yeah, i haven't seen any since...january i think. we still get cooked
tuo in export boxes, xiaguan cooked bricks, "jujube fragrant" papery
cooked bricks, lincang mengku cooked bricks, the menghai-region "7262"
(faked or stolen recipe number), and various supposedly aged bings
priced from $8-199, though these 'aged' ones all look and smell cooked
and have the same wrapper (same fonts, same proportions, etc.)
regardless of age. I should take a picture of them and post it here
sometime. Several grades of loose cooked pu'er are available, including
$200/lb that's also supposedly very old.

I have the 'aged' cooked bing that sells for $20-some-odd dollars, and
it exhibits some characteristics of aging (looser leaves, mellow, not
musty, nutty), so perhaps they're aged cooked bings, but I'm still
doubtful. I've had a mind to buy one just to sample it out to more
knowledgable people I've been bugging the owner about carrying
better quality sheng and he's not been very responsive, even though his
expanded pu'er selection is doing well.

Jim wrote:
> For years and years every Chinese supermarket in town stocked the green
> Xiaguan tuo boxes. I haven't seen any since last fall. Even the black
> Xiaguan French export tuo boxes are almost impossible to find. I can
> still find cooked Xiaguan brick and cake.
>
> Jim