About half didnt show up on Valentines Day for another puer tasting. They were guys who probably were tethered to girlfriends. The two shu gals showed up. One brought a puer sampler they got from the PuerShop (?). It was Menghai products, 3 shu, 1 sheng. I know that online store wasnt mentioned in the last tasting so I was impressed she took something away and knew what to order and how to get it. Lets say she didnt walk away with any samplers. I had a left over sliver of silver tip from tasting I gave her in appreciation. Im just about ready to admit I am impressed with the gongfu taste of tea. Its a modified version, ceramic infuser in small glass pot but gongfu technique. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking whats wrong with that picture. Ill follow up on that the next time. Maybe that shops version of a sawed off tea press plunger. I brought a bamboo shell QiZi tong which nobody had seen before even the owner. That might be going the way of the dinosaur. On my last visit to SF I notice the Seven Sons are now in decorative baskets in the hundreds of dollars range. Mine cost $18 in 2005. We had a sheng Menghai 2000 from HouDe which the owner described as being his absolute favorite. It won some kind of magazine award somewhere for short term aging or something like that. I casually mentioned it tasted like my Yunnan Black Gold. I can see how someone might be impressed if they werent familiar with other Yunnan tea taste. The only other guy there is on a budget and he mentioned some commercial puer he bought in our Chinatown. I encouraged him to bring it. Ah the good ole days, cheap puer. We never got around to my QiZi shu. Next time.
Jim
PS The owers command of PinYin puer is excellent. His sheng is slightly different than mine.