On Tue, 9 Mar 2004 02:02:14 -0800, "Blues Lyne"
> cast caution to the wind and posted:

>Thanks for the advice on water temp. I'll give it a try. I'm not too
>concerned with where my tea comes from, for the most part. That was just an
>attempt at humor in light of some of the recent posts.8^) I enjoy going to
>the Asian shops and searching for tea, I just don't get much time to do it.
>I really have yet to find anything that made me say wow, certainly some
>drinkable teas though. By the same token, I'm sure I've barely made a dent
>in searching out the available shops. I enjoy the convenience of the net
>and like to be able to purchase small samples before committing to a larger
>quantity. I have a couple hundred grams of Sencha's that I don't like, but
>I feel weird about throwing out. I think for me hitting the shops has as
>much to do with the thrill of the chase as it does finding a good cup of
>tea.
>
>Blues

Since you have ready access to an Asian community by all means explore
it. You might find that making a translation sheet of paper with the
Chinese characters for your favorite teas might help. I have NEVER
been successfully simply "asking" for puerh, but I have had limited
success when I show them the Cantonese characters for several
varieties of puerh. Just search the web and you can find a lot of the
character translations. The tissue paper wrappers that the cakes come
in are also very helpful. Learn the characters for the different
seasons and different years as well as the characters for "shu"
(cooked or black) and for "sheng" (raw or green). I am working on an
extensive puerh specific translation table which I will post on my
website shortly.

Enjoy the journey, it never ends...



Mike Petro
http://www.pu-erh.net
remove the "filter" in my email address to reply