This is my first trip to the Bay Area where I used the Bart to get to
downtown SanFran in several trips. I rode the fartherest leg for $5
minus a nickel. I even used local bus transportation to get to and
from the Bart station. Very convenient. You get off at the first
stop called the Embarcadaro. It is a short walk to the Ferry building
on the wharf. I didn't even stop in the ITC. It looked out of
place. High up on one of the light standards is a sign pointing to
Chinatown. It is actually pointing to Washington street at a odd
angle to the building across the street. It is a short five blocks to
the center of Chinatown. This is the first time I came in from this
direction. The very first store I cam across was TenRen. It was
early in the morning before the tourists and I asked to see some
Oriental Beauty considering they are TaiWan based. They showed me the
cheap version which looked like my only previous purchase which I
think was bogus from another vendor. They showed me the expensive
version more visually pleasing but I wasn't interested in a 'how much
you buy' free gongfu tasting session used by all the tea shops. That
is the name of the game in that Chinatown. You are free to walk away
after the dog and pony show with a guilty conscience. I ran across
RedBlossom run by Peter Luong. I was lucky to catch him the first
time before the start of the daily tourist gongfu sessions. We hit it
off because apparently I pronounced Puer and Shou correctly while
Sheng I learned is more like Shun. I need to review my PinYin
pronunciation rules. After that he was busy each time I came back.
He had limited compressed Puer in the expensive commemorative display
boxes. He just got back from Yunnan and has about 100 kilos coming in
January. He swore up and down about his 1993 loose Sheng. He wedged
me in with some tourists but I got to show off a little bit. For once
someone else did the talking. I thought it looked and tasted like
Shou. How am I suppose to judge from a smelling and tasting cup the
size of a thimble. You can add FINISHED and UNFINISHED to your Puer
vocabulary. At home, it looked and tasted like Sheng. It is
distinctly smokey like a Yunnan Black Gold without the ash taste of
some Shou. I found it very good but I'll enjoy my Shengs without the
wait. I also got my first Taiwan milk tea and first authentic
Oriental Beauty which was more important to me than the aged Sheng.
At this point I'll mention all the tea shops in Chinatown are selling
tea for about $100/pound or more no matter what except for the herbal
shops. I'll mention one other Gong Fu shop where I came across an
Italian architect who was restoring a building in Chinatown. He had
some video on a cell phone of the project. He said he was giving up
wine and apparently was a regular. I gave him a rundown on some of
the teas in the store where the gal did the gongfu with a Gaiwan when
I pointed them out. I learned the saucer is the earth, the cup the
person, and the lid the sky. I THINK I came away with a 1995 Sheng
tuocha with the older indicative blue ink stamp mentioned by Danny but
the year was cropped. I still got a very nice green needle. I hit
the herbal stores. I found one that sold tea by the tael where I got
a lung ching like green tea but different. I need to do some research
using the chinese characters. I still didn't see it all in
Chinatown. I got a new appreciation of the place. The gongfu shops
are a trap but there are some good teas.

Jim

PS I got to see this group using a IPHONE from my niece. I'll let
things slide on what was said till I get a better Internet connection.