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?

--
Aaron W. Hsu | | http://www.sacrideo.us
Programming is just another word for the Lost Art of Thinking.

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
לֵ֤ב חֲכָמִי�֙ בְּבֵ֣ית �ֵ֔בֶל וְלֵ֥ב כְּסִילִ֖י� בְּבֵ֥ית שִׂמְחָֽה׃