TeaDB

Category: Aged Pu’erh

  • Pu’erh Regions: Eastern Xishuangbanna, Mengla County, Yiwu + Youle

    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…)

  • Yunnan Sourcing, Featured Vendor

    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…)

  • 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.

  • Pu’erh Storage Schools

    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…)

  • 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.

  • Nannuo Pu’erh [June 2014 Tea Drinking Report]

    Nannuo Pu’erh [June 2014 Tea Drinking Report]

    Every month, I dedicate it to one type of tea. This means I drink that genre of tea in some form at least once a day. This could mean gong-fu, grandpa, or even a cold-brew. 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. 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. I had so many different teas this month that my notes were especially useful for this write-up.

    Vendors ordered from:

    Primary tea producers:

    • Mengyang Guoyan (Yunnan Sourcing)
    • Hai Lang Hao (Yunnan Sourcing)
    • Yunnan Sourcing

    Also featuring:

    • Ruiyuan, Taochaju, Yunhai, (White2Tea)
    • Mingsheng Hao, Nannuoshan Tea Factory, Changtai (Cha Wang Shop)
    • CNNP, Guan Zi Zai (Yunnan Sourcing)
    • Chen Yuan Hao (Origin Tea)
    • Supermarket Pu’erh (Tienxi/Uwajimaya)

    (more…)

  • Pu’erh Factories: Why Buy from a Big Factory? Feat. Menghai, Xiaguan

    Pu’erh Factories: Why Buy from a Big Factory? Feat. Menghai, Xiaguan

    Pu’erh brands play an important role in the marketing and selling of samples, cakes and tongs of pu’erh tea. This is far more pronounced in the Yunnan-based pu’erh when compared with their Fujian-based Yancha selling counterparts or Taiwanese oolong selling merchants. This has resulted in some fascinating convolutions within the pu’erh scene… CNNP sold their name and wrappers to anyone willing to pay, seemingly every operations specialist at Menghai formed their own factory (1,2,3), and forgery continues to be a major issue. This is true for not only highly-priced gushu and expensive aged tea but Menghai plantation tea! The pu’erh market also has a tendency to attach itself to brands and certain recipes (see 7542 speculation) and even a brand that has been protective over their reputation like Menghai, has had their recipes blatantly copied until it was deemed illegal in 2005. (more…)

  • Yiwu Pu’erh [May 2014 Tea Drinking Report]

    Yiwu Pu’erh [May 2014 Tea Drinking Report]

    Every month, I dedicate it to one type of tea. This means I drink that genre of tea in some form at least once a day. This could mean gong-fu, grandpa, or even a cold-brew. 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. 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. I had so many different teas this month that my notes were especially useful for this write-up.

    Vendors ordered from:

    Primary tea producers:

    • Yong Pin Hao + Guan Zi Zai (Yunnan Sourcing)
    • Hai Lang Hao (Yunnan Sourcing)
    • Yunnan Sourcing
    • Taochaju (White2Tea)

    Also featuring:

    (more…)

  • Pu’erh Vendor Guide

    Pu’erh Vendor Guide

    Pu’erh is a hot tea. In the past 15 years it has moved beyond its longtime audience in Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, the rest of Asia and more recently the west. With Ebay, Taobao, and the ever-growing worldwide marketplace, options for buying pu’erh online have exponentially increased in the last ten years. Pu’erh is even sold as a dieter’s tea to more “ordinary” consumers in the west. This dynamic marketplace has spawned both monstrous creations as well as very high-quality tea. The specialized vendor scenes tends to be different for pu’erh compared with vendors for other teas, i.e. Taiwanese Oolongs. This guide will attempt to highlight the various options available to the western consumer. This guide disregards any offline options (i.e. Chinese supermarkets). (more…)

  • 80’s Wild Arbor Raw Pu’erh Origin Tea [Episode 56]

    In episode 56, Denny and James review a great intro tea to aged raw pu’erh, Origin Tea‘s 80s Wild Arbor Raw Pu’erh. A reasonably priced, well-aged pu’erh.

    EDITED: Some additional notes after chatting with Tony. The earlier steeps are more affected by the storage rather than the tea itself (in this case the storage was natural Taiwanese). The ripeish notes that Denny gets are likely from this storage. The later steeps (which we didn’t really get to) speak more to the tea’s character. From my experience, this tea was able to easily go for 10+ steeps.