As I was sorting through old files today, I ran into this
For a few years Hou De was the suppler of choice for a lot of people in North America and Europe as well. He sold a lot of tea from Taiwanese puerh producers. In the last few years his sales of puerh has really slowed, and he hasn’t brought over much from that side anymore. I think he continues to do some business in yixing and Taiwanese oolongs.
I can’t seem to find any of my notes for the 2005 sample. I do have my notes for the 2004 version. I was in Beijing at the time, and I don’t think I really knew what I was doing. I did, however, like the tea. The 2005, if I remember correctly, was not nearly as good as a tea. I think back then each cake was selling for $70-80 USD a cake, which at that time was really high, but in retrospect, it’s not that bad.
I’ve been trying to go through some old samples, some of which are from Hou De that I have kept in little glass jars. Some were labeled, others not. There was one, the 1999 Yiwu Zhengshan from Dayi (not Green Big Tree), that really tasted good. Now if I could only find the thing without costing an arm and a leg…
7 responses so far ↓
Tomas // June 23, 2013 at 12:07 am |
Actually, from my 2007 order from HouDe
1 x 2004 Yan-Ching Hao “Special Reserve Cha Wang”, 500g $90.00
MarshalN // June 23, 2013 at 12:12 am |
Close enough 🙂
razvan // June 23, 2013 at 6:26 am |
🙂 If you cand find it, please tell us !:D
TwoDog // June 23, 2013 at 8:27 am |
I really hope I don’t have to look back on the present day and think “Gosh, Dayi tea was cheap back then!”
psychanaut // June 23, 2013 at 9:22 pm |
Might as well switch to ginger beer in that case.
Hobbes // June 24, 2013 at 10:14 am |
What a nice idea – I have a bag of retro samples, too, and you have motivated me to dig into them!
There were some very solid little cakes for prices that now seem all-too-reasonable… it is amusing how our (well, my) standards have changed, and how the market has gradually moved my idea of what is a “fair” price at which pu’ercha should be sold…
Toodlepip,
Hobbes
Libaga // June 29, 2013 at 12:47 am |
Hi, I was reading your old tea blog in http://marshaln.xanga.com/739300202/absolute-and-relative-quality/ I was so fond of your blogging that I decided come here checking your new blog. Guess it’s some sort of echoes from the past. I am starting to blogging about tea myself. If you have time, please drop by
Best Regards,
Lawrence