Genuine 1967 Brick? What are the odds?

[AdmiralKelvinator]

Got wind recently of a friend of a friend who is holding on to a pu-erh brick from the late 60s, and who could potentially convinced to sell. While I am a neophyte to Pu-erh, I am aware that fake "aged" tea abounds in the market place. Therefore I would like to appeal to the collective wisdom and experience of this board. First, a few photos:






A few potential concerns that spring to mind from these two photos (Apologies for the blurriness of the text in the second)

- The front ticket has what looks like Thai(?) printed on it. At this time, were teas being produced specifically for export to the Thai market?

- While the back wrapper looks quite weathered and old, what are the odds that it is original? Would an actual tea from 1967 describe itself as "Cultural Revolution Tea"? Or was this description clearly written after the fact and applied to this brick at a later date?

- would a tea from this era list such specific information about the year of its production in the first place? I gather that in general bing wrappers from the 60s do not list the specific year of production, but what about the inside labels?

Since all of these questions are beyond my ken, I would like to submit them to the pu-erh historians here. Does it have the ambiance of an original 1960s brick, or does it smack of fakery?

[kyarazen]

not positive in my opinion, i would think it to be not of original packaging even if it is.

[Tead Off]

The writing looks Tibetan.

[ole]

The writing looks Tibetan.

Yeah, it is Tibetan for sure, ཀུང་ཇབིདགས་ཅན།* or something.
Tibetans are big consumers of tea bricks for their butter teas, are they not? So having the Tibetan inscription don't really seem all that strange.
Not that that really helps in your original questions about authenticity.

*I have no knowledge of Tibetan

[AdmiralKelvinator]

The writing looks Tibetan.

Yeah, it is Tibetan for sure, ཀུང་ཇབིདགས་ཅན།* or something.
Tibetans are big consumers of tea bricks for their butter teas, are they not? So having the Tibetan inscription don't really seem all that strange.
Not that that really helps in your original questions about authenticity.

*I have no knowledge of Tibetan

Tibetan? Very interesting, and indeed does make sense given the history of brick teas there. Ole, If you don't know Tibetan how did you type that!?

[Teaism]

Doesn't look right from my experience. Please give it a miss.

Cheers!

[ole]

The writing looks Tibetan.

Yeah, it is Tibetan for sure, ཀུང་ཇབིདགས་ཅན།* or something.
Tibetans are big consumers of tea bricks for their butter teas, are they not? So having the Tibetan inscription don't really seem all that strange.
Not that that really helps in your original questions about authenticity.

*I have no knowledge of Tibetan

Tibetan? Very interesting, and indeed does make sense given the history of brick teas there. Ole, If you don't know Tibetan how did you type that!?

I can still look at characters, and try and match them

[paxl13]

For the lil' I know, if the date is written, it's a fake. No brick prior 2010 has dates on them. But bear in mind that this is only from my blog reading experience!

Cheers!

[MEversbergII]

Fu brick, I'd guess. Can't really tell without a closeup, but it looks awfully stemmy, much like fu zhuan typically is.

M.

[TomVerlain]

in the immortal word of flock of seagulls

And I ran, I ran so far away.
I just ran, I ran all night and day.
I couldn't get away.

looks beyond fake

[TwoDog2]

And I ran, I ran so far away.
I just ran, I ran all night and day.
I couldn't get away.

This is the best thing I've seen on teachat in a long time.

[puyuan]

Best case scenario, it's a genuinely old fuzhuan with hilarious tickets attached to it... But in such cases there's hardly ever a best scenario.

[TwoDog2]

Best case scenario, it's a genuinely old fuzhuan with hilarious tickets attached to it... But in such cases there's hardly ever a best scenario.

Sort of like the best case scenarios that go through your mind in a casino.

"Now, if I am lucky, I could win millions of dollars!" But, rarely are any of us that lucky.

[AdmiralKelvinator]

Best case scenario, it's a genuinely old fuzhuan with hilarious tickets attached to it... But in such cases there's hardly ever a best scenario.

Sort of like the best case scenarios that go through your mind in a casino.

"Now, if I am lucky, I could win millions of dollars!" But, rarely are any of us that lucky.

There must be a special variety of gambler's fallacy that applies to pu-er drinkers. "The last 5 cakes were all fakes...so this one's bound to be a winner!"

Interesting info about the fuzhuan. Old fuzhuan can also be good I assume? Certainly wouldn't command the price of old pu-erh, but that might even be a blessing in disguise.

Since I've never tasted fu zhuan, any tasting notes to look out for? How would you compare it to HK-stored pu-erh? Hopefully I can get a taste of it in the near future regardless of what its true identity may be.

Thanks for all the advice thus far.

[MEversbergII]

Fu is truly bottom of the barrel stuff. I don't think age helps, except to cultivate the flowers (Jun Hua). I've got plenty if you would like a sample - just shoot me a PM.

M.