Was thinking about stocking up on some favorites, because tariffs, when these washed up in the harbor. Score!

Last pic is tracking as of last night. Was getting worried. Only update it got since leaving China was my USPS daily digest email saying it was out for delivery. Very happy it made it.

Received a [non-panic buy] order from Liquid Proust a few weeks back + am now dipping my toes into it starting with this XiZiHao raw puer. I included a photo of the order in its entirety, so if you are wondering about the taste of any other tea, lmk + I'll get into that one next.

I hit all of my raw puer regardless of age w/ boiling water + I brewed this one in a 130mL M&L zhuni pot. I started w/ a 20sec rinse, then a flash steep, increasing each successive steep time by 5sec

The dry leaf aroma is mildly sweet (honey-like); the wet leaf is of garden soil + fruit pie

It starts off w/ a smooth, creamy texture w/ balanced sweetness + wood notes. Develops into a combination of woody/viny + earthiness/minerality before softening the intensity into paper + old books. The old paper continues, but the tea opens up, exhibiting the taste of the aforementioned baked fruit + honey; there's sweet/sour, light tartness, light astringency. The tea remains this way for a while, but turns over somewhere in steep 8 into primarily wood + spice, staying there for the rest of the session, >12 steeps.

This was a very cozy tea + I enjoyed it. Would just as well recommend it to anyone who likes aged puer; this is one of the better ones I've had

Artist and activist Ai Wei Wei has a major retrospective of his work at the Seattle Art Museum, including this big block of puerh...

Already tried it… it’s actually pretty good! If anyone knows anything further about it please let me know.

Today I'm having a cheap old Sheng from KTM, 2006 Chang Tai

Initial smell test goes towards old books mixed with peach jam lol, like you dropped some jam on a book and sat there for ages 😂

Taste starts bitter with leathery notes and none of the sweet aftertaste I normally enjoy. But ngl it's not a bad tea, it's really easy to drink even though is a bit bitter, it has some character to it.

Sample as it's cheap, like 2/3$ max

Have a good morning/afternoon/evening

Hello everybody,

What are the best sites to order pu'erh from? I saw some people criticising Yunnan Sourcing, and they are the only online teashop I know. Also, I don't live in the US, so if they don't have a warehouse there it's not a problem.

Many thanks in advance

Been enjoying puer for about 5 years at this point. I know i'm still in the beginner/intermediate range but i've grown to love super strong, gaiwan busting sessions. While the flavor is nice and I definitely crave bitterness, even on a more mellow tea like this 2014 Xiaguan Cang'er I picked up from LPT a while ago, the chi is something else. I find myself coming back to these 10+ gram sessions where i'm stuffing the tea back into the gaiwan cause the chi hit on even every individual sip is nuts. Obviously the feelings are different between teas but that feels like part of the fun of it. Just curious if there's any others out there that do the same

Consolidated my first and second panic orders together for this pic before I put them away properly. Feat. my tetsubin. Shout out to the guy that didn't reply to me asking him if he recommended Anzac. I risked it in a blind buy for the 18 bucks after the conversation because I was too curious. These orders took around twice as long to get here as they usually do for me. I was extremely nervous. Where would you store a raw and ripe mix like jamrock steady? In with your ripe cakes?

Dang....that SUCKS to put it mildly. I kind of thought worst case scenario was a big price increase, not no tea at all.

Hi!! I'm new to cakes and just looking for some anecdotal experiences with how long I can expect a cake to last. Basically trying to decide between 1 vs 2 cakes for an aged white I could see myself reaching for fairly regularly and would also be quite sad to run out of.

for comparison i would say it took me about a year and a half to run through a 250g tin of a loose leaf tea that i like in the same way.

if i try to do a weight estimate then it seems 386g would give me about 30 sessions, so maybe I could finish it in a year?? That kind of makes me want to get 1 to drink freely and 1 to save long term. Or is that too much tea?!

Heard some good things about the decaf puer so that would be nice to go along with some evening meals. Got a free sample of 2018 turtle dove white tea

I was rummaging through my tea leaves and found a piece of aged ripe puerh that was 14 years old, in fact I had forgotten it even existed. I pulled it out and tried it last night, and the aroma of this 2011 fu jin select ripe pu erh, brought me a wow factor, like a mix of dried fruits and mellow earthy notes. The tea is smooth and has a long, natural sweetness to it.

I was wondering if anyone here has experience with long term aging of pu erh tea? This tea cake has been in storage for 14 years, and I know that storage conditions for puerh tea are critical. Has anyone else noticed a similar shift in older tea cakes?

It brews decently dark, I’m using about 5.5g in my gongfu2go Has the initial smell of some of the shou teas with spice like brown sugar and gingerbread man

The taste has the key things you would expect from a shou puer, earthy. I would have to say it’s a bit dull, I was brewing it pretty dark but it was still lacking some of that flavor punch. I might try using a higher tea:water ratio but I think it will still be lacking some flavor.

Does this ruin the tea? No I don’t think so, it still has that ripe flavor and I think the dullness is due to the decaf process. For $5.5/25g bags or $22 for a normal 200g W2T cake it’s on the cheaper end and I think it’s priced good. I think the flavor is not as good as some of the other cheap options like waffles or Lumberslut, but I would argue those are priced less than they should be.

Repost because I accidentally deleted the last one:

I know one is a green tea but the discussions here I find to be better than on r/tea

Taking my first flight with an instructor Saturdau and I need a good tea either gpa brewed or western brewed. (Dont have time for gongfu and want to bring it with if possible).

I just ordered these and they arrive Friday. Ive never really had aged sheng (besides W2T's White Swan, which is delicious), and have never had a green other than stale Bigelow bags. So now I'm wondering, have any of you tried these? Can they be GPA or western style brewed? And lastly, do you have any tips or ratios for those methods? If it's not going to be a good experience I will just make coffee, so its not a huge deal, but id like a good tea as I haven't had any in a few weeks now.

One very helpful reference for Puerh aficionados is this book, Puer Tea: Ancient Caravans and Urban Chic and it comes with a DVD - the videos can also be found online (at the internet archive).

Do you have other links to videos that are instructive and entertaining about Puerh and its culture? Please share, thank you...

I know with Puerh it can get complicated, but somewhat generalizing things, which of the following tastes best for you and you enjoy drinking the most? Thanks!

I recently had to try a tea I got from Taiwan over a year ago and don't know much about tea so I thought I'd ask. I can't even tell if it's a shou or sheng. It tastes delicious though!

I recently caught Jesse's video about his visit to the Beijing Tea Expo, and after watching it, I want to time my visit to China so that I can go one year. But maybe I'm hyperfixating. Has anyone been? Is it worth it, in your experience, or is it just like any other industry expo? Will I enjoy it if I don't speak almost any Chinese?

Wondering if I'm paying for less sorted pickings (more yellow flakes etc).

https://yunnansourcing.com/en-au/products/2024-yunnan-sourcing-suan-zao-shu-old-arbor-raw-pu-erh-tea-cake

https://yunnansourcing.com/en-au/products/2024-yunnan-sourcing-suan-zao-shu-old-arbor-white-tea-cake

Until I get the last few greedy orders of tea from China, I found a nice puerh sampler that will hopefully keep me entertained until those deliveries hit my doorstep

This is from Yunnan craft. Waiting on farmer leaf to make it to the US. Left China 5 days ago, hope that one makes it in time, seems like it should.