Looking for aged pu-erh

ahem, I meant, of course "you can't really RELY on it."

ok, one last thing. If there is something to be found for less money- then I'd be happy to hear about that as well.

The price seems to still be a bit low for 7-10 year old pu'er. Can you show us a pic or give us a little more info on the tea?

If you're into real aged pu'er, I'm sorry to say, but it can get quite expensive...that is, if you can find authentic tea.

perhaps I should rephrase: if I'm looking for a cake from 98, how much should I expect to pay and where can I find it?

After a recent sampling of 30 year old loose Poo Nee and 20 year old Yunnan shu tuocha from my private stock I'd say save your money and buy the cheapest stuff you can find in Chinatown. No matter how the discussion starts everything ends up as a fake or it wasn't aged correctly or the prices on TaoBao can't be correct. Pu is a tea like any other and no correlation between tastebuds and price. I'd say broaden your choices and buy recent crops and hope you get something you like. If not you can wait a good part of your life to see if it gets any better. If you're in China standing in line with tourists to taste aged pu make sure you can also buy antiques. I will admit standing in line makes any tea taste better.

Jim

Nico wrote:

Hi Nico,

Unfortunately this is probably one of the hardest age groups to find. There are several choices for older tea but very few stock tea in the

7-15 year range. While many may say their tea is this old very few are authentic. One vendor that I trust when it comes to authenticity who also stocks teas in this range is while I have not tried most of these teas I do trust that they are authentic.

As for pricing there are several factors, what is the Factory and Age, how well was it stored, how well is it known ie was it a particularly good year, and probably most of all what will the market bear. Depending on these factors you should expect to pay anywhere from 10 cents a gram on up to 30 cents a gram.

My recommendation would be to get the 1998 Feng Qing raw pu erh AND the

1995 Meng Hai Puerh Tea Fang Cha. They are both 100g each and both of them together will easily fit your budget. This will give you an opportunity to compare the teas and begin to develop your own taste memory and preferences.

I do caution you not expect too much from this age group as it wont have matured enough yet for most people, it is however an affordable jump if you are trying to age the tea yourself.

Mike

Unfortunately we don't have much of a Chinatown here in Minneapolis. There are several southeast Asian markets, which sell only cooked puer, which I do buy farely frequently. I thus far haven't found any uncooked stuff. If anybody knows where to find some, I'll be there tomorrow. .

I use Chinatown more as a description than a location. In my metro area it is two major intersecting boulevards with shops up and down either. You'll need a car to get around. I think the real definition do the shops serve an ethnic group. In my case it is Vietnamese with primarily Chinese owners but a few Vietnamese. I think SF Chinatown is primarily for tourist and Oakland more local. There are other local stores in my area that serve Arabic, African and Russian even though I wouldn't call them a 'town'. Black puerh is plentiful while green scarce only in form of Xiaguan tuocha. I think the black is still viewed as medicinal with the green as the bottom of the barrel and less wholesome. I think the local stores could easily stock more green but it will take more than the suggestion of a lowai.

Jim

Nico Dornemann wrote: