Shu Recommendations for Sheng Lover

[Nis]

aet great stuff... Loose leaf PE is a bit of an anomaly for West facing vendors...

I didn't even think of mentioning it but loose PE can a great joy and bargain!

Here in France, loose leaf shu pu'er seems to be the most common. Asian supermarkets will usually have a tuo or two and some tea bags, but almost everywhere else it's loose leaf.

Here is Palais des Thés' selection, for example: https://www.palaisdesthes.com/en/teas/pu-erh/

[StoneLadle]

aet great stuff... Loose leaf PE is a bit of an anomaly for West facing vendors...

I didn't even think of mentioning it but loose PE can a great joy and bargain!

Here in France, loose leaf shu pu'er seems to be the most common. Asian supermarkets will usually have a tuo or two and some tea bags, but almost everywhere else it's loose leaf.

Here is Palais des Thés' selection, for example: https://www.palaisdesthes.com/en/teas/pu-erh/

Impressive!!

I can't say I'm surprised given the culinary tradition of France!

[Chadrinkincat]

OCTO StoneLadle Are these bricks the same? Would you choose one over the other?

https://teaswelike.com/product/90s-kunming-7581-brick/

https://globalteahut.org/collections/sh ... ppy-trails

vuanguyen

Comparing the two, personal preference, I'm more inclined to lean towards TWL's stock of 7581. The colour of the dry leaves and the entire brick as a whole suggests a better storage condition that is not overly humid / wet.

Cheers!

The other cake worries me as that "quality" sticker on the top right didn't start appearing in its various guises till the 2000s... Funny...

That was my first thought too.

Have you tried the 1995 7581 from Sunsing in HK? I remember really liking that one.

[vuanguyen]

OCTO StoneLadle Are these bricks the same? Would you choose one over the other?

https://teaswelike.com/product/90s-kunming-7581-brick/

https://globalteahut.org/collections/sh ... ppy-trails

vuanguyen

Comparing the two, personal preference, I'm more inclined to lean towards TWL's stock of 7581. The colour of the dry leaves and the entire brick as a whole suggests a better storage condition that is not overly humid / wet.

Cheers!

I would like to echo OCTO on this one...

The TWL cake picture if accurate looks fluffy and chewy, like a brownie, pretty much like my own cakes of this stuff from a similar time period...

The other cake worries me as that "quality" sticker on the top right didn't start appearing in its various guises till the 2000s... Funny...

This statement may not be true. I found another 7581 with the "quality" sticker and the vendor claimed that it was produced in 1998 (before 2000s)...unless of course the vendor (Yee On Tea in HK) is untrustworthy. I don't know anything about them although they have good Google reviews (16 only) and have been in business since 1973 according to their website.

https://yeeonteaco.com/products/1998-75 ... -tea-brick

[StoneLadle]

@vuanguyenI know them, never bought from them. Ying Kee is my preferred big tea house in HKG.

Anyways, I'm just going by general buying principles which have served me well in years of hunting these bricks down. I've never tasted a shiny sticker brick that I didn't think was overcooked and needed at least 5 years of airing out before it becomes even close to good for consumption... Again, that's just having drunk a pile of this stuff through various packaging variations...

Also, given the price of the brick from Yee Onn, I think you can do better with perhaps their raw brick which looks better to me, and a better drink too if true, at only 30% more for a traditional HKG aged brick and a good example , true , of the assertion that cooked PE is in homage to the traditional HKG aged taste... Yumz!!...

Gosh, might have to stick some in the pot now!!

[YeeOnTeaCo]

vuanguyen

Comparing the two, personal preference, I'm more inclined to lean towards TWL's stock of 7581. The colour of the dry leaves and the entire brick as a whole suggests a better storage condition that is not overly humid / wet.

Cheers!

I would like to echo OCTO on this one...

The TWL cake picture if accurate looks fluffy and chewy, like a brownie, pretty much like my own cakes of this stuff from a similar time period...

The other cake worries me as that "quality" sticker on the top right didn't start appearing in its various guises till the 2000s... Funny...

This statement may not be true. I found another 7581 with the "quality" sticker and the vendor claimed that it was produced in 1998 (before 2000s)...unless of course the vendor (Yee On Tea in HK) is untrustworthy. I don't know anything about them although they have good Google reviews (16 only) and have been in business since 1973 according to their website.

https://yeeonteaco.com/products/1998-75 ... -tea-brick

Hi All!

First of all, it’s a great pleasure to stumble across this forum for tea lovers!

Just brief note on our history. We are now 2nd/3rd generation owners of Yee On Tea Co. (義安茶莊) a retail and wholesale company that my grandfather had started in the 70s in HK. We might look like a small retail store compared to other famous tea houses in HK but we’ve been selling and distributing our large selection of aged pu-erh tea to our local market, including these larger tea houses, collectors, and auction houses in Asia, and we’ve been known to have one of the largest stock of aged pu-erh tea in HK today.

In March of 2019, we’ve decided we wanted to share our knowledge and expertise in Pu-erh to the world. So that’s when we started our online store to cater to aged pu-erh lovers all around the world. To our surprise, we’ve since connected with many of our loyal customers who have migrated to Japan, Taiwan, Korea, the US, Canada, UK, France, Australia, New Zealand just to name a few!

Going back to talking about tea The "laser label" as it is known in the industry, certainly started before the 2000s, and the 1997 version of the 7581 took on the name "1st Generation Laser". Although 7581 denotes the recipe was conceived in 1975, the first batch available to the public didn’t come until 1979 and We've sold various versions of the 7581 since.

If everyone is interested we can also show you the various versions of this famous 7581 which was produced in the early years. There are small nuances in there which might not seem much to most people but they are a very important point to difference to note in terms of it’s true age.

Happy Drinking!

[StoneLadle]

@YeeOnTeaCo

All laser/shiny sticker bricks I've ever come across are quite heavily fermented and quite distinct from early 90s bricks, perhaps your storage is different ?

[YeeOnTeaCo]

YeeOnTeaCo

All laser/shiny sticker bricks I've ever come across are quite heavily fermented and quite distinct from early 90s bricks, perhaps your storage is different ?

We can only comment our own storage of 98 7581 tea which have been kept in a dryer warehouse (high above ground industrial warehouse), and not the “Traditional HK” storage since late 90s. You can really push the brew while still maintaining that bright chestnut brown colour. Same goes with our early 80s and 90s and even up to the 79s in terms of storage and the taste profile is consistent with ageing.

But as we all know the 7581 is quiet a heavily cooked recipe to start with so I think what you’ve tried with the lasers are stored in a more traditional high temp/humidity warehouse since production and the earlier samples you’ve tried comes from a dryer storage? Sorry I cannot give you more clarity without knowing where the tea is from and how it’s stored there are just too many variables as we all know

[StoneLadle]

The used leaves showed me all I had to see ... Non laser bricks are consistently less fermented especially lam tin and chi tin marked bricks...

I have drunk consistently from HKG and Malaysian stored bricks over the years and this has held firm...

Also your price is very tribute CCP friendly... DLLM FTPP

[Victoria]

Going back to talking about tea The "laser label" as it is known in the industry, certainly started before the 2000s, and the 1997 version of the 7581 took on the name "1st Generation Laser". Although 7581 denotes the recipe was conceived in 1975, the first batch available to the public didn’t come until 1979 and We've sold various versions of the 7581 since.

If everyone is interested we can also show you the various versions of this famous 7581 which was produced in the early years. There are small nuances in there which might not seem much to most people but they are a very important point to difference to note in terms of it’s true age.

This would make an excellent topic in a new thread under Tea/Fermented Tea, could be title ‘Puerh Labels & Numerations’ or ‘Decoding Puerh Labels’ or sim. We have discussed starting a thread like this with images of labels over time. If you or someone decides to start this new topic I’ll recommend naming images for easy searching as a very useful reference and database.

[YeeOnTeaCo]

Going back to talking about tea The "laser label" as it is known in the industry, certainly started before the 2000s, and the 1997 version of the 7581 took on the name "1st Generation Laser". Although 7581 denotes the recipe was conceived in 1975, the first batch available to the public didn’t come until 1979 and We've sold various versions of the 7581 since.

If everyone is interested we can also show you the various versions of this famous 7581 which was produced in the early years. There are small nuances in there which might not seem much to most people but they are a very important point to difference to note in terms of it’s true age.

This would make an excellent topic in a new thread under Tea/Fermented Tea, could be title ‘Puerh Labels & Numerations’ or ‘Decoding Puerh Labels’ or sim. We have discussed starting a thread like this with images of labels over time. If you or someone decides to start this new topic I’ll recommend naming images for easy searching as a very useful reference and database.

Great idea. Let me gather a few examples from the warehouse.

[vuanguyen]

The used leaves showed me all I had to see ... Non laser bricks are consistently less fermented especially lam tin and chi tin marked bricks...

I have drunk consistently from HKG and Malaysian stored bricks over the years and this has held firm...

Also your price is very tribute CCP friendly... DLLM FTPP

@StoneLadle

You are hilarious sir. Beside contributing to the forum with your immense knowledge about teas, your posts have always been fun and controversial to read

Yee On Tea price on this brick is 3x the price offered by TWL and GTH. Does having a store in expensive Hong Kong justify such a high price? Thanks for letting us know.

[StoneLadle]

@vuanguyen Hong Kong is one of the most expensive places to buy tea for the very reason you've mentioned... But even then there are differences in price for the same item, but then again it's tea and there's always opacity involved otherwise we wouldn't be here debating and discussing it...

...and like most things one can go to a general store and get a perceived safe example or one can work a bit harder...

In this case, if money were no problem, I'd suggest you get all three bricks and see for yourself what you think of the tea...

At this point if your interest is still strong in this tea, I believe it's as transparent as it's gonna get right now with the final decision being yours alone... Personally I'd suggest that you taste widely and deeply.. get the cheaper bricks and get a sample from these guys and voila you have endless entertainment for weeks and months ahead ...

[Bok]

Yee On Tea price on this brick is 3x the price offered by TWL and GTH. Does having a store in expensive Hong Kong justify such a high price? Thanks for letting us know.

Apart from what @StoneLadle said, one part of a price equation should also be who stored the tea. I'd expect to also pay a certain percentage for the expertise of whoever is taking care of these cakes over the years and their knowledge on how to do that. You can chuck a few cakes in a corner and let them be, or you can store them in highly controlled warehouse environments, all will of course have different outcomes in product and price. Imagine running aircon for a few decades non-stop to store your tea in ideal conditions...

GTH and TWL both seem to source Taiwan stored cakes, so it will be a different product after all (provided it's been stored there for a reasonable amount of time). Albeit Taiwan is a small place, rent (if not Taipei) can be very cheap and any place will be cheaper by a lot compared to HK.

[YeeOnTeaCo]

Yee On Tea price on this brick is 3x the price offered by TWL and GTH. Does having a store in expensive Hong Kong justify such a high price? Thanks for letting us know.

I’m not here to defend our pricing, and we are very transparent about our prices for this reason (you don't have to call for prices ). In the end, it’s the consumers choice.

@Bok have made a point which consumers often overlook in terms of taking care of the tea and not let it sit stale in the corner in the back of a shop. Things like choosing the best east facing warehouse locations and not just any cheap space you can find in HK. We turn our warehouses inside out at least a couple of times are year, moving tea from bottom to top inside to out and vice versa, and that takes time and labour etc etc.

At the end of the day, we are more about the preservation of good tea for generations to enjoy, instead of moving tons of tea for the cheapest price to the mass market which I think this tea is not for.

I can recommend a few others which are way more economical and some argue is a much better tea for the people first getting into ripes. I can't self promote here so you can PM if you want some recommendations.