Collecting "falling out of love with pu'er" stories from Blogspot

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Maerskian
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Wed Nov 04, 2020 5:12 am

pedant wrote:
Sun Nov 01, 2020 10:16 pm
Maerskian, i'd be interested in reading about your storage setup for 200kg. and maybe even seeing some pics :mrgreen:

are you just keeping it in the open? do you have a dedicated room? what's the temp and RH like?
This is precisely the good & bad part of everything:

It's incredibly mundane & effortless, i call it "lazy storage".

It was just an odd end of a room, we asked the furniture shop in our neighborhood to place three sliding doors side to side and make some internal divisions so it's just the wall ( brick & mortar ) , internal divisions ( laminated damp-proof pseudo-wood ) and those doors. This "cabinet" is located at the very center of the place, so it's safe from sunlight and keep a nice constant internal temperature.

Not a dedicated room but part of our expanded kitchen ( "open space" you may call it, there's zero issues with odours anyways ), it's as far away from where we cook as possible. Zero contamination inside as well.

It was never intended to store tea inside but as i kept piling had to start moving stuff out. Kept buying tea so it became like some living expanding creature claiming section after section and kicking everything else out... to the point where i need to order a new cabinet... since past june :roll: . I want this done by our usual guy and planned to schedule it for last september but the pandemic made everybody go crazy and upgrade/rebuild their homes... therefore his schedule is full and so we wait... but the situation is becoming hard to handle :x ... we have stuff outside that should be properly stored ( including 15kg of natural whole cacao beans ) and had to store some cakes on other cabinets ... take cups & kitchenware out for the time being ( fortunately not affected by any smell, etc... either ) ... not really sure what i'm going to do with my oncoming ( and final... for a while ) three tea orders now.

As for the storage itself, it's just piled cakes by type ( sheng - which is the biggest section by far - , shou, white tea cakes, the odd oolong & black tea cakes ) and then tons of bags for loose leaf ( have a whole section for oolongs ) ... which i probably need to store properly ( need to check some decent stackable cans i can buy in bulk ) .

The most advanced components of my storage are... the 6 hygrometers i have spreaded around; 5 are spreaded inside the different sections then i have a bigger on to check the room temp/humidity.

I live on a particular location with a 70%RH all-year average... usually we enjoy some almost tropical weather in summer with some rain, however this past summer has been the driest one within the last two decades. Zero snow all year, the most alarming low temperature last year was 0ºC / 32F in the middle of the night.

Funny enough november started very tropical and we've been enjoying temperatures around 25ºC/77ºF + up to 87%RH ... inside the very room my tea cabinet is in.

I/we open that cabinet daily and check the values; these days it's constantly around 25ºC/77ºF + 70% RH no matter the changes outside; on the worst of winter it's stable at 20ºC/68ºF - 60%RH ( all of these are "inside" values ) .

When we have this kind of high humidity / decent temperature days ( not that it last for weeks ) i usually keep the doors open at night so the tea can breathe all in.

What i've noticed is that you can tell when your tea is happy by smell alone. On winter you just get close enough and smell the amazing aroma emanating from all those cake, but the moment RH hits 70% or higher on 25-30ºC days... each time you open one of those sliding doors you're greeted by the most marvelous symphony of fragances, it's very much like a giant wave made of a mass choir & hundreds of early morning birds singing in different fragances, hard to describe that kind of impact, just changes your mood, makes you feel at peace .

Ah! ... the only one "advanced trick" ... would be placing a few tiny cups with water on those few couple days where RH inside falls below 60% ; doing this alone fixes & stabilize the inner RH a little over 60% .

Mentioned on another post this past weekend that such a convenient storage would makes the sole notion of moving out ( hopefully will never need to do such a thing ) a very stressfull thought to have .

No pics for the time being :P ... because - as explained - things are a little messy ( in fact, some cakes i'd like to taste are hard to reach... so i give up for the time being ) but will try to share a few ( must confess i rarely take pics of my tea, not to mention uploading 'em anywhere ) once my new cabinet is ready and can finally re-arrange everything as it should be for the next few decades.

Funny enough always define myself as somebody deeply pessimistic and it's in fact pessimism that made me go ahead with this 40-years-of-tea project... but in turn... nowadays being convinced i'll be around drinking tea for the next four decades and pay for that in advance is probably one of the most optimistic actions one could take .
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powersnacks
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Wed Nov 04, 2020 8:43 am

@Maerskian seconding the request for pictures! I have been following along with your story of stockpiling tea for a bit. Some pictures would be amazing. I am greatly curious and enjoy your updates very much.
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TeaTotaling
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Wed Nov 04, 2020 10:12 am

I find, the more quality aged sheng I drink, the more I fall in love with it. So much so, that my normal sessions include ~15g's ❤️ 🤍 💙 😁
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mbanu
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Mon Mar 29, 2021 5:38 pm

Not an entire falling-out, but some warning words from longtime pu'er personality shah8:
shah8 wrote:Some general thing I'd like to say to an audience. First, while puerh has virtues worth pursuing and drinking, the puerh industry is a scam. The idea of it's primary purpose is to encourage people to overconsume/hoard tea in the dubious prospect that you'll drink all that much of it or manage to resell it to some greater fool. Nobody should be buying tea with the fixed idea of drinking what they bought thirty years in the future--few people have anything like the security in life needed for that kind of vision. Don't let the survivor bias of those old teas that various families have managed to hang on to, through various highly traumatic events that many people did not live though, fool you. Most of those families with old teas in good conditions were long educated, with great connections, some money, and not a little luck. Also, nobody should be buying tea with the idea that their stash can be easily resold for lots of money. The main dynamic where you see people who buy factory tea for desultory amounts of cash and have super-expensive teas today. For example, I bought a pair of 2005 Dayi Peacock of Mengsong for $35 each from Houde in 2010--Eleven years later, full of frenzied speculation, particularly in the last couple of years, places like Donghe are saying that a box of 84 cakes (wholesale price) sell at a price that suggests that the wholesale price of a single cake is $1200. Which is ridiculous. I *could* probably sell for, say, $300, eventually. At $1200, I don't think there is much of a genuine retail liquidity for a tea like this. Someone in San Francisco bought a tong of 2005 Dayi Peacock of Menghai back in the aughts--wound up wanting to move to a smaller place and just sold off his teas in general, and that tong at around $100 a cake two or three years ago. Certainly, Farwenwa, a hobbyist selling out of Spokane, sold his Dayi Peacock of Menghai tong for about $150 a cake or so. Which could have been a mistake, since such a tea is like $4000 a cake today, theoretically. I bring all of this up to push the idea that these super high prices are pretty imaginary, and one shouldn't chase them (never mind think that they are a reliable indicator of quality). In other words, don't get hooked up on "collection value". (https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/th ... t-11114552)
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klepto
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Mon Mar 29, 2021 6:49 pm

I have fallen out of love with puerh and I'm not interested in drinking it anymore. I was never going to tong anything or keep 30 cakes and ages them. I would buy them, drink them but if I didn't drink it all I'd see if it got worse or better. Tbh, buying puerh is like walking through a minefield and I find the idea of puerh investment to be silly. Most of the time puerh drinkers don't really know the origins of the material and the price hikes take advantage of new puerh drinkers who don't have good connections. I will say that drinking puerh helped me develop me as a tea drinker. If you like puerh you can find some affordable cakes if you avoid the boutique vendors and producers. Avoid the hype trains at all costs.
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OCTO
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Wed Mar 31, 2021 3:42 am

klepto wrote:
Mon Mar 29, 2021 6:49 pm
I have fallen out of love with puerh and I'm not interested in drinking it anymore. I was never going to tong anything or keep 30 cakes and ages them. I would buy them, drink them but if I didn't drink it all I'd see if it got worse or better. Tbh, buying puerh is like walking through a minefield and I find the idea of puerh investment to be silly. Most of the time puerh drinkers don't really know the origins of the material and the price hikes take advantage of new puerh drinkers who don't have good connections. I will say that drinking puerh helped me develop me as a tea drinker. If you like puerh you can find some affordable cakes if you avoid the boutique vendors and producers. Avoid the hype trains at all costs.
NNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!...... @klepto don't fall out of love for PuErh!!!.... The tea itself warrants and pleads you to revisit them.... ppssttt... you might want to try some medium aged sheng with a Mumyoi or Joaka.... or some shou with a reverse oxidation Nosaka..... ahahahaha... As in for investment... it's highly speculative and honestly, you don't see much returns if one is only buying a tong for investment... investors usually buy from the range of 10 to 100 cartons to make their investment worth the rules of averaging our the ROI. TBBH, one will see better ROI in the earlier years of Puerh. I can still remember my 80s TongXingHao costing me no more than USD40 per cake.

Come back!!... :lol: :lol: :lol:
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klepto
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Wed Mar 31, 2021 10:14 am

OCTO wrote:
Wed Mar 31, 2021 3:42 am
klepto wrote:
Mon Mar 29, 2021 6:49 pm
I have fallen out of love with puerh and I'm not interested in drinking it anymore. I was never going to tong anything or keep 30 cakes and ages them. I would buy them, drink them but if I didn't drink it all I'd see if it got worse or better. Tbh, buying puerh is like walking through a minefield and I find the idea of puerh investment to be silly. Most of the time puerh drinkers don't really know the origins of the material and the price hikes take advantage of new puerh drinkers who don't have good connections. I will say that drinking puerh helped me develop me as a tea drinker. If you like puerh you can find some affordable cakes if you avoid the boutique vendors and producers. Avoid the hype trains at all costs.
NNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!...... klepto don't fall out of love for PuErh!!!.... The tea itself warrants and pleads you to revisit them.... ppssttt... you might want to try some medium aged sheng with a Mumyoi or Joaka.... or some shou with a reverse oxidation Nosaka..... ahahahaha... As in for investment... it's highly speculative and honestly, you don't see much returns if one is only buying a tong for investment... investors usually buy from the range of 10 to 100 cartons to make their investment worth the rules of averaging our the ROI. TBBH, one will see better ROI in the earlier years of Puerh. I can still remember my 80s TongXingHao costing me no more than USD40 per cake.

Come back!!... :lol: :lol: :lol:
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: I still have cakes, maybe 10 or so. Lately I have taken the time to try teas that I ignored previously. One day I might come back but for now I'm free :D
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OCTO
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Wed Mar 31, 2021 10:22 am

klepto wrote:
Wed Mar 31, 2021 10:14 am
OCTO wrote:
Wed Mar 31, 2021 3:42 am
klepto wrote:
Mon Mar 29, 2021 6:49 pm
I have fallen out of love with puerh and I'm not interested in drinking it anymore. I was never going to tong anything or keep 30 cakes and ages them. I would buy them, drink them but if I didn't drink it all I'd see if it got worse or better. Tbh, buying puerh is like walking through a minefield and I find the idea of puerh investment to be silly. Most of the time puerh drinkers don't really know the origins of the material and the price hikes take advantage of new puerh drinkers who don't have good connections. I will say that drinking puerh helped me develop me as a tea drinker. If you like puerh you can find some affordable cakes if you avoid the boutique vendors and producers. Avoid the hype trains at all costs.
NNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!...... klepto don't fall out of love for PuErh!!!.... The tea itself warrants and pleads you to revisit them.... ppssttt... you might want to try some medium aged sheng with a Mumyoi or Joaka.... or some shou with a reverse oxidation Nosaka..... ahahahaha... As in for investment... it's highly speculative and honestly, you don't see much returns if one is only buying a tong for investment... investors usually buy from the range of 10 to 100 cartons to make their investment worth the rules of averaging our the ROI. TBBH, one will see better ROI in the earlier years of Puerh. I can still remember my 80s TongXingHao costing me no more than USD40 per cake.

Come back!!... :lol: :lol: :lol:
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: I still have cakes, maybe 10 or so. Lately I have taken the time to try teas that I ignored previously. One day I might come back but for now I'm free :D
😂😂😂
Ethan Kurland
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Wed Mar 31, 2021 12:39 pm

This is a great thread!

I thank those willing to say that they got involved in something that now seems not to be worth what they put into it.

It is good to know that people can re-assess.

Yet, I do not believe most people will change their habits.

For example, most people will not buy gaoshan from a previous season that is better than the current season's gaoshan. The custom of most is to buy enough from one season to last until the next.

I have had to accept that most people will not buy extra gaoshan (such as the dayuling from late Spring 2020) though it was better than most seasons' was or will be, even when they know it is so; &, then I read about much greater investments of $, space, & time in pu-erh that is likely to disappoint those who drink it a lot of years later.

Fortunately, I only buy teas that I am happy to drink myself; so, when I have forgotten that I am not a tea guru with many followers who would buy more of what I tell them to buy; &, I have bought "too much" of an exceptionally good tea, I'll just indulge myself more, enjoying sessions that others might have enjoyed if their $ had not gone to vast stores of pu-erh (or unnecessary amounts of teapots?).

:mrgreen: (laughing but green with envy?)

cheers
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klepto
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Wed Mar 31, 2021 1:34 pm

Ethan Kurland wrote:
Wed Mar 31, 2021 12:39 pm
It is good to know that people can re-assess.
Its funny how we have preconceived notions about certain teas, either we think they aren't good or that what we have is better than anything else.
I thought all green tea tasted like seaweed and I'm happy to learn I'm wrong. I love green tea now but my puerh addiction didn't last but I get to experience
more of other teas. :D
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Bok
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Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:15 pm

@klepto while I absolutely share your feeling that other teas are more interesting, don't give up to fast though. I think especially Puerh, is very easy to get the wrong impression, as the overwhelming amount of available is just plain disgusting crap. some people then resort to fooling themselves "that is how it's supposed to taste" and even consciously look out for these features in teas. Well...
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OCTO
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Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:56 pm

Bok wrote:
Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:15 pm
klepto while I absolutely share your feeling that other teas are more interesting, don't give up to fast though. I think especially Puerh, is very easy to get the wrong impression, as the overwhelming amount of available is just plain disgusting crap. some people then resort to fooling themselves "that is how it's supposed to taste" and even consciously look out for these features in teas. Well...
This is the last thread I expect to see @Bok posting in..... more so in favor of exploration with PuErh!!!.... FINALLY!!!! Hahahahahahaha..... 🥳🥳🥳
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Bok
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Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:57 pm

OCTO wrote:
Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:56 pm
This is the last thread I expect to see Bok posting in..... more so in favor of exploration with PuErh!!!.... FINALLY!!!! Hahahahahahaha..... 🥳🥳🥳
Haha, stranger things have happened.
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LeoFox
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Wed Mar 31, 2021 9:24 pm

For pu, a good pot can make all the difference! Am surprised that lq/roc pot didnt do it for @klepto!
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Bok
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Wed Mar 31, 2021 9:39 pm

LeoFox wrote:
Wed Mar 31, 2021 9:24 pm
Am surprised that lq/roc pot didnt do it for klepto!
In the end, the best pot can not save a not-so-good-tea... tea quality is still the most important factor.
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