Hi All,

Has anyone had this? Just got a notice from inpursuitoftea, saying it was
back in stock. Then the question becomes, is the taste so unusual as to be
worth $45+S&H? Doesn't even say whether it's cooked or raw, or what year
it is, just "sweet notes". The blurb says too many things about Pu-erh in
general but not this one. Has anyone ordered from them since the review on
pu-erh.net (11/05), and if so, what say you? :-))

http://www.inpursuitoftea.com/Produc...e=pc150&Click=
4938

Thanks,
Ozzy

On Feb 27, 5:00 pm, Ozzy please.answer@NG wrote:
Hi All,

Has anyone had this? Just got a notice from inpursuitoftea, saying it was
back in stock. Then the question becomes, is the taste so unusual as to be
worth $45+S&H? Doesn't even say whether it's cooked or raw, or what year
it is, just "sweet notes". The blurb says too many things about Pu-erh in
general but not this one. Has anyone ordered from them since the review on
pu-erh.net (11/05), and if so, what say you? :-))

http://www.inpursuitoftea.com/Produc...tCode=pc150&Cl...
4938

Thanks,
Ozzy

I got a similar tea from YunnanSourcing or Dragon Tea House recently.
We had a hell of a time splitting it open only to have a very
mediocre, rough cup of tea.
I thought the novelty of it appealing and I was really curious.
Must say: if I bought it on Ebay, it was much, much cheaper. I think
$11.00 or $12.00 with maybe $4.00 shipping.
I'll check; but, that sounds about right.
Yunnan Toucha also carries it.
Shen

"Shen" wrote in
oups.com:


I got a similar tea from YunnanSourcing or Dragon Tea House recently.
We had a hell of a time splitting it open only to have a very
mediocre, rough cup of tea.
I thought the novelty of it appealing and I was really curious.
Must say: if I bought it on Ebay, it was much, much cheaper. I think
$11.00 or $12.00 with maybe $4.00 shipping.
I'll check; but, that sounds about right.
Yunnan Toucha also carries it.
Shen

Thanks, Shen. You know, that house is not known for their bargains. (Some
nice Oolongs, though.) I'll check out your alternative sources....

Ozzy

Definitely don't pay $45 for it.... it can't be worth that much.

MarshalN
http://www.xanga.com/MarshalN

On Feb 28, 11:38 am, Ozzy please.answer@NG wrote:
"Shen" wrote groups.com:

I got a similar tea from YunnanSourcing or Dragon Tea House recently.
We had a hell of a time splitting it open only to have a very
mediocre, rough cup of tea.
I thought the novelty of it appealing and I was really curious.
Must say: if I bought it on Ebay, it was much, much cheaper. I think
$11.00 or $12.00 with maybe $4.00 shipping.
I'll check; but, that sounds about right.
Yunnan Toucha also carries it.
Shen

Thanks, Shen. You know, that house is not known for their bargains. (Some
nice Oolongs, though.) I'll check out your alternative sources....

Ozzy

On Feb 27, 7:38 pm, Ozzy please.answer@NG wrote:
"Shen" wrote groups.com:

I got a similar tea from YunnanSourcing or Dragon Tea House recently.
We had a hell of a time splitting it open only to have a very
mediocre, rough cup of tea.
I thought the novelty of it appealing and I was really curious.
Must say: if I bought it on Ebay, it was much, much cheaper. I think
$11.00 or $12.00 with maybe $4.00 shipping.
I'll check; but, that sounds about right.
Yunnan Toucha also carries it.
Shen

Thanks, Shen. You know, that house is not known for their bargains. (Some
nice Oolongs, though.) I'll check out your alternative sources....

Ozzy

Here you go, Ozzy:
to give any of these a try is a lot less expensive:
http://www.tuochatea.com/specials/pu-erhbambootea.htm

http://cgi.ebay.com/Aromatic-Bamboo-...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dehong-Bamboo-Lo...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Xiang-Zhu-Fragra...QQcmdZViewItem

I have the one from Toucha and haven't opened it as yet. The Aromatic-
Bamboo-Species etc from YSLLC is the one that I found a bit rough/
robust/harsh, etc.
Have fun!
Shen

Ozzy please.answer@NG writes:

Hi All,

Has anyone had this? Just got a notice from inpursuitoftea, saying it was
back in stock. Then the question becomes, is the taste so unusual as to be
worth $45+S&H? Doesn't even say whether it's cooked or raw, or what year
it is, just "sweet notes". The blurb says too many things about Pu-erh in
general but not this one. Has anyone ordered from them since the review on
pu-erh.net (11/05), and if so, what say you? :-))

http://www.inpursuitoftea.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=pc150&Click=4938

With this kind of tea, I would say you're completely dependent on the
vendor. By its nature, this is a tea that's made by (probably Dai
minority) peasants, so you aren't going to have the documentation that
it was made by X factory from leaf harvested in year Y on Z mountain.
I've had some good tea of this type, but I've also had some that was
good only for compost. By the way, even if the vendor were willing to
sell you a sample, due to the lack of uniformity in manufacturing
you'd have less ability to predict what another tube tasted like than
with "normal" teas.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

I just checked a March 2005 invoice from CyberSilkRoad. The 50g tubes
were $3.50. Novelty more than taste. I've got one rattling around in
the car for convenience store hot water. I use a screw driver to
widdle any out.

Jim

On Feb 27, 6:00 pm, Ozzy please.answer@NG wrote:
Hi All,

Has anyone had this? Just got a notice from inpursuitoftea, saying it was
back in stock. Then the question becomes, is the taste so unusual as to be
worth $45+S&H? Doesn't even say whether it's cooked or raw, or what year
it is, just "sweet notes". The blurb says too many things about Pu-erh in
general but not this one. Has anyone ordered from them since the review on
pu-erh.net (11/05), and if so, what say you? :-))

http://www.inpursuitoftea.com/Produc...tCode=pc150&Cl...
4938

Thanks,
Ozzy

Ozzy please.answer@NG wrote in
4.196:

Thanks for all the feedback, people. It's apparent that Bamboo Stick has
a heavy novelty element, like those cash coins made from puerh. Do I want
pu of varying quality overlaid with the taste of bamboo? Don't know yet,
I'll maybe try it -- many thanks for steering me away from inpursuitoftea.

Ozzy

"Shen" wrote in
ups.com:


Here you go, Ozzy:
to give any of these a try is a lot less expensive:
...
I have the one from Toucha and haven't opened it as yet. The Aromatic-
Bamboo-Species etc from YSLLC is the one that I found a bit rough/
robust/harsh, etc.
Have fun!
Shen


Thanks again, Shen, for the URLs and the personal experience. :-)

Ozzy

On Feb 27, 8:00 pm, Ozzy please.answer@NG wrote:
Hi All,

Has anyone had this?

Hi Ozzy,

I have not tried IPOTs version, but I have tried dozens of others. The
Bamboo Puerh genre varies immensely. Some are exceptionally good while
others are putrid. There are both raw and cooked varieties. The tea is
always hand processed using bamboo tubes of varying botanical variety,
size, and greenness, filled with leaves which are then tamped into the
tube to compress the leaf. The bamboo tubes are usually then roasted
over a fire. The compression, heat of the fire, and roasting time are
all highly variable since they are controlled by human judgment, not
to mention the quality of the source maocha. I will say that the
Menghai brand is consistently good, although expensive.

As for this particular offering, I see several red flags. They branded
this themselves so you have no idea who the source factory was. They
also completely omitted both the vintage and even the weight of the
item. Perhaps the most disturbing omission is that they don't even
tell you if the puerh is cooked or raw. I would never purchase this
item based solely on the information provided. Furthermore I would
never pay $45 for any bamboo puerh unless it was either aged, or
weighed about a kg or more. Most of these bamboo canes contain around
50-100g of puerh ( http://tinyurl.com/2or3vh ), although I do have
some that weigh a kg each ( http://tinyurl.com/3duzv9 ), and some that
weigh as much as 3kg each ( http://tinyurl.com/3334m5 ). So knowing
the weight really is important, are they charging 5 cents per gram or
45 cents per gram, how would you know?

Mike Petro
http://www.pu-erh.net

On Mar 1, 2:28 am, "Mike Petro" wrote:

Hi Ozzy,

I have not tried IPOTs version, but I have tried dozens of others. The
Bamboo Puerh genre varies immensely. Some are exceptionally good while
others are putrid. There are both raw and cooked varieties. The tea is
always hand processed using bamboo tubes of varying botanical variety,
size, and greenness, filled with leaves which are then tamped into the
tube to compress the leaf. The bamboo tubes are usually then roasted
over a fire. The compression, heat of the fire, and roasting time are
all highly variable since they are controlled by human judgment, not
to mention the quality of the source maocha. I will say that the
Menghai brand is consistently good, although expensive.

As for this particular offering, I see several red flags. They branded
this themselves so you have no idea who the source factory was. They
also completely omitted both the vintage and even the weight of the
item. Perhaps the most disturbing omission is that they don't even
tell you if the puerh is cooked or raw. I would never purchase this
item based solely on the information provided. Furthermore I would
never pay $45 for any bamboo puerh unless it was either aged, or
weighed about a kg or more. Most of these bamboo canes contain around
50-100g of puerh (http://tinyurl.com/2or3vh), although I do have
some that weigh a kg each (http://tinyurl.com/3duzv9), and some that
weigh as much as 3kg each (http://tinyurl.com/3334m5). So knowing
the weight really is important, are they charging 5 cents per gram or
45 cents per gram, how would you know?

Mike Petrohttp://www.pu-erh.net

Good points Mike.

I think from the pictures, you can guess that it is of the cooked
variety. This is also deduced from the fact that everything else they
sell is cooked. $45 for cooked pu in a bamboo isn't going to be very
cost effective.

Also, I have to say that of the younger ones I've had very rarely do
you really detect much bamboo aroma. Most of the time, it's just like
any cooked tea. The one time I had a truly good bamboo tea, it was
something like 40-50 years old.

MarshalN
http://www.xanga.com/MarshalN

"Mike Petro" writes:

[...]
I have not tried IPOTs version, but I have tried dozens of others. The
Bamboo Puerh genre varies immensely. Some are exceptionally good while
others are putrid. There are both raw and cooked varieties. The tea is
always hand processed using bamboo tubes of varying botanical variety,
size, and greenness, filled with leaves which are then tamped into the
tube to compress the leaf. The bamboo tubes are usually then roasted
over a fire. The compression, heat of the fire, and roasting time are
all highly variable since they are controlled by human judgment, not
to mention the quality of the source maocha. I will say that the
Menghai brand is consistently good, although expensive.

The Menghai brand isn't actually manufactured in the Menghai factory,
is it? I always thought the tubes were filled and roasted by
individual farmers.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

The Menghai brand isn't actually manufactured in the Menghai factory,
is it? I always thought the tubes were filled and roasted by
individual farmers.

I think it is an "under the supervision of..." type thing. However the
ones carrying the Menghai label were very consistent, and pretty good.

Mike
http://www.pu-erh.net

On Feb 28, 12:19 pm, "Mike Petro" wrote:
The Menghai brand isn't actually manufactured in the Menghai factory,
is it? I always thought the tubes were filled and roasted by
individual farmers.

I think it is an "under the supervision of..." type thing. However the
ones carrying the Menghai label were very consistent, and pretty good.

Mikehttp://www.pu-erh.net

Thanks, again, Mike.
Being a pu-erh novice, I went for the novelty. I haven't tried the one
from Yunnan Toucha as yet; but when I do I'll be happy to share the
info.
BTW, it's always great to get your input pu-erh stuff.
Shen

On Feb 28, 12:19 pm, "Mike Petro" wrote:
The Menghai brand isn't actually manufactured in the Menghai factory,
is it? I always thought the tubes were filled and roasted by
individual farmers.

I think it is an "under the supervision of..." type thing. However the
ones carrying the Menghai label were very consistent, and pretty good.

Mikehttp://www.pu-erh.net

Mike,
BTW, the first one pictured in your post is the one being sold at
Yunnan Toucha - both varieties -raw and cooked. The last one pictured
on your post looks like the one Scott has at Yunnan Sourcing (Ebay).
Shen