Most puer doesn't come with a date provenance. You have to take
somebody's word for it. The ticking of the clock adds more to the
value than aging of the taste. You notice most discussion in this
group starts with how old is the puer followed by how great it taste or
the corollary it can't taste good because its not old. My puer
economic advice to investors buy the cheapest recent crops and sell
them in the future for more money to those who think time is more
important than taste. Mine will probably go up the crematorium shute
with me if it doesn't cost my estate extra but I leave that decision to
the court appointed Executor.

Jim

PS This post wasn't directed at MarshalN who is entirely correct that
it is more about taste than dates but I think learned something about
Xiaguan tuo dating from the Danny and Jing posts who I thank again. I
just wished I had some tuo with the jiushi niandai stamped on it.

MarshalN wrote:
> Space Cowboy wrote:
> > Thanks Danny for the additional clarification on the Xiaguan use of
> > dates on their tuos. Just as I thought I should throw my Millennia
> > tuocha away because it exceeds the 36 ge yue according to the health
> > department, supposedly. I will say I was shocked at the almost purple
> > patina when I opened one up the past couple of days. It wasn't the way
> > I remembered when I first bought some early this decade. I scraped the
> > one for a taste test and it was the way I remembered. I have other
> > sheng I like better but this is the oldest chronologically.
> >
> Rather than worry about the tea's supposed age.... how does it taste?
> How does it look?
>
> You're not reselling your tea, so whether it is actually 15 years old
> or not.... doesn't really matter, does it? So long as it tastes good