outer layer VS inner layer

[shah82]

With cloths, I entirely agree. I've largely have had to swear off sportswear on ebay because the fake, or low quality, or whatever, is pervasive that branding doesn't protect against.

Funny how it works just fine for designer shirts and pants. You only have to worry about exact fit and how worn it is if it's used...

[entropyembrace]

Virtually nothing in the West has that kind of abusive practice. Darwinian weeding of underperformers is fairly fast.

Nonsense. underperforming leather shoes manufactured by branded names are entirely overpriced by several factors i only know this trivia because i recently hunted for a pair of formal shoes for graduation and stumbled on a whole boatload of info regarding leather shoe make. Its the old "make something seem nicer than it really is" trick. Although admittedly it might be less rampant.

There are soooooooooooooooo many overpriced, poorly made shoes and boots out there. They´ve absolutely flooded the malls in North America. It´s very hard to find good footwear.

And unfortunately the prices really don´t reflect the quality.

[betta]

Absolutely not true. Covering the surface of cakes with nicer looking leaves is an age-honoured practice going back to at least the 19th century -- British observers who visited Yunnan mentioned this practice as being common. You mean to tell me that those 19th century cakes are all false production too?

Maybe I got it wrong.
I can understand if it can be regarded as "marketing strategy". But what's honourable from such a practice?
I personally prefer uniform leaves in a cake, so that I don't have to break an entire cake and mix it in a storage jar.

[gingkoseto]

Absolutely not true. Covering the surface of cakes with nicer looking leaves is an age-honoured practice going back to at least the 19th century -- British observers who visited Yunnan mentioned this practice as being common. You mean to tell me that those 19th century cakes are all false production too?

Maybe I got it wrong.
I can understand if it can be regarded as "marketing strategy". But what's honourable from such a practice?
I personally prefer uniform leaves in a cake, so that I don't have to break an entire cake and mix it in a storage jar.

I guess it's honored mainly because it's not easily done. In the old days, it took a worker a lot of training to learn how to do the covering properly. It's like if blending white flour and whole wheat, extremely few people can mange to make a dough with whole wheat only on the surface. A researcher of Yunnan culture wrote in 1930s that "it was deemed as loss of professional honor if a worker blend tea leaves of different grades evenly in a cake/tuo". I guess it was because anyone untrained could do it but only trained workers could do a nice covering job.

[gingkoseto]

Virtually nothing in the West has that kind of abusive practice. Darwinian weeding of underperformers is fairly fast.

Nonsense. underperforming leather shoes manufactured by branded names are entirely overpriced by several factors i only know this trivia because i recently hunted for a pair of formal shoes for graduation and stumbled on a whole boatload of info regarding leather shoe make. Its the old "make something seem nicer than it really is" trick. Although admittedly it might be less rampant.

There are soooooooooooooooo many overpriced, poorly made shoes and boots out there. They´ve absolutely flooded the malls in North America. It´s very hard to find good footwear.

And unfortunately the prices really don´t reflect the quality.

I used to LOVE buying shoes! I can proudly say, I seldom bought shoes with a discount less than 70% off. IMO, It's not a bad thing that rich people buy over-priced shoes and ordinary people buy post-seasonal sales with a deep discount

[entropyembrace]

Virtually nothing in the West has that kind of abusive practice. Darwinian weeding of underperformers is fairly fast.

Nonsense. underperforming leather shoes manufactured by branded names are entirely overpriced by several factors i only know this trivia because i recently hunted for a pair of formal shoes for graduation and stumbled on a whole boatload of info regarding leather shoe make. Its the old "make something seem nicer than it really is" trick. Although admittedly it might be less rampant.

There are soooooooooooooooo many overpriced, poorly made shoes and boots out there. They´ve absolutely flooded the malls in North America. It´s very hard to find good footwear.

And unfortunately the prices really don´t reflect the quality.

I used to LOVE buying shoes! I can proudly say, I seldom bought shoes with a discount less than 70% off. IMO, It's not a bad thing that rich people buy over-priced shoes and ordinary people buy post-seasonal sales with a deep discount

Even 70% off I wouldn´t want most of the shoes I see in the malls

It´s mostly cheap pvc that´s been sloppily put together....have to really hunt to find anything better.

Worst is when it´s cheap grey PVC and to make the colours they just paint them...then the paint starts flaking off

Also the heels often look like they´ll come off fairly easily

But that stuff sells at $100 to $200 a pair somehow...

[MarshalN]

Absolutely not true. Covering the surface of cakes with nicer looking leaves is an age-honoured practice going back to at least the 19th century -- British observers who visited Yunnan mentioned this practice as being common. You mean to tell me that those 19th century cakes are all false production too?

Maybe I got it wrong.
I can understand if it can be regarded as "marketing strategy". But what's honourable from such a practice?
I personally prefer uniform leaves in a cake, so that I don't have to break an entire cake and mix it in a storage jar.

Because the mixing of the tea is an art, and it's very difficult to do well.

The proper mix will yield a fuller cup that is not attainable with single estate teas. That's how all vintage puerh (up until pretty much the 90s) were made. The idea that a cake should be uniform inside and out is an entirely new concept to puerh making, and has no historical basis of any kind. If we are serious about getting teas that will age well in the future, and if we judge past performance as our yardstick, then clearly blending is the way to go.

The idea that you break off chunks of tea to drink at at time is already a deviation from what has always been done, which is to break cakes in their entirety and then mixed up, put in a jar and consumed that way.

[the_economist]

this is excellent info! maybe it would make sense to return to this.

[shah82]

/me hands the_economist some Xiaguan tuos..

You do them, my hands are tired. And my mallet is broken.

[betta]

The proper mix will yield a fuller cup that is not attainable with single estate teas. That's how all vintage puerh (up until pretty much the 90s) were made. The idea that a cake should be uniform inside and out is an entirely new concept to puerh making, and has no historical basis of any kind. If we are serious about getting teas that will age well in the future, and if we judge past performance as our yardstick, then clearly blending is the way to go.

The idea that you break off chunks of tea to drink at at time is already a deviation from what has always been done, which is to break cakes in their entirety and then mixed up, put in a jar and consumed that way.

Thanks for clearing up this issue.
I'm well aware of the importance of blending to achieve certain objectives, including in terms of puerh tea. As a result, I always break entire tea cake, mixed it in the storage jar and consume it slowly while letting it ages there. I have limited amount of storage jars, therefore I could only break several cakes so far.

[the_economist]

/me hands the_economist some Xiaguan tuos..

You do them, my hands are tired. And my mallet is broken.

lol! put some qi into it