SuperBobo wrote
> It's great! I got 20 little black tuo chas (100g) from Stash which I
> later realized was the most expensive place I could have bought 'em.

Welcome to the Pu-erh club. It's about half of what I drink now. I got my
first mini-tuocha as a gift from another RFDTer (thanks, Rick!). Following
discussions here, I had been around to lots of places in both Boston and NYC
Chinatowns, with no luck finding them by sight or name. Taking an example of
what I wanted to show made a big difference.

What I've now found locally at about 20 cents each is very hard, dense 4g
bowls wrapped in tissue. (I take this off before brewing - is that correct?)
Despite the hard packing, they break up immediately on wetting, unlike all
of the larger (and usually looser) fangchas, bingchas and tuochas I've
tried. Each is enough for two mug-sized steeps, or a fair-sized pot - the
flavor extracts faster than any other Pu-erh I've tried, so multiple steeps
don't seem to work. Haven't yet found any green or higher-quality black
mini-tuochas - anyone else?

If you like the cheap cooked stuff, there's a 250g rectangular brick I've
found in both cities for under $2.00. Mike Petro found some Web references
and added these useful comments (quoted w/o permission - hope that's OK,
Mike):

> This brand of fangcha is indeed prolific, however many different
grade/year/process combinations can be found in the same wrapper. Therefore
YMMV greatly.
> You can see it here in the Factory Showroom.
http://www.yntea.com/english/tz_tea.htm
> Wholesale price on these is about $.70ea, or $2.80kg.
> This one http://www.12bn.net/product.asp?id=444 is $3.50

Funny thing is, with so many steeps possible, the expensive Pu-erh actually
costs about the same per serving if you take it out all the way. Still, I
need to find a hobby where the best of whatever it is is something no-one
else values, at least financially...

-DM