Family visiting Tibet... Pu-erh recommendations? Help !

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Hi, the Baoyan brand of Mushrooms, Discs, and Bricks is extremely common in Tibet. While it is not really rare here it will be very cheap there. This is a specific brand of Xia Guan tea that is marketed directly to Tibet.

Here is a picture of the "Burning Flame" logo

these are the discs but it is very common in bricks and mushrooms as well. Here is a photo of the makings of Yak Butter tea which is the most common form of tea in Tibet. What you see is Banyan brick tea, raw sugar, and yak butter.

There are other bingchas commonly available in Tibet but they wont be as easy for a tourist to find where the Baoyan certainly will be. It is available in both black and green versions. Beware of any of them that are allegedly aged as they really wont be.

Mike Petro

In Tibet, they drink black tea with butter.

But it's not just any butter, it's yak butter.

And it's not just ANY yak butter, it's rancid yak butter.

My advice regarding the rancid yak butter tea: stay away.

--scott

Mike -

Thank you for the fast and thoughtful reply - and for the jpgs which will be a big help for my parents in identifying the tea. A few quick follow-up questions: I'm assuming that the quality of Baoyan is good, despite the easy availability? Are there any other brands you suggest beyond Baoyan, (just in case)? Finally, the form that the pressed pu-erh takes - brick, mushroom, disc - makes no difference... is this correct?

Anyway, I really appreciate your response, and I've been checking out your great site (which doesn't seem to be firefox compatible, though...?)

Davidson

Baoyan is good tea but can be an acquired taste. The black variety is good right away and the green benefits from some age. Sorry, there are not any other brands that I am aware that tourist is likely to see in Tibet. Regarding the form, the taste is about the same regardless. The bricks are the easiest to store and transport, however I am partial to the mushrooms simply because they look cool.

Do me a favor and email me offline(mike AT pu-erh.net) with the details of whatever is not working. I use firefox 1.07 and everything seems to work fine.

Mike Petro

snip

Do you suppose one could substitute durien for the rancid yak butter?

Melinda

Na, rancid Yak butter is just rancid; durian is sweet if you can get past the smell. I had to seriously hold my nose the first time, but after I got used to it...it was smooth and nice.

You should really try it.

I couldn't disagree more. How much tea with rancid yak butter tea have

*you* drunk? Don't knock it til you've tried it. (BTW, isn't there a fruit that would go great with it?)

Why I remember warm nights in a village in North East India...a story for another day and probably another list.

Best, Michael

I tried it only once, and that under duress. I can see why people might want to do the tea-with-butter thing in very cold weather where your body needs a lot of fat in the diet to keep warm. But I would rather other ways to keep warm.

--scott

Pu'rh is valuable to the Mongolian diet of cream and meat because of it's presumed cholesterol lowering qualities. It is part of the discovery of why such a diet isn't more of a problem. I think working from sunrise to sundown is a better indicator. I've seen many a Mongolian documentary but I've never noticed a bag or wrapper of BaoYan on the shelf. You can't miss it. BTW comparatively it isn't cheap. The Tibetan shops are a dime a dozen in our mountainous tourist areas with ethnic owners. I've never notice any for sale. You can buy their decorative tea stand with candle and Indian tea. Puer is a Silk Road tea so maybe a selection or just Indian. I like the architecture of my mushrooms so much I just blend a Xiaguan black and green for not much difference in taste.

Jim

Scott Dorsey wrote:

Were you in Nepal, the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama?

Any chance of a yak butter tea report? I've seen conflicting information on the internet about yak butter tea.

John Q.m4vcf.178$0h5.12@dukeread1011/9/05 17: snipped-for-privacy@public.com

No, but I was in Varanasi, and did a stint at Vulture Peak, but my legs got stiff.

Michael

Michael Plant wrote in news:BF974938.3B396% snipped-for-privacy@pipeline.com:

Any chance of a yak butter tea report? I've seen conflicting information on the internet.

Were you in Nepal, the birthplace of Gautama Siddartha?

John Q.AkWcf.225$0h5.28@dukeread1011/11/05 00: snipped-for-privacy@public.com

No, but I was in Varanasi, and did a stint at Vulture Peak, but my legs got stiff.

Michael

John Q.AkWcf.225$0h5.28@dukeread1011/11/05 00: snipped-for-privacy@public.com

No, but I was in Varanasi, and did a stint at Vulture Peak, but my legs got stiff.

Michael

Jim,

Mongolia and Tibet are separated by 6-7 provinces. They are not the same culturally and while the peoples there drink brick teas, these teas do not come from the same region as well.

Danny

Buddha was believed to be born in Lumbini, Nepal.

They hardly drink yak milk there. Mostly they drink cow's milk.

Some may believe that tea leaves was a gift from the buddha to the world (in several legends), but one thing for sure is that if tea was drunk then, it would not be the same tea as we drink these days.

In the scriptures, tea was never mentioned too.

Baoyan brand is the export tea from Xiaguan tea factory mainly to Tibet. They come in brick, squares, and mushroom shapes.

In the early days no much quality was exercised on them as they were meant for the far flung remote outer lands, and were meant to be cheap, low grade teas to be mixed with butter, milk, and pounded barley. The quality got better from 1987, and improved considerably from the turn of this century.

The picture Mike showed you would be the newer production from 2003 onwards, so if anyone sells you a Baoyan brand with that wrapping and says it is earlier than 2003, walk away.

Mike, out of curiosity:

Is there a sticker on the little cakes? If there is, what's printed on it?

The wrapper looks funny.

Danny

Danny, are you talking about the bricks or the round cakes? The photo of the bricks/sugar/butter was given to me by a vendor in China. The round cakes are mine, there was no inner wrapper. I don't recall a sticker on the outer wrapper but I will look next time I open the trunk that the tea is being stored in. Mike Petro