To some extent all pu’erh moves together in the market. When the pu’erh bust hit in 2007, teas across the board were hit. Raw tea, ripe tea, Dayi, Changtai, Lao Banzhang, Yiwu.. Of course this is only part of the picture. In the bust’s case, not everything was hit equally and teas definitely didn’t all recover at the same rate.. Some teas rebounded in a year or two, far more quickly than others. Others slowly creeped back up in five or six years and some teas and brands have never recovered. (more…)
Category: Article
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Does Pu’erh Increase in Value? Part 1. Big Factory Pu’erh Recipes
When I investigated the teas that western vendors tend to sell (tldr: young raw pu’erh), the topic of pu’erhs value over time was brought up. In that post, I found that the average cost of a young raw pu’erh listed on western vendor’s sites tended to be less expensive than the semi-aged (7-15yrs+) or ripe teas that were listed. You shouldn’t read too much into this as it’s an imperfect comparison. The most obvious flaw is that the source material isn’t the same. There’s no quantitative way to measure the quality of the leaf, which makes the question of value over time tricky to answer. This article kicks off a series of posts looking at the pu’erh market. (more…)
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The Western Pu’erh Scene is Really Dominated by Modern Young Pu’erh
For people looking to learn about pu’erh I usually recommend picking a western-facing, pu’erh-centric, vendor and ordering a bunch of samples that cover a few different categories (my suggestion: young raw pu’erh, semi-aged raw pu’erh, and ripe pu’erh). Most pu’erh vendors feature teas from two or all three categories but the focus of pu’erh-centered western vendors has drifted towards just one of those three — young raw pu’erh. (more…)
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What to Expect from Traditionally Stored Tea
I get asked a lot about traditionally stored and wetter pu’erh. I like to drink these teas and it’s unfortunately a type that lacks a lot of the exposure in comparison with young pu’erh or ripe pu’erh. Most pu’erh focused vendors don’t offer this type of tea and the ones that do, it typically makes up a small part of their catalog.. Pu’erh offers a broad array of unfamiliar tastes to the western palate that can be different and a unique experience for new drinkers (see ripe pu’erh or young raw), but sitting atop that list is traditionally stored pu’erh. That lack of exposure isn’t the case in areas around southern China, where pu’erh has been consumed for much longer than anywhere else and traditional storage has historically been the default. (more…)
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Reading & Drinking Numbers, Numbered Recipes in Pu’erh
I’ve seen the hashtag #drinkingnumbers around instagram used by a few pu’erh heads. This usually means that you’re drinking a tea labeled by the recipe number.. The recipes are usually four digits, and you’ve probably seen them attached to certain teas, both raw or ripe pu’erh. 7542, 7572, 8653, etc.. (more…)
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Five Things I Like and Dislike. The Secondary Market, Four Year Old Pu’erh, 2017 Prices.
Things that have been occurring in the tea world that I like and dislike.. (more…)
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Western Tea Culture & Tea Hermits
Whenever I’ve been to Taiwan or Hong Kong, I’m reminded of the solitude of being a western drinker. In tea hotspots out east, you learn about teas by drinking with other people, shop owners, hobbyists, etc. You can explore different tea shops, drinking and talking about tea with other people. And while there’s plenty of writing online about different teas, tea as a hobby is a very social and interactive experience. In the west, most of us more closely resemble crazy, gongfu hermits. Outside of a few assorted tea shops there’s not really much tea culture in America and Europe that resembles east Asia. We may occasionally read an article online or watch a video, most (or all) of us do our gongfu sessions by ourselves or if we’re lucky with one other person. This presents some dangers in how we are developing habits and acquiring knowledge. (more…)
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Travel Write-Up (JP + TW + HK)
I recently had the privilege of traveling to Asia for the third time. Within 3.5 weeks I traveled to Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. I wasn’t going to write anything originally, but a slow chatter of emails and messages have convinced me to type up a report. The trip was primarily not tea-related, I did manage to squeeze some tea experiences in along the way. My apologies for those looking for something 100% strictly tea. We are looking to travel to the Cayman Islands next so stay tuned; you can look over here for travel information. (more…)
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The Secondary Pu’erh Market & A Few Pricing Factors
The secondary market is defined in this ebay guide on collectibles terminology as: “the buying and selling of collectibles previously sold on the primary market by retailers to collectors.” . Even though it is a consumable, the pu’erh market is also a collectible market and has a very active secondary markets in the east. In the west there’s a somewhat constant exchange of goods and money in an active secondary market, albeit much lower volume. This market is mainly composed of other drinkers (or people who bought pu’erh to invest) reselling their tea. Sometime it is because they no longer like the tea or bought too much or maybe they are trying to make a profit. Long-time tea drinkers like Wilson or Geraldo set up sites and eventually became pseudo vendors, but most of the western secondary pu’erh market are hobbyists selling off odds and ends in places like facebook groups, teachat or steepster. (more…)
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Importance of Drinking Moderation
After I had scheduled this post for publication, Marshaln published a post on Caffeine Detox. This is worth reading over. The comments section also includes some personal experiences about overconsumption / overdosing on caffeine.
I suspect the vast majority of the people crazy enough to read this blog and buy tea from the internet started out drinking tea prolifically. Getting home from work or school to a big package of 30+ samples at 6:30PM and starting a five tea marathon session until midnight. Good luck sleeping off that! After a while most of us settle into certain rhythms of when we do or don’t drink tea and end up with fairly different habits than when we first got started into the tea world. (more…)