the most popular kind of "brick tea" (fang cha, tuo cha) is called
pu'er and it comes from the yunnan province in the south. it takes
some getting used to because it's taste can be rather dirty depending
on which type you try.

i have some excellent pu'er tea that I got from a friend of mine. the
older the tea gets, the more valuable and smooth the taste can become
depending on storage. I haven't broken into it yet; I am waiting for
a special occasion. My friend said it's from the early 1980s.
Vintage! heh.


Mydnight

--------------------
thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.

the most popular kind of "brick tea" (fang cha, tuo cha) is called
pu'er and it comes from the yunnan province in the south. it takes
some getting used to because it's taste can be rather dirty depending
on which type you try.

i have some excellent pu'er tea that I got from a friend of mine. the
older the tea gets, the more valuable and smooth the taste can become
depending on storage. I haven't broken into it yet; I am waiting for
a special occasion. My friend said it's from the early 1980s.
Vintage! heh.


Mydnight

--------------------
thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 02:34:39 GMT, Mydnight > cast
caution to the wind and posted:

>the most popular kind of "brick tea" (fang cha, tuo cha) is called
>pu'er and it comes from the yunnan province in the south. it takes
>some getting used to because it's taste can be rather dirty depending
>on which type you try.
>
>i have some excellent pu'er tea that I got from a friend of mine. the
>older the tea gets, the more valuable and smooth the taste can become
>depending on storage. I haven't broken into it yet; I am waiting for
>a special occasion. My friend said it's from the early 1980s.
>Vintage! heh.
>
>
>Mydnight

Hi Mydnight,

Our friend Sasha knows Puer fairly well. I suspect these bricks are
something else. I have seen powdered red tea compressed into elaborate
bricks, scored on the back as folklore has it that it used to be used
for money.

What kind of puer is it that you are squirreling away?




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

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 02:34:39 GMT, Mydnight > cast
caution to the wind and posted:

>the most popular kind of "brick tea" (fang cha, tuo cha) is called
>pu'er and it comes from the yunnan province in the south. it takes
>some getting used to because it's taste can be rather dirty depending
>on which type you try.
>
>i have some excellent pu'er tea that I got from a friend of mine. the
>older the tea gets, the more valuable and smooth the taste can become
>depending on storage. I haven't broken into it yet; I am waiting for
>a special occasion. My friend said it's from the early 1980s.
>Vintage! heh.
>
>
>Mydnight

Hi Mydnight,

Our friend Sasha knows Puer fairly well. I suspect these bricks are
something else. I have seen powdered red tea compressed into elaborate
bricks, scored on the back as folklore has it that it used to be used
for money.

What kind of puer is it that you are squirreling away?




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

>
>Hi Mydnight,
>
>Our friend Sasha knows Puer fairly well. I suspect these bricks are
>something else. I have seen powdered red tea compressed into elaborate
>bricks, scored on the back as folklore has it that it used to be used
>for money.
>
>What kind of puer is it that you are squirreling away?
>
heh. squirreling indeed! I have bought way too many different types
of tea for me to possibly be able to drink it all. My friends say I
need to open a shop or something.

I am not entirely sure of the specific names of the types of pu'er I
have. I know that I got 2 bricks of some fairly cheap grade 5
year-old shu-pu that actually has a smooth and pleasant taste, another
that is 8 years old, two bricks of sheng-pu that is 12 years old, and
one block of sheng-pu (tuo) that's from the early 1980's. The 5 year
old doesn't have any wrapper...ack, i'm just going to have to take
pictures for you guys to look at and help me identify.

What I'm most happy about is the old tuo cha that I have. There is no
pin-yin on the wrapper, but the center of the wrapper has a logo of
some mountains. I'll just have to take pictures.

What sort of pu'er stuff do you guys have?


Mydnight

--------------------
thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.

>
>What sort of pu'er stuff do you guys have?
>
>
>Mydnight

Look at http://www.pu-erh.net/stash.html

Where at in the south are you? Drop me an email so we can talk
offline. I am in the south too. My address is in my tagline.




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

>
>What sort of pu'er stuff do you guys have?
>
>
>Mydnight

Look at http://www.pu-erh.net/stash.html

Where at in the south are you? Drop me an email so we can talk
offline. I am in the south too. My address is in my tagline.




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

I have been browsing your website...and wow...

I bow down to your knowledge! How excellent the site is.


Mydnight

--------------------
thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.

I have been browsing your website...and wow...

I bow down to your knowledge! How excellent the site is.


Mydnight

--------------------
thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.

"Mike Petro" > wrote in message
...
> On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 02:34:39 GMT, Mydnight > cast

> Our friend Sasha knows Puer fairly well. I suspect these bricks are
> something else. I have seen powdered red tea compressed into elaborate
> bricks, scored on the back as folklore has it that it used to be used
> for money.

Mike -

The black brick may be what you call "powdered tea" although it is not
powder (1-2mm size particles)
The green one (and they use Qing (green) but not Liu (green) on the wrapper)
is something else altogether. Some sources say that Qing is ised for pressed
oolong. It is a fairly large leaf tea with a substantial quantity of stems.
The pressure they used must have been gargantuan, because this tea cuts as a
soft rock and leave a smooth cut by examining which one cannot see any
traces that would suggest that this was not a monolithic mass.The color is
brownish-green with the whitish-yellow round cuts of stems all over. If I
was gicen the photo of this as a geologist I would think this is some kind
of a volcanic rock.

Because of this evidence of extremely high pressure I suggest that the
juices from tealeaf must have been sqweezed at least somewhat and be exposed
to some anaerobic influence, but definitely not puerh style fermentation
because of the density of the material.

Sasha.

"Mike Petro" > wrote in message
...
> On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 02:34:39 GMT, Mydnight > cast

> Our friend Sasha knows Puer fairly well. I suspect these bricks are
> something else. I have seen powdered red tea compressed into elaborate
> bricks, scored on the back as folklore has it that it used to be used
> for money.

Mike -

The black brick may be what you call "powdered tea" although it is not
powder (1-2mm size particles)
The green one (and they use Qing (green) but not Liu (green) on the wrapper)
is something else altogether. Some sources say that Qing is ised for pressed
oolong. It is a fairly large leaf tea with a substantial quantity of stems.
The pressure they used must have been gargantuan, because this tea cuts as a
soft rock and leave a smooth cut by examining which one cannot see any
traces that would suggest that this was not a monolithic mass.The color is
brownish-green with the whitish-yellow round cuts of stems all over. If I
was gicen the photo of this as a geologist I would think this is some kind
of a volcanic rock.

Because of this evidence of extremely high pressure I suggest that the
juices from tealeaf must have been sqweezed at least somewhat and be exposed
to some anaerobic influence, but definitely not puerh style fermentation
because of the density of the material.

Sasha.

I have a Tibetan friend who has settled here. I go to his place sometimes
and talk about his place Tibet and his freedom movement and His Holiness
The Dalai Lama.

Yesterday was just refreshing. Topic of tea was ignited and I talked about
the Darjeeling Teas I received. They had relatives in Darjeeling and were
talking about them. They told me to taste a tea which I was not aware of.
They told me that their relatives had sent them tea from Darjeeling and
they prepared the tea in a pecular tibetan way. They took me to a room
full laid out with thangkas and carpets and there was a big long dried
bamboo with three golden rings on the top, middle and bottom. I was
suprised to know that that was the utensil or medium through which they
make what is called "Tibetan Butter Tea". I thought the butter thing was
just a name, but it was actually used. They put the ingredients which I
was unaware of and with a big log stick started to stir inside the bamboo.
To my great suprise, I was given a cup and found out the tea tasted salty
and not sweet with the flavour of butter lingering. It was butter bilk
tea. It really tasted good. They told me that the tea would get its best
results with Darjeelings. And I was proud that I had bought two kgs of the
same.

Hope you enjoyed the narration.

Teeman,
Tea for health, Tea for life.

Teeman, I was just watching a documentary where people were
drinking butter tea, and it looked really interesting. I'll
have to scout around for a recipe of some sort.

I don't suppose anyone has one offhand? I'm also planning on
making chai one of these days.

Ian
--
http://www.bookstacks.org/
http://www.sundry.ws/

Hi Ian, I am getting kinda hooked to this forum. Its really nice for a
newbie to get some wonderful experiences of tea. I too am not aware of the
ingredients used with the tea, but I think without the right instruments
as I saw in my friend's place, it is not possible to make the traditional
tea. I will ask my friend whether it can be made in some other method
also.

Great going tea and tea talk.

Teeman,
Tea for Health, Tea for Life

Yes, tibetan tea not only has to give a kick of caffeine, but a kick of fat
too, because the cold and the hard work requires serious caloric intake.
Hence the butter. I read a guy's blog about how he visited the monks in
Tibet and they drank the stuff like water.




"teeman" > wrote in message
lkaboutdrinks.com...
> I have a Tibetan friend who has settled here. I go to his place sometimes
> and talk about his place Tibet and his freedom movement and His Holiness
> The Dalai Lama.
>
> Yesterday was just refreshing. Topic of tea was ignited and I talked about
> the Darjeeling Teas I received. They had relatives in Darjeeling and were
> talking about them. They told me to taste a tea which I was not aware of.
> They told me that their relatives had sent them tea from Darjeeling and
> they prepared the tea in a pecular tibetan way. They took me to a room
> full laid out with thangkas and carpets and there was a big long dried
> bamboo with three golden rings on the top, middle and bottom. I was
> suprised to know that that was the utensil or medium through which they
> make what is called "Tibetan Butter Tea". I thought the butter thing was
> just a name, but it was actually used. They put the ingredients which I
> was unaware of and with a big log stick started to stir inside the bamboo.
> To my great suprise, I was given a cup and found out the tea tasted salty
> and not sweet with the flavour of butter lingering. It was butter bilk
> tea. It really tasted good. They told me that the tea would get its best
> results with Darjeelings. And I was proud that I had bought two kgs of the
> same.
>
> Hope you enjoyed the narration.
>
> Teeman,
> Tea for health, Tea for life.
>

Yes, tibetan tea not only has to give a kick of caffeine, but a kick of fat
too, because the cold and the hard work requires serious caloric intake.
Hence the butter. I read a guy's blog about how he visited the monks in
Tibet and they drank the stuff like water.




"teeman" > wrote in message
lkaboutdrinks.com...
> I have a Tibetan friend who has settled here. I go to his place sometimes
> and talk about his place Tibet and his freedom movement and His Holiness
> The Dalai Lama.
>
> Yesterday was just refreshing. Topic of tea was ignited and I talked about
> the Darjeeling Teas I received. They had relatives in Darjeeling and were
> talking about them. They told me to taste a tea which I was not aware of.
> They told me that their relatives had sent them tea from Darjeeling and
> they prepared the tea in a pecular tibetan way. They took me to a room
> full laid out with thangkas and carpets and there was a big long dried
> bamboo with three golden rings on the top, middle and bottom. I was
> suprised to know that that was the utensil or medium through which they
> make what is called "Tibetan Butter Tea". I thought the butter thing was
> just a name, but it was actually used. They put the ingredients which I
> was unaware of and with a big log stick started to stir inside the bamboo.
> To my great suprise, I was given a cup and found out the tea tasted salty
> and not sweet with the flavour of butter lingering. It was butter bilk
> tea. It really tasted good. They told me that the tea would get its best
> results with Darjeelings. And I was proud that I had bought two kgs of the
> same.
>
> Hope you enjoyed the narration.
>
> Teeman,
> Tea for health, Tea for life.
>

I thought there was a topic on this not too long ago on here Ian. Go to
Google groups and search this forum for Tibetan or for butter tea or some
such...or check on the web, search for "butter tea recipe" I know I found
one somewhere but have not tried it yet.

Melinda


"Ian Rastall" > wrote in message
...
> Teeman, I was just watching a documentary where people were drinking
> butter tea, and it looked really interesting. I'll have to scout around
> for a recipe of some sort.
>
> I don't suppose anyone has one offhand? I'm also planning on making chai
> one of these days.
>
> Ian
> --
> http://www.bookstacks.org/
> http://www.sundry.ws/

Melinda wrote:
> I thought there was a topic on this not too long ago on here Ian. Go to
> Google groups and search this forum for Tibetan or for butter tea or some
> such...or check on the web, search for "butter tea recipe" I know I found
> one somewhere but have not tried it yet.

Thanks, Melinda. I'll see what I can find.

Ian
--
http://www.bookstacks.org/
http://www.sundry.ws/