Rick -

Ordinary cafe (let alone Dim Sum restaurants) in HK expects you to spend at
least $10 with average probably closer to $15.
Cheap black puerh costs about $5/cake (say, $7/lb) Average "dose" would be
5-10 grams, ie. a quarter.

An average person in China makes about 800 ($100) Yuan/month (4 times that
in large cities). That averages to $3/ day for food, apartment,
transportation, etc. a quarter is 1/12 of that or approx. 10%. Now ask
yourself if you can afford 10% of your income to be spent on tea and you
have an answer why puer never was such in China even in large cities, let
alone countryside and Tibet.

Sasha.


"Rick Chappell" > wrote in message
...
> Alex Chaihorsky > wrote:
>> because puerh never (even in China, let alone Tibet
>> or Mongolia) was an everyday tea.
>
> Wait a minute, Alex. In ordinary cafes in Hong Kong the standard drink,
> served like water without ordering it, seems to be lukewarm very weak
> pu erh (bo lay). My guess is that it's a tradition from the times when
> all drinking water should be boiled. Also, dim sum restaurants there
> serve
> a lot of pu erh.
>
> On the other hand, a Chinese colleague gave me a can of what he said was
> "purple noble lady" and it turned out to be oolong, though he said it was
> pu erh. So I thin there is a lot of confusion (but I know what I drank in
> HK).
>
> Best,
>
> Rick.