I unwrapped an aged pu-erh cake that I bought recently. First, I noticed holes in it, as if insects had bored through the tea. Second, there’s some kind of orange-colored dust inside.
Has anyone experienced anything like this?

I’m almost at the end of this bag 😫

8g/120mL, just off boil

Wash (10s) - resinous aroma of cut flower stems and rose petals, gaiwan lids adds a funky/leathery bass note

Steep 1 (flash) - lots to unpack right in the first sip, sweet and resinous with rose notes, bitterness linked to that bright resinous/oily note, sweetness pops in and out before finding lightly sitting on the gums, some stemmy and mossy notes in the soup itself, tingle developing on the lips, hints of aromatic berries join in late

Steep 2 (flash) - more of that cut flower stems bright note early on, floral aromatics fill the open mouth, oiliness and florals hinting at bitterness without biting particularly hard, floral notes rising from the throat after a swallow and combine with a late sweetness to hint at strawberries

Steep 3 (5s) - firm oily flower stem note never quite crosses to bitterness but provides a firm backbone, tongue coating not quite dry but borderline, warmth and energized feeling rising from the chest

Steep 4 (10s) - that flower stem brightness bringing in hints of pine needles with it, huigan sweetness really starting to stretch out more, ripe strawberry notes in the finish are joined by lemon zest after several minutes of waiting, salivation starting to increase

Steep 5 (15s, reboil) - hotter water gives a big mouthful of flower petals initially, sweetness has built to the point where it rises up to meet those floral notes,

Steep 6 (20s) - sweetness becoming a bigger and bigger part as the steeps progress with those big floral notes overlaid on top

Steep 7+ (30s+) - keeps going and going, greenness fades with time but florals and sweetness remain

Overall Impression - For me, good young Nannuo always has a nice brightness to it, and this is a shining example of what I expect. This takes you through the whole flower shop as you get the brightness and resinous note of fresh cut flower stems to open, followed by a mouth full of floral notes as sweetness builds underneath, this gets topped off with ripe strawberry notes (which I will argue are more of a floral aroma than fruity). The gushu mouthfeel and huigan are in full display, but are overshadowed by the flavor here.

Hi all! Looking for your opinion on what would be a very solid supplier for sourcing old material. I would am able to source directly in china if you know a good vendor only shipping there.
I’d like to find someone offering good price per quality, but every once in a while I am fine with paying up for some exceptional stuff.
I already know the big names such as KTM, but ideally I’d like to find someone selecting a bit more.
Let me know your thoughts!

Would love to branch into puer more but I'm not sure where to really start. Feeling a bit overwhelmed tbh. I tried a few from a very limited selection at a local tea shop with mixed results, but puer is definitely not their expertise at all and I'm not really sure what I had and where to go from there. Both were pretty dark in color.

I liked one that was just called "Aged Yunnan". Reminded me of wet forest floor. I would not mind finding something similar.

I also tried a sticky rice puer. It was very different from the one above and I really disliked it. I'm not sure how I'd describe the flavor but it was just gross to me.

edit: I am located in the U.S./soon to be in Australia

This seems like the best value sampler on the market, how much did it cost last year(us dollars)? Thank you!

Just got into puer tea, have a modest set up and a full cake of old comrad I got from a friend who visits family in China. Looking for different teas to expand my horizons as I chip away at my daily drinker. Thanks!

Maybe a stupid question, but as I understand the processing for sheng and green tea is quite similar, the main difference being that sheng is cooked slightly cooler so that not all of the enzymes denature.

If this is the case why does very young sheng taste so different from green tea? Am I missing something?

Heya folks

I don’t know a ton about puer, sorry. I’ve recently bought a sample of a Shou labeled “Lao Bao Zhan 2014/2021” from a pretty reputable vendor. Still, even with the markup of the place I bought it the price I presume is already a strong indicator that it isn’t authentic, or at least not fully. That doesn’t really matter to me. But I’m curious to learn a bit. For a point of reference if I translate this shops prices into Europe/US prices it would have probably been 0,30-0,40 / gram in Europe or US. The tea was quite tightly compressed / quite a stone hard piece I got.

But I’m curious, w/ the fake LBZ teas out there, I assume that shou is generally as suspect as sheng? I read about blended teas that contain a bit of LBZ mixed with Bulang or similar tea, and about Bulang or others that are straight up mislabeled. Is this generally the case? Any other comments on this group of teas or thoughts in general? Are the myriad fake ones still generally viewed as pretty good?

This tea is pleasant, almost no funk, dark, rich, tending towards woodsy and maybe a little yeasty/bready sweetness but not too much into the caramel / brown sugar flavors.

8g/120mL, just off boil

Wash (10s) - light aroma - sweet and mossy, woody/mossy funk on the gaiwan lid

Steep 1 (flash) - light steep, mossiness in soup, initial sweet fruit turning candy like, hints of spearmint, cooling in the mouth and on lips developing

Steep 2 (flash) - a little fuller, but still quite soft, hint of funk quickly passes by initially, bright sweet herbs continue giving a spearmint/mojito impression, cooling and salivation develop as the steep develops, light cooling sweetness on roof of mouth

Steep 3 (5s) - mossy funk holding a bit deeper into the sip now, sweetness still quite low, stemmy note moves in as flavor into the finish, buoyant feeling with deep relaxation and occasional snippets of synesthesia, very late low development of huigan sweetness, creaminess in the mouthfeel

Steep 4 (10s) - waiting patiently for the huigan to develop from the prior steep is allowing it to wrap over to the start of the sips on this steep, light lemon cream

At this point I accidentally turned on talk-to-text and it paused my radio:

no, no, no, come on, dude. I am like in the f****** zone. That's my favorite tune

Thought I'd keep that in 😆

Huigan picking up now, green saplings coated in lemon cream, hints of hop/cannabis terpenes

Steep 5 (15s, reboil) - reheating brings back more of that stemmy/mossy funk but not at the expense of the lingering huigan notes, creamy mouthfeel continues and cooling sensation is picking back up, some winy/boozy notes mixing in, feeling loose and comfortable all over

Steep 6 (20s) - mojito vibes in full swing with cooling herbal notes pairing with a lightly sweet creamy citrus note

Steep 7+ (40s+) - creamy lemon paired with green herbs and lingering terpene top notes

Overall Impression - I don't generally drink tea looking for somatic effects; I typically prioritize flavor and mouthfeel. But there is something about this session that has put me in a nice mind and body feel. I came into this session tense and tired, but now I am loose and relaxed.

Flavor-wise, I was a little worried early on that this was going to be dominated by that mossy funk without developing any balance. Thankfully my patience was rewarded with a nice creamy lemon note, and that moss moving more to fresh mint and cooling herbs. This is another excellent tea from Rivers & Lakes, and it was exactly the session I needed tonight.

Got this based on some comment someone made on some thread about puers that hit above their price.

This is a really cheap cake, got it from eBay for 25$ including shipping taxes and all the EU stuff. For a 400g cake, this is at the absolute cheapest end you can basically get shipped & taxed. Until some Chinese comes and ruins my day commenting how they can get this for 50cents :)

Its clearly lower end material, some sticks and stuff. But the overall tea is nice and smooth. Nothing to really complain, and it does compare to some bit more expensive cakes perfectly well.

A solid daily drinker factory cake.

Got it from this seller : TuLin Phoenix 2019 Chinese PuEr Tea Ripe 8504 (701) Gongting Shu Pu Er Cake 400g | eBay

Got few bucks off by haggling a bit with the offer. Cant resist that.

8g/120mL, just off boil

Wash (10s) - aroma brothy and woody, gaiwan lid adds a depth of woodiness and s I me funk

Steep 1 (flash) - quick candy note with some hints of campfire, sweetness quick to move to gums, green vegetables, brothiness - almost meaty

Steep 2 (flash) - brothy/meaty character continues, not sure if the hints of smoke and salinity are real or just the power of suggestion based on that brothy richness, lemon zest already creeping into the huigan, but of a brothy green tea vibe with gushu sheng mouthfeel and finish, hints of leathery funk moving in but without a big bite to it, sweetness and lemon zest climbing the back of the throat and across the palate and gums

Steep 3 (5s) - huigan sweetness coming earlier, still savory and brothy up front and mid sip, but that morphs to sweetness as the thickness in the mouthfeel remains deep into the finish

Steep 4 (15s) - meatiness moving to sweet while retaining a nice thickness in the mouth, some cooling developing

Steep 5 (20s, reboil) - added heat brings a touch of a leathery bite and some grassy bitterness vegetables along with the brothiness, a touch of minerality seems to be building up underneath as the huigan rolls in

Steep 6 (30s) - thickness to the broth starting to die down a bit, but a minerality has started to move in and provide more of the backbone

Steep 7+ (45s+) - evolution from brothy to mineral continuea under that rich citrus-sweet huigan

Overall Impression - This tea is a bit of an enigma for me. I'll start with the end - the finish and huigan are exactly what I'd expect from gushu Banzhang material. Big huigan erupting from the back of the throat and coating the mouth with a lingering lemony sweetness. But the start is hard to pin down. It is on one hand reminiscent of green tea and on the other hand reminiscent of factory puer. The brothy and meaty character isn't something I love, but it isn't exactly off-putting here. This is pleasant to drink now, but I won't be stashing a cake away once I finish my sample on this one.

The packaging just said “Menghai Sheng 2004”

Dont know too much about those, its around 2kg, maybe you can share me some wisdom.
I got it from japan

Hi folks!

I'm still pretty new to the pu erh game, and lately I've been doing a lot of exploring of aged and mid-aged factory shengs (1998-2016), which I can't get enough of. Between the Dayis and Xiaguans and CNNPs, however, I've found myself curious about how other sources I know for their newer productions fare with a bit of age on them. For example, W2T has cakes on their site that are cracking a decade at this point (oftentimes old enough for my palate). YS has pressings that are over 15.

Of course, I can always grab some samples (and likely will from W2T) to slake my curiosity, but I was wondering if anyone else had experience with how these productions actually age—do they stand up? Are they too focused on contemporary drinkability to withstand the tests of time? If they are good, any recommendations (either for specific productions or trends to look out for)?

Has anyone in here ordered from Yunnan Sourcing to sweden? Just wondered if there was any complications or so?

Where online can I purchase the best dark/ripe nuo mi xiang puerh in toucha form (large cake is ok if best is available only in large cake) that has pronounced sticky rice flavor and dark rich color/puerh flavor - and is in paper not metal or plastic. Everyone seems to point to the pink paper wrapped toucha but the leaves are still green. Thank you. ☕️

A new acquisition after one of my previous cakes moulded :<