Originally a tea recommended by Shah and a sample sent from Dignitea (thanks to both) for the January Lincang tea of the month. This is a very good value for an old arbor Lincang tea.
Acquired from Fine Pu’er.
Originally a tea recommended by Shah and a sample sent from Dignitea (thanks to both) for the January Lincang tea of the month. This is a very good value for an old arbor Lincang tea.
Acquired from Fine Pu’er.
6 responses to “2009 Fine Pu’er Wild Arbor Yongde DaXueShan — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #18”
Hi guys,
This website looks good, very good prices.
Have anyone try this :
http://www.finepuer.com/product/2006-cnnp-yiwu-wild-arbor-tea-cake-357g
Sometimes I am afraid when it comes to order from webpages which are not very famous.
Cheers
Hey Jaime,
Shah8, who posts frequently on the topic pu erh both on TeaDB and TeaChat had a long comment under the “Lincang Raw Pu’erh of the month” mentioning that this CNNP has been “featured in Teapot Mag tea comparison of late.” Perhaps they could speak more to the Teapot Mag write up. You can find the comment here:
http://teadb.org/lincang-puerh-january-2015-report/
(scroll to the bottom)
If it is any constellation, this tea was on my own recent order with Fine Pu’er. If you like, I can write back here to let know how it goes later in March.
I chose to order from Fine Pu’er because they have small 10g samples of pretty much all their available pu’er. Allow me to elaborate:
This meant I was able to sample a wide variety of teas and have the cost + shipping be relatively fair (equal to that of the well-known distributor: Yunnan Sourcing –in fact maybe even better than YS because finepu’er ships air post (for their cheapest option) instead of super slow ground/boat post (as with YS’s cheapest shipping option).
Furthermore, as someone starting out with pu’er I was able to grab a couple benchmark ripes and raws (from all well-known factories), that I couldn’t justify getting elsewhere for a variety of reasons. My reasons are as follows:
1.) either the mainstream/factory cake wasn’t available to sample (as was often case w/ Yunnan Sourcing).
2.) the house-brand (new school) tea seemed like a better deal or quality (as was often case w/ Yunnan sourcing and Tea Urchin)
3.) the tea they available samples of were not available in whole cakes (as was often case w/ Chawang shop).*
4.) The whole cake wasn’t actual ever available to purchase (only samples available, as the case w/Sampletea)*
*Both these last two reasons suck b/c if I end up really liking the tea and say I want full cake I would have to go hunt for it elsewhere (which might have different storage conditions…which could lead to a difference in taste).
Additionally, there has been some discussion both from James (here in video) and Shah8 (elsewhere) that Finepuer’s prices are slightly lower than the market value for many of their offers. Maybe you have noticed this but with pu’erh in general it doesn’t seem like things are getting cheaper… a good deal is also compounded by time (as similar places increase their prices more).
The one so-so thing about Fine Pu’er (I can report on thus far) is that their standard sample size is 10g. This is good and bad thing. Good b/c if I really don’t like the tea at least I only purchased a small amount of it… bad b/c if I mess up brewing it I am screwed (and I might create an unrealistic view of that pu’erh being bad when it really might be quite good).
I hope this has helped.
peace,
bellmont
for number 3 in the middle I meant: “the tea they had available samples of were not available in whole cakes (as was often case w/ Chawang Shop).*”
Also on my last point, I did some guess work and ordered double samples on the tea I thought I’d enjoy the most and ordered single samples of the stuff I was pretty confident I wouldn’t like as much (ie, Xiaguan’s more savory/smokey raw productions …that I have yet to experience).
TL;DR: I don’t know anything about the CNNP you posted, Shah8 who posts here often might though. I have an order in with Fine Pu’er, and this CNNP is on it.
To assuage your fears: Fine Pu’er is set up in an accessible and very cost-effective way that makes it easy to try out lots of pu’erh. This why I placed an order with them.
Hi Jaime & bellmont,
Thanks for chiming in. Like bellmont, I also have some of that CNNP Yiwu coming in. It hasn’t arrived yet, so I’ll report back as well. Took about a month for my package to arrive.
Bellmont, good breakdown as far as vendor pros and cons. I think there’s alot of advice there.
Cheers,
-James
such a good response ,belmont, very well documented. Thank you very much, it was very helpful. After Reading the shah8 comment I think I will order that cake and some more because I am running out of tea.