Mini tea cakes

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


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Jan 23rd, '09, 22:58
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Mini tea cakes

by maxman » Jan 23rd, '09, 22:58

Anyone use the mini tea cakes? I was given some of the pu erh "candy" cakes with my last order from the Pu erh Shop. They weren't bad. I've thought about getting some to use at work. Anyone tried any others that were any good?

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Jan 24th, '09, 13:44
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by shogun89 » Jan 24th, '09, 13:44

Have some on hand as well, havent given them a go yet so I'll get on that soon.

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Jan 24th, '09, 13:58
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by Drax » Jan 24th, '09, 13:58

Same here... have em, but haven't tried em yet.

I bought a bunch of mini tuos from Seven Cups that were okay. Nothing to write home about, but good for transporting, etc. I'll be interested to see how these compare... once I get through some 14 other samples first. :D

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Jan 24th, '09, 18:12
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by tony shlongini » Jan 24th, '09, 18:12

I never had one that didn't stink. I think that, in general, they just compress whatever's swept up off the floor.

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Jan 24th, '09, 19:30
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by Drax » Jan 24th, '09, 19:30

tony shlongini wrote:I never had one that didn't stink. I think that, in general, they just compress whatever's swept up off the floor.
Given the way that tea vendors seem to spin every thing as the best tea in the world, I'm surprise they don't say something like...

Tea fall on floor, have greatest qi. Energy makes it leap out of the press. These leaves make best tea.

:twisted:

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Jan 24th, '09, 23:51
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by tony shlongini » Jan 24th, '09, 23:51

Drax wrote:
tony shlongini wrote:I never had one that didn't stink. I think that, in general, they just compress whatever's swept up off the floor.
Given the way that tea vendors seem to spin every thing as the best tea in the world, I'm surprise they don't say something like...

Tea fall on floor, have greatest qi. Energy makes it leap out of the press. These leaves make best tea.

:twisted:
:lol:

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Jan 25th, '09, 14:27
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Re: Mini tea cakes

by Dizzwave » Jan 25th, '09, 14:27

maxman wrote:Anyone use the mini tea cakes? I was given some of the pu erh "candy" cakes with my last order from the Pu erh Shop. They weren't bad. I've thought about getting some to use at work. Anyone tried any others that were any good?
I liked the jasmine one, and the flavored red/black one..... but I wasn't too into the pu.
Right now I'm drinking an unknown shu mini-tuo (from my local tea shop) that's actually not bad. Not my fave, but convenient. :)

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Jan 26th, '09, 15:50
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by Geospearit » Jan 26th, '09, 15:50

The ones rishi sells are not so bad... my wife got some REALLY nice ones from Seoul that were shu/sheng. Most of what you see though tastes as cheap as it costs... not worth the effort. But as I said, rishi is not bad at all. You can actually see the full leaves emerge as opposed to a pile of compost looking stuff.

Funny that you call them "candy." At my local Wegman's, the tea lady had out plates of tea samples. She said that some guy walked up and took a bite out of one of the tuos. "Did you just EAT THAT??" She asks... The guy just smiles, puts the rest in his pocket and walks away :lol:

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Jan 26th, '09, 16:09
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by brianlavelle » Jan 26th, '09, 16:09

Geospearit wrote:At my local Wegman's, the tea lady had out plates of tea samples. She said that some guy walked up and took a bite out of one of the tuos. "Did you just EAT THAT??" She asks... The guy just smiles, puts the rest in his pocket and walks away :lol:
Yeah, who needs hot water or any of those other time-consuming parts of the ritual? This is Tea-On-The-Go!

Great story, Geospearit!

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Jan 28th, '09, 23:17
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by Geospearit » Jan 28th, '09, 23:17

Here are some pics of the rishi mini tuos. As I said before, they are pretty good for being mini tuos. Definitely not the swept up dust that many seem to be. Good woody deep flavor too.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

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Jan 29th, '09, 05:52
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by Drax » Jan 29th, '09, 05:52

Bahahaha, what a bunch of bullcrap on that last picture's text! Lots of "biodiversity" -- yikes, that sounds like an excuse for when you find insects and other non-tea elements in your tea.

And I have to say, that one picture of the steeping leaves looks like something out of a sci-fi film where they have weird creatures preserved in large tubes of glowing-colored gel.

As much as I jest, thanks for sharing the pictures!

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Jan 29th, '09, 06:33
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by brandon » Jan 29th, '09, 06:33

News flash: Cheap shu pu doesn't come from old arbor trees. And in another Rishi marketing gimmick, they are not hand harvested by virgins. Cheapest leaf usually goes into shu pu, especially mini tuos.

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Jan 29th, '09, 16:54
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by Geospearit » Jan 29th, '09, 16:54

brandon wrote:News flash: Cheap shu pu doesn't come from old arbor trees. And in another Rishi marketing gimmick, they are not hand harvested by virgins. Cheapest leaf usually goes into shu pu, especially mini tuos.
Thanks for the insight. However, I will reiterate what I said before in my previous posts. It's not very cheap. It is not the 10 cents a piece crap.... 10$ a tin is not what I consider cheap. As much as some people around here like to bash western-based name brands, I believe that rishi did do some research to find this product.

The taste is superior to many shu cake samples I have received from YSSL. And definitely superior to the tuos I got from him once. The quality of those are what most ppl associate with mini tuos, but I assure you that there are quality mini tuos out there. There is one mini tuo that I got before that was better than this, and it was a shu/sheng from Korea ... also far from being cheap. So better look a little deeper before you stereotype.

This particular mini from rishi has a deep woody tone to it and pure liquidity feeling. I can get 8 steeps out of it with the later ones having a light sweet taste to it.

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Jan 29th, '09, 17:37
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by cupioneer » Jan 29th, '09, 17:37

brandon wrote:News flash: Cheap shu pu doesn't come from old arbor trees. And in another Rishi marketing gimmick, they are not hand harvested by virgins. Cheapest leaf usually goes into shu pu, especially mini tuos.
Newsflash: Tea vendors product descriptions should generally be taken with a grain of salt. Particularly vendors who sell $33 yixing pots made of "lao zhuni."

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Jan 29th, '09, 17:41
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by Drax » Jan 29th, '09, 17:41

brandon wrote:News flash: Cheap shu pu doesn't come from old arbor trees. And in another Rishi marketing gimmick, they are not hand harvested by virgins. Cheapest leaf usually goes into shu pu, especially mini tuos.
To be fair, rereading the text on the side of that can, the text doesn't claim that the statement actually applies to the tea in the can. Accordingly, they can claim anything they want to, because such things probably do happen somewhere.

The only true bottom line is the taste....

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