The most expensive young sheng I find on TB so far ...

[apache]

Here it is (2007 450g cake, almost US$300):
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=6345050346

I find another site which is a little bit cheaper, but still very expensive.

Very tempted to phone "The Best Tea House" see what price they would quote, but I know, even there would not be cheap.
This probably is real "gushu" material, if the cake is real, i.e. made by the founder of "88 green cakes".

[bryan_drinks_tea]

Here it is (2007 450g cake, almost US$300):
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=6345050346


This probably is real "gushu" material, if the cake is real, i.e. made by the founder of "88 green cakes".

Just being frank here, but something that is "probably" real gushu material and "if the cake is real" might not warrant a wise purchase. besides, it's taobao, there are tons of fakes there, and the price doesn't always reflect the quality.

[debunix]

What is gushu material, and why is it desireable? I've not heard of that term before.

[nickE]

What is gushu material, and why is it desireable? I've not heard of that term before.

Gushu just means old tree. It's often thought that better quality Puerh comes from older trees, sometimes 500+ years old.

You pay for this, of course. Clearly shown by that Taobao link. There are better sources for old/wild tree Puerh IMO. EoT comes to mind.

[wyardley]

What is gushu material, and why is it desireable? I've not heard of that term before.

gushu = 古树; more or less "ancient tree"
As I understand it, it's considered bad form to refer to trees that are merely "老"（old) as "古".

But of course, there aren't any real standards, so the term is essentially meaningless unless you trust that the maker / seller is telling the truth and has sourced their material carefully.

[apache]

Thank you very much for everyone who reply my post. As I'm still learning about pu'erh, it is nice to hear others opinions and learn about tea.

I come across this particular cake when I was reading a tea forum based in Hong Kong (mostly written in local dialect). I think there are some very knowledgeable people on the forum (Cloud still writing stuffs on that every now and then) and I notice that most of the cakes (I mean young sheng) they collect or drink are different from us in the west. One thing very obvious is they don't seem to be that keen on modern big factory products (i.e. Dayi, Xiaguan etc). This particular cake has a good review on the HK forum and I think it might open up some interesting discussion.

First of all, if I do go for this expensive cake, I would feel very uncomfortable to buy it on Taobao, I would rather get it directly from "The Best Tea House" base in HK. Secondly, it might not give the best Quality : Price ratio., but with pu'erh, price probably go up exponentially with quality. I don't mean there is no good bargain, but it is not easy to find. Going back to the HK forum, they seen to think for a good cake, it would be from US$ 30 upward to US$ 100. The price they quote very likely is shop price in HK (obviously, it would be more expensive than in mainland China). I think the price of this cake why so expensive is partly because the maker is Vesper Chan, owner of "The Best Tea House", he is the founder of the very sought after "88 Green Cakes" and I think he is very well respected in China or should I say anything approved by him would command high price ... Another reason is I think real Gu Shu material is very very limited and I heard that a law was made very recently to restrict the harvesting of old tree material as to preserve ancient tea tree.

Now going back to myself, I'm not saying I would buy this cake, but one thing I know for certain I really can't continue drink tea from big factory, as I find my throat very uncomfortable afterwards, and this only happen after I been seriously drinking pu'erh for more than a year. So I'm moving away from big factories stuffs. And I need to think very carefully what I would choose. I rather has less but good quality than plenty but poor tea.

[shah82]

Debunix, gushu means ancient trees, however, I don't really associate teas credibly label as such with ancient trees. In practical terms, to me, gushu is tea made with leaf from well established tree (no particular age other than being about 80+ years old) in certain soils and altitudes. These leaf characteristically have an intense mouthfeel that I associate with having an electric current run through it and loads of caffeine that makes certain parts of your face numb. Not necessarily saying that that is what you should want, but it is an indication that an aged version of that leaf will not die out very quickly and still deliver a strong kick.


Man, wonder what would happen if load of westerners started showing up in eastern chat boards, trying to use babelcarp?

[nicolas]

gushu = 古树; more or less "ancient tree"
As I understand it, it's considered bad form to refer to trees that are merely "老"（old) as "古".

But of course, there aren't any real standards, so the term is essentially meaningless unless you trust that the maker / seller is telling the truth and has sourced their material carefully.

+1

Here it is (2007 450g cake, almost US$300):
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=6345050346

Price is not an indication of quality. BTH marks up their prices and one of the reasons is because they can get away with it due to their image and marketing within the HK elite spenders. Also, it would not be wise to make an investment decision based on a review on a tea forum (HK or not) - we have to drink it ourselves to decide.

[sp1key]

You're spoilt for choice with that budget. If you want to splash it out, you can even get a 99 Yichang hao with it and Nic's right on the price/marketing aspect.

[apache]

... Also, it would not be wise to make an investment decision based on a review on a tea forum (HK or not) - we have to drink it ourselves to decide.

I'm not buying tea for investment, I'm look for pu'erh to drink now or may be to keep and drink it in years time.

[apache]

You're spoilt for choice with that budget. If you want to splash it out, you can even get a 99 Yichang hao with it and Nic's right on the price/marketing aspect.

I have looked at this already, do you means this:


Cloud has done a review on this tea.

[sp1key]

yup, thats one of the versions from 1999

[debunix]

thanks for the help with gushu terminology

[gingkoseto]

... Also, it would not be wise to make an investment decision based on a review on a tea forum (HK or not) - we have to drink it ourselves to decide.

I'm not buying tea for investment, I'm look for pu'erh to drink now or may be to keep and drink it in years time.

I guess he mainly mean investment of time.
Since I don't drink new tea, I always wonder how one can tell the future of a new tea. I have no clue about it and so far mainly stored some 3-6 years old tea that I like by taste. But I have no idea about future

[gingkoseto]

If I had been willing to buy expensive young sheng, I probably would buy this
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=7286132928

But no, at present I am not that crazy