I get asked now and then what I’ve bought and where to buy from. Despite some past efforts of transparency and publicly shaming, I haven’t talked as directly about teas I’ve bought. If you read between the lines you can probably get some idea of what I go for. Over the last few years, I’ve slowed down an awful lot, first in terms of sampling and now in terms of buying. A few cakes I’ve bought in the last 8 or 9 months.
(more…)Category: Raw Pu’erh
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1988 Hongtaichang Raw “Pu’erh” via Tea-Side [Episode 324]
This episode, Denny and I drink a purportedly very old tea processed like sheng pu’erh. The tea was kindly provided by Valerii over at Tea-Side and is not pu’erh because it comes from Thai material. While we can’t vouch for this exact age the tea is legitimately old.
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When do Pu’erh Vendor’s Raise their Prices?
The common wisdom around pu’erh prices is that they rise over time. This is of course true if we zoom out far enough. If you were to take snapchats of most pu’erh production every few years, the trend would be quite obvious even with a downturn or two (i.e. 2007/2008). Not everything rises equally though. One interesting point of a consideration as a consumer is when and why vendors tend to adjust price. Thanks to Matt for the idea.
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2001 Xiaguan Iron 8653 Raw Pu’erh [Episode 322]
This episode, Denny and I drink a sample kindly provided by Pat, a 2001 Xiaguan Iron 8653. This is a famous recipe and the tea itself is fairly aged, but still potent raw pu’erh. The character is partly woody, earthy and aged but there’s also a brightness and liveliness to the tea that keeps the session dynamic. Thanks Pat!
https://www.instagram.com/pat_love_tea/
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The 70/70 Line & Projecting Pu’erh Storage
A few years ago I thought it’d be interesting to try mapping certain temperature and humidity conditions to approximate a certain area’s storage. For instance, if you could maintain conditions of 55-65F/65RH in a storage setup that might approximate somewhat close to average Kunming storage. 80-85F/65-70RH might be Kuala Lumpur. After banging my head and never really getting anywhere I decided that this was a doomed exercise (or at least beyond what I’m capable of). One reason why is that while location clearly matters in storage conditions, trying to translate outside weather conditions to actual storage conditions is not easy or straightforward. In the west people will sometimes get quite excited about storage and look at their climate data and try to extrapolate. I don’t think this is a totally useless exercise but it’s pretty difficult to know what to do with these numbers. This article explores some limitations but also what I think is a shortcut to approximating your natural conditions and how they stack up with places with an actual record of pu’erh storage.
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2017 Zhengsilong Wangong Raw Pu’erh via Tea-Encounter [Episode 319]
This episode, Denny and I drink a powerful young Yiwu tea. This tea was made by well-respected tea producer Zhengsilong and was kindly provided by Tiago of Tea Encounter.
https://www.tea-encounter.com/
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Five Things I Like and Dislike. Quick Judgements, Tea Chat Rooms, Condensed Descriptions.
Five more things I like & dislike…
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How I Brew Pu’erh & My Thought Process on Approaching Different Types of Pu’erh [Inbetweenisode 201]
In episode 201, I supplement a couple older episodes Denny and I filmed on the basics of raw and ripe pu’erh. In this episode I talk specifically about brewing and how I tend to model it in my head and think about it. This is one of our most requested episodes and I make no claims of expertise. I’m just a guy that likes pu’erh and has brewed and drank a lot of it!
Over the course of the episode, I walk through young raw, semi-aged raw, aged raw, and ripe tea and how I think about each.
Raw Pu’erh Basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LR9TOBNuA4
Ripe Pu’erh Basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HwrjdGvcpk -
Three Menghai Tea Factory Teas Between 1997-2001
Thanks to Nug, I had the opportunity to sample a few older and thereby quite expensive Menghai TF teas. I no longer sample as often as I used to, and try to be focused on very interesting teas when I do. These teas were sold to us by Taizhong based vendor Wang JF who will sell samples of some of his more expensive teas. The teas were naturally stored in Taiwan, and while I do suspect there were some differences in the storage of these teas early on, I think they all fit easily into the TW-natural storage category.
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2004, 2006, and 2007 Xiaguan Gold Ribbon from MX-Tea [Inbetweenisode 200]
This episode, I drink three different years of the Xiaguan Gold Ribbon production from Taobao vendor, MX-Tea. This was originally produced by Xiaguan in 2004 as a 100 gram Tuocha and in my opinion is quite a bit better than their average tea. The teas are quite potent and were consumed over the course of three days. In the episode, I compare the teas to see how much the tea productions varied. A good tea for those that like their tea strong with potential to age more (especially the 2007).
2007 Rating: 5.2
2006 Rating: 5.9
2004 Rating: 6.1