Inbetweenisode Episode #1 from James. The tea is 2011 Yong De Organic Ripe Pu’erh from Yunnan Sourcing. The 2012 version is available.
Category: Ripe Pu’erh
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Shopping for Bargains, The Case for White Label/No-Name Pu’erh
You are quickly becoming a pu’erh-head and have been diligently been studying and drinking pu’erh. It is a complex online marketplace due to the added dimensions of age and storage. What brings the best bang for buck in the pu’erh world? We obsess and look at factories, regions, storages, teas of various ages, vendors, shipping, blah, blah blah. What region should you go for? What age? The answers are subjective and depend on what brings the individual drinker enjoyment… However, one way to find great deals is to buy white labels or off-brand, judging the tea on its own merits. In pu’erh, what does this mean exactly? Finding deals for Dayi or tea sold as as Lao Banzhang is extremely unlikely. But for drinkers that are OK with more ambiguity, shopping for white label cakes or teas with a lack of relevant information (age, factory, region, etc.) and purchasing simply on the basis of quality can be a simple and effective way to buy good-quality tea for a good price. (more…)
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Pu’erh Regions: Western Xishuangbanna, Menghai County
This article frequently references and links to babelcarp. Babelcarp is a Chinese Tea Lexicon that is an essential resource for tea nerds that want to dive in further and don’t understand Chinese! This article also sources many maps from a TeaChat thread, original sources vary.
Home of the most famous tea factory, several high-profile areas (Lao Banzhang) and many of the most famous cakes from the masterpiece era of Pu’erh, Menghai County is both historically important in old school pu’erh and is featured prominently in much of contemporary pu’erh’s marketing. Much of the importance of region as both a brand and marker of terroir was covered in a post on Yiwu/Eastern Xishuangbanna. Locationwise, Menghai County is the westernmost county in Xishuangbanna, west of both Jinghong and Mengla. (more…)
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Crimson Lotus Tea, Featured Vendor
The vendor profile for Crimson Lotus Tea is a part of our Pu’erh Tea Vendor Series, covering a number of Pu’erh-centric vendors that sell to the west. This interview was conducted with Glen of Crimson Lotus Tea.
Crimson Lotus Tea is one of the newest and hottest vendors in the pu’erh scene. Formed in late 2013, Crimson Lotus is based in Seattle and is composed of the husband/wife duo of Glen and Lamu Bowers. Lamu was originally from Yunnan, creating an instant familial connection to the land of pu’erh. The pair made their first sourcing trip to Yunnan in Spring 2014 (they also got married on the same trip!). The sourcing trip was well documented on their blog and resulted in a diverse range of pu’erh, Crimson Lotus brand cakes, teapets, and Jianshui teaware offered on their site. Crimson Lotus Tea fits firmly into the curated pu’erh vendor category with a small but eclectic selection of raw and ripe pu’erh. (more…)
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Yunnan Sourcing, Featured Vendor
The vendor profile for Yunnan Sourcing is a part of our Pu’erh Tea Vendor Series, covering a number of Pu’erh-centric vendors that sell to the west.
Based in both Kunming and Portland, Yunnan Sourcing is one of the longest standing pu’erh vendors in the international online marketplace. The store was founded by Scott Wilson, an American expatriate based in Kunming and was originally conceived as an ebay vendor (in 2004). As the pu’erh tea market has grown in the west and worldwide, Yunnan Sourcing has grown and evolved with it. The ebay store eventually migrated onto its own domain(s), YunnanSourcing.com and eventually YunnanSourcing.us. In 2009, Scott began to source and press the well-received Yunnan Sourcing production cakes, these beengs have become a major selling point on Yunnan Sourcing’s online store. (more…)
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CNNP 1997 7581 Yunnan Sourcing Ripe Pu’erh [Episode 66]
Curated by Yunnan Sourcing, this is a great example of aged ripe pu’erh. CNNP’s 7581 is a notoriously inconsistent recipe, but this particular tea is an example of a well-aged, dry-stored ripe pu’erh. Complex profile, a very nice tea.
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Mandala Tea’s 2012 Noble Mark Ripe Pu’erh [Episode 65]
This episode Denny and James bring on a steepster favorite, Mandala Tea‘s 2012 Noble Mark Ripe Pu’erh. A very friendly, well-balanced ripe pu’erh blend.
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Old School & New School Pu’erh
Pu’erh is an unusual and highly unique tea. It is a tea genre accompanied by both a long rich history as tribute tea and also closely associated with the wild and dynamic nature of modern China. Pu’erh cha is frequently marketed as “traditional” and often accompanied with marketing buzzwords like “Ancient”, “Wild” and claims (many ridiculous and unverifiable) of very old trees. These days, there’s a ton of pu’erh being produced and sold by a number of different producers and vendors, operations ranging from the very large to the very small. Things weren’t always this way. This article will examine some of the trends and changes within the pu’erh industry post-PRC. (more…)
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Xiaguan 2007 Xiao Fa Tuo Yunnan Sourcing Ripe Pu’erh [Episode 64]
Another personal Yunnan Sourcing recommendation from Denny, this time a ripe pu’erh. Xiaguan’s 2007 Xiao Fa Tuo.
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2002 CNNP Tiepai White2Tea Ripe Pu’erh [Episode 62]
The final episode in our series on White2Tea. This episode covers a wet-stored ripe pu’erh with a classic recipe (7572). Dark and creamy this is a well-above average ripe pu’erh.