After such wonderful raw pu’erhs in previous months, why subject yourself to lowly factory tea. Believe me. I asked these questions many times. So why do it? (a) I really need to do a stash check and determine how these teas really are. (b) I’ve made alot of mistakes in buying pu’erh, wasting both space and money. Many of these were my tuition, and I think it can be an illuminating exercise to look back and reflect. If you’re only interested in my opinion on young or old premium tea you can probably stop reading and come back when the younger Menghai County report comes out in a few weeks. (more…)
Category: Raw Pu’erh
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2005 Xiaguan 8653 via Taobao — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #44
2005 Xiaguan 8653 acquired directly from Taobao. A good way to get inexpensive slightly-aged factory productions.
https://www.taobaoring.com/
https://mx-tea.world.taobao.com/ -
2014 Yunnan Sourcing Autumn Daqing Gushu [Episode 120]
A very good autumn tea from Yunnan Sourcing and a good value buy.
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2006 Old Bear vs. 2006 XG FT Purple Box — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #43
Battle of the fang. A comparison between White2Tea’s Old Bear and a Guangdong-stored 2006 Xiaguan Feitai production (picked up via Taobao).
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Evaluating & Purchasing Teas. A Few Things That Might Alter Your Perception.
You’ve just come back from an amazing experience at a tea shop at your local Chinatown. Not only did you strike up an engaging conversation with the tea shop owner but you got to drink through several different teas and eventually pick out your favorite of the bunch. Eager to recreate the experience, you dump $40-100 on a 150g bag of tea (not saying it was cheap). Except there’s one problem. You can’t make the tea taste the same. It’s not necessarily bad or worse, just different. You’ve tried using a lot of leaf, a little leaf, brewing for a long time, brewing for a short time, different water, lower temperature, higher temperature, yixing, no yixing, etc.. Other than adding cream & sugar (because you have a soul), you’ve pretty much tried everything. Disregarding the possibility of being duped (bait & switch) or other sorts of foul play, what’s going on here? (more…)
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2013 Yunnan Sourcing’s Dasi — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #42
A revisiting of the tea consumed in episode 115, Yunnan Sourcing’s 2013 Dasi.
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2005 Naka via White2Tea [Episode 118]
A kinda calming tea. The 2005 Naka.
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Useful Pu’erh Resources/Blogs — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #41
Some useful websites for your pu’erh journey.
Mentioned:
http://marshaln.com/
http://half-dipper.blogspot.com/
http://jakubtomek.blogspot.com/
http://deathbytea.blogspot.com/
http://teacloset.blogspot.com/
http://twodogteablog.com/ -
Yunnan Sourcing’s 2015 Walongzhai [Episode 117]
The final episode featuring Yunnan Sourcing is one of the wildest episodes of TeaDB. An outdoor tea session with some fresh 2015 raw pu’erh in the wilderness in Bend, followed by a proper session in the TeaDB HQ back in Seattle.
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![5+ Year Old “Menghai County” Raw Pu’erh [July 2015 Tea Drinking Report]](https://teadb.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ripe-puerh3-940x198.jpg)
5+ Year Old “Menghai County” Raw Pu’erh [July 2015 Tea Drinking Report]
Shoutouts to Dignitea, Brian (double B), and Hster for providing teas for this month and allowing the content to be what it is!
By now you know the drill. I drink a bunch of teas following a certain theme. Blah, blah, blah. This month is Menghai County. One problem.. Menghai County is big and I have a ton of teas that qualify. So, like the Yiwu reports (1, 2) I’ve split this in two. So why am I doing 5+ year old Menghai County tea first? Simply, I’m more calibrated for these semi-aged teas because I more recently have been tasting through similarly aged “Yiwu” teas. (more…)