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May/June/July Tea of the Month 2015
Here’s the announcement of the next batch of tea of the months. Feel free to drink alongside, give suggestions, etc. Due to being egregiously and hilariously over my tea budget, I’m not sure how much I will be able to accommodate specific requests! Greater Yiwu, Mengla County + Youle (May 2015) Menghai County (June 2015)…
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Cutting Out the Middleman (And is it Worth It?)
As westerners we are in a land far from the production of our beloved Yunnanese pu’erh and from the huge tea markets of China. This seemingly locks us into a constant struggle to eliminate as many middlemen and meddling hands as possible between us and our teas. The western market for pu’erh is far smaller and…
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Wuliang/Ailao Raw Pu’erh [February 2015 Tea Drinking Report]
Big shoutouts to Carolyn & Brian (a different Brian from last month) for providing several of the teas for this month and allowing the content to be what it is! I hope you like long-form content, because this tea of the month report is truly massive. In the month of February 2015, the tea of the month…
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Pu’erh Regions: Pu’er Prefecture
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. Previously named Simao, Pu’er Prefecture shares pu’erh’s name and is one of the three…
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Pu’erh Buying Thoughts: Diversification & Buying Tea for the Long Haul
Pu’erh is one of the trickiest teas to buy and a very different landscape than other teas. One reason is the instability of the market, partially because pu’erh is treated as a commodity for investment and is mainly due to the the thought that pu’erh will improve over time. Another is the psychology behind the consumption of pu’erh.…
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Lincang Raw Pu’erh [January 2015 Tea Drinking Report]
Big shoutouts to Dignitea, Brian, Jake, Carolyn and Cwyn for providing several of the teas for this month and allowing the content to be what it is! I hope you like long-form content, because this tea of the month report is truly massive. In the month of January 2015, the tea of the month was…
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Pu’erh Regions: Lincang
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. Regarded as the northern pu’erh region Lincang Prefecture is one of the largest…
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Ripe Pu’erh Shopping. What does your Money Buy?
Tea quality and price aren’t exactly cause and effect. There’s alot of factors that go into pricing tea and there’s a reason why hunting white labels can be lucrative. It’s important to know what exactly goes into the pricing of tea, in order to know where your money is going and to most obviously not get ripped off.…
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Problems with Online Tea Reviews
There are many problems with reviews online. Many people use reviews as a way to filter out the fodder and find good products. Talking about and discussing tea is also an important and necessary part of the learning process and a part that reviews can help to facilitate. Learning in a vacuum is usually a terrible…
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February/March Tea of the Month 2015
I decided I’m going to be announcing these early in groups of three months. This gives me a bit more time to combine orders and collect samples. Please suggest teas in the comments or via email teadborg@gmail.com. Tea of the Months: Wu Liang/Ai Lao (February), I’ll do other parts of Simao later. Cheap Yancha (first…