Naka Exploration via Andrew, Chen Sheng Hao
From what I hear, King Tea is a safe source since many of our esteemed members buy from them. Not sure about storage, but the fact Scott’s cakes have had a few years of Guangdong storage, and the fact his price is lower than the Taobao price, means I will pick up some of the 2013s when there’s a sale on as I have the perfect environment for dry storing that tea to perfection by just stacking it up in my tea storage room.
I have 300 or so cakes and I’m constantly adding more for the long haul since I’m in the business now. That’s small potatoes compared to YS or any of the major dealers here in HK, but it’s more pu erh than I’ve ever had on hand for sure! Just received another 30-40 cakes from Kunming!
This opportunity will allow you to find your favorite (if Naka turns out to be your thing) for later purchase. You can then buy your favorite year for storage for the long haul. I’m curious about this cake and may ask Chen Sheng Hao for samples (they can send them to my agent for very little and I can have them transported across the border very cheaply and easily now)! Even Chenshenghao’s official TMall store doesn’t appear to have all of the years that LP is offering, so he’s doing all of the grunt work for you in sourcing these samples, breaking them up and reshipping!
I really think that these tasting will help me determine if they can develop into the amazing type of Naka I’ve gotten trough White2Tea. I’ve had Jalam’s and puerh.sk’s Naka as well and enjoyed both.
In the case of these cakes, $90 to $115 per cake isn’t too much as of right now if they are going to climb to $400 within the next 10 years. Just look at the prices of CSH older stuff now, it’s crazy.
If you have the opportunity to sample some of them, go for it! See if you can get those 100g LaoBanZhang cakes for cheaper than $145 :)
Just checked, and the 2016 LBZ is going for $174 for 125g direct from CSH. Not cheap! Another vendor is offering the 2015 LBZ 357g at much less, but that makes my Spidey Sense tingle. No thanks!
Also China is about to shut down for Chinese New Year…I’m going to hold off on any purchases till after CNY as there should be good sales after and I don’t want my packages stuck at my cargo forwarding agent’s office across the border! I have to pay a daily fee if they’re in storage there.
It’s not, but I heard it was a good session; not sure if it would be worth it…
I have also seen LBZ ripe from them… makes me curious what that would be like.
What’s fascinating to me is that the oldest cake offered (the 2013) is the least expensive one. I wonder why that is?
I would suspect that it would be determined on the produce amount of the area, demand for that produce, and the quality that the year produced. However, we are talking about CSH which is a huge brand. I’m not 100% sure that each cake is entirely Naka, but that’s not why I’m doing this. I’m curious as to which one (if any) will give me that feel and taste that I’ve enjoyed with all the other Naka I’ve had. Right now, 80 to 100 grams for $30 shipped is something I couldn’t pass up if someone else posted it so it’s why I am doing it while the prices are low enough to invest in a cake,2,3,4,5,6…. for later.
That all makes sense. I’m really looking forward to seeing if I like the others as much as the 2013, and it’ll inform which one I end up buying a few more cakes of.
I think the demand for good quality and known sourcing will keep pushing the new stuff up. It is costing more for raw materials so it is getting passed down. If another bubble bursts and all the pricing drops back I nay borrow 10 large and just buy some stuff and hang on to it.
Is there somewhere I can read about it? Curious if there are indications or anything.
Nothing indicating it as of yet. It did crash hard in 2008 when the demand dropped due to increased production. That is why the quality has suffered for a while. The larger companies are blending in older leaf now. My guess is production has exceeded the demand for the factory stuff again.
I have a tong of one of CHen Sheng Hao’s ripe productions and can say they make good tea. I am interested in this one too if there is space left.
I would love to participate if there is still space. I don’t have a lot of reference with Naka terroir but i would be really interested non the less and would love to share my tasting notes.
Does anyone want these to be labelled as red square, blue circle, green triangle, and orange hexagon? Of course I would put a reference sheet in with each package and post here, but the thought came to me.
Also, John said that somehow this all got processed prior to CNY so knowing me… March is going to be when everything is good to go which leads to that question:
When and how do I pay?
Payment will be asked prior to shipping. I have the ability to take Paypal and Facebook payments currently. Those in the US/Canada will pay $30 flat and I will work with those outside of NA.
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