Opinions on my choices of pu please

[drumhum]

stay away from the 1998 lincang green wrapped. i have it and it's nothing special for the price. my advice is to spend the money on one top premium grade green raw cake , and one aged raw that's at least 15 yrs old stored in a humid hotter climate. You'll enjoy your tea more and saved yourself alot of money.

I totally agree - the question is though, which two cakes two buy?

I'm basically "throwing mud against a wall" with my selection. I am hoping, at least that I'll come out of this spend a lot more educated in pu than I am now.

[Wesli]

(and as you carefully point out)its hard to choose which old stuff to buy when one is inexperienced.

No, what I said is that it doesn't really matter what you choose because it will all taste the same.

If I knew for sure that I'd love a particular old tea, I'd get it. I just don't think I'm quite up to finding/choosing it yet. I've read a fair few reports of ancient tea not living up to expectation (or their price) too and thats pretty frightening to a newb

But you haven't heard all the bad stuff about young sheng, not to mention the health concerns? As for the price... I pointed you directly to a good source...

I'm not saying this to hurt you, but to help you. From over here, it looks like you've gotten too giddy towards pu-erh. Many of us start this way and end up with a bunch of crap we don't like. You should take a few steps back, a deep breath, and get more help. Take some young sheng out of your YSLLC cart, and use that money to buy some aged sheng, or at least get one sample to try. If you love shu, odds are you'll love aged sheng as well.

[teakid]

You gotta try the:

2004 Jing Mai Millenial Stone- Pressed Pu-erh tea cake 25 grams

<snip>

Tea added to list - no doubt I'll love it and then feel frustrated I can't buy a full cake anywhere!

No worries, he's got 2005 cakes available for the same price as a 2004.

[drumhum]

I'm not saying this to hurt you, but to help you.

No hurt felt at all! I really appreciate your direct words and informed help here!

[Salsero]

Do you just email a request and take it from there?

Yes. He replies with the total including postage and payment instructions. He accepts paypal.

[chrl42]

in a more suitable climate, like Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is not suitable climate for Puerh.

It's only now to realise Hong Kong or Guang Dong stored Puerhs were wet-stored which often brings a white mold. However, Puerh sensation had been started by HK/GD sellers so most of aged Puerhs were from that areas...which are not welcomed on the market nowadays..

They claim ideal humidity(less than 80%?) with a little wind..where would that be? I woud not know....

[Dizzwave]

Hey drumhum!
I recommend the Mengku Mu Ye Chun Old Tree Green Cake over their Spring Tips cake. It's a couple dollars more, but worth it, I think.

<snip>
Cheers for the pointer. That Old Tree stuff is actually $1.70 cheaper than the Spring Tips! Its also a 2008 (If this is the one you mean).

Hmm, I just checked my records, and it turns out I was thinking of the 2008 Mengku Mu Ye Chun Spring Tips, which is different than the regular old 2008 Mengku Spring Tips somehow. I've had that one (the MYC spring tips) and the 2008 Mengku Mu Ye Chun Old Tree Green, and like the latter better. I can't speak for the others though.

Interestingly I see TouchaTea.com have a Mengku Spring Tips 2006 for $12.80 by the Hongtaicheng factory. Different factory to the YN LLC cake (Shuanjiang)

Yep, Mengku is an area where tea is grown, just like Menghai, etc. That's why you'll see other factories making stuff of Mengku or Menghai leaves, but it doesn't mean they're from the Mengku Shuangjiang or Menghai factory.

Jeeze you could end up buying a ton at this game!

That's the spirit! Welcome to my world. Just have fun, and try not to let the buying madness get in the way of the deliciously relaxing way of tea! (I have to remind myself quite often.... daily?)
-dave

[TIM]

in a more suitable climate, like Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is not suitable climate for Puerh.

It's only now to realise Hong Kong or Guang Dong stored Puerhs were wet-stored which often brings a white mold. However, Puerh sensation had been started by HK/GD sellers so most of aged Puerhs were from that areas...which are not welcomed on the market nowadays..

They claim ideal humidity(less than 80%?) with a little wind..where would that be? I woud not know....

Hard to say most Hong Kong puerh are wet-stored. I truly believe different Cultures have different taste and no one should be alike (where is the fun!). But I do experience storing aged tea in NY is the biggest challenge/disappointment so far....

[Wesli]

It's only now to realise Hong Kong or Guang Dong stored Puerhs were wet-stored which often brings a white mold. However, Puerh sensation had been started by HK/GD sellers so most of aged Puerhs were from that areas...which are not welcomed on the market nowadays..

Well, they're welcome on my market. Hong Kong is only above 80%RH for a little over half of the year, and the little that it does go over isn't enough for most to call a "wet-store." I will continue to pick HK>Kunming store for most of my pu-erhs.

[ABx]

Yeah, people from the Hong Kong area say that it's what puerh should be like - some prefer the higher humidity wet stored puerh while others hate it.

[ABx]

I second Wesli's Hou De recommendation. I recently got a sample of their 2000 Cheng Guang-He Tang "Yi Wu Yieh Sheng" Brick, and liked it so much that I got a brick. It's a very nice example of an "adolescent" sheng.
I haven't tried much older sheng, but I'd go to them for sure.
-dave

I agree that it's nice, but it's not really quite adolescent yet - still quite young.

And thanks for the plug, Sal If anyone wants to see the full puerh paper, you can download it from http://www.dyingsun.net/Tea/puerh-intro.doc
I've got the content and formatting down, just need pics. I know I've been talking about adding pics for some time now, but things have been hectic. Hopefully I'll get them soon. Maybe you want to help, Sal? You're far better at taking pics than I am

[Salsero]

Maybe you want to help, Sal?

Give me some homework and I'll try.

[brandon]

Maybe you want to help, Sal?

Give me some homework and I'll try.

http://brandonhale.us/~brandon/photos/tea/puerhpaper/

I made some very rough cuts here to act as placeholders while Sal gears up the great photo machine. Only a few of these are actually pleasant, but should give an idea to more creative minds.

In the forms section, beeng, back of beeng, bricks in various sizes, tuo cha, unwrapped tuocha. I may return to a few of these with a flash and a tripod and provide you with some usable stock.

[chrl42]

in a more suitable climate, like Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is not suitable climate for Puerh.

It's only now to realise Hong Kong or Guang Dong stored Puerhs were wet-stored which often brings a white mold. However, Puerh sensation had been started by HK/GD sellers so most of aged Puerhs were from that areas...which are not welcomed on the market nowadays..

They claim ideal humidity(less than 80%?) with a little wind..where would that be? I woud not know....

Hard to say most Hong Kong puerh are wet-stored. I truly believe different Cultures have different taste and no one should be alike (where is the fun!). But I do experience storing aged tea in NY is the biggest challenge/disappointment so far....

You are obviously right, I was raising my tone a bit without much experience.

What I wanted to just say was tho, since most of Puerh sellers are from Guang Dong it's very possible to be claimed 'Guang Dong' stored = humid stored Puerh can be only called ideal storing to our buyer's eyes.

But it's true that
1. lots of intentional wet-storing has been practiced in Guang Dong
2. even without intention, natural humidity gets assimilated storing in Guang Dong
3. many of their Puerh brings a white mold, which by no means a good sign of proper storing
4. haven't heard or read that wet-storing is better than dry-storing (so far)

Just my opinions, Tim

[hop_goblin]

in a more suitable climate, like Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is not suitable climate for Puerh.

It's only now to realise Hong Kong or Guang Dong stored Puerhs were wet-stored which often brings a white mold. However, Puerh sensation had been started by HK/GD sellers so most of aged Puerhs were from that areas...which are not welcomed on the market nowadays..

They claim ideal humidity(less than 80%?) with a little wind..where would that be? I woud not know....

Hard to say most Hong Kong puerh are wet-stored. I truly believe different Cultures have different taste and no one should be alike (where is the fun!). But I do experience storing aged tea in NY is the biggest challenge/disappointment so far....

You are obviously right, I was raising my tone a bit without much experience.

What I wanted to just say was tho, since most of Puerh sellers are from Guang Dong it's very possible to be claimed 'Guang Dong' stored = humid stored Puerh can be only called ideal storing to our buyer's eyes.

But it's true that
1. lots of intentional wet-storing has been practiced in Guang Dong
2. even without intention, natural humidity gets assimilated storing in Guang Dong
3. many of their Puerh brings a white mold, which by no means a good sign of proper storing
4. haven't heard or read that wet-storing is better than dry-storing (so far)

Just my opinions, Tim

IMHO, I see nothing wrong with Wet-Stored Pu-erh. Many of the examples I have tasted are wet stored and have been a joy to drink. Yes, HongKong does ripen pu-erh much faster than let's say in KunMing, but by no means does it make it inferior. If the market is not accepting wet stored it is only due the perpetuation of the belief that "wet stored equals inferior" when nothing more is far from the truth. You can not deny that many of the great vintages were wet stored. It is really easy to get snobbish about pu-erh and storage conditions when the fact is that different storage conditions provides the drinker much more variety, experiences, and sensations. THis said, I do agree that some vendors will ripen pu-erh and THEN wrap them in old looking paper to sell to the uninformed world market. This is what I am against. Wet stored pu-erh is just as much or even more part of pu-reh history than the infamous 88 ching beeng.