Tag Archives: Tea Urchin

2019 Pu’erh from Western Vendors are More Expensive Than Ever. Three Ways to Look at Price.

Posted on December 14, 2019 by

I’ve been updating a spreadsheet on pu’erh prices on release for the past few years in order to get an idea of tea being offered to western consumers and any possible trends. The well-known popular narrative is that fresh pu’erh … Continue reading →

Posted in Article, Raw Pu'erh | Tagged , , , , , | 19 Comments

Boutique Pu’erh. How Much of a Story Does the Top End of the Western Boutique Pu’erh Market Tell?

Posted on September 21, 2019 by

If you follow what gets said about prices each year, you would end up with the impression that the average price of tea has gone up. But more specifically the price at the most sought after regions (say Lao Banzhang, … Continue reading →

Posted in Article, Raw Pu'erh | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Tasting From Deep in My Storage. Pu’erh Progress Report 2019 [Inbetweenisode 193]

Posted on March 15, 2019 by

This episode I talk about a series of tastings I’ve done with teas deeper in my stash that I purchased in 2014-2015. Most of the teas have been stored in my storage but I also drank a couple from fellow … Continue reading →

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Tea Progress Report – Washington State Stored Tea 2019

Posted on March 9, 2019 by

This is an extremely overdue tea drinking report. It was conceived for two reasons. (1) I recently reconfigured my storage into a larger setup. (2) I have a yearly tradition of picking some teas out of deep storage to retry … Continue reading →

Posted in Article, Drinking Report, Long-form Article, Raw Pu'erh | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Shop Like It’s 2012. One Way to Think About and Find Value.

Posted on February 9, 2019 by

I got into tea in 2012. One of the first things I did was read everything I could in the western tea scene. This included old forum posts, new forum posts, blogs like Marshaln, Half-Dipper and the Chadao Blogspot. One … Continue reading →

Posted in Article, Raw Pu'erh | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Datapost: 2018 Pu’erh Prices are More of the Same

Posted on January 26, 2019 by

About a year ago, I used the Way Back Machine/Archive.org to go back and examine the prices at conception of tea from western vendors since 2011. This was a valuable exercise and produced some interesting findings on a range of … Continue reading →

Posted in Article, Raw Pu'erh | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

How Much Does Ripe Pu’erh Cost from Western Vendors?

Posted on August 25, 2018 by

Since I’ve crunched a bunch of numbers for other pu’erh categories, I figured I should do the same for ripe pu’erh. Ripe pu’erh is not exactly the most talked about tea, but it is generally considered to be affordable and … Continue reading →

Posted in Article, Ripe Pu'erh | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Q&A. Vendor + Tea Recommendations, Tea Books, Judging Pu’erh, etc. [Inbetweenisode 173]

Posted on August 17, 2018 by

This episode I answer a series of questions on tea, covering a pretty wide range of topics. Topics include vendors for aged oolongs, water, tea books, caffeine content, judging pu’erh, and some pu’erh recommendations. Thanks for all the great questions … Continue reading →

Posted in Aged Pu'erh, Oolong, Podcasts, Raw Pu'erh, Ripe Pu'erh | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Datapost: The Dearth of Aged Pu’erh Available From Western Facing Vendors

Posted on June 16, 2018 by

It’s no secret that aged pu’erh is scarce out west. The western vendor scene is dominated by vendors traveling to Yunnan bringing back predominantly young tea to sell. For this exercise, I added all of the older teas from western vendors … Continue reading →

Posted in Aged Pu'erh, Article, Raw Pu'erh | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Western Vendor Pu’erh Prices at Conception have Risen Since 2011 (& Probably Before)

Posted on April 21, 2018 by

It’s common in the pu’erh-verse to note the seemingly always rising price of freshly produced tea. Every year more expensive than the last… Even with the limited scope of western-vendor labeled pu’erh, we can take a quick look at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Aged Pu'erh, Article, Raw Pu'erh | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments