Why are Puerhs so cheap?

[LaybackPandas]

Are they inferior to Oolong, Green, etc? A typical 350g cake cost around some $15-20, typical Oolong cost around $8-15 for 50g.

[skilfautdire]

Because they don't have much mass appeal as cakes ? I know several Chinese people who treat puerh as special medecine, not tea. Others simply don't drink that. Europeans/Americans will not buy cakes. This is not mainstream. Loose puerh, OK, (eg. Yunnan black tea) but not cakes. Maybe all the good properties given to green tea are reduced to near zero in puerh ? My guesses.

[Jack_teachat]

I have sometimes thought this, but then again not all pu-erh cakes are "so cheap" and not all oolong is expensive. Leaving aged tea aside, there are also huge differences between the prices of different young cakes, usually depending on the quality of the maocha and the scale on which the cake is pressed. For example, compare the price of a 2009 Menghai Dayi 7542 with this 2009 Yunnan Sourcing stone pressed "Road to Yiwu" cake...

Dayi -http://www.yunnansourcing.com/store/pro ... roduct=996

Y.S - http://www.yunnansourcing.com/store/pro ... roduct=940

Both are excellent teas, just one is made on a much smaller scale with arguably better quality maocha, so therefore more expensive!

Jack

[tingjunkie]

Leaving aged tea aside, there are also huge differences between the prices of different young cakes, usually depending on the quality of the maocha and the scale on which the cake is pressed.

Good way to put it Jack.

There's a gigantic range of pu out there. It's similar to wine- you can get 3 Buck Chuck from Trader Joe's, or you can spend many many times more on a skilfully crafted bottle from a prestigious estate.

[entropyembrace]

I thought of something else too...the more expensive oolongs...at least the ones that are worth the price can usually be traced back to a single farm but puerh cakes are almost always made from a blend of maocha...blended teas even very good ones almost always cost less than a single estate tea does.

The other thing is that demand for oolong is highest when it´s still fresh...demand for a current year puerh isn´t so intense...it goes up as it gets older and so does the price.

[gingkoseto]

I think puerh in recent years is already largely over priced. In the past, it was supposed to be a cheaper tea (although cheap doesn't mean bad). Nowadays the price is a lot higher than before. Besides, inferior products are a lot more than in the past. I've heard 2 different opinions. One says after the crazy year of 2007, people will more and more calm down about buy puerh, so puerh price should keep dropping. The other says since demand is a lot larger than a few decades ago, due to limitation of land and resources (such as costs of space and time for sun drying), puerh will keep being expensive. I hope the first opinion rules. But who knows

I think nowadays many other tea products are very much over priced too if evaluated by market average. In China, most tea drinkers know where to buy an excellent Yan Cha or TGY at $250/lb. But if one pays $50-100/lb., s/he may get better products, or very bad products, although $50/lb. is already a high price.

[shah82]

Young puerh is cheap because there is a huge information and perhaps time/skill tax on such products. When people *know* that the sheng is good to drink now + ages well, it's *much* more expensive than it really should be.

[shogun89]

Europeans/Americans will not buy cakes.

Really? Hmmm, I've been doing something wrong then...

[hop_goblin]

1. The pu-erh bubble has burst creating lower demand. 2. What most people know about puerh are the Big Factory Fare which are relatively cheaper. Get into some more limited boutique beengs and you can spend a couple 100USD for a beeng.

[edkrueger]

Many pu-erh cakes are extremely expensive, more are extremely cheap. Why do huge bags black tea cost very little? Because the tea in them isn't great.

[tony shlongini]

If pu'er is so cheap, why am I going broke?


Properly selected, it's a very good value.