I’ve been updating a spreadsheet on pu’erh prices on release for the past few years in order to get an idea of tea being offered to western consumers and any possible trends. The well-known popular narrative is that fresh pu’erh prices have gone up and this certainly seems true in the data. Last year the prices looked about the same as the previous year. And when and how much the price has gone up depends on how we look at this and there’s a handful of different ways to look at the data and options available (I do three here).
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VORT & VOATO. Nerdy Tea Comparisons.
VORP/WAR
In sports analytics (baseball and basketball), there’s a couple of new(ish) advanced metrics that have caught traction over the past decade. One is VORP, which stands for Value Over Replacement Player and measures a player’s contribution compared with what a theoretical placement player might. This is typically measured in baseball as runs with the player being measured vs. a replacement player. Another somewhat similar metric, is WAR or Wins Above Replacement. This is measured in wins. The methodologies for these vary across sports, but involve aggregating data together in some sort of a model.
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Five Things I Like & Dislike. Short-Term Pumidors, B&B Sheng of the Day, Buying Pu’erh on Amazon
Five things I like & dislike.
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Storage Methodology & Odor-Free Storage. Things to Watch Out For in a few Popular Western Storage Methods.
One pumidor-related topic I contemplate is the correct way to think about the chosen container. Given we store a tea at identical temperature and humidity (say 70F/65RH), if we store the same tea for five years in two different ways, a food-grade plastic box versus an old wine cooler, how much will they differ? What about an odor-free wood cabinet or a crock? Or a natural solution in a humid place? Should we just be thinking about the container and methodology as a vessel to get the desired temperature and humidity, provided it can hit a few checkpoints (dark, odor-free)? Or is there something inherent with the choice we make here that can make a substantial impact to the finished product even if we’re able to store the tea otherwise identically.
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Aging Whites & Aged Whites. What I Learned From Char
Recently, Char (Oolong Owl) joined me for an inbetweenisode to discuss aging and aged white tea. Aged whites have become a topic of increasing interest in the west, and while Denny and I have brought a few onto the show it has not been a principal area of interest for us. Here’s a few of the big points and takeaways I had from that conversation with her. I highly recommend checking out Oolong Owl’s blog and reading up on white teas. She’s written as extensively as any English-language blogger on different aged whites. I recommend watching the original video for those interested in this topic. This is my summation and interpretation of much of the material discussed in the video.
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Sample Upwards! Why You Should Consider Trying Teas You Have No Intention in Buying
When I’m buying cakes of tea I tend to gravitate towards certain price ranges and have a mental ceiling of how much I’m willing to spend on tea. It’s not really based off of anything well reasoned or rationalized and I’ll occasionally break it, but more of an innate psychological barrier. This $/g line ends up being a pretty modest $0.25/g-$0.30/g. Occasionally I’ll spend up but if I look back at the purchases I’ve made in the past few years, the vast majority fall in this range or lower. This to me, seems like natural behavior and I think most folks will have impulses on what they’re willing to spend, especially once they’ve had a couple years of drinking and buying. People’s own price tendencies and intuitions undoubtedly vary person to person. Many have yet to convert to the $/g school so these decisions may manifest itself in $/cake numbers as well. For some, this could be $30 cakes or $100 cakes. For those who think in $/g, this may be $0.50/g or $0.10/g.
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Boutique Pu’erh. How Much of a Story Does the Top End of the Western Boutique Pu’erh Market Tell?
If you follow what gets said about prices each year, you would end up with the impression that the average price of tea has gone up. But more specifically the price at the most sought after regions (say Lao Banzhang, Bingdao) have gone completely through the roof. A lot of this narrative is anecdotal. Tales of rich Chinese buying up all the top-end product from X area. Part of it can also be seen when someone in the Sinosphere posts the maocha prices per location. These lists come with all sorts of contextual caveats, but the trend seems real. I don’t see any red flags to really doubt this storyline, but I was curious if it’d show up by looking at some of the data of prices on production by western facing vendors.
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Five Things I Like & Dislike. China as a Monolith, Tea Instagram, Small Vendors Selling Semi-Aged Pu’erh
Five more things I like & dislike.
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Why Simple Storage Solution are Often A Better Fit for the Western Hobbyist
If you stick around the western pu’erh scene long enough, you’ll hear about people setting up a variety of different storage setups. Unfortunately there is only a light track record for us to draw on. A handful of 10-15 year old western stored pu’erh has been lightly circulated but this isn’t exactly a quick feedback loop. While some folks flirt with fairly complex systems of storage, most people end up settling on something relatively simple. Why is that?
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A Few Considerations in a Group Session
I’ve had the opportunity to participate and host a number of group sessions since I got into tea. The context varies.. Some have been with a couple people unfamiliar with tea, others are with regular tea friends. This article on a couple approaches to choosing what to brew sequentially in a group setting and a few more of my thoughts that I thought I’d share.
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