Any pu erh suggestions?

On 18 Dec 2004 07:11:03 -0800, "Josh" cast caution to the wind and posted:

Hi Josh,

To find online vendors check out my site at

if you navigate the menus to "Puerh Links > Puerh Vendors" and then choose USA or International. I have listed every site that I know of that sells more than 2-3 varieties. A good place to start looking for puerh is or , there is also but watch their shipping prices as they are high, all of these three vendors are located in China but they cater directly to the US market.

You will find that authentic aged puerh is quite expensive, as much as a thousand dollars a pound for 30 year old cakes in good condition.

Yes it is worth a little extra to get a 5 year old cake versus a new one, but it is also interesting to age it yourself and taste it every year.

However I would caution you to learn a bit more before spending any serious money. There is a tremendous amount of misinformation about puerh and often very honest vendors are misled by their distributors and don't know enough to know it. I have seen more fake aged puerh for sale in the USA than real aged puerh. It is similar to the antique furniture market in that there is a tremendous amount of fakes out there and you really have to KNOW what your doing or else you will definitely get deceived.

Hope this helped,

Mike Petro snipped-for-privacy@pu-erh.net

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Hey Mike, I have to ask something here...when you say we have to know something about what we're doing when we buy puer I want to say that it seems to me like I can't possible learn enough through reading online forums etc. to really know what I'm doing. My point being that if someone really wants to fake a puer cake and pass it off to ME as fake they wouldn't have to do much since I have no benchmark tastewise to go by. That's why I, as a mostly newbie too, can only think to myself "well, I hope my vendor really knows what he's doing". Because his/her experience is going to be my first and best line of defense against something like that. It's even more disturbing to me to be hearing about how all these other famous types of tea are possibly being faked in various places, but it makes sense. China is rampent with all kinds of knockoffs, makes sense tea would be another one only in that case they're making a knock-off of their own product...(Not just China of course..there's the cases of questionable darjeeling)

So I guess my question is, how do I as a newbie get the taste experience I need to know a fake puer from a good one? All I can come up with is to try lots of it from reputable dealers and hopefully if I run across a "bad" one somewhere I'll taste the difference. Comments?

Thanks for your puer page again, it's such a great resource!

Melinda

Actually what I said was "before spending any SERIOUS money". The point being that you need to work your way up to the premium stuff or you will certainly get burned.

The ONLY way to learn about puer is to personally taste as many samples as you can. Now how you do that depends on your situation. The ideal way is to find a Brick and Mortar tea shop that knows puer and let them guide you through the process of learning. For example people in New York can seek out the Tea Gallery, people near San Francisco can seek out ITC, people near Tucson can seek out Seven Cups, etc etc.

If you are like me and not near such an establishment you will need to use online or mail order resources. This is a much more difficult way to go and I strongly suggest you do your homework and seek out a vendor who truly knows puer. Write them a few emails and get a "gut feel" for how much they really know. Look for things like that shop out West who is trying to sell 40 year old black puer (not possible as the process wasn't invented until the early 70s). Use online resources like my page and others to learn about the history and culture of puer, use that information to judge your vendors knowledge. Once you find a knowledgeable vendor allow them to guide you through the tasting process. Slowly work your way up from inexpensive puers and take notes along the way. Then once you have a foundation of taste memory branch to some other vendors and try their offerings. In the process you will learn which vendors are trustworthy, these are the ones that you want to use when you decide to venture into the more expensive specimens.

It is also very helpful if you can find a group of tea drinkers with similar tastes and each of you buy a different puer and then share them with each other. Which ever way you choose you need to taste as many as possible.

The truth is that it takes years to learn, and you can only learn through tasting. There is no truth in advertising guarantees or even quality control assurances in this business. That's is why I recommend that people new to puer slow down and not seek out vintage puer until they learn the difference between good and bad, young and old, etc. The biggest mistake I see people make is trying to jump straight to the old stuff.

I know this is probably not what you wanted to hear but it is the my honest opinion....

On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 14:12:52 -0800, "Melinda" cast caution to the wind and posted:

Mike Petro snipped-for-privacy@pu-erh.net

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I have fairly limited Puerh experience, so take this for what it's worth. I've been enjoying ITC's Aged Green Puerh tuo cha. It's around $5. I'm sure there is better, but it fits my budget and taste. Not that I'm not going to keep trying others.

No actually that is exactly what I wanted to hear. Thanks Mike.

Melinda

Thanks a lot Mike, it did help. I pretty much decided to try a fresh green pu erh from mandjs and another one maybe a few years old, just to see the differences age makes. Maybe eventually I will try older ones, and like you said work my way up and get to know pu erh better.