Puer Made in 1962, Aledgedly
I purchased a brick of tea on ebay, $10 delivered from China to US address. I don’t see how to post a photo here so I post a link to the item: http://www.ebay.com/itm/152486350174?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
I have it and have made a couple of brews with it. It has a slight fishy smell when you put the water on it, I wash twice. Then a 60 second steep. It has a nice dark amber color in a clear glass cup. A slight fish smell. I have not taken it beyond three brews yet but will.
Now some folks I understand find the fish smell offensive. I grew up fishing for bluegills and it reminds me of what my hands smelled like after taking one off the hook, but not nearly as strong.
I know there is no free lunch, but is there any chance this puer is what it’s advertized as, a 1962 puer?
No. It fails the price test. It costs under $10USD. Anything legitimate would cost much much more.
While it is definitely too cheap to be from 1962 it sounds like you are describing a ripe tea with the fishy smell. Ripe tea was invented in 1973 by the Menghai Tea Factory. Anything claiming to be older than this and ripe is fake for that reason as well.
Agreed. Shou was developed i 73 and released in 75. If you enjoy it that is the main thing.
It would be pretty insane to find that on ebay, from what I understand it would be a rare rare find for a collector or vendor. Puer production back then was another beast entirely and most likely would not have a label, or a date stamp.
The important thing is that you enjoy the tea, and you didn’t overpay. It sounds like you got 250g of ripe “shou” puer that you enjoy, and that is an amazing price at 2.5c/gram.
I thank everyone for their comments. I have never done a tea review, new to the site. I just may take some photos and do a taste description, as best I can, of this puer. It’s really not a bad tea, in my humble opinion.
If its good drink it. You will be fine. We have all stood exactly where you are now in the puerh world.
Yes no one realizes at first just how much a real old tea can cost if it is Puerh. Scott talked I believe about Hai Lang Hao buying some incredibly old tea for 10,000 a bing but the tea is now worth 25,000. I imagine it would be real hard to find a buyer for that.
Aliexpress was famous for these cheap puerhs that cost only $10 or $20 but claim to be forty or fifty year old. Although now Aliexpress has apparently banned the sale of tea. Although I have heard some sell it on there anyway.
If you want to try a genuine old ripe puerh that you can be sure is as old as advertised, try this one from Yunnan Sourcing. I have it and it is very good. It is however a little bit more expensive than the one you bought.
https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/cnnp-china-national-native-products/products/1996-cnnp-green-mark-te-ji-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake
This has probably happened to almost everyone who is new to puerh. In my case I was scammed in person. The woman who runs Sun’s Organic Teas in Chinatown, Manhattan, NY sold be a ripe she claimed was forty years old from 1972. She was selling it for $10 an ounce. At the time I believed her as she was very convincing. She didn’t seem at all like a lier. She was very believable. Of course I later found out this was simply impossible both because she said it was a 1972 ripe and was selling it for $10 an ounce. There is no way she could have obtained legitimate 40 year old tea for that price, even one that wasn’t very good. The funny thing about Sun’s Organic Teas is they got a rave review from one of the New York newspapers. I no longer remember which one. In addition to selling fake puerh all her teas were improperly stored in glass jars. Light is the enemy of tea in general.
Well I found it cheaper. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Tea-More-Than-50-Years-Old-PU-ER-Puerh-Pu-er-Tea-Pu-erh-Pu-er/32302827858.html But yeah even if it was last year’s tea I’d be suspect on quality for the price.
If you want to work with it, give it a long airing out. Like at least a month. That could kill off the fish. Some additional reading, “This is where the fishyness come in. Fishy puer flavors comes from one of two broad sources. Either the ripe puer tea was freshly pressed or fermented (within 1-2 years), or it was made in unsanitary conditions.” https://white2tea.com/2013/11/09/what-is-reason-for-the-fishy-puer-smell-in-young-ripe-puer-tea/
It probably isn’t even tea from Yunnan for that price. As I understand it fakers bring in much cheaper tea from other parts of China and process it like puerh but it is not the same thing as Yunnan Tea.
There can be good puerh style tea, but the ones that are good, generally acknowledge they are from other areas because the tea stands on it’s own.
I have some african puerh style tea, I will put in the puerh plus box if anyone is interested in sampling.
While I have not tried African Puerh I have tried Japanese and Nepal teas that called themselves puerh and were supposed to imitate ripe puerh. Neither of them tasted anything like puerh despite the name.
this one actually tastes like a ripe puerh.. if you want we can do a tea trade at some point and I can send you a sample if your interested.
its not the highest quality tea ever, but its basic drinkable ripe.
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