Official Pu of the day

[kuánglóng]

Drinking Spring 2016 maocha from a 1,000 year old tree in Myanmar (via Tea-Side) in a big porcelain pot. This tea gave me all day drinking pleasure from a few grams; I just refilled the pot with hot water and had another pot full of tea (with less caffeine, so it won't keep me awake). One advantage of big pot drinking is the leaves will still give you some weak tea before bedtime.

The Mangfei I've mentioned above works the other way around. The last thought I've had before it knocked me out after 3 cups was something like "ooh, that's some pretty calming qi here'.
I've just ordered a couple more cakes

[jayinhk]

Drinking Spring 2016 maocha from a 1,000 year old tree in Myanmar (via Tea-Side) in a big porcelain pot. This tea gave me all day drinking pleasure from a few grams; I just refilled the pot with hot water and had another pot full of tea (with less caffeine, so it won't keep me awake). One advantage of big pot drinking is the leaves will still give you some weak tea before bedtime.

[kuánglóng]

Enjoying a wonderful session with some 2014 Mangfei (bannacha) right now.

[Rui]

Sipping some very mellow and smooth 2013 Jing Mai from Tea Urchin.

[jayinhk]

Since I got back from Thailand, I've been drinking nothing but oolongs--green gaoshan style, medium oxidation oolongs and high fire shuixians. Finally some shu pu! I bought a few 100g of good small cha tou in a market in Kunming when I was over there and have them sitting in a porcelain ginger jar. Threw some in a large, preheated porcelain pot from Northern Vietnam and then rinsed twice. I didn't want to drink strong tea yesterday, as I'd had iced coffee and iced lemon tea, and I'm caffeine sensitive, so I used less leaf than I would normally use. Well, I forgot about the tea and went to my office and drank some high roast SX!

Drinking the cha tou this morning by filling up a cup halfway and then pouring on boiling water. This is some of the best cha tou I've ever tried. Nice, clean, sweet flavor with nothing unpleasant to it. Almost baby powder-like, since it's so soft and pleasant and fragrant. I noticed they made shou pu quite weak in Kunming compared to the way I tend to drink it at home--this dilute session reminds me of the testing sessions in Kunming.

I feel like my system was asking for pu, and now it's finally getting some!

[kuánglóng]

<...>
In UK tea attracts no import or sales tax as tea is considered an essential item just like bread, milk, etc. The only time I have to pay sales tax is when the vendors forget to say the package contains is 'tea' and even that I can ask for a refund after I provide evidence of the package contents. Also in UK one gets a customs advice through the post which we can pay online or even add enough postage for the duty amount in lieu of a payment so the service is pretty good. Unfortunately the same does not apply to teaware.

Sounds like 2016 to me - good for you guys. Back in the day when I was still running my ex-business I used to deal with those folks on a regular basis and from what it looks like their business hasn't evolved that much in the meantime. Let's see how it turns out today, most likely they want us to pay 7% VAT on the tea and 19% for the rest - no big deal but I'd rather get it all delivered to my door, pay them online and be done with it. I guess this was my last order from China before I fly back home. Back on the island it's all a piece of cake, got the customs office right around the corner - just in case.

You folk are so lucky, in India, I have to drive 6KM to pay 105% tax in order to import tea. Well, I only did that once and that too could have been easily avoided, but basically I need to take extra care with the quantities & prices of what I buy.

When I lived in India I could pick up my parcels at the post office without paying anything, no matter where they came from or what they contained. Dunno if that still works, just in case you know some foreigners you can trust and need more chinese tea or whatever

[Psyck]

<...>
In UK tea attracts no import or sales tax as tea is considered an essential item just like bread, milk, etc. The only time I have to pay sales tax is when the vendors forget to say the package contains is 'tea' and even that I can ask for a refund after I provide evidence of the package contents. Also in UK one gets a customs advice through the post which we can pay online or even add enough postage for the duty amount in lieu of a payment so the service is pretty good. Unfortunately the same does not apply to teaware.

Sounds like 2016 to me - good for you guys. Back in the day when I was still running my ex-business I used to deal with those folks on a regular basis and from what it looks like their business hasn't evolved that much in the meantime. Let's see how it turns out today, most likely they want us to pay 7% VAT on the tea and 19% for the rest - no big deal but I'd rather get it all delivered to my door, pay them online and be done with it. I guess this was my last order from China before I fly back home. Back on the island it's all a piece of cake, got the customs office right around the corner - just in case.

You folk are so lucky, in India, I have to drive 6KM to pay 105% tax in order to import tea. Well, I only did that once and that too could have been easily avoided, but basically I need to take extra care with the quantities & prices of what I buy.

[kuánglóng]

2015 Chawangpu Bada Old Trees - 5g/60ml in celadon gaiwan

The dry leaves exude a wonderful fruity aroma with distinct, dominating bright notes of black currants that play hide and seek through the entire session. 5/5 for the dynamics here; I got 10 very entertaining and tasty steeps out of 5g/60ml - everything including the intense but smooth cha qi just kept changing and changing.
The only drawback I've experienced is a somewhat thin soup; I'll use one of my clay pots next time.
Great bang for the buck here IMO. I bought an extra sample to play around with, the cake went straight into a storage box.

[jayinhk]

jay,

your review of the 1000 year myamar from teaside intrigued me.
anything else you'd recommend trying from them? i might make an order.
if anyone else has recommendations, feel free to jump in.

He says his Donfang Meiren is his best seller. As for shu--any of his own productions are well worth it!

[pedant]

jay,

your review of the 1000 year myanmar from teaside intrigued me.
anything else you'd recommend trying from them? i might make an order.
if anyone else has recommendations, feel free to jump in.

[Rui]

Today I am sipping 2013 Hai Lang Hao Jun Yan Qi Xiang purple pu'er tea. Long time sold out unfortunately but still one of the best purple pu'er teas I have tasted. About a quarter of the cake left. Smooth, typical gushu aroma and taste of a deep yellow ochre colour.

[jayinhk]

Interesting, I have no problems with 7542. Now green gaoshan and gongting pu erh...whew!

[kuánglóng]

I get to pay China prices, and since I'm in the biz now i may buy a case of 7542 for the long haul!

Good luck, Jay. 7542 is one of the very few shengs that reliably give me the jitters, no matter from what year or how it has been stored.

[Rui]

The Year of the Monkey is supposed to be good too. The Old Tree Round I would pass on for a few years till it ages more. I wasn't impressed by it much at all.

There are few Year of the Monkey cakes from different manufacturers going around.

Of the two sheng cakes produced by Dayi to celebrate the year of the Monkey I prefer the tea from the 800gms cake.

[jayinhk]

I get to pay China prices, and since I'm in the biz now i may buy a case of 7542 for the long haul!

Lucky dog! I may make you sell me one wholesale!

I am running a formal business now, and like old school vendors here...sorry, no discount just keeping it traditional!