How great is great? There may be many great wines for $200-500. But, it seems the 'great cakes of puerh' are far beyond this.TwoDog2 wrote:Though the prices seem shocking to some people, when the prices for new old arbor cakes come out it will be apparent why a cake that is well produced and stored with almost 15 years of age costs $2,000.kyarazen wrote:no kidding.. 2002 yiwu from the same maker is 13,000 rmb per 300g brick now, wholesale price from the source.chin wrote:Are you kidding? US$2000 for a 300gm piece? any article?
A 2014 high quality Yiwu cake can cost easily over $1,000 retail. Some people were telling stories this Spring of paying almost $2,000 per kg at the wholesale (from the farmer) level.
A 357g tea cake is between 40-50 sessions worth of tea. Any tea at the price can easily brew for 15 steeps. So, at $2000, you are paying roughly $50 per session. That is obviously an unacceptable price for some people, but for a special tea I think it is worth it. I've paid $50 for a bottle of wine, which provides more or less the same amount of drinking time and enjoyment.
How many 15 year old "great" wines cost $50 per bottle retail?
Personally, I would never compare tea to wine. Just because puerh and wine are ideally aged, they differ radically. It seems the justification of the 'new' tea prices are brought about by the newly rich and face-seeking Chinese. At the same time, the prices are not being achieved for other famous tea because of the gov't anti-corruption crackdown which has left the fatcats unable to dip into gov't funds to supply gifts to the cronies any longer.
Wine and food have long gone together in western culture. Wine has always been a great part of meals at many levels. Could I substitute one for the other? I don't think I have ever been at an Asian table where tea was drunk in the same manner as wine is. There may be some rare exceptions, but as a lover of both, I just can't equate them. It's just the way I see it.