ashmanra

Ah it is already on my shopping list! Yay!

I know in the description of this it says that it isn’t a pu-erh which puzzles me, I was wondering if you or anyone knows exactly why it doesn’t qualify as a pu-erh haha. Nevertheless, sounds good.

KWinter: it is illegal to call a tea puerh that doesn’t come from Yunnan province. That is my understanding, just as in the US, Vidalia onions have to be grown in Vidalia County, Georgia. The same onion grown elsewhere is just a sweet onion! The same rule applies to champagne and many types of cheese.

Oh, I see. Thank you. :)

Gah! I want this too!

I know, Amy, I know! You NEED it! I am sure you can ’splain that! I bet Russel will send you a sample if you ask! :DDD

Yes, the 20 Chinese Famous Teas are a “protected” product in the same way that France, Italy, and now the EU in general, protects regional specialties when it is recognized that “terroir” plays a crucial element in a thing tasting like a thing.

This is done less in the USA, but there are some prominent examples. Vidalia onions are one, Hatch peppers are another. There are also informal examples (some of which ought to be formalized in my opinion) like Philly cheesesteaks (there is something about the local bread, probably due to local water, that makes these “not the same” anywhere else), New York pizza, Atlantic City salt water taffy, gumbo from the Gulf coast, and of course the myriad varieties of both pork and beef based barbecue techniques which produce radically different flavor profiles depending on whether you’re talking about Memphis, Carolina, St. Louis or Houston.

For those who have access to the HEB speciality Chain ‘Central Market’, there is an exclusive offering from Republic of Tea in the bulk dry goods area which is an aged green cake tea of excellent quality which sells for something like $50 a pound. Which is actually quite cheap compared to pu-erh. Even their loose shou pu-erh sells for twice that much.