I just wanted to post up this follow-up I received via email.

From Kirby Smith:

> On 10/06/2012 07:34 PM, Aaron W. Hsu wrote:
> > So, I dropped into a Teavana store, not really knowing what
> > to expect, and was surprised by the pleasant service and the
> > reasonable tea that I found. So far, the stuff that I bought
> > from them is reasonable and about what I had hoped.
> >
> > However, I was disappointed when the tea lady basically said
> > that they don't carry Puerhs at all, and they had only one
> > in stock due to some hype that it was receiving in health
> > markets. However, when she gave me a sample to try, it was
> > really more like a black tea that was given a bit of a Puerh
> > like overtone. It was a decent black tea, but certainly not
> > what I would be looking for in a Puerh.
> >
> > I wonder why Puerh isn't very popular?
>
> I can relate a historical view in the context of the
> rec.food.drink.tea newsgroup. Back 10 to 15 years ago when
> "anodyne" was providing the newsgroup reviews of whatever
> tea she had recently acquired, it was believed by most on
> this list that puerh tea was a moldy low grade tea packed in
> bricks for ease of shipment. It is unlikely that anyone
> using the list (mostly USA residents) had ever had any of
> the better puerh teas that a Chinese acquaintance has
> recently informed me exist, some reportedly very pricey.
>
> Many of the people on the then list were possibly
> influential in encouraging drinking good tea in their social
> circles, leading to improved importation of good tea. They
> would not have asked for puerh. I imagine that if enough
> people experience good puerh (probably not at the local Wok
> restaurant), there will be some interest expressed to
> suppliers that could change the present situation.
>
> Feel free to pass this to the newsgroup. It seems I can
> only read from the newsgroup source I have, not post to it.



--
Aaron W. Hsu | | http://www.sacrideo.us
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