TeaDB

Category: Raw Pu’erh

  • 2013 Xiaguan FT Love Forever Paper Tong Raw Pu’erh [Inbetweenisode 188]

    This episode I drink a tea that I own quite a lot of, the 2013 Xiaguan Love Forever Paper Tong. This tea has become fairly popular in the specialized western pu’erh in the last couple years. Despite being pressed six years ago, the tea material is older (from 2003) making this a tea with significant age on it. The tea is also special to me as my wife and I were gifted a tong of this on our wedding day from the tea community.

    The tea itself is quite strong, with a very dense taste and a long lasting mouthfeel. It is also not really like other Xiaguan teas as it was made by Feitai (FT) under the Xiaguan label. While it is semi-aged, this is a tea with a lot of potency to be aged in the future. In the video I also go over a bit of the history of this tea and talk a bit about the bamboo tong version, which is not as good.

    Rating: 6.3

    https://teaswelike.com/product/2013-xiaguan-love-forever/

    Previous Review w/Denny.

  • 2009 Yiwu via W2T Raw Pu’erh [Inbetweenisode 186]

    This episode, I drink a semi-aged raw pu’erh from W2T. The tea is from one of my pu’erh areas, Yiwu and stands out for its decent storage, clean profile, and good aftertaste. Finding affordable Yiwu can be difficult and this one is solid and doesn’t cost too much.

  • 2018 Tea & TeaDB Reflections

    2018 has been a year where I’ve continued to settle into regular habits of drinking my own tea rather than a year of exploration. I still very much enjoy drinking tea and have it at least once daily but the hobby is more restrained than a few years back. I haven’t bought teaware in several years and I drink from the few categories of tea I enjoy and not much else. Call me a grump, but I got a good idea what I like and what I’ll drink. (more…)

  • 2014 Xizi Hao Grade B Manzhuan [Episode 294]

    This episode Denny and I drink a companion to the 2014 Gedeng a few episodes back. This tea is the XZH Grade B Manzhuan and is also from the 6FM area. This session is a bit more balanced and the tea shows off a strong aftertaste and body feel. It is quite potent, but it integrates well and hits us more easily than the Gedeng. A very high-quality tea and session. Thank you Darius for providing the leaves!

  • 2014 Xizi Hao Red Mark Iron Gedeng [Episode 293]

    This episode Denny and I drink a very high-end tea from the six famous mountains range, the Gedeng. This productions uses some very high-quality leaves and is easily one of the most potent brews we’ve had on the show. If you are a lover of incoherence and substance abuse, this is the episode for you. Thank you Peter for providing the tea!

  • Why Storage Advice from Humid Parts of East Asia isn’t Always Very Useful for the West

    Storage: keep in cool, clean, dry, ventilated, no peculiar smell, no pollutant, no direct sunlight place.

    This sort of advice is common. It’s especially prevalent when looking at vendor descriptions on ebay or amazon or whatever. For a novice it all looks pretty uncontroversial, and for certain parts of the world it’s pretty good advice. But there are some real issues when this advice is directly applied to a drier climate. The first issue is with cool. This advice seems translated and copy/pasted from a place where temperatures are often higher. It’s important to keep in mind that places where pu’erh has been stored for the longest are hot. If you interpreted storing your tea “cool” relative to room temperature you may end up doing something dumb, like storing your tea in the garage at sub 50F degree weather for an extended amount of time. There is also ventilated. Airflow is a hotly contested topic in western circles, but leaving your tea in an open air environment in the west where room temperature air is a lot drier is not great for the long-term outlook of the tea.With the help of Titan Garage Doors Vancouver experts you can secure your garage with a great quality door. (more…)

  • Storage Deep Dive featuring 2007 YQH Lingya [Inbetweenisode 183]

    This episode is my second deep dive into looking at the storage . I recently acquired a cake of Lingya from a non-Yang source in Taiwan and decided to compare it with the tea I’ve been storing. The first cake is a cake I’ve kept in my own pumidor storage (an unplugged wine cooler) for three years and was previously acquired from Yang. The second cake is one that I’ve stored in a pumidor for a year in a half and then on my shelf in a ziploc for another year in a half. This is the cake I’ve consumed out of and I’ve drank up around half of it. The final cake is the aforementioned cake acquired from Taiwan.

    The tea featured is the 2007 YQH Lingya Yiwu. In my opinion this is a very decent Yiwu and I enjoy drinking it quite often.

    The episode is set around a mix of visual examination/narration and direct comparison. I begin by taking a look at dry leaves and the humidity generated by them. I then compare the three teas with each other, before concluding with a wet leaf examination and some overall thoughts/takeaways,

    If you are are pu’erh nerd or at all interested in storing pu’erh I think you will enjoy this episode. If you want to learn more about storage conditions, please check out some of our other storage related content.

    Feedback for this episode is highly appreciated!

    From Yang/Fridge/Shelf Rating: 7.5.
    From Yang/Wine Cooler Rating: 7.7.
    From TW/Non-Yang Rating: 6.1.

    If you missed it, please check out the deep dive on the storage of the 2006 Chenguanghetang Yiwu Yecha .

  • What’s a Bargain? Some Musings on Relative Price in Tea

    What’s a real bargain? Below are some of my musings on how we think about price.

    The restaurant I probably go to most often in Seattle is a local taco joint. Their menu is simple and they execute their food well. I’ve been going pretty much since they opened. It’s a little  more expensive than taco trucks but in a city that’s becoming increasingly expensive, paying around $8 or $9 for a meal is pretty good. When I leave I feel satisfied and feel as if I earned some well-earned frugality points. My wife and I also eat a good deal of seafood. Sometimes we will indulge in something nice like Black Cod, which our local Asian market had on sale for $18/lb. Typically around .5-.6 lbs is enough to feed us for a meal (with rice and veggie sides). This puts our the cost for two people around $9-11, quite a lot for a home meal. These meals feel like a splurge and sometimes induce a tinge of guilt. But the cost of the fancy-feeling Black Cod meal per person is actually less than the cost of my tacos. So why do I feel like Mr. Fancy Pants for the Black Cod and frugal for the other? (more…)

  • 2001 Zhongcha Huangyin via TWL Raw Pu’erh [Inbetweenisode 182]

    This episode, I drink a tea that is currently being sourced by some tea friends on their new project Teas We Like. The tea has been aged in Taiwan and is well-balanced, decently potent, with a strong huigan that mixes a lot of positive traits into a solid session.

    https://teaswelike.com/

    Rating: 6.7

  • 2018 W2T Lucky Puppy Raw Pu’erh [Episode 287]

    This episode, Denny and I drink one of the premium pu’erhs from White2Tea’s 2018 line. This one is very strong and powerful. It makes a big contrast from what we’ve both been drinking lately.