In this episode, Denny and James drink an old favorite, Dongding.
Author: James
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2017 W2T Lumber Slut, Ripe Pu’erh [Inbetweenisode 156]
This episode I review the irreverently named Lumber Slut. It’s a ripe pu’erh produced under the White2Tea label and right in the wheelhouse for those that like heavy wood flavors.
Sorry for the sound quality as my phone didn’t record the audio so I was forced to use the audio from my camera.
6.4 Rating.
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MyTeaGuy Oriental Beauty [Episode 251]
This episode, Denny and James review an old favorite, Oriental Beauty. Oriental Beauty is a summer-harvested, bug-bitten tea that is harvested in Taiwan. Thank you to Roy (My Tea Guy) for supplying the tea for this episode.
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Famous Tea: 1988 Qing Bing
The 1988 Qing Bing is a very famous cakes from the 1980s and early 1990s. Like the 1999 BGT I thought I would share my experiences with it. Phyll Sheng lays out the criteria for 1988 QB in this informative post.
- They are Menghai Factory-produced 7542 tea cakes from 1989-1992, and
- They are dry-and-naturally stored.
A sample was very generously sent as a wedding gift by Su who has stored this tea for a couple decades in Malaysia. Thanks so much for your generosity Su! (more…)
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2017 Chenyuan Hao Dragon Ball via LiquidProust [Episode 250]
This episode, Denny & James drink a boutique raw pu’erh pressed into a ball, by Chenyuan Hao (a well known Taiwanese boutique). Thank you to Liquid Proust for providing the tea.
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Teas Unique Jeju Island Black Tea [Episode 249]
This episode, Denny and James review a Korean Black tea from Jeju Island.
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Settling Down into Tea & Other Reflections
The past year I had a couple goals. The first was to cut down on tea purchases and the second was to settle into more normal purchasing and consumption tea habits. These were motivated by life circumstances and a desire to be more balanced with my tea habits. I already own a lot of tea, much of which I enjoy drinking, and my behavior should reflect that. With these basic thoughts in mind, I’d say I’ve been partially successful thus far. There have been a few impulsive extra cake splits and purchases than I would’ve liked and the obsessive mind will search for endless ways to get around tea rules (cake splits, sample buys), but by and large I’ve bought a whole lot less tea this year. (more…)
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ZETA, 2017 YS Rooster King Ripe Blind Tasting [Episode 248]
The final episode of the blind tasting is a ripe, Scott’s 2017 Rooster King.
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EPSILON, GAMMA. 2017 YS QMS, 2017 YS YB Yunnan Sourcing Raw Pu’erh Blind Tasting [Episode 247]
This episode, Denny and James complete the raw pu’erh portion of the Yunnan Sourcing blind tasting. Tasting has been coordinated by Matt of http://mattchasblog.blogspot.com/ and Yunnan Sourcing https://yunnansourcing.com/ . Big thank you to Matt and Scott!
The tea covered in this episode are Epsilon & Gamma, which are Yunnan Sourcing’s 2017 Qingmeishan & 2017 Yibang cake.
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Western Brands are Very Different from Big Factory Tea
- The data from this original post was originally taken from puer.cn, and isn’t totally complete (it’s probably missing some productions). The information is intended as a proxy to look at some trends. Here’s the dataset of White2Tea, Yunnan Sourcing, Dayi, and Xiaguan. Dayi and Xiaguan we looked at 2004-2006 and 2014-2016. For W2T/YS we just looked at 2014-2016.
It’s no secret that the pu’erh market has changed a lot. Old factories like Dayi and Xiaguan have remained mainstays, but are pretty different entities than they were 30 or 40 years ago. Boutiques and more recently westward facing vendors have popped up. Some have pressed long enough to fall into certain patterns for what they offer, i.e. vendor X sells tea as Wuliang every year. As we’ve examined in what western vendors put into their inventory, boutique western facing vendors don’t necessarily offer a balanced selection of pu’erh. So are these big Chinese vendors offering the same sort of tea as we see places like Yunnan Sourcing or White2Tea are? Not exactly. (more…)