teadb

Author: James

  • How to Order Tea from Taobao via an Agent

    Buying through an agent for taobao isn’t terribly difficult. A lot of goods come from China and it’s natural for people to want to buy closer to the source. There’s a number of taobao agents to help satisfy the demand and ship goods to you for a fee. You’ll get dinged and leak money out to these agents/intermediaries, but in many cases the pros of less expensive tea and increased access of goods outweigh the fees and shipping cost. This article details how to go through a forwarder (agent) to purchase tea directly from the bao. (more…)

  • 2016 Yunnan Sourcing Mangfei — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #113

    A review of a very affordable, strong young pu’erh from Yunnan Sourcing.

  • Mid-2000s Liubao [Episode 186]

    Some mid 2000s Liubao (Heicha) sent to James by a private Malaysian collector.

  • 1998-2003 House Blend via FarWenwa [Episode 185]

    A house-blended mix of 13yr+ pu’erh mixed in together. Generously sent to us courtesy of Geraldo at Far Wenwa.

  • Pumidors 101. Designing & Maintain Your Own Pumidor

    The idea of a pumidor is simple. Create an enclosed space where conditions like relative humidity can be manipulated to better maintain and age pu’erh. In the west, this usually means creating an environment where the humidity is higher than the ambient conditions. Much of the western hemisphere west is a cold, and dry relative to pu-hotspots in east Asia. If Kunming is dry compared with places that pu’erh was traditionally exported and stored at, then a good chunk of the US is the desert. With the risk of the tea drying out or simply not evolving or maturing, it is no surprise that the western pu’erh world is filled with people trying to create artificial ways of aging. One such way is the pumidor, a riff on humidor, an airtight device for aging cigars. (more…)

  • Pu’erh Home Storage — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #112

    A non-drinking episode covering some topics of home storage. Basic ideas of storage, pumidors, and some dangers of storing pu’erh.

    Further reading: Home Pumidor Survey, Kunming Storage

  • 2007 Kunlu via Bana Tea [Episode 184]

    A premium, smooth, and generally very nice tea from Bana Tea. The 2007 Kunlu is very solid base material.

  • 2001 Yiwu Spring Buds [Episode 183]

    Another review of the Yiwu Spring Buds cake that James picked up in his trip to Hong Kong in 2015. Traditionally stored, this tea is very drinkable.

  • How Dry is Kunming Storage & What Does That Mean For Western Home Storage?

    “At least it’s not Kunming storage.”
    “Stored in Kunming….. Maybe it’ll be ready in 50 years.”
    -Anonymous Pu’erh Heads

    Kunming has developed a reputation as the whipping boy of storage locations. Anyone who’s sampled a tea aged in Kunming knows it’s way different and tea is much slower to change than something like dry Hong Kong storage. There’s a sizable group of pu’erh people who consider Kunming a pu’erh purgatory where tea neither ages nor dries out.. So let’s avoid Kunming and store all our pu’erh in Guangdong or Malaysia. Not so fast.. Yunnan itself certainly isn’t a desert, with places that are known to have decently hot and humid environments, such as Menghai County or Jinghong. Kunming is even described in the climate section of wikipedia as having a “mild climate”. So how dry is Kunming storage really? (more…)

  • 2015 Denong Wild Ripe [Episode 182]

    A very nice young ripe pu’erh from Denong Tea, a boutique operation who is available through Bana Tea but has also opened their own web store.