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Balthazar wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 01, 2020 7:44 am

I agree with the others though, buying less and better is really the way to go. Most of the raw puer I buy these days is above what I could afford as "daily drinkers", so in ordinary times (that is, when one is not forced to stay home due to a lockdown) I drink mostly black teas throughout the workweek and save the good stuff (raw puer and oolongs) for the weekends.

I bought a few small but expensive cakes just November last year, thinking I would only drink if once every two month or so. Fast forward to two months into the lockdown, half the cake is gone

I think EoT price is on the expensive side when it comes to semi-aged and aged teas, but i appreciate their value in the consistency of their quality. You can save a lot from not losing money on mediocre tea samples!

Yeah, lockdown and increased consumption of "the good stuff" has really been the excuse I needed to convince myself to hoard even more ("What if SARS-CoV-2 mutates into something much worse and all international postage is stopped for YEARS?").

I’m drinking 2001 Menghai Tea Factory 7432 from Teas We Like. It’s the first puer I’ve caked in over 4 years (there wasn’t a sample option). However, I read the description carefully and it seemed to fit my taste and so I bought it and I’m glad I did. It has a nice aged flavor, would taste better in 5 years but it will not lasts me even 1. I thought it was a fair price for the age and wanted to buy more, but it’s sold out now 1 month later.


An excellent example of the Menghai Tea Factory 7432 recipe from 2001, with medium Hong Kong Traditional Storage. Dark, rich, bittersweet, with good energy. The storage profile is much more mineral and ginseng than it is geosmin. It shipped from Taiwan so I’m assuming it was stored there towards the end of its life.

Balthazar wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 01, 2020 12:11 pm

Yeah, lockdown and increased consumption of "the good stuff" has really been the excuse I needed to convince myself to hoard even more ("What if SARS-CoV-2 mutates into something much worse and all international postage is stopped for YEARS?").

Your going to make me start to panic buy, now stop it .

Even without the pandemic there’s a good reason to hoard as prices of the good stuff rise every year

pantry wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 01, 2020 4:06 pm

Even without the pandemic there’s a good reason to hoard as prices of the good stuff rise every year

Yeah, that's a good point.

Still, I'd argue that hoarding doesn't make sense if (1) you already have a lifetime's supply (and it's too much a gamble to assume that your as of yet unborn children will be interested in your old tea cakes) or (2) you have a storage situation that does not improve but might actually slightly deteriorate the quality of your cakes in the long (as in years ahead) term.

I don't have a lifetime's supply yet, but the second point definitely holds for me (buying stuff I won't be able to drink in the next two years or so would be a mistake). Still, it's not like the rational members of my "mind committee" is ever going to come out on top in the committee's fierce arguments.

Actually EoT's samples weren't too hard on my wallet thankfully. Btw, what is the most minimalist way of storing puerh cakes for aging and drinking?

Got a boat load of samples from sanhetang but sadly there's no english info on the labels. I'll be trying to translate manually while drinking and enjoying

Drinking Vesper Chan's Treasure of Five Mountains from 2018 today. Got this one from HK last Fall. The tea has developed nicely. To tong or not to tong...

I have several cakes of ripe from YS and currently have opened the 2017 Yunnan Sourcing "Classic" Certified Organic Ripe Pu-erh Tea Cake. I really like this tea. Not extremely complex but for me is the perfect type of Ripe Pu-erh. Very balanced; an easy drinker that goes around 8 steeps in a 100ml Yixing pot and is enjoyable each brew.

Loose sheng from 1953. A generous gift from a friend. So much clarity in such old leaves! Smooth, a bit medicinal, not unlike some aged oolong actually.

Best part, sharing it with my mother in law who is also from 1953

Bok wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 13, 2020 8:06 am

Loose sheng from 1953. A generous gift from a friend. So much clarity in such old leaves! Smooth, a bit medicinal, not unlike some aged oolong actually.

Best part, sharing it with my mother in law who is also from 1953

Awesome

OCTO wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 13, 2020 8:12 am

Bok wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 13, 2020 8:06 am

Loose sheng from 1953. A generous gift from a friend. So much clarity in such old leaves! Smooth, a bit medicinal, not unlike some aged oolong actually.

Best part, sharing it with my mother in law who is also from 1953

Awesome

Yep, amazing on several fronts!

pantry wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 12, 2020 7:51 pm

Drinking Vesper Chan's Treasure of Five Mountains from 2018 today. Got this one from HK last Fall. The tea has developed nicely. To tong or not to tong...

On my side I only have a cake or so of their 2012 version of that tea. It has developed very well since then.

Having some 80s Sheng Mini TuoCha with added Jasmine fragrance. Smooth, aromatic and complex.

Cheers!!