yes” to this one. I suppose I will have to order one also now.

I haven’t had the other two.

[shogun89]

Thank you two for your help. I will definitely have some deciding to do but you have helped me along the way to hopefully make a good decision.

[heavydoom]

OK heres the deal, for my birthday I would like to get a nice Puerh. I already have some young raw cakes and some cooked. I want something that has some of the qualities of an aged Puerh but for under $60. Heres some considerations. Please tell me what you think and if you have any other cakes in mind please tell me about them. Thanks for your help!

http://tinyurl.com/5tuegk

http://tinyurl.com/5tfs23

http://tinyurl.com/55xtdu (whole cake not sample)

http://tinyurl.com/6dmu47

i got these two cakes also from the above list:

have not tasted them yet, soon....

[shogun89]

Sounds good Heavy, Tell me what you think when you get the chance.

[heavydoom]

my brother had some tea of the first cake, so i have sampled it already. that is why i got one too. imo, it's lovely tea. i won't get into the nitty gritty, don't have the time, don't care. i liked the tea, i bought it. simple really.