Source
r/tea•
7cdp

Just had my first Pu-ehr / Question about Yunnan Sourcing

Question/Help

Like many posters, I am a new convert to gong foo tea. I got my first Gaiwan just a couple weeks ago and have mainly been playing around with oolongs (because they are my favorite). I ordered the introduction to pu-ehr sample pack from Yunnan Sourcing and just got to try my first pu-ehr today. IT WAS AMAZING!!! It was the 2015 Menghai Tea Factory 7542 Recipe.

I am a budget tea drinker right now, so for future orders I really need to shop carefully. I noticed there are some extremely cheap cakes on Yunaan sourcing such as https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/raw-pu-erh-tea/products/2018-xiaguan-tai-an-aged-mao-cha-raw-pu-erh-tea-iron-cake?variant=12726954492007. Could I start to drink these right after ordering them, or do they need be stored for 10 years first? I know you tend to get what you pay for, but it seems like Yunnan sourcing tends to only carry quality teas from what I have read. Any input is super appreciated :)

Posted May 31, 2019, 2:34 AM UTC

715
_Soggy_Yancha stuffed cuties•

I would not drink that for at least a decade.

6
redpandaflying93Mellified•

I have a cake, it's actually quite drinkable. It's made from aged maocha and it mellower tasting than the classic Xiaguan recipes.

2
misplaced_optimism•

I've actually tried that exact cake. It was surprisingly decent, not the expected Xiaguan bitter smoke bomb. Still, though, it will probably be a lot better in 10 or even 20 years - I don't think you're supposed to drink an iron cake right away.

If you want a cheap cake from YS, try the 2018 Impression - it's good to drink right now.

Note that aged tea tastes totally different, especially if stored in a more humid location like Guangzhou or even Taiwan/Malaysia. Kunming-aged tea (like most of what YS sells) doesn't have the same flavor - it just depends on what you're looking for.

6
7cdpOP•

2018

Thanks for the input and lead! Honestly I'm super open to trying out most teas right now. I really want to have enough tea to keep brewing gong fu, and improving my technique. I love how much there is to learn with this style of brewing. I have been spending hours every day reading and watching as much info as I can on gong fu tea.

2
misplaced_optimism•

I've been spending a year learning everything I can - I think it's only been a year or so since I first started drinking raw puer. Before that I'd only ever had ripe - I never got into raw before then since I was intimidated by the complexity of the whole subject. I still am, but at least I've had the chance to drink some good tea.

2
PearlSekyancha best cha•

Tea is so deep, I've been learning it for around a year now, tried around 50 teas, and still feel like I'm a noob.

If you're not already in it, I'm sure the tea discord will be the place for you. If you want to discuss I'll be in there too

2
BorisJonson1593•

I think the great thing about YS is that they have such a huge inventory and carry teas all across the price spectrum. I'm getting into puer myself and can definitely relate to that feeling of being overwhelmed.

In general, ripe puers are going to be cheaper across the board regardless of age. They also tend to be more drinkable young than raw puers. That being said, they're also a bit divisive sometimes. It's not quite a love it or hate it situation, but they're a different product. Ripe puers tend to be really earthy and older ones can pick up really nice mushroomy or leathery and sometimes even fruity notes. I really love that earthiness, but some people think they just taste like dirt. I will also say that in general ripe puers are less complex than raw puers and don't age as dramatically.

Honestly the best thing to do right now might just be to order a bunch of samples and see what you like. There's an insane amount of variation and diversity in puer.

2
liveunfurledTea | Connection•

You're doing it right. Samples, samples, samples. Pay attention to what they are and order similar ones from other vendors. Other vendors also have puerh sampler packs if you don't want to pick out your own.

Most of the store owners would give you suggestions as well.

2
irritable_sophistSolarized! And Paleozoic!•

Hi, I'm a pu head, AMA.

I have not tried that XG cake, so I can't answer that one. But take a look at this page. Take a deep breath and compute the $/g price of say this cake before you say "I can't afford that." Tea with some age on it does not have to be cripplingly expensive.

1
7cdpOP•

The price per gram definitely isn't as scary as the initial price tag.
Is it pretty standard to age cakes at home, or do many pu ehr drinkers stuck to buying cakes that are ready to go? Also, in your opinion is it better to do the same tea repeatidly so as to really figure it out, or to jump between different pu-ehrs so as to contrast them?

1
irritable_sophistSolarized! And Paleozoic!•

Not ignoring your question but I don't want to respond using a phone.

2
7cdpOP•

Ooh one more question for when you get back on your computer (if you don't mind). I've noticed a lot of pu ehrs seem to say less about the plants, elevation, location etc. than oolongs or other teas. Is that because the actual processing is more important for pu ehrs than the actual plant and picking?

I guess I may also just be looking at bad pu ehrs when I don't see that info...

2
irritable_sophistSolarized! And Paleozoic!•

This is a good catch. Sometimes the elevation of a puer harvesting area is used as a selling point, but more often not. I don't really know why that is and have remarked on it myself.

It might be that the average elevation in Yunnan is lots higher than in Fujian, enough to make it not such a selling point anymore.

2
irritable_sophistSolarized! And Paleozoic!•

Is it pretty standard to age cakes at home, or do many pu ehr drinkers stuck to buying cakes that are ready to go?

That's hard to answer. There's certainly a vocal contingent who want to buy new tea and keep it until it's old. But lots of people buy partially-aged cakes with the intent of keeping them too. Keeping the commitment to only buy tea that's old enough to drink now (if age is what you're interested in) is hard. You can see why this is when you look at the role of age in determining the price of a cake.

in your opinion is it better to do the same tea repeatidly so as to really figure it out, or to jump between different pu-ehrs so as to contrast them?

IMO you don't want to be that guy with 40 partially-consumed 25g samples. You obviously don't want to be buying 350g cakes of stuff you might not like, but at some point you have to drink more than 25g of a tea to really learn about it. There's probably a place for those $30/200g cakes at this point, and for things like the '08 Often from W2T. You buy one of those things with the commitment to drink it all, and you'll learn things that you can't get from the 3-4 sessions that you have with a sample. Then you sample more, from more $$ stuff, to decide what cakes of that you'll buy.

Eventually you learn enough to make judgments on blind-buying cakes, if you get that into it. This is necessary because many sellers of higher-end things don't offer samples.

2
7cdpOP•

Sorry for the late reply. Thanks for the input! It's awesome to have such an active community here to answer my questions. I think you really got me thinking more reasonably about tea pricing. I appreciate the thought out replies.

This community as a whole is such a valuable resource. I find that I am spending tons of time delving through the archives learning so much.

I've made more progress through the samples I have now and feel like I'm barely scratching the surface of a whole new world of tea.

*edit: fixed some spelling errors.

1