Treasure?
 

I finaly made it to my nearest chinese grocery store. It's fairly close, if
you have a car (I don't).
I found the tea aisle, and found lots and lots of boxes of bags. Lots of
FooJoy, lots of Dieters Tea, lots of Taiwanese Ginsing Oolong. No tu chas to
be had. I did, however, find a compressed disk.
It's about 7 inches across, more than likely cooked, loosely
compressed,about 50/50 whole/broken leaves, no year, it was wrapped in
celophane, and the lable says it's Bo Nay Tea from Hung Chong Tai Tea Co. It
was 8 bucks, and I bought it.
Now, will the smart people tell me what I've bought?
Thanks
Marlene

I forgot to mention, I've posted pictures on one of my blogs if you want to
see it. teaposur.blogspot.com
Thanks
Marlene

Marlene Wood wrote:
> I finaly made it to my nearest chinese grocery store. It's fairly close, if
> you have a car (I don't).
> I found the tea aisle, and found lots and lots of boxes of bags. Lots of
> FooJoy, lots of Dieters Tea, lots of Taiwanese Ginsing Oolong. No tu chas to
> be had. I did, however, find a compressed disk.
> It's about 7 inches across, more than likely cooked, loosely
> compressed,about 50/50 whole/broken leaves, no year, it was wrapped in
> celophane, and the lable says it's Bo Nay Tea from Hung Chong Tai Tea Co. It
> was 8 bucks, and I bought it.
> Now, will the smart people tell me what I've bought?
> Thanks
> Marlene

I know you asked for the "smart people" but I thought I would chime in
anyway.

"Bo Nay" is another term for Puerh, it is a term often used in Dim Sum
restaurants. I do not recognize the brand or the logo but it is vaguely
reminiscent of cakes I saw in some Hong Kong stores. Judging from the
photos your cake is definitely a Shu/Black/Cooked/Ripe Puerh.

Mike
http://www.pu-erh.net

See the previous thread "What pu character is this":

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...2983458576 18

Jim

Marlene Wood wrote:
> I finaly made it to my nearest chinese grocery store. It's fairly close, if
> you have a car (I don't).
> I found the tea aisle, and found lots and lots of boxes of bags. Lots of
> FooJoy, lots of Dieters Tea, lots of Taiwanese Ginsing Oolong. No tu chas to
> be had. I did, however, find a compressed disk.
> It's about 7 inches across, more than likely cooked, loosely
> compressed,about 50/50 whole/broken leaves, no year, it was wrapped in
> celophane, and the lable says it's Bo Nay Tea from Hung Chong Tai Tea Co. It
> was 8 bucks, and I bought it.
> Now, will the smart people tell me what I've bought?
> Thanks
> Marlene

ah ha! thanks jim (and mike)

"Space Cowboy" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> See the previous thread "What pu character is this":
>
> http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...2983458576 18
>
> Jim
>
> Marlene Wood wrote:
>> I finaly made it to my nearest chinese grocery store. It's fairly close,
>> if
>> you have a car (I don't).
>> I found the tea aisle, and found lots and lots of boxes of bags. Lots of
>> FooJoy, lots of Dieters Tea, lots of Taiwanese Ginsing Oolong. No tu chas
>> to
>> be had. I did, however, find a compressed disk.
>> It's about 7 inches across, more than likely cooked, loosely
>> compressed,about 50/50 whole/broken leaves, no year, it was wrapped in
>> celophane, and the lable says it's Bo Nay Tea from Hung Chong Tai Tea Co.
>> It
>> was 8 bucks, and I bought it.
>> Now, will the smart people tell me what I've bought?
>> Thanks
>> Marlene
>

Let us know how it tastes, will you Marlene?

Ok here goes:
brewed in a gai wan.
Smell: well, the room I keep my tea in smelled kinda like socks, and the dry
leaf its self is musty.
#1 Pu like, earthy/loamy and a little something else. The sock thing
perhaps? smooth.
#2 about the same
#3 getting an itchy thing in the back of my soft palette, kind of like when
you eat cheap chocolate
#4 Liqour lightening, pink-y, brew longer?
Re boil water
#5 brewed 2x time. back to #1, less sock this time
#6 brewed 5min or so, liqour still dark pink/brown still earthy, losing
flavor.
didn't continue after this. starting to slosh inside.



"Mike Fulton" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Let us know how it tastes, will you Marlene?
>

I forgot to mention my other find in the excitement of the pu.
I got a 'Gift Pack of the World's Finest Quality Tea". It had 6 small tins
printed in black and red over brass. It had tie guan yin, jasmine, yunnan,
orchid, and sow mee.
The yunnan tasted pu like actually, and the jasmine is hardly jasmine
scented. The tie guan yin is not tightly rolled, and I gave the oolong to a
woman on the bus who seemed interested in my purchaces. She seemed to like
it. the sow mee (which i've never heard of before, any info?) has large leaf
bits, and the orchid has quite a bit of stems.
I'm excited to try them all, but they all smell about the same.
Can't wait to give them a go. Tomorrow though, after I've gotten over all
this pu i've drunk.

My very first purchase of Chinese tea was a six pack of TenRen tins
from their store in SF Chinatown in 73. Basically I couldn't afford
anything else they had to sell. I was thrilled because the tins had
the English and Chinese. Anything I know about Chinese I learn from
tea. Image my surprise when the Chinese character we call black means
red. I also bought one other box of tea called Sow Mee from another
shop because the sampler had one called Shou Mei but the characters
were the same. You call it potato I call it a spud. I still have tea
from both. I didn't investigate Chinese teas very much during the next
ten years till I moved to my current metro area and found it had its
own Chinatown. Sow Mee which means Longevity Eyebrow (or OldMan but
mine aren't gray yet) is the all leaf version of Chinese White Tea.
You move up in grade and price to BaiMudan(White Peony) which is leaf
and bud and BaiHao Yinzhen(White hair silver needles) which is all bud.
I only developed a real appreciation for SowMee in the last year or so
because I discovered it tasted like BaiMudan and much much much
cheaper. White tea is dried in the sun and not processed any further.
I also bought my first teapot at the same time. I still have it and
others which have never been out of the box. They're unglazed and
predate the lead scare followed by glazing in the eighties.

Jim

Marlene Wood wrote:
> I forgot to mention my other find in the excitement of the pu.
> I got a 'Gift Pack of the World's Finest Quality Tea". It had 6 small tins
> printed in black and red over brass. It had tie guan yin, jasmine, yunnan,
> orchid, and sow mee.
> The yunnan tasted pu like actually, and the jasmine is hardly jasmine
> scented. The tie guan yin is not tightly rolled, and I gave the oolong to a
> woman on the bus who seemed interested in my purchaces. She seemed to like
> it. the sow mee (which i've never heard of before, any info?) has large leaf
> bits, and the orchid has quite a bit of stems.
> I'm excited to try them all, but they all smell about the same.
> Can't wait to give them a go. Tomorrow though, after I've gotten over all
> this pu i've drunk.

"Marlene Wood" > writes:

> I forgot to mention my other find in the excitement of the pu.
> I got a 'Gift Pack of the World's Finest Quality Tea". It had 6 small tins
> printed in black and red over brass. It had tie guan yin, jasmine, yunnan,
> orchid, and sow mee.
> The yunnan tasted pu like actually, and the jasmine is hardly jasmine
> scented. The tie guan yin is not tightly rolled, and I gave the oolong to a
> woman on the bus who seemed interested in my purchaces. She seemed to like
> it. the sow mee (which i've never heard of before, any info?)

Also known as Shou Mei. It's a fairly low grade of white tea made
from rather big leaves after the smaller leaves and buds are culled
for higher grades.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

"Bo Nay", or rather "Po Lay", is Pu-er in Cantonese dialect.

Katie Tam

"Mike Petro" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> "Bo Nay" is another term for Puerh, it is a term often used in Dim Sum
> restaurants. I do not recognize the brand or the logo but it is vaguely
> reminiscent of cakes I saw in some Hong Kong stores. Judging from the
> photos your cake is definitely a Shu/Black/Cooked/Ripe Puerh.
>
> Mike
> http://www.pu-erh.net
>

[Danny]
I'm not smart either, so here's my 2-cent worth. Remember though, that it
is the tea that counts, not the label or wrapper.

The name "Hung Chong Tai" is the cantonese romanization of the chinese
characters. I'll use the pinyin name "Hong Chang Tai" instead.

Hong Chang Tai started as in Yunnan as a tea company called "Hong Chang Tea
Co.," During the turbulent years in the 1950-60s, the company moved its
operation to Thailand border and renamed as Hong Chang Tai.

According to my info at hand, Hong Chang Tai ceased operation between
1983-1984. In the 1990s a new factory was opened in Vietnam border which
also named itself Hong Chang Tai - it is not known if the new factory is
related to the previous Hong Chang Tai. But it is possible that most of the
Hong Chang Tai teas we find in the market nowadays are from this facotry.
The wrapper however, is different from the one you posted.

And that's where the controversy comes in.

When the founder of Hong Chang Tai passed on in 2003, his son took over the
business; it is around that period that the Sail Brand Logo Hong Chang Tai
appeared in the market. However, most friends that I know who tried this
cake believed that it is not from the Thailand or the Vietnam borders, but
pu'er compressed in Gunagzhou and sold under the new Hong Chang Tai label.
Looking at the pictures you posted, I suspect this to be so.

One question Marlene - when you tried this tea, do you detect a faint salty
taste at the base of the tongue? If you do, it's possibly a Guangzhou
pressed pu'er. The ones from Thailand has a aromatic "bitters" taste at the
back of the throat which I favour, and they are generally 20-30 years old.

I've not tried this tea under this new label, so I can't comment further. I
would suggest you leave the cake out in the open for a couple of weeks in an
airy place, and then try it again.

The scratchy, prickly feeling at the back of the throat is as what Mydnight
has mentioned, new tea that has undergone heavy wet storage. Hopefully over
the years and allowing to breathe will improve it.




"Marlene Wood" > wrote in message
...
>I finaly made it to my nearest chinese grocery store. It's fairly close, if
>you have a car (I don't).
> I found the tea aisle, and found lots and lots of boxes of bags. Lots of
> FooJoy, lots of Dieters Tea, lots of Taiwanese Ginsing Oolong. No tu chas
> to be had. I did, however, find a compressed disk.
> It's about 7 inches across, more than likely cooked, loosely
> compressed,about 50/50 whole/broken leaves, no year, it was wrapped in
> celophane, and the lable says it's Bo Nay Tea from Hung Chong Tai Tea Co.
> It was 8 bucks, and I bought it.
> Now, will the smart people tell me what I've bought?
> Thanks
> Marlene
>

Hmm, no salty taste. At least not one that was pronounced.
> One question Marlene - when you tried this tea, do you detect a faint
> salty taste at the base of the tongue? If you do, it's possibly a
> Guangzhou pressed pu'er. The ones from Thailand has a aromatic "bitters"
> taste at the back of the throat which I favour, and they are generally
> 20-30 years old.