Inexpensive way to sample Pu-Erh?

Hou De offers 20-28g samplessamples with free shipping, and for young cakes this floats around $5-6/sample. Most cakes have a little smoke for the first brew but this usually fades by the second or third brew.

Jing Tea Shop offers very cheap 25g samples (30 cents to $4 or so) on young cakes and bricks, and for about three samples it costs $5.10 airmail shipping.

Those are the most reasonable sampling prices I've seen (and I've just recently ordered about 15 samples from both!), and they both have great selection, so they'd be my recommendation. They're also both very responsive about questions, so you could ask them what teas they recommend you sample given your tastes.

Two young cakes in particular that I really enjoyed (but sadly aren't available as samples) were the Yi Wu Zhengshan cake from teaspring.com and the six famous tea mountain organic green label yi wu cake from ebay stores yun-cha or yunnan-sourcing-llc or elizabethanddarcy. They're both buttery and mellow, which I understand is a characteristic of young puerhs from Yi Wu mountain. More of my opinion on these particular cakes,

and . Mike recommends some young puerhs on pu-erh.net, and I'm sure he could tell you more about why he likes them:

happy sampling! ~j

Make sure to read pu-erh.net It is full or brewing advice (very important with sheng puerh) and has some nice recommendations. Also, check out his trading post. I second the recommnedations of HouDe and Jing. Enjoy, David

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[Jason]

Hi Dominic,

Without a trace of science, it has been my observation that young green Pu'erhs -- the ones you are talking about -- come in various profiles, among them "smokey/cigary/tarry," "fruity/floral," and "musty/floral." These, of course overlap, but my tastebuds want to characterize them so. Some of those in the first category there is little hope for, and they will hardly become less smokey steep after steep. My favorites are those in the second category, although they also have a "sour" or "bitter" note that some people find off putting, but that I'm fond of. The third category to my taste includes especially those "silver bud" bud only offerings. And again there is much overlap. A certain musty quality is part and parcel of Pu'erh, and if you don't care for it, young Pu'erh might not be your thing.

Having pontificated thus far, I hightly agree with Jason in his recommendation of Jing Tea Shop. I have received many interesting samples from Jing and Seb. Further, they can guide you among the types I've mentioned -- which "types" have no official sanction whatsoever.

I also want to recommend In Pursuit of Tea. IPOT has a number of nice Pu'erhs, although not an overwhelming number. As Jason mentioned is a must see.

Have fun. Continue on. Never give up. When you reach 100 year old Pu'erh, I'll send you my address.

Michael

Those are two wonderful links I'm still reading. Thanks.

Maria

Yes, pu-erh.net is a must. I'm still working my way through it, or down the list of links, or whatever, to get all the information there.

Maria