A Tale of two Bricks (Review)

I enjoyed a sample of this given me by a friend. I think you won't find the astringency a problem if you use shorter steep times.

/Lew

If one's Chinese friends ever discover that one lived in a socialist country they always forewarn one never to use the Chinese equivalent of the very common word "comrade" - Tong Zhi, in its original meaning, because nowadays it is used almost exclusively to describe gays. I saw that cake - these are the right characters... So I wonder - since this is a new cake - what does it name mean - an Old Comrade or an Old Fairy?

Alex.

Michael

I thought I remember puer links describing Russian investment in Chinese puer factories in the sixties or about. I know we had a recent discussion where compress black tea for Russian market wasn't puerh. "Old comrade" pops up often enough on TaoBao through the translation software. I don't have any current notes on what factories or product that could be.

Jim

Alex Chaihorsky wrote:

Lot of compressed tea is not puerh - actually most of the strongly compressed (iron-pressed) tea is produced for northern markets - Mongolia, Central Asia. Central Asia was a part of USSR so they called it (and still do) "Russian market" - in reality until very recently Russia proper saw almost no Chinese tea because India during post-Stalin years had much better relations with Kremlin than Chinese who basically became almost an enemy. Quite a bit of it was always produced for Tibet and some of it is puerh, but most of it is nothing but just very hard-compressed black (and green) tea. Which is understandable, because puerh never (even in China, let alone Tibet or Mongolia) was an everyday tea. And everyday tea was pressed non-fermented varieties of lower quality leaf.

In the dictionaries Tong Zhi is still a "comrade". It cannot be different also because CPC is still unchallenged ruling party and Tong Zhi is an official word for addressing a party member. But on the streets (and may that has a political tongue-in-cheek too) Tong Zhi is "gay", I know that because I started to learn Chinese back home in 1970-ies and every page of my textbook had at least 10 instances of the bloody term. So, even knowing that, I were using it all the times during my7 recent China business trips (you know how these things that you learned many years ago get stuck in your head!) and every time it was a burst of laughter or just people smiling/hissing/hushing...- but never outside of an official meeting with party boys it was understood the "old way".

Sasha.

Wait a minute, Alex. In ordinary cafes in Hong Kong the standard drink, served like water without ordering it, seems to be lukewarm very weak pu erh (bo lay). My guess is that it's a tradition from the times when all drinking water should be boiled. Also, dim sum restaurants there serve a lot of pu erh.

On the other hand, a Chinese colleague gave me a can of what he said was "purple noble lady" and it turned out to be oolong, though he said it was pu erh. So I thin there is a lot of confusion (but I know what I drank in HK).

Best,

Rick.

Rick -

Ordinary cafe (let alone Dim Sum restaurants) in HK expects you to spend at least $10 with average probably closer to $15. Cheap black puerh costs about $5/cake (say, $7/lb) Average "dose" would be

An average person in China makes about 800 ($100) Yuan/month (4 times that in large cities). That averages to $3/ day for food, apartment, transportation, etc. a quarter is 1/12 of that or approx. 10%. Now ask yourself if you can afford 10% of your income to be spent on tea and you have an answer why puer never was such in China even in large cities, let alone countryside and Tibet.

Sasha.

Rick Chappelldgucqa$52v$ snipped-for-privacy@news.doit.wisc.edu9/22/05

Such sophistication. Perhaps your colleague was contemplating the Tea Fairy?

Michael

That strikes me as a bit high, based on the fact that cheap shu is cheaper in New York's Chinatown ($3-$4/cake.)

$7 divided by 454g = $.0154/g.

But, if my experience with shu pu'er in New York's Chinese restaurants is any guide, and Rick indicates it is, even this would be much too high, because they brew the tea amazingly weak.

/Lew

You guys are paying way too much for your shu at a dim sum restaurant. I can buy Foojoy Bonay 5lb/2.27kg bags for $5 or $6 for the bag with the transliteration Pu'er. The oolong and jasmine bags are the same weight and price. Now if I could only find cheap dim sum.

Jim

Lewis Per>

Lewis snipped-for-privacy@panix1.panix.com9/22/05 12: snipped-for-privacy@panix.com

And let us add that in New York City, that amazingly weak Pu'erh, and even very good Pu'erh when it is served, which is on occasion, would be free with the meal. No Chinese restaurant in New York City would dare charge for tea unless tea were the featured event.

Michael

A derived form of this that's used today is "tong shi" which means workmate. The use of comrade in China sorta has faded out a bit, but Alex is right; in the North they do use this terminology to refer to gays. It's not widespread.

snipped-for-privacy@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com9/25/05

Mao is rolling over in his grave.

I just got this confirmed by a Taiwanese colleague of mine. She thinks the code phrase originated in the title of a Hong Kong movie of ten years or so ago (sorry, I don't have the title.) Immoral Mr Teas, are you listening?

/Lew