Buying Pu'erh for the long haul

[EarthMonkey]

You need to drink and drink and drink. Then drink and drink some more. Try to get less caught up on the price of the tea. Price in puerh is like price in wine. It's the exact same. There are some v. good Bulgarian and California wines that will NEVER reach the price point of such and such French wine. Maybe your tastes will tend more toward California. Price of tea at $150 isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination and with the lineage attached to it you could consider it a good price.

[Rickpatbrown]

You need to drink and drink and drink. Then drink and drink some more. Try to get less caught up on the price of the tea. Price in puerh is like price in wine. It's the exact same. There are some v. good Bulgarian and California wines that will NEVER reach the price point of such and such French wine. Maybe your tastes will tend more toward California. Price of tea at $150 isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination and with the lineage attached to it you could consider it a good price.

Unfortunately, with internet tea, price is the most obvious metric for value. This is why asked. I realize that people value tea for different reasons. To me the flavor and the way it makes me feel is the most important ... but that is never accurately written in the description of a tea.

I'm talking about price so much because there is soooo much tea out there to try. A lot of it is not good. If there is an easy way sort the bad tea from the good, then I'd like to do that. I've already made some expensive mistakes, though. I bought a $500 (aged) cake that is definitely not worth half that to me.

[mrmopu]

There are teas out there made with aged material already in them. A couple are actually priced pretty well for what they are.

[EarthMonkey]

Unfortunately, with internet tea, price is the most obvious metric for value.

How have you arrived at this conclusion, if you don't mind my asking? What is an internet tea in contrast to a non-internet tea. I'm not familiar with these categories.

[Rickpatbrown]

Unfortunately, with internet tea, price is the most obvious metric for value.

How have you arrived at this conclusion, if you don't mind my asking? What is an internet tea in contrast to a non-internet tea. I'm not familiar with these categories.

The type of tea that someone buys from the internet, without seeing, smelling, tasting before buying.

There are no real life tea shops within 1.5 hours of my home.

[Victoria]

The type of tea that someone buys from the internet, without seeing, smelling, tasting before buying.

There are no real life tea shops within 1.5 hours of my home.

Curious, who have you been buying your Puerh from mostly? Developing a relationship with a few vendors, that are in alignment with your taste, is a good way to proceed. Possibly those select vendors can also get for you a few cakes with the intent of aging 5, 10, 20 years. But like others have mentioned, the resulting quality will depend on your storage conditions.

[Rickpatbrown]

The type of tea that someone buys from the internet, without seeing, smelling, tasting before buying.

There are no real life tea shops within 1.5 hours of my home.

Curious, who have you been buying your Puerh from mostly? Developing a relationship with a few vendors, that are in alignment with your taste, is a good way to proceed. Possibly those select vendors can also get for you a few cakes with the intent of aging 5, 10, 20 years. But like others have mentioned, the resulting quality will depend on your storage conditions.

I've been buying mostly from Teas We Like and YangQingHao. I think you're right about the vendor relationship. I recently reached out to a German vendor that introduced me to pu'erh and he is going to send me samples.

I've been pleased with Teas We Like. I have the 2005 Bulang dbl dragon on the way. I'm looking forward to that.

[Noonie]

You need to drink and drink and drink. Then drink and drink some more. Try to get less caught up on the price of the tea. Price in puerh is like price in wine. It's the exact same. There are some v. good Bulgarian and California wines that will NEVER reach the price point of such and such French wine. Maybe your tastes will tend more toward California. Price of tea at $150 isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination and with the lineage attached to it you could consider it a good price.

Unfortunately, with internet tea, price is the most obvious metric for value. This is why asked. I realize that people value tea for different reasons. To me the flavor and the way it makes me feel is the most important ... but that is never accurately written in the description of a tea.

I'm talking about price so much because there is soooo much tea out there to try. A lot of it is not good. If there is an easy way sort the bad tea from the good, then I'd like to do that. I've already made some expensive mistakes, though. I bought a $500 (aged) cake that is definitely not worth half that to me.

I appreciate the honesty, thank you!

My word of the day - "perspective".

I paid $500 for my last two orders from YS (about 8 cakes in total) and I thought that was jumping into the deep end. I haven't spent more than $100 on a cake. With some things I do not set high expectations, and I'm usually happy with the results. Most I've paid for tea was close to US$40 for 50g of Sencha. It did blow me away, but I had zero desire to spend that amount again. I remain flexible with my expectations and most of the time I'm happy with what I'm drinking. Sure sometimes the tea I'm drinking is far from knocking my socks off, but it's just tea and I'm just happy I discovered fine loose leaf tea from the East as opposed to sh!t teabags that most people drink and swear by.

[EarthMonkey]

Western collectors constitute a much more insular circle of drinkers than in the Chinese world and those who have access to it. As such then, it (the Western puerh scene) is a community where a fairly small subset of productions even enter the radar. Most of those hardly figure from the Chinese perspective. It's a marvel seeing how each little spot evolves based on each communities' particularities.

I used to live in DC. Went to Baltimore a couple times to watch the Tigers when they were in town. Do not know of any good Chinese tea in the area and the good Chinese food is scarce too, but there used to be a vegetarian spot called Sunshine, I believe, which is incredible! The bamboo fungus is a must. I seem to remember it's in Arlington maybe.

There are quite a few vendors who will let you sample their stuff. I would definitely not deal with any vendor who cannot part with samples of higher-priced production unless it super highly recommended and you know the recommendors' tastes.

[thommes]

I appreciate the honesty, thank you!

My word of the day - "perspective".

I paid $500 for my last two orders from YS (about 8 cakes in total) and I thought that was jumping into the deep end. I haven't spent more than $100 on a cake. With some things I do not set high expectations, and I'm usually happy with the results. Most I've paid for tea was close to US$40 for 50g of Sencha. It did blow me away, but I had zero desire to spend that amount again. I remain flexible with my expectations and most of the time I'm happy with what I'm drinking. Sure sometimes the tea I'm drinking is far from knocking my socks off, but it's just tea and I'm just happy I discovered fine loose leaf tea from the East as opposed to sh!t teabags that most people drink and swear by.

@Noonie it's like I'm hearing myself think! LOL. I copied that from your post to me. Not sure about the size of cakes that you got with those orders. Some are 100g and some are over 300g. Could be a great buy or it could be about $40 per 100g. That's about where I'm comfortable right now, in the $40/100g range. However, if I find something that blows me away, two things are gonna happen. I'm gonna buy it all, and you aren't gonna ever hear about it. Probably not. I'll probably place my order for more and then tell everyone about a tea that blew me away. And as you say I think we agree, the tea may not be anything to write home about but it's a lot better than anything I've found in a tea bag.

And with that... I don't plan on buying anything intentionally to age. This virus thing should have gotten people to think a bit more short term than long term. What value is a $400 cake of tea gonna do me if I'm not around to drink it. I can see the fam tossing my tea collection if anything happened to me because they don't drink puer and they wouldn't know what to do with the tea. So I'm gonna get stuff to drink now. And I likely have more than I can drink now, but that's not gonna stop me from getting more tea to drink tomorrow.

[thommes]

Unfortunately, with internet tea, price is the most obvious metric for value. This is why asked. I realize that people value tea for different reasons. To me the flavor and the way it makes me feel is the most important ... but that is never accurately written in the description of a tea.

I'm talking about price so much because there is soooo much tea out there to try. A lot of it is not good. If there is an easy way sort the bad tea from the good, then I'd like to do that. I've already made some expensive mistakes, though. I bought a $500 (aged) cake that is definitely not worth half that to me.

I think that's why I tend to stay lower price per g. I haven't taken the chance yet on a pricey cake. And size does matter. $500 for a 357g is not as bad as $500 for 100g. Don't get me wrong.. still a ton of money especially if it turns out you don't like the tea. I recently bought something on a recommendation. I'm still trying to figure out if I'm not steeping it correctly or what's going on but it's one of those ho hummm type teas. I would drink it again, but the value isn't there for me with the price. And it wasn't an expensive tea all that much. I'm toying with the idea of getting a nice cake for my bday like $400 price range, hopefully 357g. At that price, I'd want to taste it before blindly buying.

So care to share what the tea was that you bought?

[EarthMonkey]

However, if I find something that blows me away, two things are gonna happen. I'm gonna buy it all, and you aren't gonna ever hear about it. Probably not. I'll probably place my order for more and then tell everyone about a tea that blew me away. And as you say I think we agree, the tea may not be anything to write home about but it's a lot better than anything I've found in a tea bag.

And with that... I don't plan on buying anything intentionally to age. This virus thing should have gotten people to think a bit more short term than long term. What value is a $400 cake of tea gonna do me if I'm not around to drink it. I can see the fam tossing my tea collection if anything happened to me because they don't drink puer and they wouldn't know what to do with the tea.

Thus spoken with sagely air while plucking a daisy.

[Rickpatbrown]

So care to share what the tea was that you bought?

I'd rather not say specifically. I dont know if it is the tea, or if I'm not ready for the tea yet.

I will say that it is supposed to be much more oriented to the chi realm. It is not so much known for flavor.

I hope that I can learn to open up to the chi aspect of pu'erh. I some point, I might be really happy about this "mistake"

[aet]

I realize that people value tea for different reasons. To me the flavor and the way it makes me feel is the most important ... but that is never accurately written in the description of a tea.

I'm talking about price so much because there is soooo much tea out there to try. A lot of it is not good. If there is an easy way sort the bad tea from the good, then I'd like to do that. I've already made some expensive mistakes, though. I bought a $500 (aged) cake that is definitely not worth half that to me.

"I realize that people value tea for different reasons. " ....in China the puerh has also the reasons which are not connected to tea quality or taste, that drives prices up.

".. but that is never accurately written in the description of a tea. " ...depends on vendor, yet, it will never be accurate , because your taste and drinking tea experience is not same as vendor's , your water is not the same as vendor's and another aspects which are body and weather ( would u believe ) variations related.

" I bought a $500 (aged) cake "...is quite lot's of money. Have you sampled it before?

[Justin]

I will say that it is supposed to be much more oriented to the chi realm. It is not so much known for flavor.

I hope that I can learn to open up to the chi aspect of pu'erh. I some point, I might be really happy about this "mistake"

I believe chi is a personal thing. Sometimes people will feel it quite strongly while others, not so much. I personally wouldnt buy a tea just for the chi. Its just something nice to have with the tea. In terms of "getting cha qi", it might help to do some meditation or breathing exercises before/ when drinking that tea. For me, I don't feel like I get the chi feeling as much as some others do

Another thing with regards to buying tea is that I try to have no preconceptions/ expectations from the price. I feel that may be recipe for disappointment. Recently, I found one tea (which was around $1/g) quite underwhelming. I enjoyed the HKH more than that tea