Pureh tea?

[travelerjjm]

I bought a little block of non-vintage, non-regional puerh tea. Wow, wonderful tea with NO bitterness!! Good and strong, too (of course one could make it less so). Given that some people buy vintage puerh tea as an investment and I do NOT want to do that, can anyone recommend good, affordable puerh tea?

I only have plain now. Has anyone tried a flavor (e.g. ginger) they particularly like?

[MacGuffin]

Seven Cups in Tucson has some affordable puerhs that specifically don't taste "dirty," a common occurrence in black puerhs. My favorite is "Zao Xiang" (date fragrance) but they're out of it now (as will I be soon, damn it). It's a loose, not a cake, and it's lovely. I would also add that the number of infusions depends a lot on how it's brewed. If you stick to gong fu-style--very short infusions (often in a small Yixing pot) that use a lot of leaf and not much water, you can get many infusions but you might lack the patience for this style of brewing.

[Maximilien]

Pu-Erh should not be flavoured (IMO!!! )

Remember that you can rebrew it 2, 3 times, so the investment is worth while.

M.

[jpr54_1]

in order to have a good experience u need to try alittle better tea quality-

[limster]

Pu-erh with chrysanthemum is a classic combination, but of course many pu-erh teas are fantastic by themselves.

Yes the investment is pretty worthwhile, as it wouldn't take a very old or expensive pu-erh to go for 5 or so infusions. Among the ones I've had that weren't too expensive, they peak at the 3rd or later infusion.

[limster]

Here's a link to a bunch of tea sellers that might be useful:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/367181

[travelerjjm]

Great link. Thanks.

[limster]

Don't thank me, thank the awesome chowhounds that contributed to that thread. :)

Hope you find what you're looking for; come back and tell us all about it.

[jpr54_1]

where have u purchased your pu-erh tea?

u might want to check out yahoo group tea mail
and www.camellia-sinensis.com

[travelerjjm]

I bought it from Amazon. 63g for about $7. Most of the stuff at your link seems to be about $20-25 for 50g. Great stuff, but right now I want it for "everyday".