Bamboo Stick Pu-erh

Hi All,

Has anyone had this? Just got a notice from inpursuitoftea, saying it was back in stock. Then the question becomes, is the taste so unusual as to be worth $45+S&H? Doesn't even say whether it's cooked or raw, or what year it is, just "sweet notes". The blurb says too many things about Pu-erh in general but not this one. Has anyone ordered from them since the review on pu-erh.net (11/05), and if so, what say you? :-))

Thanks, Ozzy

Reply to
Ozzy
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I got a similar tea from YunnanSourcing or Dragon Tea House recently. We had a hell of a time splitting it open only to have a very mediocre, rough cup of tea. I thought the novelty of it appealing and I was really curious. Must say: if I bought it on Ebay, it was much, much cheaper. I think $11.00 or $12.00 with maybe $4.00 shipping. I'll check; but, that sounds about right. Yunnan Toucha also carries it. Shen

Reply to
Shen

"Shen" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@p10g2000cwp.googlegroups.com:

Thanks, Shen. You know, that house is not known for their bargains. (Some nice Oolongs, though.) I'll check out your alternative sources....

Ozzy

Reply to
Ozzy

Definitely don't pay $45 for it.... it can't be worth that much.

MarshalN

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innews: snipped-for-privacy@p10g2000cwp.googlegroups.com:

Reply to
MarshalN

innews: snipped-for-privacy@p10g2000cwp.googlegroups.com:

Here you go, Ozzy: to give any of these a try is a lot less expensive:

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I have the one from Toucha and haven't opened it as yet. The Aromatic- Bamboo-Species etc from YSLLC is the one that I found a bit rough/ robust/harsh, etc. Have fun! Shen

Reply to
Shen

With this kind of tea, I would say you're completely dependent on the vendor. By its nature, this is a tea that's made by (probably Dai minority) peasants, so you aren't going to have the documentation that it was made by X factory from leaf harvested in year Y on Z mountain. I've had some good tea of this type, but I've also had some that was good only for compost. By the way, even if the vendor were willing to sell you a sample, due to the lack of uniformity in manufacturing you'd have less ability to predict what another tube tasted like than with "normal" teas.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

I just checked a March 2005 invoice from CyberSilkRoad. The 50g tubes were $3.50. Novelty more than taste. I've got one rattling around in the car for convenience store hot water. I use a screw driver to widdle any out.

Jim

Reply to
Space Cowboy

Ozzy wrote in news:Xns98E4CB7638A94theloneandlevelsands@130.81.64.196:

Thanks for all the feedback, people. It's apparent that Bamboo Stick has a heavy novelty element, like those cash coins made from puerh. Do I want pu of varying quality overlaid with the taste of bamboo? Don't know yet, I'll maybe try it -- many thanks for steering me away from inpursuitoftea.

Ozzy

Reply to
Ozzy

"Shen" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@z35g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

Thanks again, Shen, for the URLs and the personal experience. :-)

Ozzy

Reply to
Ozzy

Hi Ozzy,

I have not tried IPOTs version, but I have tried dozens of others. The Bamboo Puerh genre varies immensely. Some are exceptionally good while others are putrid. There are both raw and cooked varieties. The tea is always hand processed using bamboo tubes of varying botanical variety, size, and greenness, filled with leaves which are then tamped into the tube to compress the leaf. The bamboo tubes are usually then roasted over a fire. The compression, heat of the fire, and roasting time are all highly variable since they are controlled by human judgment, not to mention the quality of the source maocha. I will say that the Menghai brand is consistently good, although expensive.

As for this particular offering, I see several red flags. They branded this themselves so you have no idea who the source factory was. They also completely omitted both the vintage and even the weight of the item. Perhaps the most disturbing omission is that they don't even tell you if the puerh is cooked or raw. I would never purchase this item based solely on the information provided. Furthermore I would never pay $45 for any bamboo puerh unless it was either aged, or weighed about a kg or more. Most of these bamboo canes contain around

50-100g of puerh (
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), although I do have some that weigh a kg each (
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), and some that weigh as much as 3kg each (
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). So knowing the weight really is important, are they charging 5 cents per gram or 45 cents per gram, how would you know?

Mike Petro

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Reply to
Mike Petro

Good points Mike.

I think from the pictures, you can guess that it is of the cooked variety. This is also deduced from the fact that everything else they sell is cooked. $45 for cooked pu in a bamboo isn't going to be very cost effective.

Also, I have to say that of the younger ones I've had very rarely do you really detect much bamboo aroma. Most of the time, it's just like any cooked tea. The one time I had a truly good bamboo tea, it was something like 40-50 years old.

MarshalN

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Reply to
MarshalN

The Menghai brand isn't actually manufactured in the Menghai factory, is it? I always thought the tubes were filled and roasted by individual farmers.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

I think it is an "under the supervision of..." type thing. However the ones carrying the Menghai label were very consistent, and pretty good.

Mike

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Reply to
Mike Petro

Thanks, again, Mike. Being a pu-erh novice, I went for the novelty. I haven't tried the one from Yunnan Toucha as yet; but when I do I'll be happy to share the info. BTW, it's always great to get your input re: pu-erh stuff. Shen

Reply to
Shen

Mike, BTW, the first one pictured in your post is the one being sold at Yunnan Toucha - both varieties -raw and cooked. The last one pictured on your post looks like the one Scott has at Yunnan Sourcing (Ebay). Shen

Reply to
Shen

"Mike Petro" wrote in news:1172687316.182172.289280 @t69g2000cwt.googlegroups.com:

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your detailed, instructive response and the illustrative URLs. I definitely will not buy from IPOT, and probably will try Menghai.

I have a trivial question as to the weight and/or diameter: it seems logical to assume that these Pu-erhs are molded using older trees. Do you find that heavy or big-diameter bamboo teas of the same color and age have any taste notes in common? Or would the many variations in processing overwhelm any such thing?

Ozzy

Reply to
Ozzy

Hey Mike and Ozzy.

I am just a rank beginner with about 2 years of trying pu-erh from 100 kilos of tea I have purchased and sampled from ( yes I have the bug!) but in my opinnion the large 2kilo bamboo currently listed at YS is something special. After trying it I ordered a second helping. The little tubes of 100 or so grams have not terribly impressed me, I think they might be for the tourist/sovinir trade.

Tom

Reply to
beecrofter

Right on both counts. If you look at the last line of the description table you will see the vendor on all of my teas.

Mike

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Reply to
Mike Petro

No, I have never really been able to correlate on batch to another. The variables are many, more so than bings or bricks. Even within one batch there are major variations from stick to stick. The ones in the first link being a prime example. I bought a few of the raw sticks and they were fantastic, I reordered more within the same month and the second was extremely over roasted, obviously having been in the fire too long. Yet the labels, and general appearance were exactly the same except for maybe a few extra scorch marks from the fire.

I am not sure where you are going regarding the "old trees".I dont think they use the premium ancient tree maocha in these things. As for the bamboo canes, there are many variables there as well. Which botanical variety was used, what diameter was used, how green it was, the moisture content of the bamboo, the thickness of the stalk, etc etc. So two bamboo canes stuffed with the exact same maocha, processed by the exact same person, over the same fire at the same time, could indeed be very different.

If anything, I have learned to make "no" assumptions as they are all so different. There are some varieties that are reminiscent of incense, I dont remember why, but the aroma is unmistakable. I will say this, one of the best cooked puerhs I have ever tasted was a bamboo puerh, as some friends up in Massachusetts can attest to.

Mike Petro

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Reply to
Mike Petro

The only bamboo puerh I've ever had was a stick I ordered from Silk Road Teas about two years ago. It was cooked. When I first drank from it, it seemed moderately good meaning it wasn't as rough as a camel's breath (even that's not a good way to explain since those seem to vary too but it's the best I can do) but recently I came upon the last chunk of it (I think) and stuck the whole thing in my brewer...it lasted for more steeps than I usually get from a cooked. It was pretty good to me then. Not quite incense but not bad at all, it had more of a smoothness to it than the camel's breath cooked mini tuos I have right now, and some indefinable quality. I think it might have been barely fragrent.

That's the only one I've had.

Melinda

Reply to
Melinda

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