The last shipment of the pu from Kunming took just two weeks to the
day. The slow boat from China was still docked. The order was other
factories besides Menghai and Xiaguan. I was absolutely stunned by the
smell and flavor of this cooked pu,
http://image.taobao.com/bao/uploaded...d01_091958.gif.
This is from QianJia Zhai which is a village in Simao. I did some
research and it contains the oldest tea tree in the world over 2700
years old. The Shuo Ming Shu (info insert) states: 'It grows in the
mist-wreathing Ailao Mountian, at an altitude of above 1800 meters.
Abutting on the Mountain, is the Qianjia Village with a wild age-old
tea plant botanical colony named "the King of Tea all over the world"'.
It smells like a perfume and fills the room with the fragrance. It's
that strong. It easily flakes into chunks of broken large leaf. There
is no hint of any of the traits like leather or mold typical of my
other cooked pu's. All I can say if nature is producing this now there
is no need to wait for the Prince to wake up Snow White in thirty
years.

PS: I derived 'info insert' from "Qian Jia Zhai Puer Cha Bing Shuo
Ming Shu". Your interpretation may vary. It's the little card of
infomation found in most bings.

Jim

Lewis 9/21/05

"Space Cowboy" writes:

The last shipment of the pu from Kunming took just two weeks to the
day. The slow boat from China was still docked. The order was other
factories besides Menghai and Xiaguan. I was absolutely stunned by the
smell and flavor of this cooked pu,
http://image.taobao.com/bao/uploaded...1e02a371f6cbd3
39d01_091958.gif.
This is from QianJia Zhai which is a village in Simao. I did some
research and it contains the oldest tea tree in the world over 2700
years old. The Shuo Ming Shu (info insert) states: 'It grows in the
mist-wreathing Ailao Mountian, at an altitude of above 1800 meters.
Abutting on the Mountain, is the Qianjia Village with a wild age-old
tea plant botanical colony named "the King of Tea all over the world"'.
It smells like a perfume and fills the room with the fragrance. It's
that strong. It easily flakes into chunks of broken large leaf. There
is no hint of any of the traits like leather or mold typical of my
other cooked pu's. All I can say if nature is producing this now there
is no need to wait for the Prince to wake up Snow White in thirty
years.

I'm glad you like this tea - really I am - but do you really think
someone would take leaves from the oldest tea tree in the world and
make *cooked* Pu'er from it? Allowing for a bit of exaggeration, this
would be like making CTC black tea from the leaves of the six Da Hong
Pao shrubs.


Lew,

You wouldn't I hope be referring to those ugly old scraggly tea shrubs we
just dug up and burned, would you? (We're planting begonias in their stead.)

BTW, Jim, the oldest tea tree known in China is 3750 years old. I should
know. I was there when it sprouted out. Also, I haven't been following all
the comments on this tree, but are you quite sure it's a cooked tea? Did it
go opaque or transparent red-orange in the cup?

Michael

Why not? I didn't say it in the original post but I can say this taste
just as good as my wild tree green log. The green is on the wild side
and the cooked on the mature side. The main point if you haven't found
a cooked puerh you like try this one without waiting an eternity to
find out you didn't age it right. This one automatically gets a ten
year head start on any green. There is a green version but from a
different village in the same locale with the same logo, tree canopy
flanked by two buildings. That's the one I'd like to get my hands on.

Jim

Lewis Perin wrote:
"Space Cowboy" writes:

The last shipment of the pu from Kunming took just two weeks to the
day. The slow boat from China was still docked. The order was other
factories besides Menghai and Xiaguan. I was absolutely stunned by the
smell and flavor of this cooked pu,
http://image.taobao.com/bao/uploaded...d01_091958.gif.
This is from QianJia Zhai which is a village in Simao.

I'm glad you like this tea - really I am - but do you really think
someone would take leaves from the oldest tea tree in the world and
make *cooked* Pu'er from it? Allowing for a bit of exaggeration, this
would be like making CTC black tea from the leaves of the six Da Hong
Pao shrubs.

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

Prove it. I personally counted 2700 tree rings on a core bore that
comes with the beeng with an abacus. The tree age was from another
link and mentioned that many were in the four hundred year old range.
The Shou Ming Shu didn't mention any age except 'wild age-old tea plant
botanical colony'. It's cooked. The spent leaves are molasses black.

Jim

Michael Plant wrote:
Lewis 9/21/05

"Space Cowboy" writes:

The last shipment of the pu from Kunming took just two weeks to the
day. The slow boat from China was still docked. The order was other
factories besides Menghai and Xiaguan. I was absolutely stunned by the
smell and flavor of this cooked pu,
http://image.taobao.com/bao/uploaded...1e02a371f6cbd3
39d01_091958.gif.
This is from QianJia Zhai which is a village in Simao. I did some
research and it contains the oldest tea tree in the world over 2700
years old.

Lew,

You wouldn't I hope be referring to those ugly old scraggly tea shrubs we
just dug up and burned, would you? (We're planting begonias in their stead.)

BTW, Jim, the oldest tea tree known in China is 3750 years old. I should
know. I was there when it sprouted out. Also, I haven't been following all
the comments on this tree, but are you quite sure it's a cooked tea? Did it
go opaque or transparent red-orange in the cup?

Michael

Space 9/22/05


Prove it.

I can't. I have only the word of those who counted the core bore.

I personally counted 2700 tree rings on a core bore that
comes with the beeng with an abacus. The tree age was from another
link and mentioned that many were in the four hundred year old range.
The Shou Ming Shu didn't mention any age except 'wild age-old tea plant
botanical colony'. It's cooked. The spent leaves are molasses black.

Besides, I don't disbelieve in your 2700 year old tree. A bore was taken
from mine as well. How did you get to count the rings of the bore? Do you
mean you saw a picture? (You did it on an abacus? Is that what they call,
"boring." (Sorry.)

The spent leaves of an old raw Pu'erh can certainly be molasses black,
although more often than not they would have some lighter bits as well --
the buds. Of course, if there were no buds....

Michael

BTW, Jim, the oldest tea tree known in China is 3750 years old. I should
know. I was there when it sprouted out. Also, I haven't been following all
the comments on this tree, but are you quite sure it's a cooked tea? Did it
go opaque or transparent red-orange in the cup?

Lots of wild cooked puerh on TaoBao. Yeah I know it's not wild. Let's
see everyone wants wild green so I'll sell them wild cooked which isn't
all that much cheaper. There is no innate value to tea just supply and
demand. I think it perfectly possible that small factories can't
influence the market like Menghai and Xiaguan and don't get caught up
in the hoopla. Think about it, my small factory wild green can't
compete with the big boys wild green. I'll stay with my nice little
cooked wild which is every bit as good as the big boys. As I said this
order was small factories and the very first one kicks ass big time.
My wild tree green log wasn't that expensive. I'd call it cheap.

Jim

Lewis Perin wrote:

Because, assuming these folks are telling the truth about their
uniquely rare product, it just wouldn't make business sense. Cooked
pu'er just isn't as valuable as uncooked.

I'll have to take your word on old raw Puerh. If that means expensive
then this stuff is cheap. I understand there are blends but this is
pure molasses black with leaf uniformity ie no other shades of color or
sizes. This is better than some of my uncooked cakes. How come at
least that front landing gear didn't collapse? I don't care you were
in a pylon course between Long Beach and LAX for 3 hours waving out the
window to see which long range camera was the best.

Jim

Michael Plant wrote:
The Shou Ming Shu didn't mention any age except 'wild age-old tea plant
botanical colony'. It's cooked. The spent leaves are molasses black.

Besides, I don't disbelieve in your 2700 year old tree. A bore was taken
from mine as well. How did you get to count the rings of the bore? Do you
mean you saw a picture? (You did it on an abacus? Is that what they call,
"boring." (Sorry.)

The spent leaves of an old raw Pu'erh can certainly be molasses black,
although more often than not they would have some lighter bits as well --
the buds. Of course, if there were no buds....

Michael

Space 9/22/05


Lots of wild cooked puerh on TaoBao. Yeah I know it's not wild. Let's
see everyone wants wild green so I'll sell them wild cooked which isn't
all that much cheaper. There is no innate value to tea just supply and
demand. I think it perfectly possible that small factories can't
influence the market like Menghai and Xiaguan and don't get caught up
in the hoopla. Think about it, my small factory wild green can't
compete with the big boys wild green. I'll stay with my nice little
cooked wild which is every bit as good as the big boys. As I said this
order was small factories and the very first one kicks ass big time.
My wild tree green log wasn't that expensive. I'd call it cheap.


Jim, I'm not at all convinced that the smaller guys don't produce as good a
green Pu'erh as the big guys. The big guys have name and marketing and
money, but not necessarily better minds and hands to produce these teas.
(I'm not sure that was what you were getting at.)

Michael

That's what I saying. I'll even add that it seems to me Menghai and
Xiaguan are the producers for the masses with some lowest economic
common denominator formula while the small factories stay with formulas
independent of market forces. Since tea is an agricultural crop it
might be agri business versus the independent farm even in China. My
Chinatown is stocked with cooked tuo,feng,beeng Xiaguan around
penny/gram. I came across one recent Xiaguan cooked cake that I
thought was pretty close to drinkable without a meal. It still is a
far second to the recent QianJia Zhai which comes in around an
additional penny per gram minus s/h/i from China. If I know there is
one pleasurable cooked pu to drink there might be others without
waiting for a ten year metamorphosis insinuated by the big boys. If it
don't taste good now it won't down the line.

Jim

Michael Plant wrote:
Space 9/22/05


As I said this
order was small factories and the very first one kicks ass big time.

Jim, I'm not at all convinced that the smaller guys don't produce as good a
green Pu'erh as the big guys. The big guys have name and marketing and
money, but not necessarily better minds and hands to produce these teas.
(I'm not sure that was what you were getting at.)

Michael

[Jim]
That's what I saying. I'll even add that it seems to me Menghai and
Xiaguan are the producers for the masses with some lowest economic
common denominator formula while the small factories stay with formulas
independent of market forces.

[Michael]
That's an excellent point you make here. Further, when a merchant tells me a
given tea is good because it is "so popular," I run away because popularity
means mediocrity nine times out of ten. Bigger in this case is not better.

Since tea is an agricultural crop it
might be agri business versus the independent farm even in China. My
Chinatown is stocked with cooked tuo,feng,beeng Xiaguan around
penny/gram. I came across one recent Xiaguan cooked cake that I
thought was pretty close to drinkable without a meal. It still is a
far second to the recent QianJia Zhai which comes in around an
additional penny per gram minus s/h/i from China. If I know there is
one pleasurable cooked pu to drink there might be others without
waiting for a ten year metamorphosis insinuated by the big boys. If it
don't taste good now it won't down the line.

[Michael]
Important to note that small farmers bring their teas semi-processed to the
big factories that finish them off. This is a problem for anyone interested
in the origin and provinence of the Pu'erh he buys and drinks. I'll bet
there will always be small farmers that process their own Pu'erhs for local
consumption -- witness the bamboo encased jobbies -- and these might be the
wave of the future for us.

"Space Cowboy" writes:

[...]
If I know there is one pleasurable cooked pu to drink there might be
others without waiting for a ten year metamorphosis insinuated by
the big boys.

You might try this one, which is mellow and sweet:

http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcar...phrase=jin+gua

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

Any difference between golden melon gourd and golden bud beeng besides
the shape? I haven't tried either but I would expect the source leaves
to be Yunnan Black Gold. If so it doesn't get any better than that.
It better taste good.

Jim

Lewis Perin wrote:
"Space Cowboy" writes:

[...]
If I know there is one pleasurable cooked pu to drink there might be
others without waiting for a ten year metamorphosis insinuated by
the big boys.

You might try this one, which is mellow and sweet:

http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcar...phrase=jin+gua

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

"Space Cowboy" writes:

Any difference between golden melon gourd and golden bud beeng besides
the shape?

I think so. In my limited experience, I prefer the golden melon
tuochas, which to me have a richer taste. Of course, there's no
guarantee that all golden melons taste the same, or that all gold bud
bings taste the same.

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