In the pu’erh world there’s three major prefectures in Yunnan that make pu’erh tea, Xishuangbanna, Simao (pu’erh), and Lincang. These do not necessarily get proportionate coverage. It’s hard to argue there’s not a heavy Xishuangbanna bias when it comes to the dialog in the pu’erh scene. I’d admit that TeaDB by extension of my own habits has a significant lean towards the southern prefecture, Xishuangbanna. Banna contains two heavy-hitting regions in Menghai county and Mengla county. Menghai gets a lot of press for being the home of Dayi and lots of factory raw and ripe production. It is also home to sought after areas and smaller villages/areas like Banzhang. Likewise, Mengla county is extremely well known and well-regarded, especially for Yiwu tea. Both of these areas in the west and east of Banna have long, rich histories with making pu’erh. And if we look north, there are some areas you’ll see referenced but it doesn’t really rival the southernmost regions in buzz within the tea scene. You’ll even find some downright northern haters, including some terribad bloggers that compare the most prominent northern factory to their toilet (wtf!?).
(more…)Tag: Xiaguan
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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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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 -
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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2004 Xiaguan FT T004 from MX (Taobao) [Inbetweenisode 145]
A 2004 FT production. This is an above average, robust solid Xiaguan tuo. Thanks to Garrett for guest-starring in this episode.
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1999 Xiaguan All Red Neifei 8653 [Episode 228]
Strong, punch, potent, retired smoke this is a semi-aged factory tea that does not go down without a fight.
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1980s Xiaguan Xiao Fa Tuo Ripe Pu’erh [Episode 216]
This episode, James and Denny bring on a much older version of one of Denny’s favorite daily ripe teas, the Xiaguan Xiao Fa Tuo. Thanks to Bev for providing it.
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2013 Xiaguan FT Love Forever [Episode 215]
In episode 215, Denny and James review a wedding gift to James! This is a special tea, that was secretly coordinated by a bunch of fellow tea-loving freaks. Thank you all!
The tea is a Xiaguan production but a bit of an oddity. It is made by Feitai (FT) out of leftover aged maocha (supposedly ~2003) before being pressed in 2013. The tea reviewed (and gifted) comes from a paper tong (not the bamboo version).
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2008 Xiaguan Happy Tuo [Teas I Own] — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #88
Revisiting an old, inexpensive purchase from a few years back.