Alex . com9/22/04


I have not tried Dai bamboo yet, I am waiting for the right moment.

The moment came today. Dai bamboo 1996 is a good tea but nothing special.,
if you ask me.
May be it requires a more experienced drinker, may be cooler than 180 water.
may be longer wash (I did 2 washed 15-20 sec each)
I have not noticed anything bamboo in it. It may as well be kept in a PVC
pipe. But I did noticed it's bitter aftertaste. Just plain bitter, no
under-over-tones.

The problem lies with you, Sasha, not with the Dai Bamboo. I'm going to brew
up some right now. Seriously, there is the issue of great differences from
batch to batch and cake to cake as Mike described in a previous post. You
might be the victim of that kind of thing. Mine piece really is lovely.
(Don't even go there.)

So, among the teas listed in the thread, I lean more towards Mini menghai
Beencha 1999. Of course my dissapointment with it that it does not say
"Menghai" anywhere on therapper, so unless I am willing to buy it
exclusively from Dave, I have no chance of buying it.

Clever, those merchants.

That botheres me.
Teas should be like wine - "appellacion d' origine controlee", name and a
year. Otherwise - too much fraud possibilities. I need to call We Jia Bao
about this. he is a former field geologist himself, he will understand

I'm not sure about this. Control could bring the whole industry into the
middling range. That is, you can't get great unless you're willing to
sometimes get lousy. Know what I mean? It's the thrill of the hunt.


Sasha.