What Pu'er Are You Drinking

Puerh and other heicha
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d.manuk
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Fri Jun 21, 2019 11:00 pm

Shine Magical wrote:
Fri Jun 21, 2019 3:11 pm
Drinking Xishuangbanna Single Trunk Ancient Tree Aged Sheng Pu Erh -- has a very oily mouthfeel and is satisfying to drink. Leaves have been aged for 18 years.
I'm drinking the Xishuangbanna Single Trunk from Four Seasons Tea for the fourth time today, I am insatiable and now the sample is gone.
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Rickpatbrown
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Fri Jun 21, 2019 11:21 pm

aet wrote:
Fri Jun 21, 2019 9:21 am

500g cake sold as 2002 and 2005 year. price below 100CNY in Kunming. hope didn't ruin the "special" moment ;-) more than likely tai di cha ,
Lol. Yes. That kills my special moment 🤣
Thanks for all the info. This is really helpful. I'll be sure to drink this one up before it goes off.
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Victoria
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Fri Jun 21, 2019 11:58 pm

Shine Magical wrote:
Fri Jun 21, 2019 11:00 pm
I'm drinking the Xishuangbanna Single Trunk from Four Seasons Tea for the fourth time today, I am insatiable and now the sample is gone.
This sheng sounds very special, and I see it was aged as loose leaf, rather than compressed. Must be beautiful steeped in a bowl. If it’s as special as the Niu Lan Keng RouGui you shared with me from Four Seasons Tea, I’d quiclky get all remaining 20gr packs :) .
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d.manuk
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Sat Jun 22, 2019 12:24 am

Victoria wrote:
Fri Jun 21, 2019 11:58 pm
Shine Magical wrote:
Fri Jun 21, 2019 11:00 pm
I'm drinking the Xishuangbanna Single Trunk from Four Seasons Tea for the fourth time today, I am insatiable and now the sample is gone.
This sheng sounds very special, and I see it was aged as loose leaf, rather than compressed. Must be beautiful steeped in a bowl. If it’s as special as the Niu Lan Keng RouGui you shared with me from Four Seasons Tea, I’d quiclky get all remaining 20gr packs :) .
Yes, brewed with natural spring water I collected from upstate NY which I have been saving for a good tea session.
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aet
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Sat Jun 22, 2019 1:56 am

Shine Magical wrote:
Fri Jun 21, 2019 3:11 pm
Drinking Xishuangbanna Single Trunk Ancient Tree Aged Sheng Pu Erh -- has a very oily mouthfeel and is satisfying to drink. Leaves have been aged for 18 years.

just bit correction from historical point of view, if I may . Single Trunk ( known in Chinese as Dan Zhu ) harvesting concept was commercially introduced much later than Gu Shu concept , which was around 2007. Dan Zhu were started to appear around 2014 or so , because high competition between vendors, so they had to come up with different concepts. Need to know , that before "puerh fever" , the puerh boom ( 2007 ) , tea farmers weren't interested in harvesting big trees , let alone separate them into the bags , because the price per kilo was same as small arbor trees with bush tea and much harder to pluck the tea leafs. If there was any big tree involved , it was mixed into the batch with other trees .That's the historical fact. You can check on google " when Gu Shu concept was introduced" ..or something like that. Simply said , anything with print Gu Shu or Dan Zhu with date before 2006 is more than likely not legit. Before was used expression Da Shu ( big tree ) for the ancient tea tree and Xiao Shu for small arbors, yet it was very little and from small producers and Ive seen so far 1 from 2005. I believe the taste is good , worth the money and apologies if ruined the moment with the special tea. I'm known as not having many friends among the beginning puerh drinkers for that ;-D
We had around 20 bags vary from 2-6kg from separate tea trees ...real Dan Zhu , yet this year we decided to mix them and press after like that. Should I bother with 2kg for separate pressing and wrapping, no body would pay for that. Not mentioning the fact that tea from each tree is not on exact weight suitable for 200-357g cakes so you would end up with some loose leaf bits from each bag. Just let u understand the whole fancy naming of Tea Marketing Strategy these days.
Besides we were at the farm where farmers just used some bags and split some tea leafs claiming it is Dan Zhu ;-DDD The problem was that there was no taste consistency in any of those bags we tried. They just follow the market demand but don't feel to do any extra work for that. Sure , I don't blame them, who would distinguish if apple is coming from the tree A or from the tree B next to it , or both in the same bag?
Yet , it plays nicely on customer's years ...and that's all about ;-)
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Dan Zhu in separate bags
Dan Zhu in separate bags
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.m.
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Sat Jun 22, 2019 8:39 am

aet wrote:
Sat Jun 22, 2019 1:56 am
just bit correction from historical point of view....
Thanks for providing us with an insider perspective. It makes so much sense. And a lot of interesting informations, plus fun to read. :D
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d.manuk
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Sat Jun 22, 2019 1:55 pm

aet wrote:
Sat Jun 22, 2019 1:56 am
Shine Magical wrote:
Fri Jun 21, 2019 3:11 pm
Drinking Xishuangbanna Single Trunk Ancient Tree Aged Sheng Pu Erh -- has a very oily mouthfeel and is satisfying to drink. Leaves have been aged for 18 years.

just bit correction from historical point of view, if I may . Single Trunk ( known in Chinese as Dan Zhu ) harvesting concept was commercially introduced much later than Gu Shu concept , which was around 2007. Dan Zhu were started to appear around 2014 or so , because high competition between vendors, so they had to come up with different concepts. Need to know , that before "puerh fever" , the puerh boom ( 2007 ) , tea farmers weren't interested in harvesting big trees , let alone separate them into the bags , because the price per kilo was same as small arbor trees with bush tea and much harder to pluck the tea leafs. If there was any big tree involved , it was mixed into the batch with other trees .That's the historical fact. You can check on google " when Gu Shu concept was introduced" ..or something like that. Simply said , anything with print Gu Shu or Dan Zhu with date before 2006 is more than likely not legit. Before was used expression Da Shu ( big tree ) for the ancient tea tree and Xiao Shu for small arbors, yet it was very little and from small producers and Ive seen so far 1 from 2005. I believe the taste is good , worth the money and apologies if ruined the moment with the special tea. I'm known as not having many friends among the beginning puerh drinkers for that ;-D
We had around 20 bags vary from 2-6kg from separate tea trees ...real Dan Zhu , yet this year we decided to mix them and press after like that. Should I bother with 2kg for separate pressing and wrapping, no body would pay for that. Not mentioning the fact that tea from each tree is not on exact weight suitable for 200-357g cakes so you would end up with some loose leaf bits from each bag. Just let u understand the whole fancy naming of Tea Marketing Strategy these days.
Besides we were at the farm where farmers just used some bags and split some tea leafs claiming it is Dan Zhu ;-DDD The problem was that there was no taste consistency in any of those bags we tried. They just follow the market demand but don't feel to do any extra work for that. Sure , I don't blame them, who would distinguish if apple is coming from the tree A or from the tree B next to it , or both in the same bag?
Yet , it plays nicely on customer's years ...and that's all about ;-)
https://fourseasonstea.com/products/xis ... pu-erh-raw
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aet
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Sat Jun 22, 2019 7:19 pm

:D yep, that's what I'm talking about. This one is in even in loose form. :D :D :D You can claim anything about loose tea leaf. We have some "smart" dealers coming to market all the time bringing some dark looking leafs claiming that farmer has forgot and other blablabla ;-) 20-30 or whatever years ;-) There was a GZ dealer in Jin Shi market (Kunming) while ago , with box of something Liu Bao looking like material ( taste like fast matured bigger leafs ) , next day it showed up in local shops with various dates and the best part that even in one of the famous westerner online vendor with antique date ;-) and people believe, coz vendor with interstellar reputation can not make mistake, right?
When buying pu-erh , need to understand that, this is the Most Controversial Tea Business. False claims about the age of the tea, false claims about the age of the tea trees, false claims about the place of origin. And that's all because customer's ears. People want unique, authentic and rare...that is all built on. If people just focus on taste, nothing of that would be around. It is very unlike that somebody would store a loose leaf ( it breaks with time even if stored well ) , the bottom part of the box or other storage gets crushed by the weight of the top. Not mentioning the price. You store some tea 18 years, then name your price...add your value to the existing market price.
Smart Tea Buyer would use a logic a bit when purchasing online, Smart Tea Drinker would rely on personal experience and develop it by comparing, rather focusing on commercial text with some pictures. I don't believe that orange juice is made of the fresh oranges picked right from the tree as it's suggested on the box, either ;-)
I would love to pass the message for all those who buy puerh tea.
Please, spend some time on internet and google some articles using keywords like "fake tea" , "fake puerh" , "tea marketing" , "puerh hype" ...and so on.
Please note, that there is no strict regulations in China for date printing dates on wrapper ( technically is but nobody cares ) , origin, type of tea tree claim ( which is not provable anyway ). Now, new law has been introduced for teas coming form Laobahngzhan or Bing Dao, yet only in Yunnan , so Guangzhou vendors still have free will do as they pleased with printing.
There is no technique how to proof that loose tea is not from the time or tree or location as it's claimed. There is a method with pressed teas judging by the wrapper and history records of factory produced teas ( can distinguish fake ), but with loose leaf it is absolutely wild.
There is a way to how to spot some very obvious false claims from the pictures or by tasting the tea which also depends on experience of the buyer.
Please note, that even your trusted vendor can be cheated. I see many, and not only foreigners coming here to source the tea and being deceived by smart marketing. Being experience tea vendor with long history in your country means nothing here. Understanding the tea and understanding the tea business ( especially puerh in China ) are very different skills. The 2nd one you are not going to gain from home reading the internet or coming to the place few times per year.
Simple advice : buy sample , if like the tea and suit the price buy more. Try many vendors to find suitable one for you. Rely on your very own judgment , not recommendations on forums ( it is same people recommending same sites all the time ) . Learn with someone ( if you drink for learning purposes not for personal enjoyment ) , that would help you get 2nd taste opinion.
The price doesn't have to be equivalent to value of the tea. Yes, nobody sells the gold for the price of steel, but trust me , it does work other way around a lot!
Don't believe myth's like the best offer and tea can get only directly from Chinese vendor or some tea farmer. This commercial trick has been mastered on internet many moons ago. On FB theses days are so many "farmers" that I can't believe how fast they learned English if can't even learn Mandarin ( Yunnan farmers have their own ethic minority language and many of them can't speak Chinese properly ) .
Many Chinese tea vendors in Kunming market has a phone full of pictures hugging fat tea tree, yet selection on shelf come from bush tea coz it's cheap to buy and can run tea biz with this.
Don't try to understand the "price : value" formula , because it's very complex and keep changing every year. Focus on your personal "price : enjoyment" equation when purchasing the tea.
and have a fun!
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Bok
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Sun Jun 23, 2019 12:01 am

aet wrote:
Sat Jun 22, 2019 7:19 pm
On FB theses days are so many "farmers" that I can't believe how fast they learned English if can't even learn Mandarin ( Yunnan farmers have their own ethic minority language and many of them can't speak Chinese properly ) .
It is funny, even more so as they would need to have a VPN to even access FB or Instagram which already supposes even more sophistication (not saying a farmer can’t be sophisticated, just less likely they would care about these things or have the access).

I do not care much for Puerh, yet your account is very interesting to read and probably true or similar for most tea regions. Thanks!

The last paragraph is sound advice!
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d.manuk
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Mon Jun 24, 2019 8:36 am

I'm having '05 CYH Shanzhong Chuanqi (6 famous tea mountain), it's my favorite puer to drink at the moment.
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Tor
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Tue Jun 25, 2019 3:18 am

aet wrote:
Sat Jun 22, 2019 1:56 am


.. Need to know , that before "puerh fever" , the puerh boom ( 2007 ) , tea farmers weren't interested in harvesting big trees , let alone separate them into the bags , because the price per kilo was same as small arbor trees with bush tea and much harder to pluck the tea leafs. If there was any big tree involved , it was mixed into the batch with other trees .That's the historical fact. You can check on google " when Gu Shu concept was introduced" ..or something like that. Simply said , anything with print Gu Shu or Dan Zhu with date before 2006 is more than likely not legit. Before was used expression Da Shu ( big tree ) for the ancient tea tree and Xiao Shu for small arbors, yet it was very little and from small producers and Ive seen so far 1 from 2005..
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but Zhongcha “Big Green Tree” started from late 90s.
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aet
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Tue Jun 25, 2019 4:22 am

you r probably right , I have to make a correction. Only some companies that time made a few private batches ( pressed ,not loose ) before that. Xia Guan for example. But it called Da Shu (big tree) . Not that many as after 2007 which came up with name Gu Shu - Ancient tree ( that name didn't exist in tea biz apparently back in 90 or so ) .
Apologies for the confusion. Cake from 90 made from big tree is something we can dream about coz price is astronomical.
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Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:14 am

Shine Magical wrote:
Mon Jun 24, 2019 8:36 am
I'm having '05 CYH Shanzhong Chuanqi (6 famous tea mountain), it's my favorite puer to drink at the moment.
That is really good tea! Wish I had another cake.
Noonie
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Tue Jun 25, 2019 3:59 pm

Hi Pu drinkers! First time I’m posting in this sub-forum, as I’m new to Puerh.

As opposed to starting a new topic I thought I would add to here a (hopefully) quick question - can you recommend a website with all the information about Puerh that one would ever need, if one (or several) exist.

I confess to not having tried searching for this on google, because I thought someone may be able to provide an easy answer.

Thanks!

P.S. I’ll post here about the three Sheng I picked up from Puerh Brooklyn once I try them.
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Dresden
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Tue Jun 25, 2019 7:50 pm

2014 YS Impressions. This is my first go at Sheng so I really have no frame of reference. It has noticeable astringency but from what I gather that is to be expected.
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