A puerh fountain of infusion

Hello,ello,llo,lo,o. Another possibility is gassing of putrification from dead mold. I'm thinking this might be a good indicator for cooked, uncooked puerh. I'm really interested in the Tibetan shaped mushroom from older puerh. For those with any cakes is a crop date apparent on the wrapping? Anybody else notice gassing from puerh infusions?

Jim

I've never seen one.

Yes. I've noticed it in first steeps of very tightly packed Puerhs. My speculation has always been that there are tiny air pockets trapped in the cake or tuo that get released as the hot water loosens up the structure surrounding them. But that's just a speculation.

Just as I thought Puerh all over the place from the first and only two grocery stores I visited. 12oz/340g Beencha cakes $4, 250g bricks $2,

100g tuocha Grade A Xia Guan $1. Those prices are not typos. You don't want to know what some website is charging for the very same identical Beencha cake. I like the round tuocha boxes for repackaging after breakup. I punch a hole in the top with a screwdriver and use wire snips to start the disintergration. Yep the chunks bubbled when infused. I know I can find the Silver or Golden Bud in the tourist traps if I had more time. I got a 5 pound bag of Fujian oolong for $5 because I thought it smelled good. It's been a year since my last visit to Chinatown because I turn left to visit my local tea shoppe instead of right to Chinatown.

Jim

In my experience, sometimes the penny-a-gram Puerh from Chinese supermarkets in the USA is quite drinkable, and sometimes it's loathsome. But I've never had anything of that sort that lives up to the phrase "Grade A", no matter what the label says.

/Lew

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Yes, but how does it *taste*? I drank some Pu-erh recently thanks to Lew that is right in your price range as noted above. However, more commonly I'm afraid, I've tasted some truly ugly stuff in that price range that went right down the drain. Nonetheless, I continue to search the shelves.

Michael

There are just a few factories producing cakes,bricks,tuocha in Yunnan. When you find them in the US it is through export companies such as

. On the last trip to Chinatown for a buck more you could buy a cake in a decorative Foojoy box but it had the same factory wrapping as loose cake on the shelf. I have a Bo Nay cake ('aged puerh') packaged in HongKong by the seller with no factory wrapping. It is different for loose leaf where you might buy from more factories or a Chinese spelunker. The cheap green uncooked Grade A tuocha (100g all green round box) tastes exactly like my favorite expensive Superior Iron Goddess from my local tea shoppe. I didn't have time to visit the tourist traps probably selling the expensive melons side-by-side with yixing,gaiwan,gongfu sets.

Jim

I liked the green XiaGuan Tuocha. I compare it to my Superior Iron Goddess. It's counterpart cooked XiaGuan Tuocha smelled like a sweaty suana fumigated with tinactin but better than the fishy mini tuocha from my local tea shoppe for $1/10g. I hate breaking cakes and bricks because I'm from the old school where they are decorations. I'd still like to find an expensive melon. I think the price issue is loose puerh. For penny/gram teas there are better bargains such as an Arabic commercial ceylon.

Jim