Oct 4th, '07, 01:35
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Aged puerh samples
This question is mostly directed to the more puerh-oriented people out there (that means you, hop and sal), but the rest of y'all are certainly welcome to chime in. Are the 10g and 20g aged puerh samples on hou de worth their price? If so, any recommendations?
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Oct 4th, '07, 01:49
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Oct 4th, '07, 19:14
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I don't think my experience with Hou De's samples has been remarkably different from my experience with anyone else's samples. But samples are a wonderful way to gain experience, and I would always, always (as a novice myself) buy 3 samples rather than one cake. If one of those samples is so good that I must have the whole cake, I can always rob a gas station to get the cash. If I order a whole cake and it is mediocre, I'm stuck with it probably for the rest of my life!
Better to be disappointed by an expensive sample than an expensive cake. I've ordered maybe 20 samples of sheng from various places (including Hou De) and I don't think a sample has ever led me to purchase a whole cake, at least not before the cake was sold out!
The whole cakes I have are all young and inexpensive with the hope that they will turn into something nice in the future. As for now, they're not really very interesting.
The very few samples of older cakes I have tried (including some from Hou De) have been mostly disappointing, and I am honestly wondering if maybe I just don't care for the taste of old puerh. But I'm far from having given up yet.
I have recently had something old and very interesting that I have tried just once so far. It is Red Blossom Tea's Wild Leaf Sheng Pu-erh 1993 mao cha. Hobbes reviewed it on July 12th and something more recent brought my attention to it again so I ordered some. I still have some doubts that it really is tea! It tastes spicy, like cloves and cinnamon. It's like no tea I've tasted before and I could imagine ordering more than the 1 oz I bought for $9.25. But I haven't really decided if I like it. It's just so surprising.
I assume you have reviewed Geraldo's list of his recent favs at
http://chadao.blogspot.com/2007/09/musi ... -puer.html
I think most of those are no longer available, but I did order samples of his two Awoono items on that list, though I have not yet tasted them.
Also, on the Pue-rh LJ there is a recently longish discussion that I thought cast some light on the gyrations that some of the bigshot pu consumers go through to find something nice.
http://community.livejournal.com/puerh_tea/158312.html
Oddly this latter post is devoted to the two vendors I have vowed never to frequent again because of bad experiences. Apparently better people than I have had some wonderful shopping there.
Of course, none of the above applies to shu at all, which is another whole set of problems.
In short, from Hou De or from anyone else, I am trying to drink as many samples of sheng as I have time for in my tea drinking schedule (still drink more oolong, green, and black than sheng). I figure that's the only practical way to develop some sense of what's out there. I'm also trying and trying to spend a couple of years learning and avoiding the "gotta have's" of consumer acquisitiveness before attaining at least a tiny bit of the sort of knowledge that someone like Geraldo, Dogma, Lew, Marshal and all my other heros have.
Well, these rambling ruminations may not be much help to you, but at least I've enjoyed writing them!
Better to be disappointed by an expensive sample than an expensive cake. I've ordered maybe 20 samples of sheng from various places (including Hou De) and I don't think a sample has ever led me to purchase a whole cake, at least not before the cake was sold out!
The whole cakes I have are all young and inexpensive with the hope that they will turn into something nice in the future. As for now, they're not really very interesting.
The very few samples of older cakes I have tried (including some from Hou De) have been mostly disappointing, and I am honestly wondering if maybe I just don't care for the taste of old puerh. But I'm far from having given up yet.
I have recently had something old and very interesting that I have tried just once so far. It is Red Blossom Tea's Wild Leaf Sheng Pu-erh 1993 mao cha. Hobbes reviewed it on July 12th and something more recent brought my attention to it again so I ordered some. I still have some doubts that it really is tea! It tastes spicy, like cloves and cinnamon. It's like no tea I've tasted before and I could imagine ordering more than the 1 oz I bought for $9.25. But I haven't really decided if I like it. It's just so surprising.
I assume you have reviewed Geraldo's list of his recent favs at
http://chadao.blogspot.com/2007/09/musi ... -puer.html
I think most of those are no longer available, but I did order samples of his two Awoono items on that list, though I have not yet tasted them.
Also, on the Pue-rh LJ there is a recently longish discussion that I thought cast some light on the gyrations that some of the bigshot pu consumers go through to find something nice.
http://community.livejournal.com/puerh_tea/158312.html
Oddly this latter post is devoted to the two vendors I have vowed never to frequent again because of bad experiences. Apparently better people than I have had some wonderful shopping there.
Of course, none of the above applies to shu at all, which is another whole set of problems.
In short, from Hou De or from anyone else, I am trying to drink as many samples of sheng as I have time for in my tea drinking schedule (still drink more oolong, green, and black than sheng). I figure that's the only practical way to develop some sense of what's out there. I'm also trying and trying to spend a couple of years learning and avoiding the "gotta have's" of consumer acquisitiveness before attaining at least a tiny bit of the sort of knowledge that someone like Geraldo, Dogma, Lew, Marshal and all my other heros have.
Well, these rambling ruminations may not be much help to you, but at least I've enjoyed writing them!
Oct 4th, '07, 20:11
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Oct 9th, '07, 23:59
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Oct 12th, '07, 01:08
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Oct 27th, '07, 02:22
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Re: Aged puerh samples
Yes, they're worth it. as far as aged stuff goes, Houde is the only site selling a significant number of samples. That being said, a lot of their best samples are no longer available. The jian-tie, xue yin, and guang yun gong samples are good. But the cheaper samples of 80s and 90s teas are just as worthwhile. if you don't have much experience with aged tea, those cheaper aged tea samples give you a lot of education for relatively little investment.Scruff McGruff wrote:This question is mostly directed to the more puerh-oriented people out there (that means you, hop and sal), but the rest of y'all are certainly welcome to chime in. Are the 10g and 20g aged puerh samples on hou de worth their price? If so, any recommendations?
i encourage all vendors to carry samples, particularly of aged tea, because for many of us it's the only way to afford it...