In this extended episode, James & Garrett talk about their drinking habits and how they’ve changed over the past few years. They also give theoretical advice to themselves earlier on in their tea hobbies.
Category: Raw Pu’erh
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Outdoor & Indoor Pu’erh Storage in the West. Why Climate Data Only Tells a Partial Picture for Home Storage.
A while back I crunched the numbers for climates in some eastern and western cities and compared them to Kunming. One of the takeaways from that article is that despite its reputation, Kunming’s humidity is not that much lower than places with a more humid reputation, i.e. Hong Kong or Taipei. The more significant difference is in the temperature. On a similar note, Seattle (my hometown) is similar in relative humidity but is even colder than Kunming. Hotter air holds more water content and in that article I noted the sometimes under-emphasized importance of temperature. I stand by this, but I now read the climate data a little differently, especially when it comes to the implications of home storage in the west. (more…)
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Famous Tea: 1988 Qing Bing
The 1988 Qing Bing is a very famous cakes from the 1980s and early 1990s. Like the 1999 BGT I thought I would share my experiences with it. Phyll Sheng lays out the criteria for 1988 QB in this informative post.
- They are Menghai Factory-produced 7542 tea cakes from 1989-1992, and
- They are dry-and-naturally stored.
A sample was very generously sent as a wedding gift by Su who has stored this tea for a couple decades in Malaysia. Thanks so much for your generosity Su! (more…)
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2017 Chenyuan Hao Dragon Ball via LiquidProust [Episode 250]
This episode, Denny & James drink a boutique raw pu’erh pressed into a ball, by Chenyuan Hao (a well known Taiwanese boutique). Thank you to Liquid Proust for providing the tea.
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EPSILON, GAMMA. 2017 YS QMS, 2017 YS YB Yunnan Sourcing Raw Pu’erh Blind Tasting [Episode 247]
This episode, Denny and James complete the raw pu’erh portion of the Yunnan Sourcing blind tasting. Tasting has been coordinated by Matt of http://mattchasblog.blogspot.com/ and Yunnan Sourcing https://yunnansourcing.com/ . Big thank you to Matt and Scott!
The tea covered in this episode are Epsilon & Gamma, which are Yunnan Sourcing’s 2017 Qingmeishan & 2017 Yibang cake.
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Western Brands are Very Different from Big Factory Tea
- The data from this original post was originally taken from puer.cn, and isn’t totally complete (it’s probably missing some productions). The information is intended as a proxy to look at some trends. Here’s the dataset of White2Tea, Yunnan Sourcing, Dayi, and Xiaguan. Dayi and Xiaguan we looked at 2004-2006 and 2014-2016. For W2T/YS we just looked at 2014-2016.
It’s no secret that the pu’erh market has changed a lot. Old factories like Dayi and Xiaguan have remained mainstays, but are pretty different entities than they were 30 or 40 years ago. Boutiques and more recently westward facing vendors have popped up. Some have pressed long enough to fall into certain patterns for what they offer, i.e. vendor X sells tea as Wuliang every year. As we’ve examined in what western vendors put into their inventory, boutique western facing vendors don’t necessarily offer a balanced selection of pu’erh. So are these big Chinese vendors offering the same sort of tea as we see places like Yunnan Sourcing or White2Tea are? Not exactly. (more…)
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DELTA, 2017 YS Jingmai Yunnan Sourcing Raw Pu’erh Blind Tasting [Episode 246]
This episode Denny and James do part 2 in their Yunnan Sourcing blind tasting.Tasting has been coordinated by Matt of http://mattchasblog.blogspot.com/ and Yunnan Sourcing https://yunnansourcing.com/ . Big thank you to Matt and Scott!
The tea covered in this episode is Delta, which is Yunnan Sourcing’s 2017 Jingmai cake.
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Zhang Jinghong’s Ancient Caravans & Urban Chic, a Conversation w/Garrett [Inbetweenisode 155]
This is not a review.. In this episode, James and Garrett have a very long discussion on (IMO) the best English-language book on pu’erh around. They discuss what they like about the book and dive deeper into some of the topics brought up by Zhang (the author).
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ALPHA, BETA, Yunnan Sourcing Raw Pu’erh Blind Tasting [Episode 245]
This episode Denny and James start a three episode series on some Yunnan Sourcing teas, tasted blind. Tasting has been coordinated by Matt of http://mattchasblog.blogspot.com/ and Yunnan Sourcing https://yunnansourcing.com/ . Big thank you to Matt and Scott!
The teas covered in this episode are Alpha and Beta.
Alpha is the 2017 YS Mushucha.
Beta is the 2017 YS Hetaodi.
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You Can Buy Young Pu’erh From All Over Yunnan
The custom private label pu’erh has really thrived in the western market – with vendors increasingly sourcing their own pressings directly from Yunnan. This was a new thing for westerners back in 2009 when just Yunnan Sourcing and Essence of Tea pressed tea. Now it is almost a rite of passage for a pu’erh-centric vendor, and we have access to a sleuth of options all over Yunnan. (more…)