Found a Tuocha in East Portland, OR

If the box was green/yellow/white it is the typical cooked tuocha from the Xiaguan factory. The other typical box from Xiaguan is mostly green with the uncooked version. Some people claim you can find uncooked in the green/yellow/white but not in my experience. The cooked version sounds like your description. The price is right. There is compressed black tea and compressed puerh. If it is a disc my guess it is compressed puerh. I've only seen compressed black in rectangle shape. Typical English lettering on the wrapper is "Yunnan Chi Tse Beeng Cha". Nine bucks is high unless in a decorative box. The ones on my local shelves with just the wrapper are $4.

Jim

stePH wrote:

It is white, green and yellow, with "Tuocha" and some Chinese characters in red.

You think the 10" disc is priced high? (I forgot to mention that it was wrapped in plastic.)

Okay, my quest continues. There's a couple more oriental grocery stores in my neighborhood, and I haven't even tried Chinatown or Uwajimaya yet.

stePH

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snipped-for-privacy@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com9/23/05

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StePH,

I defer to Mike. He'll get to the bottom of it. Lew too has unearthed treasures on the dingy shelves of Chinese shops. so, StePH, *why* exactly does GoogleGroups do that?

Michael

And, it goes without saying and almost did, Jim, who is the grand master of foraging in local shops. Michael

The only shrink wrap I've seen is from Hung Chong Tai Tea Co in Hong Kong. You'll see the words "Bo Nay Tea" which is Cantonese for Pu'er. Use the Ball Licking archives and search for previous discussions about this disc. It is "Super old" and from Vietnam or Guangzhou. The last price someone mentioned was $8. Finding something on the shelves is more exciting than waiting for the mailman. Even my shipments from China may wait a day or two before I get around to them especially when the postal person leaves a pickup slip at the main post office in my mailbox because they blow their horn in the driveway which I can't hear when I've got Sirius 6017 Jam-on Jam Bands cranked up on DISH and they're too lazy to ring the doorbell which I couldn't hear anyway but my dog still can where barking would be a welcome relief from the howling. Enjoy the hunt. You'll learn something about your neighborhood. In my case I drive to these neighborhoods for shopping but if I lived there I'd make an effort to learn who lived on the street over a pot of tea.

Jim

stePH wrote:

Does it look like this?

If so it is a cooked tuocha from the Xia Guan factory packaged for sale inside of China. You can read more about it at the Factories website here

If it looks like this

then it is the product packaged for export.

Mike

That's the one.

I'm going to Tao of Tea today before I go back to Seattle; they list some green puerh touchas on their website. Their SE Portland shop is about ten minutes from my house here.

stePH

-- GoogleGroups licks balls.

StePH,

He already has. (Nice work, Mr. Petro)

GoogleGroups licks balls because:

• no automatic quoting

• no automatic signature

• You can't maintain a killfile

• You can't snip crossposts without previewing and then editing your message first

That's just a few reasons without thinking hard about it. Just about all I can say in its favor, is that it's free and searchable

("Use the Ball Licking archives and search for previous discussions...."

-- Space Cowboy, today)

stePH

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snipped-for-privacy@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com9/26/05

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Why not use UseNet? (Was that a stupid question?) If I had to sift through Google, I probably wouldn't even bother very often. Michael

What I do is use my Usenet client for posting and keeping up with threads and then go to Google groups when I want to search. I agree with StePH that the interface Google has could be better, but I would refrain from saying they do that because I think they provide a useful and important service to Usenet. The search is nice and it gives Usenet some exposure to folks who might never have known of its existence.

My 2c.

Steve

Not true. But it's a super-secret, two-step process.

Don't click "reply" at the end of the message.

Click "Show options" at the top of the message and then click "reply" from the list of options that appears underneath the newly revealed message headers.

This brings up a message composition page where you can edit the text, change the groups, modify the subject, or even add a followup-to header.

True.

True.

Not true. See previous comments about replying with quotes. It cuts out the whole "previewing process" and takes you straight to the message editor.

Derek

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Well, yeah. GoogleGroups is one of the many ways to access usenet. Anybody posting to this group by whatever means, is by definition "using UseNet".

But I'm sure that's not what you meant to ask. Your question was probably intended as "why not use a newsreader other than Google?" I couldn't get ComCast to work with XNews and they only support Outlook Express. And other free newsservers are unreliable in operation.

And as bad as GoogleGroups is, Outlook Express really sucks ass.

stePH

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snipped-for-privacy@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com9/27/05

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sucks ass licks balls i cant hang out here with you people anymore cant you just talk nice

I'm drinking the Winter 2004 Boluomi from Shan Shui, which is more true to form in taste and aroma than form, since this year it's leaves are tightly fisted rather than twisty and elongated. Still, I remember the previous year's as having been gentler and more pineappled. What does it all mean?

Michael

It means I bless the rains down in Africa.

(sorry, but that was the last answer *I* got to the question "what does it all mean?")

"Boluomi" is a new word to me. Nani desu?

stePH

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How's this for Googling my own gonads:

/Lew

WOW! Cool link; thanks! Bookmarked.

stePH

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::pictures kids standing around in leather trenchcoats and steeltoed boots with brightly and unnaturally colored hair, on the corner across from the highschool, looking furtive and sipping from their gaiwans...:: It's the tea hoods. :D

What it means Michael is that...everything changes. There are no guarantees. Live in the moment. Get it while it's hot. And other assorted platypuses. That's an oolong I take it? (Sorry, the name by itself, beause not familiar to me, doesn't immediately suggest oolong or red or green)

Melinda, drinking that Lipton Indian CTC Assam with lots of milk and sugar 'cause I'm really gummed up this morning. Bah, sometimes I feel like just boiling my head, I really do.

Does Lipton actually make something worth drinking? I've always rated Lipton's teas as "swampwater". But then I've also never seen the words "Assam" and "Lipton" in the same sentence.

stePH

-- GoogleGroups licks balls.

Don't bother making the lengthy trip from SE PDX to Uwajimaya -- they don't stock any Puerh worth mentioning. They do get some occasionally shipments of organic Sencha, although those are hit and miss as to quality.

--crymad