Hi All,
I visited the newly opened Midtown International Market earlier today.
Already enchanted by the massive pieces of fried pork rind and other
delicious looking international culinary offerings, I was positively
delighted to find a small table with various pu-erh cakes, one
attractive green cake laying open on a plate.
I spoke with the couple (I'm presuming they were a couple) running this
modest operation. One of them is from Kunming. They seem fairly
knowledgeable about pu-erh, and the few cakes they had looked quite
good (based on my limited knowledge).
They expect to receive a delivery of a larger variety of teas within
the next couple of days. I'm tremendously excited to see how they do,
and what their full selection will look like. I'll keep ya'll posted as
I find out more.
Has anyone else found these guys yet?

Cheers,
Nico

Keep us posted. I'm speaking for myself. I'll be up that way at the
end of July. I'm not sure if the Chinese consumer knows anymore about
puer than we do so hopefully they find a demand. At least you can
touchy,smelly,tasty(maybe) and don't have to wait on China Post. That
last shipment was six weeks SAL. I need to get more in the pipeline.

Jim

PS I'm jealous. I wished someone in my Chinatown would do the same
thing.

Nico wrote:
> Hi All,
> I visited the newly opened Midtown International Market earlier today.
> Already enchanted by the massive pieces of fried pork rind and other
> delicious looking international culinary offerings, I was positively
> delighted to find a small table with various pu-erh cakes, one
> attractive green cake laying open on a plate.
> I spoke with the couple (I'm presuming they were a couple) running this
> modest operation. One of them is from Kunming. They seem fairly
> knowledgeable about pu-erh, and the few cakes they had looked quite
> good (based on my limited knowledge).
> They expect to receive a delivery of a larger variety of teas within
> the next couple of days. I'm tremendously excited to see how they do,
> and what their full selection will look like. I'll keep ya'll posted as
> I find out more.
> Has anyone else found these guys yet?
>
> Cheers,
> Nico

I'm going there again today to watch some World Cup, which they're
showing with a big projector.

The interesting thing is that the Market is not really in the
'Chinatown' (Minneapolis doesn't have a large Chinese population. The
closest we have in Nicolette Ave, where there are a lot of Vietnamese
run businesses, some of which sell some pu-erh, but the selection is
quite slim). These guys seem to be marketing more to the yuppy types
who are moving into the rapidly gentrifying Midtown, and who frequent
the Market. The market is part of a city led revation of the large
former Sears building, which stood largely empty for almost 30 years.
Anyway, will be interesting to see if people go for it. It'll certainly
be nice to really be able to inspect before I buy.

Nico

Space Cowboy wrote:
> Keep us posted. I'm speaking for myself. I'll be up that way at the
> end of July. I'm not sure if the Chinese consumer knows anymore about
> puer than we do so hopefully they find a demand. At least you can
> touchy,smelly,tasty(maybe) and don't have to wait on China Post. That
> last shipment was six weeks SAL. I need to get more in the pipeline.
>
> Jim
>
> PS I'm jealous. I wished someone in my Chinatown would do the same
> thing.
>
> Nico wrote:
> > Hi All,
> > I visited the newly opened Midtown International Market earlier today.
> > Already enchanted by the massive pieces of fried pork rind and other
> > delicious looking international culinary offerings, I was positively
> > delighted to find a small table with various pu-erh cakes, one
> > attractive green cake laying open on a plate.
> > I spoke with the couple (I'm presuming they were a couple) running this
> > modest operation. One of them is from Kunming. They seem fairly
> > knowledgeable about pu-erh, and the few cakes they had looked quite
> > good (based on my limited knowledge).
> > They expect to receive a delivery of a larger variety of teas within
> > the next couple of days. I'm tremendously excited to see how they do,
> > and what their full selection will look like. I'll keep ya'll posted as
> > I find out more.
> > Has anyone else found these guys yet?
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Nico