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There is some sort of plastic string wound throughout my puerh cake. It is supposedly 19 years old...if that helps. I saw a little piece sticking out and pulled it. It started coming out more and more and seems to be all over in the tea cake.

Looks like a piece of the standard wrapping bags things are shipped with in China. If you order something from taobao it is usually wrapped in this very smelly plastic, not to forget the dust from the roads

Bok wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 25, 2019 10:03 pm

Looks like a piece of the standard wrapping bags things are shipped with in China. If you order something from taobao it is usually wrapped in this very smelly plastic, not to forget the dust from the roads

This has been inside the tea cake since it was wet. Are you saying this is normal?

Guy Juan wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 25, 2019 10:10 pm

This has been inside the tea cake since it was wet. Are you saying this is normal?

No. Just a guess of what it is.

Guy Juan wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 25, 2019 10:10 pm

Bok wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 25, 2019 10:03 pm

Looks like a piece of the standard wrapping bags things are shipped with in China. If you order something from taobao it is usually wrapped in this very smelly plastic, not to forget the dust from the roads

This has been inside the tea cake since it was wet. Are you saying this is normal?

It’s not unusual to find odd things in cakes, especially inexpensive ones: string, plastic, a cigarette butt, hair, etc. This one is a little excessive.

There’s a thread on here where we’ve all pitched in on strange things we’ve found in cakes.

Baisao wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 25, 2019 10:42 pm

Guy Juan wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 25, 2019 10:10 pm

Bok wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 25, 2019 10:03 pm

Looks like a piece of the standard wrapping bags things are shipped with in China. If you order something from taobao it is usually wrapped in this very smelly plastic, not to forget the dust from the roads

This has been inside the tea cake since it was wet. Are you saying this is normal?

It’s not unusual to find odd things in cakes, especially inexpensive ones: string, plastic, a cigarette butt, hair, etc. This one is a little excessive.

There’s a thread on here where we’ve all pitched in on strange things we’ve found in cakes.

How would price have anything to do with it? It’s not like they would know there is something inside of it.

it's just a random piece of plastic garbage in there. there is no significance to it.
debris ends up in the piles of maocha and therefore it ends up pressed into the cakes.
all kinds of crap, like @Baisao said. i'll add to the list toenails, feathers, small pebbles, you name it really.
kind of gross? yea, but i've gotten pretty good at just removing the debris before brewing and forgetting what i just saw as i sip.

there is some correlation with price. lower end productions may have less attention to detail and less cleanliness.
i feel like modern productions are also generally better about this but not always.

pedant wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 25, 2019 11:21 pm

it's just a random piece of plastic garbage in there. there is no significance to it.
debris ends up in the piles of maocha and therefore it ends up pressed into the cakes.
all kinds of crap, like Baisao said. i'll add to the list toenails, feathers, small pebbles, you name it really.
kind of gross? yea, but i've gotten pretty good at just removing the debris before brewing and forgetting what i just saw as i sip.

there is some correlation with price. lower end productions may have less attention to detail and less cleanliness.
i feel like modern productions are also generally better about this but not always.

I would think the year 2000 is modern but...maybe not in China QC. So how would you determine lower end production? Certain tea factories?

Wow feathers and toenails? I hope you didn’t pay any more than $30/cake

Guy Juan wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 25, 2019 11:31 pm

I would think the year 2000 is modern but...maybe not in China QC. So how would you determine lower end production? Certain tea factories?

factories have come a long way in 20 years.

hm, i suppose i mean like lower quality leaf material.
you may handle material you think you'll sell for less with a bit less care, yes?
but the factory conditions/cleanliness is huge.

Guy Juan wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 25, 2019 11:31 pm

Wow feathers and toenails? I hope you didn’t pay any more than $30/cake

ime, cheap, lower quality shu (ripe) cakes have been the worst in terms of 'mystery prizes'

pedant wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 25, 2019 11:38 pm

ime, cheap, lower quality shu (ripe) cakes have been the worst in terms of 'mystery prizes'

This is the Blue Mark from Global Tea Hut. Would you consider this a low quality puerh? I was assuming it was better quality based on suggestions on this forum but maybe they just meant “I like the taste” and not necessarily vouching for the quality of the tea? I’ll have a better idea after I try a few other aged shengs.

Guy Juan wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 25, 2019 11:58 pm

This is the Blue Mark from Global Tea Hut. Would you consider this a low quality puerh? I was assuming it was better quality based on suggestions on this forum but maybe they just meant “I like the taste” and not necessarily vouching for the quality of the tea? I’ll have a better idea after I try a few other aged shengs.

It’s likely just a standard factory style tea. A pleasant daily drink with 20yrs age on it. Good cakes from this era can easily cost $500-1000+

quality's relative. as @Chadrinkincat said, 20 year old cakes made of high end material sell for way more than $100.
in fact, brand new cakes made of high end material sell for way more than that, too.

20 years doesn't turn junk into gold, but it will smooth out and add 'aged taste' to a standard cake and make it something nice to drink.
and i'm not saying the GTH cake was junk when it was brand new either. but probably just a standard cake.

just going by the price they want for it at the age stated, i would not venture to guess that it is high end puerh. but is it low quality? i certainly wouldn't say that if it tastes good.

it's probably good tea but at the same time can't compare to something made of really high end leaf material to begin with.
one quality predictor is if the leaf's from gushu (old trees). there's plenty of good tea that isn't gushu of course.

@pedant I would say this is probably a good tea for the price in the sense that it’s 20 years old and doesn’t taste bad..Only assuming of course because I haven’t experienced any other 20 year puerhs. I can say the customer service at GTH is very good, fast shipping too. I will definitely try more of their puerhs.

pedant wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:27 am

one quality predictor is if the leaf's from gushu (old trees). there's plenty of good tea that isn't gushu of course.

Just to note that there's more gushu demand than supply, so be on the watch for cakes claiming to be gushu. Of course the ages of trees get exaggerated too. A tree that was 500 years old last year is a 1000 years old this year. I suppose it will be 1500 years old next year. I hope I don't age so fast! The puerh market is full of nonsense so it is more more important to find cakes you like drinking than to search for famous batches and appellations.

Baisao wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 26, 2019 10:26 am

pedant wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:27 am

one quality predictor is if the leaf's from gushu (old trees). there's plenty of good tea that isn't gushu of course.

Just to note that there's more gushu demand than supply, so be on the watch for cakes claiming to be gushu. Of course the ages of trees get exaggerated too. A tree that was 500 years old last year is a 1000 years old this year. I suppose it will be 1500 years old next year. I hope I don't age so fast! The puerh market is full of nonsense so it is more more important to find cakes you like drinking than to search for famous batches and appellations.

Good point. I’m thinking out of the samples I have coming I should be able to find a few that are worth buying cakes of....then maybe I’ll have a better idea of what I’m looking for in puerh. I do know that I really like the non astringent fresh soil taste...now I need to find a good string astringent taste. That would cover the pallet for me I think.