What's in your pu?
I’ve found a hair on occasion. I’m sure there could be lots of weird stuff in your tea (well, we hope not) but it’s more visible in a pu’er cake as you have to actually break off pieces rather than blindly tea scoop it into a cup.
I had a sample from some unknown tea company (came as part of a sampler and it was different than the advertised aged pu erh, so it was an adventure!) it had a hair in it and later had a bit of mold…I just picked the hair out and later brushed the mold off…it was actually pretty tasty. I do not get phased very easily it seems.
I did have a really funny incident with some Rishi orange spice pu erh, apparently there was a moth egg which hatched and made itself into a nice little pu cocoon. When I opened up my container the moth flew away and left me with a mess. Silly bugs have developed the taste for tea!
Bugs in puerh are usually more interested in eating the paper wrapper.
The worst thing I found was that pubic hair in a Teavivre puerh sample recently.
I’ve found a hair a few different times, a string once or twice, I have a Fenqing tuo thats full of little pebbles, found a little lump of something that looks like coal or graphite, as well as and a piece of wicker basket material in a YS tea, and a whole preserved beetle (looked sort of like a june bug or Japanese beetle) in a Puerh Shop brick.
Most of that I was perfectly ok with to be honest. The little coal lump was actually sort of amusing. The beetle though?? (shiver) It almost convinced me to throw out the brick, but unfortunately I really like the tea :P
I avoid anything with mold on it, but generally I don’t worry to much about things in my pu’erh since I’m going to be pouring boiling water on it.
Unless there’s something in it thats alive .THEN I’d worry
Bugs are a rarity. Pu’erh should never be full of bugs, and if there is one it’s probably more after the wrapper than the tea. It shouldn’t be moldy either, but this happens sometimes if the tea was stored in damp conditions. I’m yet to come across moldy tea
This is making weirded out. The only hair I’ve found in anything was my own.
Luckily, I have never found anything living in my puerh. I have found the odd bit of hair or string, even plastic. Once, in a tea flower cake I found a six inch long piece of heavy duty tape. The EBay vendor, whom I have not bought from again, said it was of the sort they wrap tongs with but I am still unsure about this. It was unsettling and I have never drank the tea. I still have it and it may be drinkable. I took a half refund from the seller and moved on.
What do people think, is the tea drinkable or contaminated?
This thread is so awesome. I’m not easily grossed out, so now I’m kind of hoping to find something cool in one of my bricks. A lucky rock? OK! A bit of string? WOO! A winning lottery ticket? YES PLS!
Maybe that could be a whole new thing, pu cakes with toys, like Cracker Jacks.
“omg look, I got the grand prize!!! look it says it right here on the neifei – ‘you win a tong of unblended Lao Ban Zhang cakes’”
Well they put prizes in cakes and bread, and crackerjacks, like Marz noted. Why not in pu? :)
I’ve come across string, hair, twigs and these little round things that look like buds from the flower of the tree. I actually come across these buds frequently. Anyone else come across them?
In China, you can buy bug dropping tea. Apparently bug poop is a delicacy, from them eating old cakes. Well then of course we have that kind of coffee that is eaten and pooped out by some animal and it is the most expensive coffee you can buy.
Kopi Luwak is generally considered to be of low quality by many coffee specialists. it’s just expensive because of the name, like Kona or Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, all three are not that good, especially for the price (although some other Hawaiian coffee can be excellent, see Rusty’s Estate).
Cwyn: The bug dropping tea can be bought at SampleTea, it’s called Black Dragon Pearl. Not the Yunnan Black Black Dragon Pearl, but 1960’s tea that was shit out by bugs. http://www.sampletea.com/product/1960s-hei-long-zhu-black-dragon-pearl-loose-tea
I REALLY wish it wasn’t called Black Dragon Pearls.. some of my favorite teas are called that and now I will be concerned those are the bug poop type.
The Yunnan Black tea formerly known as “Black Dragon Pearl” is now called “Low-Grade Yunnan Ballz”
Grand Tea once had the bug dropping tea
http://steepster.com/teas/grand-tea/27486-worm-tea
And you actually drank it! Toad, you’re my hero. It is only $12 for 10 grams of 1960s black bug shit ballz with a lil fuzz, who’s in for one? :P
This is really funny. At our house we already call the pearls “dragon poop” so now we have come full circle.
I’d be down to buy it if I had the money, I’m planning on using Sampletea in the future anyways.
Its not too bad, taste like old newspapers and ancient books lol
i’ll prolly try a few from sampletea soon, i had never heard of them
My postmaster told me all these packages from China are probably weed, so I am waiting for that to show up in my tea. After all, the postmaster can’t be wrong about the mails.
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