Official Pu of the day

[shah82]

That's understood, and people should check the wiki, but I'm really talking about something more complex than that, and somewhat different than the classical description of a veblen good. After all, I'm not saying that people are buying Mansong teas because they are so rare and exclusive and you can impress people by serving Mansong tea so casually. I'm also not saying, but not quite definitively not so, that Dayi tea price rises because premium arbor tea has risen so much that people shrug and buy more Dayi at a higher price. What I am saying is that greater demand and higher prices is a result of a kind of close substitutes being available, in a way a continuum away from an actual Giffen good, by how it violates that particular condition necessary for a product to be a Giffen good. People buy fakes because they do want to keep up appearances, and to build up courage (and interest by other people) to buy the real/better tea. When it comes to Yunnan tea, where zillions of tons of good tea is grown, there is a ceaseless effort to improve the Veblen good aspect of whatever tea the marketer is selling, and the inferiority generated from failed aspirations drives the Veblen Excitement level of tea above a certain tier. The utility of buying fakes depends on how well the non-fakes score on the Veblen Excitement level, but that Veblen Excitement level is also dependent on how many fakes/lower quality items are out there in turn.

Hey, I'm just working a zebra with a curry comb, peeps are free to pick one up and groom a exotic animal or walk on by...

P.S.
Heh, perhaps a short way to say it is that an actually rare potential Veblen Good needs help from substitutes that are directly linked to the original good to achieve a substantial phenomenon of higher prices driving higher demand. Think Bingdao. There are actually lots of gushu LBZ and Yiwu around, they don't need that much help being a name. Bingdao or Mansong does, given the very low production.

[Catfur]

Economy talk of the day!!!

[MarshalN]

That's understood, and people should check the wiki, but I'm really talking about something more complex than that, and somewhat different than the classical description of a veblen good. After all, I'm not saying that people are buying Mansong teas because they are so rare and exclusive and you can impress people by serving Mansong tea so casually. I'm also not saying, but not quite definitively not so, that Dayi tea price rises because premium arbor tea has risen so much that people shrug and buy more Dayi at a higher price. What I am saying is that greater demand and higher prices is a result of a kind of close substitutes being available, in a way a continuum away from an actual Giffen good, by how it violates that particular condition necessary for a product to be a Giffen good. People buy fakes because they do want to keep up appearances, and to build up courage (and interest by other people) to buy the real/better tea. When it comes to Yunnan tea, where zillions of tons of good tea is grown, there is a ceaseless effort to improve the Veblen good aspect of whatever tea the marketer is selling, and the inferiority generated from failed aspirations drives the Veblen Excitement level of tea above a certain tier. The utility of buying fakes depends on how well the non-fakes score on the Veblen Excitement level, but that Veblen Excitement level is also dependent on how many fakes/lower quality items are out there in turn.

Hey, I'm just working a zebra with a curry comb, peeps are free to pick one up and groom a exotic animal or walk on by...

P.S.
Heh, perhaps a short way to say it is that an actually rare potential Veblen Good needs help from substitutes that are directly linked to the original good to achieve a substantial phenomenon of higher prices driving higher demand. Think Bingdao. There are actually lots of gushu LBZ and Yiwu around, they don't need that much help being a name. Bingdao or Mansong does, given the very low production.

But I think you need to remember that the market for high end raw puerh has expanded exponentially as China has become increasingly wealthy. Ten or fifteen years ago really only folks in Hong Kong and some people in Taiwan were buying this stuff. The marketing machine for puerh in the past 10 years has been so successful such that everyone and their dog has gotten into the puerh craze, and China, being a big place with, now, a lot of wealthy people, can easily drive prices up to multiples of what it used to cost a mere few years ago because of increased demand, not because of abnormalities in the curvature of the demand curve in a particular good.

Of course for the very highest end, such as a pure old tree tea LBZ, there's a Veblen good aspect to the market. However, if anything, the real Veblen good market is not in new teas, which are by and large commodity markets with normal good demand curves. Rather, the Veblen goods are old teas from 30 years ago or more. Many such teas are in fact very inferior examples of poorly stored teas that can hardly beat my daily loose traditionally stored sheng pu, but command far higher prices because of the exclusivity factor (it's hard to brag about loose tea). At something like 2-3000 RMB a jin or so for real old tree tea new sheng puerh, the prices are not very different from high end oolongs or green teas. No Veblen good there.

[shah82]

Oh, I know what's coming in the future...Just like with baseball cards, old tea cakes will be sent to a taster, who'll examine the cake and taste it. Grades it (thereby increasing resale value by XX%), and rewraps it in fancy wrapping advertising his services, dicreetly.

So there!

MY 80's 8582 is better than YOUR '80s 8582, See? Sez so right here, so why not allow me to treat you all to some FINNNNNEEEE tea?

[MarshalN]

We're already there.

[bryan_drinks_tea]

2007 Bulang area tuocha - I was being naive and purchased it on appearance only, though I was willing to take that chance. It's quite bland, even when brewed in the style A-la-Brandon. There's a decent sweetness, but no real umph to make it stand out. I'm putting it in dry storage with my other shu to see what changes I can get within the next 6 months and year.

[brandon]

Dry storage of shu, I think unfortuantely can't do much for blandness.
I had started to amass more shu bings than I really wanted to store, so I broke a bunch of them up into a jar together as a "house blend." Shared the bounty with tea drinking friends and we have made much better work of enjoying it lazily than in the individual beengs, piled up and rarely being looked at.

Unfortunately, you tea drinking mate Jason already has several lifetimes of shu house blend. Good luck pawning some off!

[G-off-re]

Just brewed the last of my 03 Ba Da sample. This one taste mature for its aged due to HK storage. Smooth with a light lingering bitterness. A simple enjoyable tea that leaves me wanting more. I told myself i wasn't going to buy anymore tea for awhile but i cant help feeling the need to pick one of these up.

[Drax]

I told myself i wasn't going to buy anymore tea for awhile but...

Oh, "famous last thoughts"... haha. I seem to have similar thoughts all the time.

I picked up samples of the latest new offerings from Essence of Tea, and I've been spending the last few days with them... I may break into the 1940s Liu An tonight, depending on how strongly dinner destroys my palate...

[Lerxst2112]

Was recently gifted a few grams of 2008 Hong Yun, and am considering brewing it up today. Unfortunately, I also have to work tonight, and I have reacted strongly both in alertness and qi with this tea in the past...

For now, it's my morning go-to tea - Long Jing!

Peace, love, and tea -
Jess

[MIKE_B]

'09 YS Road to Yi Wu "Man Zhuan"
Does this mean not quite YiWu, just outside YiWu? In the YiWu neighborhood?

[shah82]

Manzhuan is not a Yiwu area tea. It's a seperate tea mountain that, along with some other mountains close by, are often offered as tea that approximates Yiwu.

Yiwu itself is a very loose term. It's really a mountain range with some very distinct local areas. For example, Guafengzhai is way out there on the border to Laos (and over), and personally, it's almost as different from classical Mahei/Dashiqu/Luoshuidon/Gaoshanzhai Yiwu as Manzhuan is.

[debunix]

Today, some of the Lao Cha Tou from Norbu, the ever-so-pleasantly mellow shu nuggets. Just what I need for a busy bustly day, fruity/earthy without being demanding in any way.

[bryan_drinks_tea]

I just got in my order from Essence of tea - some aged stuff that I'm saving for SETM (southeastern tea meetup)

I tried the Gushu Shu Pu last night. It's bitter, with some fruity flavor and cedarwood notes running around in there somewhere. It needs age. and llamas.

[BrooklynBrew]

Maiden's Ecstasy Shu a friend sent me a sample of. It's such a perfect cubicle beverage. Brews up very dark has the taste of raw almonds.