teakkurim

8 elul 5781 Abbreviations to know for puerh on discord and the internet TW- Taiwan MY- Malaysia HK-hong kong GD-guangdong KM-kunming KTM-king tea mall MXTea-Taobao vendor XG-xiaguan FT-fei tei (for Taiwan) YQH-yang qin hao XZH-xi zi hao CYH-chen yen hao BYH-bi yun hao TWL-teas we like HKH-hong kong henry LFPT(FT)-love forever paper tong (fei tei) LCT-lao cha tou TLHK-tea life hong kong LP or LPT- liquid proust teas  TSH- taishunhe(taiwanese site for buying tea) For more: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kAhzWYFtAnXwzjbQGJKrvLbzKiSMcQAWNVb8RKICC-I/edit#gid=0

  elul 5 781 i did not want to join discord. its format is why i try avoid interacting too much with the internet. there is always something going on and happening on discord whether it be a discussion or voice chat/video tea rooms. it is easy to get sucked in and spend a lot of time interacting with it. it’s also very easy for me to be overcome with fomo because there is always something going on. Oh no, i might miss out on this group buy, oh no i might miss out on someone giving away some hot tips on an unknown tea or vendor, oh no I might miss out on the beginning of some inside joke, etc etc. despite all this, i have dipped into discord. the main reason was because I heard there were good deals and group buys being organized on there and i wanted in. well, it is true. discord is where you can find people organizing group buys for taobao or yang qing hao. The trading/selling area has some really good teas that are hard to come or people post samples of teas where the v...

30 sivan 5781 another good tea from the same reddit stranger (mrmopar). this is a 2003 custom 8582 (a classic menghai tea factory recipe but this one is made by a smaller company). i think it has some HK storage storage on it (dry/natural maybe?). a similar tea is sold here (same tea? different storage? idk) but i got my cake from the stranger at a great price of $55 for the cake. is it an incredible tea? no. is it very good for the price? most certainly. it has that nice aged comforting taste and leans towards the malty grains profile and has a fairly thick tea broth.a lot of the flavor is coming from the storage but i do not mind that because i like hk dry storage. once it gets into the later steeps, it mostly just has that tea leaf taste without much else going on. the qi is nice but not super strong and it feels good on my stomach. it goes for a decent 10 brews which is good for this price and quality. it still has some bitterness to it so it has room to continue to improve. the ...

28 sivan 5781 i finally had some very good tea. this cake, the 2013 xiaguan love forever (commissioned for Taiwan, the same thing you might recognize from other xiaguan productions like FT 8653, etc etc. the FT means Fei Tai/For Taiwan) is well known and well written about in the western puer scene. my opinions on it do not offer any new insight or hot takes. wah wah. although it was pressed in 2013, it is made from aged maocha from 2003 (and rumor has it there may be some gushu in there... ooh ahh). i bought this from someone on reddit for $127, as mentioned in an earlier post , which is a very good price for this tea (it is listed on TWL for $147). this is a very good tea. it is very drinkable. i like it so much it is the only puer i have been drinking for the last few days. it has some good mouth cooling, good huigan, and great qi, the kind i really like where it feels heart centered, is calming, and helps me take good breaths. it also goes 12+ steeps which is pretty darn good. plus...

iyar 29 5781   i finally felt good about paying a chunk of money for puer. usually i feel constant economic and political dread when participating in capitalism; especially when buying something that comes from super far away). but this time, my purchase finally aligned with my values. i bought tea from a stranger on reddit (aka: mrmopar).   why does this make me so happy you ask? this is who i want to give my money to- someone who is doing this out of the joy of their heart. they are not running a business. they are not trying to meet certain margin goals. they are someone who enjoys helping fellow western puer fiends have access to good, hard to get puer, at a good price. it’s like that friend of yours who would sell you weed at the buddy rate because they were only dealing to cover their own cost of smoking.   from this person’s reddit posts i could tell i liked their style, i liked their taste preferences, and i also liked the content of what they would post. addition...

9 adar 5781   recently, ive been ‘curating’ some puer samples for my coworker/friend. it is the closest thing i have to drinking tea with people during these pandemic times. plus, it’s something i really enjoy doing. im being methodical in the order i am giving them to her and im even including some fun notes. the first note is basic stuff about how to steep it or how much caffeine it has so she can get a decent cup out of it and know what to expect. then on the inside is a more detailed note talking about the year, origin, harvest, qi, etc. things i want someone to experience without me giving anything away. then they can use my notes to compare and contrast how they felt.   on thursdays, i have another coworker/friend i share tea with. i’ll bring in a tea from home and steep it fake-gong-fu-at-work style (i use a strainer, a smallish coffee mug, and use a high leaf to water ratio and do quick steeps. its somewhere between gong fu and western brewing). i give myself the first...