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Raw vs. Ripe Pu

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
Some of the crazies were all of the "Abandoned Forest" and "Primeval Tree" rubbish that Xizihao came out with last year. I'd much rather an understated poetic name that all of that hyperbole, especially when the tea is not worthy of all the praise.

As we're talking about tea names, I like Nada's "Cha Cha Yi Wei", meaning "Tea, Zen - One Taste". Much better than Tea Kingemperor Wildancientarbor Fragrant Tribute nonsense. :)

On another site, a somewhat dimwitted fellow with a cute wife posted this-

Question: Which bottle contains chardonnay?
A) 2007 Joe's Vineyard Chardonnay, Napa Valley
B) 2004 Vincent Girardin Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Caillerets

The faithful husband who thinks to himself "my wife asked for a bottle of chardonnay and I'd better damn well return with a bottle of chardonnay" would probably choose "A", but that bottle only has to contain 75% chardonnay to qualify to be labelled as such. The remainder can be anything. If you chose "B", the French AOC system (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée) guarantees that your bottle contains 100% chardonnay despite the fact that the word chardonnay does not appear on the label. Bottle "B" tells you when it was made, who made it, where it was made, and (indirectly) what it is made from. Even a cursory understanding of the system is enough to allow you to navigate the stupefyingly obfuscatory waters of Burgundy and buy with confidence.

No such system is in place for tea. Adjectives have no meaning- one man's supreme is another's select. Words such as superfine, imperial, reserve, premium, nonpareil, and the like may have some bearing within the confines of a single retailer, but can't be relied upon to judge teas from one seller to the next. Buzzwords that are inducements for the potential buyer- yiwu, arbor, high mountain, old tree- are bandied about with impunity, and do nothing to substantiate the legitimacy of the product-
Goldberg Tea Factory Pterodactyl Picked Precambrian Original Wild Arbor Giant Tree From Famous Sacred Yiwu Mountain of Canarsie, Brooklyn.
 
Hi, Lee - have you looked at Wikicha? It's a good source of information for learning about new tea. We're talking about pu'er / puerh tea. The original tea! :chinese:


Toodlepip,

Hobbes

Hobbes;

Thanks for the info. I'll check it out. Should be fun learning and trying something new. Well, by the sounds of it, maybe fun. Thanks again

Lee
 
Scotto
Ouch
R-James
Suzuki
Proinsias
Netfurfr

Now, to be clear, this isn't a situation of Hobbes sharing a cake of tea out of the goodness of his heart (he sends out a ton of samples, but that's not what this is).

The deal here is that the seven of us - and I think this is more than enough - otherwise you don't get much of a sample - are going to reciprocate by taking turns splitting a standard cake/brick evenly between ourselves on a semi-regular basis. When we split up the tea, we pay for the shipping - in exchange for which we get tea from the other six for "free". If this isn't something you want to do, say so before Hobbes ships.

If you don't know what a decent cake is, please ask for suggestions before buying.

I'm not trying to make this overly formalistic, I just want to be clear what the deal is before we start this up.

I think the cake Hobbes is splitting costs something like $16 from Yunnan Sourcing - so to be fair, I think the average price for the cakes should be between $15 and $25 before shipping (based on YS or similar vendors' pricing). If someone wants to send out something more expensive, that's great, but I want to try to keep within a reasonable quality band.

Any other thoughts as to how this should go down are more than welcome.

If I'm being too much of a stuffed shirt, just tell me to get stuffed, but I thought some general guidelines would be useful before we start this up.

I'm happy to take care of the next cake - suggestions are more than welcome - I also don't want to buy something that folks (I know Hobbes, Scotto and Ouch have decent collections already) already have.
 
Fine by me, I'm just gearing up for sending out 15 samples of lui an and black long jing. After several months of free samples arriving it's time to inflict my choices on the others.
 
I hate teeny-weeny samples; to really get to know the tea I like to have an ounce or two at the least, so this should work out well.

This should be fun, and educational. It is good timing with cooler weather on the horizon as well. My tea consumption goes up as the temperature drops.
 
I am looking forward to this too. When my turn comes around I will welcome suggestions as I don't yet feel confident enough to buy teas for you guys to try and feel confident they wont be complete trash
 
Yes, I suspect that it will often be the case that the tea itself is less expensive than the total shipping.

I did like this cake, as I have a further four for my collection, but that's no guarantee that you'll like it, of course. See what you think!


Toodlepip,

Hobbes
 
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