Although Upton's choices in most other types of tea is very
good (IMHO), they have only ever carried a few pu-erhs, all
black up to this time. I've tried a couple and didn't care for them.

However, now I notice they have, for the first time, a green
pu-erh in tuo cha form (7-8 grams per). Has anybody tried it?
If so, what were your impressions? The description says it is
made from "fine buds of Yunnan's heirloom tea trees", and the
flavor is described as "vegetal, with notes of wild honey and
dried fruit." This sounds attractive, but at a price of around
$0.35 per gram, it is way out of my normal range. Looking
for opinions of you experience pu-erh drinkers out there.


Randy

RJP wrote:
> Although Upton's choices in most other types of tea is very
> good (IMHO), they have only ever carried a few pu-erhs, all
> black up to this time. I've tried a couple and didn't care for them.
>
> However, now I notice they have, for the first time, a green
> pu-erh in tuo cha form (7-8 grams per). Has anybody tried it?
> If so, what were your impressions? The description says it is
> made from "fine buds of Yunnan's heirloom tea trees", and the
> flavor is described as "vegetal, with notes of wild honey and
> dried fruit." This sounds attractive, but at a price of around
> $0.35 per gram, it is way out of my normal range. Looking
> for opinions of you experience pu-erh drinkers out there.
>
>
> Randy

I hadn't even noticed that they added that. A few months back I bought
a sample of one of each of Upton's Pu-Erh offerings and I can say that
none of them did much for me except their Ancient Maiden, which was
good as a beginning Puer. Since I am mainly drawn to the green puer's I
plan on ordering a sample and giving it a shot it sounds intriguing.
It's $7.70 for 15g which I'm assuming is 2 Tuo's which is about 10
servings. It does seem pretty steeply priced for what it is though.

I'd be interested to hear what some of the Puer experts could say about
this. I could be wrong but it seems like this wouldn't be exclusive to
Uptons and may be available elsewhere at a better price.

- Dominic

Dominic T. wrote:

> Since I am mainly drawn to the green puer's I
> plan on ordering a sample and giving it a shot it sounds intriguing.

I'd be much obliged if you shared your impressions when you do
try it.

> It's $7.70 for 15g which I'm assuming is 2 Tuo's which is about 10
> servings. It does seem pretty steeply priced for what it is though.

I don't know much about amount of green pu-erh leaf to use,
and how many infusions from a given batch of leaf, but I had
hoped that the 15g sample would yield more than 10 servings
(which I'm assuming is a 6 oz. cup).

> I'd be interested to hear what some of the Puer experts could
> say about this.

Ditto.


Randy

If your aim is just a test run of green pu'er and convenience, and the
larger financial picture seems silly when it's only $7.70 expenditure
for those upton minituos, then ignore the below, and give it a shot.
Minituos are a good introduction to pu'er, generally, but I haven't
tried these in particular. Even if this is your aim, be aware that
these are "bud only" minituocha, so you still might not be getting the
intro you might want. It'll taste probably something between yinzhen
(silver needle) and pu'er, with a bit of aromatic hickory/pine smoke
thrown in.

But, if you do consider "value" important, then consider: 15g is two
7-8g mini tuo for $7.70...very very expensive considering what it is.

Generally it's 1 mini tuo per 140-150ml yixing pot (5oz) to do a
multiple steep method. If these minituo are any good, you could get
5-10 servings out of each mini-tuo, but only two "sittings" of tea. If
you split them in half and brew them western style (long brews), that's
only 4 sittings/servings--you'd be hard-pressed to get 10 tea sittings
out of those!

FYI, i use 1g tea to 15ml volume for green pu'er...so one of those
serves a 100-110ml gaiwan for me (just under 4 oz).

To give you an idea, 500g at that price would be $256.67...even at
their bulk rate 500g is $156.00. Meanwhile, a 500g Xizihao Lao Banzhang
cake, IMO one of the best green pu'ers on the market right now, runs
~$68+shipping. For $256.67 you could get one or two great cakes from
the 1990s. For $156.00, you could get one 1990s cake.

For $7.25, you could get a ~30g sample of the lao banzhang from hou
de--with free shipping--or samples of more than one green pu'er from
Jing (w/o shipping), or 100g-250g green tuos from various online
vendors on ebay and elsewhere.

Again, if it's just a test run of green pu'er, or you're just curious
about these minituo and 2 is enough because you don't want more sitting
around if you don't like it, then the minituo do make perfect sense.
But for the same price you could get larger samples of better teas,
IMO.

Feeling frugal,

~j

RJP wrote:
> Dominic T. wrote:
>
> > Since I am mainly drawn to the green puer's I
> > plan on ordering a sample and giving it a shot it sounds intriguing.
>
> I'd be much obliged if you shared your impressions when you do
> try it.
>
> > It's $7.70 for 15g which I'm assuming is 2 Tuo's which is about 10
> > servings. It does seem pretty steeply priced for what it is though.
>
> I don't know much about amount of green pu-erh leaf to use,
> and how many infusions from a given batch of leaf, but I had
> hoped that the 15g sample would yield more than 10 servings
> (which I'm assuming is a 6 oz. cup).
>
> > I'd be interested to hear what some of the Puer experts could
> > say about this.
>
> Ditto.
>
>
> Randy