Generation Tea

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Anyone actually tried any of their teas? I know it is more of an old school US company which explains the funny mix of aged pu as well as bagged teas... but they have a lot of middle to older aged liu bao and liu an, in fact what I would consider a lot of it for an American vendor. Some of their tea prices seem quite good for the age, while other teas look like they could have seen some seriously rough 'traditional' storage at various points or seem very high priced. Also some of the teas while older are from time periods where I'm not sure how good the material or production would have been.

[.m.]

I don't have a first hand experience. I had some second hand sample in the past and from what i remember i distinctly didn't like it. Some of their teas are blatantly overpriced, the authenticity of some of their teas have been questioned, other teas look straight up moldy.

[.m.]

Actually, some of the teas that Generation Tea offers are the same as here (same photo) http://agedtaste.com/index.php?lang=tw

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yeah the aged sea dyke is laughable. I was looking at that same site the other day, both on there and quite a few of the Generation Pu-erh offerings look very similar to ones I've seen listed on taobao/agent sites where it looks like "HK storage" is defined as tea that was in a flood and/or eaten by bugs, then dried out for sale there is some adventures to be had there I suppose if one were interested in finding the limit between storage character and health hazard.

some of his liu bao could be priced quite fair, assuming it is any good, while also some of it seems stupidly high to me- those Hen Xian baskets should be about $30 for a whole basket rather than 1oz, and if its anything like the sample I had of one its not worth even that.

[mbanu]

I wonder about them myself, as the owner is from the first wave of legal pu'er shops after pu'er was legalized in the U.S, or maybe earlier (they are a little vague about when they started, which suggests earlier to me). They've been online for over 20 years (although the mid-2001 snapshot does not seem to have archived the tea they were selling back then): https://web.archive.org/web/20010603073 ... outus.html

[Chadrinkincat]

No samples and a terrible reputation prevents me from even considering buying anything from this vendor.

An 80’s cake for $150? This is cheap even for a border tea. These kinda cake were more expensive than this 10yrs ago. This is cheap for a reason but surely not because it doesn’t have a wrapper.

[.m.]

No samples and a terrible reputation prevents me from even considering buying anything from this vendor.

An 80’s cake for $150? This is cheap even for a border tea. These kinda cake were more expensive than this 10yrs ago. This is cheap for a reason but surely not because it doesn’t have a wrapper.

That thing is completely moldy! Or as they say:

The old worm castings may throw some new drinkers off, but to a seasoned Pu-erh drinker the silk is a sign of age and good taste. Those tea worms are very picky, only munching on old tea and leaving their trail of coveted Longzhu castings. These castings separated sell for over $10,000 USD per pound. So for a fraction of the cost you can drink some of this special old tea that is ginseng flavor and Chinese herbal taste.

Btw. Are those worm castings a real thing? In my limited knowledge Chong Shi Cha is usually made out of leaves of other plants

On the other hand, these puerh pills are intriguing: no need for all this pretentious gongfu brewing to get a fix:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/360387439563?h ... xy7rdRFW7O

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Btw. Are those worm castings a real thing? In my limited knowledge Chong Shi Cha is usually made out of leaves of other plants

Not only the wrong plant, but the wrong region too. I think it is also made in some other areas too, but mainly in Guangxi from what I understand. I highly doubt that the same species of moth from a rural area in Guangxi is flying in to a wet concrete room in Hong Kong or somewhere like that might not even be from bugs

[Andrew S]

They look to be an interesting combination of sometimes too cheap, sometimes too expensive, and with too many warning signs all around.

If I can get a 1993 cake from Sunsing for $4,000, I certainly won't get one from here for $7,500.

@Chadrinkincat: that cake certainly looks like border tea, even though I can't see them saying that. And the wet leaves look like a strange combination of pitch-black leaves from wet storage but with an occasional dark green one. If it had been loose leaf tea, I may have said that it looks like a typical wet-stored blend with some drier and some wetter, some younger and some older, leaves. Not what I'd expect from an 80s cake unless it was pressed from aged tea. Some of their other stuff looks like border tea as well.

As to the bugs, I understand that this is not uncommon in storage facilities: http://www.marshaln.com/2009/01/tuesday-january-6-2009/ (and I think the Mandarin had a similar post a long time ago). It does fit with the description "These cakes wer discovered in a HK storage". However, the word "discovered" doesn't fill me with confidence.

I think that there is a strong temptation to find bargain old pu er. The problem is that true bargains are rare, fakes and poorly-stored examples are common, and the beauty of an old pu er won't ever be found in something that's been lying in dangerously wet storage for too long.

That said, if anyone does try them, I'm sure we'd all be interested to know what happens. So long as they wash the leaves plenty of times beforehand...

Andrew

[Balthazar]

No samples and a terrible reputation prevents me from even considering buying anything from this vendor.

They do offer samples (the cake you posted is $15 for a 1oz sample).

Haven't tried any of their teas due to their reputation.

[Chadrinkincat]

No samples and a terrible reputation prevents me from even considering buying anything from this vendor.

They do offer samples (the cake you posted is $15 for a 1oz sample).

Haven't tried any of their teas due to their reputation.

Yea this tea and a few others. Mostly loose leaf rather than compressed cakes.