In episode 71, Denny & James welcome back special guests Rie and Elyse from Tealet. Episode 71 covers the genre bending, the White Forest Oolong sourced from Nepal.
Author: James
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Pu’erh Regions: Eastern Xishuangbanna, Mengla County, Yiwu + Youle
This article frequently references and links to babelcarp. Babelcarp is a Chinese Tea Lexicon that is an essential resource for tea nerds that want to dive in further and don’t understand Chinese! This article also sources many maps from a TeaChat thread, original sources vary.
Pu’erh is frequently sold by its geographical farming location. Teas are marketed as being from Yiwu, Banzhang, and Bingdao. These areas exist as physical areas but also serve as important marketing terms for pu’erh. Hot regions like Banzhang or Bingdao can fetch extremely high price tags. Learning these regions are an important part in understanding new school pu’erh as well as the regional terroir of Yunnan. The southernmost prefecture in Yunnan, Xishuangbanna is arguably the most important prefecture within Yunnan for pu’erh. Xishuangbanna is home to Menghai Tea Factory and the six famous tea mountains. It is also where most examples of aged pu’erh base material originates from. In the last 20 years, the pu’erh boom is extremely apparent in Xishuangbanna, an area that generally fetches the highest price for their tea. Within Xishuangbanna, there are dramatically different flavor profiles, from the soft, pleasant aftertaste of Yiwu to the bold and brash Bulang. This post will focus on the eastern regions of Xishuangbanna, which includes the greater Yiwu region, most of which falls under Mengla County. (more…)
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Special Guest: Hawaiian Rainforest White via Tealet [Episode 70]
In episode 70, Denny & James welcome special guests Rie and Elyse from Tealet onto the show. This episode we cover a US-grown tea, the Hawaiian Rainforest White.
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Teavivre’s Organic Bai Mu Dan [Episode 69]
In episode 69, Denny & James review continue the second half of their series on Teavivre‘s white teas. This time it is the more robust, sweet Bai Mu Dan.
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Yunnan Sourcing, Featured Vendor
The vendor profile for Yunnan Sourcing is a part of our Pu’erh Tea Vendor Series, covering a number of Pu’erh-centric vendors that sell to the west.
Based in both Kunming and Portland, Yunnan Sourcing is one of the longest standing pu’erh vendors in the international online marketplace. The store was founded by Scott Wilson, an American expatriate based in Kunming and was originally conceived as an ebay vendor (in 2004). As the pu’erh tea market has grown in the west and worldwide, Yunnan Sourcing has grown and evolved with it. The ebay store eventually migrated onto its own domain(s), YunnanSourcing.com and eventually YunnanSourcing.us. In 2009, Scott began to source and press the well-received Yunnan Sourcing production cakes, these beengs have become a major selling point on Yunnan Sourcing’s online store. (more…)
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Teavivre’s Organic Silver Needle [Episode 68]
In episode 68, Denny & James review begin a short, two-episode series on Teavivre‘s white teas. Today it is the classic, archetypal Silver Needle.
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Pu’erh Storage Comparison CNNP 2000 7561 Yunnan Sourcing, CNNP 2000 7532 White2Tea Raw Pu’erh [Episode 67]
This is another TeaDB special episode where Denny & James compare and contrast two 14-year old pu’erhs that have undergone different storage techniques. The point here isn’t necessarily the base material of the teas themselves, simply the importance of storage and how it can affect the tea. Tea’s brewed are Yunnan Sourcing‘s Kunming-stored (dry) 2000 CNNP Yi Liang 7561 and White2Tea‘s Guangdong-stored CNNP Tiepai 7532.
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Pu’erh Storage Schools
Pu’erh storage is a polarizing topic. This article is not intended to be a storage guide, nor an advertisement or critique of any particular storage methodology. The goal is to simply outline a few concepts and methods surrounding the complicated and controversial issue of pu’erh storage. Similar to how there is no single way in which the Chinese, Yunnanese, or Southeast Asians consume pu’erh, there is no obvious consensus when it comes to storage. This is all despite what vendors or other influencers directly involved with pu’erh might say. (more…)
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CNNP 1997 7581 Yunnan Sourcing Ripe Pu’erh [Episode 66]
Curated by Yunnan Sourcing, this is a great example of aged ripe pu’erh. CNNP’s 7581 is a notoriously inconsistent recipe, but this particular tea is an example of a well-aged, dry-stored ripe pu’erh. Complex profile, a very nice tea.
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Bulang Pu’erh [July 2014 Tea Drinking Report]
For June 2014, the tea of the month was Bulang Pu’erh. During this past month, I had Bulang tea at least once a day (unless totally unfeasible). I’ll still consume other teas, but the primary focus is understanding and building a palate for a specific type/genre/region of tea through repetition and concentrated learning. This the most personal blogging type style of post for TeaDB, and the goal is to stretch my palate as well as give recommendations to interested parties.
Vendors ordered from:
Primary tea producers:
- Banzhang Tea Factory (Cha Wang Shop/White2Tea)
- Hai Lang Hao (Yunnan Sourcing)
- Yunnan Sourcing
Also featuring:
- Mengyang Guoyan (Yunnan Sourcing)
- Gu Ming Xiang (Yunnan Sourcing)