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Is there a puerh buying guide?

I was wondering if there's a guide to the different years for puerh, a guide to cnnp/dayi label format? Or like a website that has what different years look like beyond the recipe numbers mean
 
the taste of tea is so subjective, that a guide for my taste may not be a fit for you or anyone else. being a man in his 60's my taste buds are not what they use to be and i loose or can not taste some flavors that others pick out
 
the taste of tea is so subjective, that a guide for my taste may not be a fit for you or anyone else. being a man in his 60's my taste buds are not what they use to be and i loose or can not taste some flavors that others pick out

Oh I was talking about pictures with the labels and names on it... Sometimes it doesn't translate too well with google translate
 
I wish there was something like Puerh Spectator, where we could get monthly or bimonthly magazines in the mail, read about the latest trends and what regions will do well this year and what won't.

Sadly, we're left with a lot of trial and error, or reading through a lot of blogs and social media.
 
I wish there was something like Puerh Spectator, where we could get monthly or bimonthly magazines in the mail, read about the latest trends and what regions will do well this year and what won't.

Sadly, we're left with a lot of trial and error, or reading through a lot of blogs and social media.

+1

Someone out there has gotta know this info
 
If you're making a reference to The Wine Spectator, then I'm glad there isn't.

I did, and I'm well aware at how much of a double-edged sword it would be. It would also distort the market worse than it is now. "This pressing is rated 94 points and one of our Best Buys" - you'd never see a cake of it sold outside of Yunnan province for years.

It's a misguided wish to cut the learning curve down a bit.

(side note: can you imagine the "Robert Parker problem" applied to puerh? That would end in disaster.)
 

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
I did, and I'm well aware at how much of a double-edged sword it would be. It would also distort the market worse than it is now. "This pressing is rated 94 points and one of our Best Buys" - you'd never see a cake of it sold outside of Yunnan province for years.

It's a misguided wish to cut the learning curve down a bit.

(side note: can you imagine the "Robert Parker problem" applied to puerh? That would end in disaster.)

:lol: Too funny.

Back in the early 90's, I used to hang around The Burgundy Wine Company at its original West Village location, where I would chat with the proprietor, Al Hotchkin, one of the greatest wine minds I ever knew. Sadly, Al passed away about a dozen years ago. He had a clerk, a young kid named James Molesworth. At the risk of sounding immodest, when I would speak, he would listen. He has since gone on to write for The Spectator, while I attempt to add my feeble contributions to the world of high tech shaving and general mayhem here. All in all, I think I've done better.
:tongue_sm
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
Ah, the grass is always greener on the other side of the information fence.

The wonderful world of wine is wowed by the gurus and enslaved by the point score system ... don't hit the radar there, and the only one buying your wine is guys who pick up the bottle by mistake, and Ouch.

On the other hand, we have the curious world of tea ... a riddle of a cake, wrapped in a mystery wrapper, sold by an enigma. What's the western impression of pu-er? A cake of mystery-tea, wrapped in a piece of paper with squiggles on it (apparently something in Chinese), sold by a guy in a dusty shop in Chinatown whose entire English vocabulary could fit into a haiku ...

You want buy pu-erh?
All I sell is very nice tea.
This one good, all good.

(Mind you, the extent of my Cantonese is knowing that it's "not Mandarin" and "do-shay" is roughly equivalent to something generally polite. Still, nothing of this makes buying tea any easier.) So we tea drinkers are sort of left to our own devices, hoping that what makes it to Yunnan Sourcing is worthy of being sold, and thanking our lucky stars that Jas-e-tea does a decent job of sifting out the duds.)
 
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