Thought this was interesting:
I'm sure some of the claims are true but to what extent? The claims are 1) too much pesticides used on pu-erh 2) much pu-erh is claimed to be from ancient trees but isn't 3) pu-erh is frequently not as aged as claimed. Thoughts everyone?
Of course the trees are ancient! If you look closely at the picture, you'll see that the waist-high trees in those neat rows are *bonsai*. It takes 500 years to grow a tree that way. No wonder the leaves are so expensive. I, for one, feel privileged to buy them.
/Lew, ducking
Let's put it this way, if there's a demand, people will "create" a supply for it. If there's big dollars to be easily made, then people will devise ways to get that money into their hands. So,if there's a demand for say, ancient tea tree puer, then, surely enough, there will be a large supply of it. That means, they will intentionally mis-label the product, produce it in large quantity (using pesticides and fertilizers) and use other methods to fool the customer into thinking it's ancient tea tree puer; and to ensure there's a large enough supply to meet the demand. That's how money is made, unfortunately.
There does indeed seem to be a lot of (well, let's put it kindly) somewhat exaggerated claims of age and origin in the pu-erh world, even among otherwise reputable shops. When I see a $30 beeng listed as being 40 years old, I laugh out loud.
I for one would never buy an aged pu-erh or other upper-grade tea without tasting it first, either via mailed sample or preferably in person at a shop.
I bought a 100 gram tin of loose pu-erh labelled as 70 years old and "wild-born large leaf" (I translated the symbols) for about $100. I
*knew* that it was almost certainly not more than 30-40 years old and very unlikely to be wild-tree tea (although the large leaf suggests it was at least arboreal tea), but I had tasted it first and thought it to be well worth the money anyway. Potentially false claims aside, that tea had a superior taste that justified the cost. That was all that mattered.On the opposite end I sometimes buy lower-grade teas and find pleasant surprises. I've stumbled across $16/lb green oolongs that rival the $100+/lb ones I normally pick up, but admittedly that is a very rare exception to the rule.
Some people are so uptight about the age thing with puer. Just assume the puer is 40 years old, or even 20 years old before you buy it, how do you know under what conditions that puer was stored? What about if it came in contact with undesirable odors, etc.? Some things you can't tell by looking or by smelling. And if you can't sample it, then how will you know if it's good tea or not? And does the age justify the price? So many people are going for aged puer recently the prices are so crazy.
In Hong Kong tea shops, you see lots of old puer wrapped in Saran wrap. Some of that stuff looks like it's been "fixed". The outer edges are rough, and the surface is kind of rough too. At one time, it could have had mold on the surface that someone scraped away before they wrapped it in plastic wrap to nicely display on a store shelf. Some moldy puer isn't going to taste as good as a non-moldy puer.
I personally only buy new, sheng puer (usually last year's harvest) that's been sitting on store shelves. They will allow you to sample it. And if I can sample it and I like drinking the tea right at that moment, then, if I buy some and store it properly, it's got to be way much better after 10 years (if I don't drink it up before then). Rationale: If I like it now, I will like it later.
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