The Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley is featuring an exhibition of tea wares that will be on display indefinitely. There have been a number of tea-related events in conjunction with the exhibition, the latest of which will be the following:

From Garden to Gaiwan: the Journey of Pu'er Tea June 19, 2008, 6:00pm

After centuries of travel along the "Ancient Tea-Horse Route", pu'er tea is undergoing a renaissance that is enlivening the palates and the imaginations of tea aficionados within China and abroad. From 'natural' landscapes of cultivation, to 'cultural' practices of consumption, what are the issues that inform our understanding of this commodity?

Brian S. Kirbis, a researcher who has spent the last two years examining the biological and cultural transformations taking place within Yunnan's tea industry, will present a multimedia event centered on a Bulang village in southwestern Yunnan. Following the presentation will be a gongfu-style tea tasting, allowing participants to experience a variety of pu'er teas.

As space is limited, a reservation is required.

Date: June 19, 2008
Time: 6:00pm
Location: The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology
103 Kroeber Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720
Nearest cross street: College Ave.
Admission: $3 Museum Members, UCB Faculty, Staff, Students and Seniors (55+) $5 General Public

http://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/outreach/public_programs.html

I hope those of you who are able to attend will find this a worthwhile event! There may still be need for 2-3 brewers and a few others to assist with the smooth running of the gongfu event. Anyone who might be interested in participating, please feel free to contact me: brianskirbis@gmail.com

Thank You!

I was always under the impression that 7581 is a Shupu

Take a look

http://tinyurl.com/4leasr

It's interesting to see how different companies formulate a cake.
So I did a 07 XZH vs Menghai 8582 602 comparison.
The leaves are different, but the flavor was similar.
Not the same, but definitely similar.

In the end, I'd rather own the Menghai.
It lasted longer, brewed darker, had a better kick.

( Click for pr0n )

Ok.. so I've never been much of a fan of shu.
I think I was scarred by bad shu..pond/dirt/fish/wet_dog.

A couple of years ago, I bought a haiwan 7568, and it was just ok.
Not offensive, but little off, and boring.

I left it in the tea chest and forgot about it.
Anyway I opened it last weekend, and it was... good.
The off is gone, and it tastes much better.

I dunno if sitting with a bunch of aromatic sheng rubbed off, or what, but I was surprised.

So.. now I'm thinking.. I should buy some shu...

We haven't done a shu thread in a while.
Any recommendations?

 Another Note From Gordon (Dragon Teahouse China):

Date:	Tue, 13 May 2008 18:25:21 +0800 (CST)
From:	"ldllu"
Subject:	»Ø¸´£º »Ø¸´£º Earthquake etc.
To:

I tried this tea last week.The taste was so good that 5 hours later it was still in my mouth.As it just arrived while I was at the shop.They brewed it and there were about 8 person in the table and everyone said it was good.But most importatnt I liked the taste and want to keep it for aging.Got a box and 2 pcs.Note that a box only has 20pcs.
I tried the 2004 Nan Zhao a month back at a shop and liked the taste.It was ageing well.But the person who brought the tea does not want to sell but just let us try it. 

I tasted this tea on Saturday and must say I am quite impressed. It has a very strong taste and slight smokiness.
I cannot read chinese but on the front of the tea its written that this tea can be kept for aging.That's what the vendor told me is written on the front. Could not get any as all the stock was sold by the time i reached the shop in the evening.But another stock is coming soon and am planning to get some. 

I was just thinking.. people were posting about investing in puerh in the menghai thread.

Now.. I've heard people talk about investing, and only buying one cake, which doesn't really make sense to me, since I kinda look at that as simple leisure and variety.

Even a tong of $10 cakes(with white guy tax) isn't really.. a major dent in the wallet.

I usually buy tong+1, but I'm not sure I'd call an individual tong an investment, unless maybe if it was like.. super premium $$$$ cakes or something old and already kinda inflated.

Really, I'm not sure I call any of my tea an investment, since I plan on drinking it all.

So, when you "invest" in your tea, what are you really talking about?
Are you buying adolescent tea that is appreciating quickly already, or what?

Are there folk among us that are really viewing tea as a commodity (outside our vendors)?

I dropped into my local Big Lots today and imagine my surprise when I found Puerh tea Cookies!


The other flavors are Green tea and Oolong. They are flavored with Puerh tea powder and Puerh tea essence, whatever that is.
The manufactureres website is listed as www.byrdcookiecompany.com
Haven't tried them yet- will report back later when I have the chance.

I've noticed glazing on two of my new inexpensive yixing items recently. Is this common in the industry now for factory mass-produced items?

In the first pic you can see what appears to be glaze flaking off the bottom inside of a small pot. In the second pic it looks like some glaze was brushed on the side of rim accidentally while coating the top (this particular large pot has glaze on the outside but not on the inside).

Do you think this will affect a pots ability to age and the quality of the tea is produces?




I guess there is really no way of knowing exactly what you're going to get when you order online.

I don't think I posted this here. Researchers at California Institute of Technology, Stanford and the National Institutes of Health published an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in January titled "Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness."

Essentially, participants were given a series of wine samples and asked how they tasted. When given the same wine twice but told that it was a much higher priced vintage, MRI brain scans showed that the participants experienced more pleasure drinking the supposedly 'better' and more expensive wine.

Study Abstract: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/105/3/1050
News Story: http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/why-expensive-wine-tastes-better.htm

Fortunately, my budget only allows me enjoy the more moderately-priced teas. :)

hi folks.

anyone know anything about this?

mike

The folks on teachat decided to go all out and do a mass review of Puerhshop's sample packs. The Taste of Mellowness sampler features a collection of shu pu'er samples.

Jim Liu, the proprietor, stuffed my box full of this tea plus a few extras. Thank you to Jim for providing the biggest samples around at a fair price. I bought very little tea from Puerhshop before this, but Jim has certainly worked hard to attract more of the marketplace to his site. 

Below are my collected thoughts on this sample pack, cross-posted from Bearsblog.





Lastly, there's the 2006 (I think it's 2004 or 2003. In 2006 Jiu Wan changed the wrapper) Tongqing Hao shu zhuan. It's not really worth noting. It's worth its low price, and ranks above the 2003 Xiaguan tuo but below the other samples.

I had been getting increasingly fed up with the difficulty of breaking apart tuos so this morning I steamed one, something I have heard about many times but was always too afraid to do it.  I used my rice cooker (it left a faint smell of rice on the tea).  Naturally I didn't attempt this method for the first time with an expensive tea, just a simple 2006 Super Horse Phoenix Tuo of Nan Jian (Nanyang Tea Factory) that I got from YSLLC a few months back.  It has rather large leaves, a smooth taste and thick gold soup without much bitterness. 

Well, I kept checking it every two minutes or so and I was eventually able to break it all apart after 10-15 min. The smell of puerh permeated my small barracks room and I quite enjoyed that.  The tuo was wet and very hot but quickly pried apart and dried.

My question is now what to do with it?  I will likely drink most of it in the next two months or so but is this totally necessary?  Should it now be stored airtight or loose, and could it ever continue to age?

Hopefully someone more experienced than I has done this before. Thank You.

Just curious and your comments please.

I am referring to puerhs for keeps to age and not drink nows.

How should store or keep their puerhs? Should one keep them in an air tight container, keeping  it dry, and so call containing its fragrance or should one leave it in a storeroom well ventilated and aired? (Of course a clean room with no unpleasant smell)

Which of the two above would aged better? Taste better? I do understand of course some places may be very humid. But just let's say in a very conducive and appropriate area.

I for one, keep mine in a well ventilated storeroom believing that tea will aged better and taste better as it needs the air and a certain amount of humidity to ferment.

I am curious to hear your various opinions about Xiaguan pu-erh, young and aged, beeng and tuocha -- all of it. Seems as though so much attention is on the designer brands that the old "classics" don't get much time in the spotlight. Am I correct in thinking of XGN as a classic? What - other than tuocha and iron cakes - is their specialty? Do you have a favorite XGN cake? Do they make a good shu? Which of their aged cakes are on the market and excellent? I know we've all squirreled away the XGN 2004 gold ribbon tuocha - but, anyone spent time drinking it of late? Is it holding up?

I ask because yesterday on a whim I decided to try the Xiaguan 2003 ("Premier") Qi Zi  Beeng, misc pictures below. It was lovely. Xiaguan was an early drinking experience when I first started enjoying pu-erh (especially sheng; the various tuocha; full of green perfume) -- but since then I really have not spent much time drinking this particular factory. You can always count on the pile of XGN dry cakes emitting a full perfume in the tea closet. One of the sweetest dry teas I've ever smelled.

 

The early infusions (2003 cake) were puckery and sharp, deeply green, without being at all astringent. Dry aftertaste like plum and something else "sweet" - sugar cane? The sharpness disappeared around the fifth infusion, replaced with a full sweetness that pretty much never dissipated. I returned to the pot all day and always managed to produce a brew full of sweetness - to varying degrees, depending on infusion time. I felt like I was drinking a tea made by folks who've been doing it for a long time. It had balance and strength and something very classy about it. So? What's the word of the street about Xiaguan? I'd like to know.

 

Look at the size of one of the leaves I unwrapped. (Unwrapping is fun by time consuming; I gave up - there were other biggies.) Perspective: that torn leaf is roughly three inches; the whole was - ? - probably twice that. Anyway, it was a nice blend of leaf sizes.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

-- also: anyone interested in a group tuocha tasting? something organized online? why not? separate thread.

-adrian, getting buzzed on Mengku's 2006 Organic sheng beengcha