What did I just buy?

[edkrueger]

This is a ripe Xiaguan Tuo Cha. Age is before 2005.

yes

No!

This is a sheng tuo, btw.

no

Yes!

Your post is now refuted.

[MarshalN]

The leaves look sheng to me. Cooked leaves, IMHO, don't look like that. The redness of the leaves is a reflection of the light from the brown wrapper.

To solve the problem, the OP needs to take a pic placing the tuo on the white table with the tuocha box somewhere in the background. That'll make it very clear what colour the tea is.

[G-off-re]

very light fermentation would be my guess rather than sheng. It can't be any older than early 2000's so it should look pretty green still unless it was stored wet but than we would most likely see signs of that. I don't think the photo could be that off either. The box it came in is also standard issue for their ripe tou.

[TIM]

I am enjoying all these guessing-game posts here. Dying to see the brewed color for confirmation

[bagua7]

I am enjoying all these guessing-game posts here.

I like them too, but best are the ones related to Yixing pots.

My turn:

What did I just buy?

This:

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?p=82208

One of my favourite cooked puerhs.

[Dass]

The box design is for cooked tea not raw tea.

[MarshalN]

The box design is for cooked tea not raw tea.

That could be right.

[sherubtse]

I am enjoying all these guessing-game posts here.

Yeah, it's fun to see different posters say it *is* this or that, rather than it *could be* this or that.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

[gingkoseto]

Yeah, it's fun to see different posters say it *is* this or that, rather than it *could be* this or that.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

I said a few "could be" and "seems" only because I am tricky My mentor told me "never say you are 100% sure of something". But some of the above statement from others, like "the box design is for cooked tea", I would take it as a fact instead of a guess.

[tenuki]

Yup, that's probably tea.

Does it taste good?

[sherubtse]

Yeah, it's fun to see different posters say it *is* this or that, rather than it *could be* this or that.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

I said a few "could be" and "seems" only because I am tricky My mentor told me "never say you are 100% sure of something". But some of the above statement from others, like "the box design is for cooked tea", I would take it as a fact instead of a guess.

Yes, you weren't definite in your opinions. Others were, though, which makes for fun reading.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

[gingkoseto]

Yeah, it's fun to see different posters say it *is* this or that, rather than it *could be* this or that.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

I said a few "could be" and "seems" only because I am tricky My mentor told me "never say you are 100% sure of something". But some of the above statement from others, like "the box design is for cooked tea", I would take it as a fact instead of a guess.

Yes, you weren't definite in your opinions. Others were, though, which makes for fun reading.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

I think sometimes people sound definite because what they say is indeed a fact, not an opinion. I've been to some other online forums where people are reluctant to give definite answers, and sometimes the typical reply is "only God can tell what this really is from merely a few photos..." - although this might be somewhat true, at certain point it would be boring. I think it's more fun to have people willing to give definite answers.

[TIM]

I would suggest this is a cooked or at least cooked with mix sheung in it. Pretty generate stuff. Not a good place to start a puerh addiction

Think I have the same tou but from the earlier production. Very boring imo.

http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/200 ... hroom.html

[needaTEAcher]

Three things:

1-I find it a lot easier to tell sheng from shou by looking at the liquor. In general, opaque and darker brownish is shou (more transparent with age), more transparent and yellowish is sheng (young) and more red is sheng (aged). These rules of course are not perfectly bulletproof. Here is a GREAT blog about all that:
http://puerh.blogspot.com/p/puer-by-app ... orage.html
(thanks to wyardly for posting this elsewhere, and to bearsbearsbears for writing it!)

2-Rinsing: I have been told that you should rinse puerh in part to clean it, because it has all kinds of grossness in it from aging! I don't know if it is true, but I rinse mostly because it tastes better. I also rinse pretty much all my tea (except my whites), with just a fast flash rinse for anything other than puerh (I know this is not a popular thing to do, but I find that even the most sophisticated of assams or lungchings have less astringency when I do so. Leave the top off the brewing vessel for a little bit after the rinse to let the leaves open and get some air.

3-There are a lot of scientific measurements about how much tea to water, but I think it is more of an art than a science. In general, follow the guidelines you read to start, but each tea has its own special place. Also, there is the whole gongfu vs "western", wherein gong fu is TONS of tea to not so much water, with super shot steeps and lots of resteeps, and "western" style is less leaves to more water for longer and fewer steeps. I really enjoy certain pu with the later method.

Enjoy, and welcome down the rabbit hole!

[Microshrimp]

Thank you everyone for continuing this discussion. Unfortunately the "cold" I thought I had kept getting worse and turned out to be strep throat and has kept me down and out of touch with reality for the past week. I haven't felt this bad in years! Things I normally enjoy are not appetizing at the moment, and I'm not ready yet to try a new tea until I'm feeling 100% well. When I do, I'll be sure to get some photos of the liquor and more accurate photos of the tea itself. My gaiwan arrived Wednesday and I look forward to trying that as well.

By the way, the price of the tuocha was $16.95 (US), and the sales person said it was probably somewhere between 3 and 4 ounces (perhaps 100g).

--Stephen