In major league baseball a team’s best relief pitcher is nearly always their closer. For years, the closer has been only used under very specific criteria. (a) Their team is ahead by three runs or less (b) there is one inning left. As advanced statistics and improved game theory have seeped into the sport, some teams have realized that this is a mistake. For instance… Utilizing a team’s best pitcher sometime in the middle of the game can make a lot of sense if stakes are sufficiently high. This logic has slowly caught on amongst some analytical savvy managers, some traditionalists continue to prefer waiting for a “save situation” and have suffered the consequences. This infamously occurred in the 2016 playoffs when long-time manager Buck Showalter never put in the best relief pitcher of the year in a winner takes all game, waiting for a lead that never came. (more…)
Category: Aged Pu’erh
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Pu’erh for Beginners
The pu’erh compendium and vendor guide were written nearly three years ago and the content on this site has become increasingly pu’erh focused. This is fine for those of us already living in a house made out of bamboo tongs, but there’s a large chunk of people that are very fresh and new to the hobby. (more…)
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1990 CNNP 9016 Tuo via YS [Episode 192]
An old ripe tuo stored in Kunming via Yunnan Sourcing.
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Tea Drinking Reflections 2016 & 15 Cake Challenge 2017
In what is becoming a yearly tradition, I spent too much and bought too much in 2016. An extended trip to Asia didn’t help matters. Unlike 2015 I’m actually pretty happy with what I spent money on. Part of this is just having another a year under my belt to both learn about tea and my own preferences. For instance, 85-90% of the pu’erh I bought comes from 2003-2007. This hits the right mark for me of affordability, quality of base material and storage. I’ve avoided buying young pu’erh, a category I tend to not drink much and have bought too much of in the past. I bought a bit less mature pu’erh than 2015, but that’s more because I’ve found it difficult to match some of the traditionally stored pu’erh I found in Hong Kong during my brief trip there in 2015. (more…)
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1998-2003 House Blend via FarWenwa [Episode 185]
A house-blended mix of 13yr+ pu’erh mixed in together. Generously sent to us courtesy of Geraldo at Far Wenwa.
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Pumidors 101. Designing & Maintain Your Own Pumidor
The idea of a pumidor is simple. Create an enclosed space where conditions like relative humidity can be manipulated to better maintain and age pu’erh. In the west, this usually means creating an environment where the humidity is higher than the ambient conditions. Much of the western hemisphere west is a cold, and dry relative to pu-hotspots in east Asia. If Kunming is dry compared with places that pu’erh was traditionally exported and stored at, then a good chunk of the US is the desert. With the risk of the tea drying out or simply not evolving or maturing, it is no surprise that the western pu’erh world is filled with people trying to create artificial ways of aging. One such way is the pumidor, a riff on humidor, an airtight device for aging cigars. (more…)
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2001 Yiwu Spring Buds [Episode 183]
Another review of the Yiwu Spring Buds cake that James picked up in his trip to Hong Kong in 2015. Traditionally stored, this tea is very drinkable.
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1998 Evening Fragrant Jade via Bana Tea [Episode 179]
A very relaxing, subtle older pu’erh from Bana Tea.
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Pu’erh Vendor Markup — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #107
A video followup to a series of articles on TeaDB. Screencast was meant to be on for the bulk of the video. Sorry guys!
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1960s Teabag via Wu Zhong Hang [Episode 178]
An allegedly very old teabag from Wu Zhong Hang.