pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

There are several peacocks out there. I’m not sure that I catch the reference. What do you know about the allusion, if anything?

Yang-chu it is this one from the Tea Urchin.
http://teaurchin.com/yiwu-peacock-blend-2013-spring.html.
The only downside is $20.00 shipping. I think one day some of us should “pool” together with a big order we could split stateside to save on the cost.

I had no idea that they sold their teas for so cheap. All of the ones that had caught my attention were definitely pricier.
I figured that there were already folk who had some kind of group where this precise thing was done, purchasing of cakes and then divvying it up, especially when it came to the pricier cakes.
Anyway, I’m down. There’s a company that really has my interest called Rainforest Tea Factory, Yu-lin Cha Fang. There’s also one called Heng Bang. The former sells their stuff for the hundreds of dollars and I doubt that I could find it for much cheaper even if I were in Yunnan to purchase it… which I’m not anyway.
Anyway, I’m way down. We assemble a group of folks who are down and set a list and proceed accordingly. If we each scored about 60g, we’d need a group of about 6 people. Obviously costs would vary.

@mrmopar – YES! The shipping hurt my feelings – so I would totally go in on an order. There is a LOT I want to try. It all sounds so good. I easily came up with about 8 samples I wanted to try and didn’t get through everything.

It really only makes sense that if folks are going to at least get TeaUrchin that we work together. $20 s/h for samples?!!

Oh no I would order a cake or two. We could probably order from one point and then ship from there. The Post Office has some pretty good flat rate boxes and stuff or you could pack a cake in bubble wrap in an envelope.

I think there’s at least one cake I want too

We would need a person with a paypal account and the ability to ship from the destination point in the US. One could buy it all and receive it and then bill each person for the product and shipping to each individual.

I’m down. I’m willing to serve as the point person, but we need at least six people to join in. It looks like we have three already. I’m open to whatever the crew decides. We’re already set on TeaUrchin. Maybe three or four cakes. We’ll save loads!

Yeah either way. I am in Virginia. i don’t know where everyone else is located though. I think the lower 48 would be the best in terms of shipping price. I think that outside of those parameters the cost would probably go up. I think that if the $20.00 shipping cost is involved I would be glad to put that as part of the acquisition without any trouble. If we had 3 others the initial shipping would be covered for the rest.

I’ll join in on a Tea Urchin order.

I’m in LA, as in California. We have four people now. Only two more and we’ll have enough for us to all have 60g, technically 59.5.
Since I work in Chinese medicine customizing herbal formulations, I already have a scale.

yay! This makes me happy. I’m in Texas.

I would be interested in ordering a few samples :)

Looks like we have five now. Only one more. Great. I’ll let you argue amongst yourselves as to which cake(s) you want purchased. I’m partial to Bu-lang, Jing-mai, and any of the Yi-Wu, the being many many variations within.

Alright now we need a distribution point and someone with a paypal account for ordering and being paid for the order.

We only have 5 people. Can’t we get one more person. If we do then everyone gets about 2 oz per 357 cake. It’s just simpler. What about Sammerz or Javan? I don’t mind being the distribution pt.

I want to but I am trying to cut down on pu spending. I haven’t placed an order in over a week… lets see how long this lasts lol. What are you guys ordering anyways?

I’ve been trying to ignore this thread, with limited success :}
If you need a 6th person, I’m in. I live in Florida.

Oh fabulous. We now have a 6th. I can place an order immediately. I think we’re in for three cakes, just to conserve on shipping, so how shall we tally the votes. Any strong opinions about any cakes? My only thought is that we stick with the Tea Urchin brand. I can source some of those other more cheaply.
I think MzPriss and mrmopar should go ahead and cast a vote. We’ll have an opportunity to do do this again anyway, so we can rotate.

Here’s our list of players.
TeaExplorer
MrMoPar
MzPriss
Stephanie
DigniTea
Yang-chu

Since I’ve not tried the Tea Urchin products, I’ll fully support whatever choices you make.

I’m of a similar mind as DigniTea. I am interested in trying the Tea Urchin branded pu’s, but do not have a strong preference as to which ones. I’d be willing to let mrmopar and MzPriss choose for this round.

I will be is for a cake of the Peacock blend.

Should I list what samples I want here or PM with Yang-chu about it? I wish I could afford a whole cake right now but even just samples will be great! :D

Stephanie — Unless I’m mistaken, the purpose of this pool, as put forth by Yang-chu, is to obtain “super-samples” by purchasing whole cakes and splitting them 6 ways, yielding around 60 grams of each cake to each participant.

One cake down. Two to go. List here or you can email: [email protected]

I want a “whole” 2013 spring Yiwu Peacock cake for my collection. The 2013 Bulang Beauty looks intresting, and the Mang fei 2011 spring may be another. I am definitely on a whole Yiwu Peacock and the other 2 if everyone reads over the site and cast a vote, they look affordable and are spring material which should have some punch to them.

Ok, well I’m good for going in on some cakes as long as I don’t go over $30 including shipping. Sorry guys I’m broke right now! I would very much like to try the Peacock. Beyond that I am open to trying whatever everyone else is getting, as long as it is a nice variety between sheng and shu :)

Is the idea of getting a whole cake this way about s/h? Why not save up to get several at a time? Which makes me wonder what their limit on shipping is at the price of 20.

Yeah that’s the idea for me but others can still order samples or full cakes if they want. I was thinking for everyone to save on getting what they want by being able to divide the shipping on the box we order. I will gladly pay half the $20.00 shipping fee to get that Yiwu Peacock blend. They sent a large box with what I ordered that could have been filled even more. I am sure if we get what we all want someone could contact them to make sure of the shipping before we order.

Ok, I’m trying to move this process along, so here’s my thoughts: Yi Bang 2012 and Mang Zhi 2011. Essentially, we’ll be dividing it by five, so there’s room for one more person now that I’m clear about what MrMopar’s designs. If someone feels strongly or if there’s someone who’d still like to jump in there’s still time. Curiously, no word from MzPriss these last few days.
Again, my email is [email protected]. Email me with your addy particulars for now. This way I’ll know you’re actually committed to playing along. The two cakes selected shouldn’t go over Stephanie’s limit of 30 give or take a few dollars.

Email sent! :)

Email sent.

Still waiting on DigniTea and MzPriss.

I’ll be on the waiting list so I can take someone’s place if they drop out.

Ok, we’re still waiting for MzPriss. Javan, since MrMopar only wants a whole cake, you’re welcome to jump in. That will still make our group six, in terms of divvying up the cake. Also, voice any opinions you might have about the selections I made, just to move matters along.

Your jumping in gives us the opportunity to consider yet another cake. We want to be in the $180 range.

I’m glad we can get to three samples. I’m okay with whatever samples are selected.

Great. Glad you’ve joined in Javan.
Since we’ve upped the price target to $180, I recommend the following three cakes:
Yi Bang 2012 (suggested by Yang-Chu)
Yiwu Peacock Blend 2013 (suggested by Mr. Mopar)
Mang Fei 2011 (suggested by Mr. Mopar)

The MangFei isn’t a TeaUrchin tea. ;-)

No the Mang Fei is from a different producer. They can be brutish and astringent in the early years but transform into great things with some age on them. The Yi Bang is also a different producer but as the vendor carries them both I would feel they have met some criteria with the vendor.
Javan nice to see you in as well.

this is the Yi Bang I see… Has their packaging. http://teaurchin.com/yi-bang-2012-spring.html

Got ya, I was looking at the 2011 they had in the store.

I had looked at and was referring to these two tea cakes.
Mang Fei 2011 Spring on the TeaUrchin website.
http://teaurchin.com/mang-fei-2011-spring.html
Yiwu Peacock Blend 2013 Spring
http://teaurchin.com/yiwu-peacock-blend-2013-spring.html

OK sorry y’all very behind on this – for some reason I wasn’t getting the “go look at the thread update on this”. I will go to the Tea Urchin site now and look and get back. ASAP. Can we also pick out some of the samples we want and have them added to the order or are we just breaking up cakes?

I’m good on the ones you have listed so far. And um, feeling like a doofus, but how do I look at a protected email so I can send one?

I’ve read the descriptions of the 3 proposed cakes and am OK with the choices:
Yi Bang 2012 (suggested by Yang-Chu)
Yiwu Peacock Blend (suggested by Mr. Mopar)
Mang Fei 2011 (suggested by Mr. Mopar)
MzPriss — What’s a “protected email”?

When I try to click on the link in the post to send Yang-chu my address, it says “protected email” and it throws up a window. So I am following Yang-chu now and can hopefully send my address through a message here

MzPriss — Huh, that’s odd. I just clicked on it and my email program opened with his address in the “To:” field. If you want you can follow me I will send it to you via direct message.

Not sure why my email is protected [email protected]
The Mang-fei is not a TeaUrchin product, that wrapper is not theirs.
Might I suggest this one…
http://teaurchin.com/mangzhi-2011-autumn.html

Everyone seems to want samples. That’s fine. When it’s all tallied, I’ll see what shipping comes to and we’ll take it from there.

Might be a good idea to switch this conversation to PM where things like this typically take place. I am now following each of you. MzPriss and Yang-chu, if you start following me and all others in this conversation I’ll start a separate thread for this group.

Ok here’s what it looks like.
Yi Bang 2012 Spring $97, Mang Zhi 2011 Autumn $44, Peacock blend $35. All three are varieties packaged under the Tea Urchin label. The total is $176, obviously. Several have requested samples and MrMopar wants his own cake and volunteered to pay $10 toward s/h to get it here. It’s easy enough to figure cost/oz. Plan to budget about $6 s/h on this end, except for MrMopar, which will be about $9. All things considered, you might just order the cake straightaway, as you’ll get next to no savings. I posted a lb cake yesterday to WA first class and the cost was $7 + $1 for the box. I stopped posting stuff flat-rate because it’s not a good deal.

1) Please be careful about posting your email address on the public forums, guys! I definitely agree with DigniTea that some of this should be in a PM, specifically the email addresses.

2) I cannot believe that I missed this thread!! :( I have been wanting to place a Tea Urchin order for a long time. I think I will wait until the summer after everyone has reviewed these wonderful teas and then spoil myself. :)

That sounds good to me, Yang-chu.

Thanks for the heads up about emails. Sorry you missed out, Tea Pet, I’m sure you’ll get lots of reviews. I’m pretty sure we’ll do this again.

Yeah you may want to ask Tea pet if she wants in. I think since i really only want the one and would save only $1.00 or so someone who would only want a partial/sample may be the best bet.

Javan jumped in already. ;-)

It’s completely fine, mrmopar! I’m very much looking forward to all the reviews! That will help me decide for the summer! :)

I’m interested in trying some of these Camphor types. Where did you source this?

This one came from Berylleb King Tea. They are fantastic sellers in my book and I think several Steepsters other than me will vouch for them. The cake is quite affordable. I bought one a few years back. These guys sell sample sizes on almost everything in their store. They normally ship out within a day and usually 2 weeks and you have it.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yunnan-Camphor-Tree-Flavor-Ripe-Pu-er-Tea-Cake-357g-/320799830793?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ab128f309.
The link will take you to this item. If you get anything from them just mention John sent you and they will take great care of you.

Gracias! I’ve seen their stuff.

You are quite welcome. Great sellers.

Yep, I’ll vouch for Berylleb King Tea as being a solid, reputable seller in my experience. In fact I’ve got an order in transit from them right now.

I purchase most of my teas based on the wrapper and region. Price is no object. hahahahaha. (I wish)

Don’t we all…..

I should say we only purchased a sample based on the wrapper, though!

Yeah, wrappers are a prized possession of mine.

I have tea-envy of you and mrmopar cause there are a bunch of the TU teas I want to try.

Sounds perfect.

Voila!

Did you notice that Tea Urchin just increased the price +12% on this one?

It’s not unusual for the prices go up on an annual basis, especially the good ones.

Thanks but I was really directing this comment to mrmopar since he wrote the tasting note and I was wondering if he still thought it was a good purchase with this price increase + high shipping. I own multiple newer Chen Shengs and I had wanted to pick up this one from Tea Urchin.

Yeah I think it is still priced pretty fairly for LBZ blend. it is a lively tea for sure. I saw the Peacock blend went up also. They have added some more inventory in the store as well. After spring most sellers do increase the pricing on the tea as it is now older and I think they try to compensate for their storage time and investment. Maybe I should keep things under the lid if we are going to get some things.

I agree this is a good one from Tuocha tea.