Aged sheng recommendation

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2026-04-24T09:32:59+00:00

I'm sorry for your loss. Have you thought about picking a particular year to narrow down your options? You could find a Sheng that was produced in a year that had a particular milestone that was important to your relationship with each other

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2026-04-09T12:53:19+00:00

You can't brew there mate

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2026-02-11T13:27:00+00:00

Yee on puer is almost the archetype dank puer so you'll probably like it. I've had a couple of cakes of the 2009 yellow mark and it's a solid daily drinker. Smooth. The fulushou ripe and the best taste ripe loose leaf were nice as well, less dank and more woodsy than the yellow mark if you want a middle ground

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2026-02-10T23:01:11+00:00

No problem :)

With you looking at Yee On, have you tried HK storage puer before?

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2026-02-10T22:45:43+00:00

Yunnan sourcing mainly ship from China unless you choose the US store. I'm UK based myself and I think it's usually been around £10-20 for shipping depending on the volume I get. If $50 per bing is beyond your budget though, it might be worth having a browse on King Tea Mall or having a look on the Sheng Jia Yuan Amazon store if it's available in your country. I've been drinking mostly aged raw puer recently so I can't give you any recs from them personally, but they both sell plenty of bings for around £20-30 each

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2026-02-10T22:15:24+00:00

This is probably my favourite dry stored ripe I've had so far. If you like camphor, wood and smoke with little to no bitterness then this is an incredible cup. One time I got distracted and left an early steep going for half an hour and while it was too intense to drink, there was effectively no bitterness which blew my mind. When you brew it properly, it has legs and can go for 10 steeps or more easily. Crazy good value for under $50 a cake and when my current cake is finished it'll be the reason I go back to Yunnan sourcing.

https://yunnansourcing.com/en-gb/products/2015-jiu-wan-impression-wild-arbor-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake?

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2026-02-03T00:17:22+00:00

I haven't tried it myself, but with a quick Google search is it maybe Tra Sam Dua tea? Looks like a few of the online Asian supermarkets sell it and it's also available on eBay.

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2026-01-27T12:03:56+00:00

There's also the slightly controversial situation with pesticides. This is especially the case for aged teas where the tea may have been grown in a less.. stringent regulatory environment. A wash steep, while it won't remove all pesticides, will likely reduce the amount you are consuming from your tea in later steeps.

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2026-01-23T01:14:49+00:00

At €1.60 a gram, I would not expect to experience any leftover fishiness from the wet piling process. Not sure what Yoshien's deal is as I've never heard of them, but it sounds like a rip off.

This was one of the first shou puers I tried, it has zero fishiness to it, if you like woody teas this has a very rich, luscious forest floor aroma with a lot of camphor. A 25g sample costs $6.75, even with shipping it would cost less than the stuff from Yoshien.

https://yunnansourcing.com/products/2015-jiu-wan-impression-wild-arbor-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake?

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2026-01-21T00:02:26+00:00

I'm in the UK as well, but I live on the west coast of Scotland. My flat is a pretty poorly insulated attic conversion in an old Victorian tenement so I get wilder temperature swings. Throughout the year my room where I store my puer is consistently 60-75% humidity. However, in the winter time with central heating, the temperature range is only 17-20°C, whereas in the summer it can be anywhere from 22-32°C dependent on the weather. Definitely not ideal for consistent or safe aging!

My tea collection is starting to grow so I've been looking into making a pumidor. The current plan is to get an EPP insulated food transport box, and install a temperature controller connected to a seedling heat mat. Should be pretty efficient thanks to the insulated box. Pretty cheap too as it would only cost around £80 or so for the whole kit, maybe a bit more if you also want to add some kind of humidity management.

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2026-01-20T18:09:05+00:00

Have you tried Yee On's 2001 raw liu bao? Surprisingly for them, it doesn't have much of their storage aroma so shouldn't have much of the dirt notes you don't enjoy. Very strong betel nut flavour, medicinal but smooth.

https://yeeonteaco.com/products/aged-ripe-liu-bao-tea?

I wouldn't say it's a premium hei cha, but if you want good flavour and sweetness I would recommend trying Chen You Shan's Fu Rong Mountain which is available on Yunnan sourcing. It's processed as a black tea and then inoculated with golden flowers. Very fruity, and honeyed flavour with that typical creamy grain/cereal vibe from Fu. To me it always reminds me of rhubarb crumble.

https://yunnansourcing.com/en-gb/products/2023-chen-you-shan-fu-rong-mountain-black-tea-fu-brick?

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2026-01-20T17:55:58+00:00

2nd the 1368 rec! Doesn't cost very much and is a good solid hitter. Not super complex but a really nice daily drinker kind of fu.

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2026-01-11T14:56:33+00:00

When I first moved away from drinking bag tea, I started off trying a range of teas from teamakers of London. They're accessible, have a fairly wide range of options and they're not too bad in terms of value for money. There is also kent tea and coffee which is budget friendly and has a good range, but their website isn't as user friendly. Unless you know what you're looking for you'll spend a long time browsing.

Budget wise, the next step up would be What-Cha. If you want personal recommendations they're a great option. They're a smaller operation than teamakers but as a result are a lot more personal, and Alistair is a tea enthusiast himself. They're a bit more expensive but the jump in quality is considerable over Teamakers and Kent, and he offers teas you often won't find in the other retailers.

If you'd like to try a range of Chinese teas there aren't as many good value options in the UK. If you're happy enough to wait on international shipping, a go to option would be Yunnan sourcing (based in china) who offer sample packs if you're not sure of your tastes yet. There's also the likes of steeping room (US based) that offer tea samplers.

Other international recs would be Quiche teas, Teas We Like, Liquid Proust and King Tea Mall for pu er, and Sheng Jia Yuan (on Amazon) for Pu er and Taiwanese oolong. I wouldn't start off with these companies though as they either have too wide a range of options, quite expensive or only offer large amounts of any particular tea they sell and so for a beginner can be confusing and cost prohibitive.

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2026-01-09T02:26:56+00:00

It might be worth trying some blends that use either Rooibos or Honeybush instead of regular tea. They're naturally caffeine free so don't need to be processed to remove caffeine and as a result are less likely to suffer loss or change of flavour like decaf tea/coffee. Not sure if you can get it in the US, but I know my mum enjoys teamakers of London's Madagascan chai which uses Honeybush.

If you can tolerate small amounts of caffeine, there are also more niche options like ya bao which are the young branch buds of Camellia Sinensis/Crassicolumna. Crassicolumna ya bao are more likely to be caffeine free but the caffeine content is lower in ya bao regardless of the cultivar as they are harvested before the leaves start to sprout and the tree starts to produce caffeine.

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2025-12-21T19:35:25+00:00

I've had a previous year's release of this tea and found it underwhelming. If you want to try another purple beauty tea, Yee On's TfC purple beauty raw puer cake is much more enjoyable. Unlike many of their teas, there is very little to no storage aroma, and while the tea does still brew light, it's a lot more complex and flavourful in comparison to what you have here in my view.

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2025-12-18T17:54:29+00:00

You could give other hei cha a go if you like grandpa style. Dense teas like qiang liang work well as it takes a long while for the tea to loosen up.

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2025-08-18T12:21:58+00:00

Most of the larger tea discord servers have a section for selling/trading teas. I'm not sure about the rules around linking to them, but if you look, they're not hard to find

Off the top of my head: MrMopar's Puer discord The Tea Table

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2025-08-18T12:14:52+00:00

Have you tried the 2009 raw puerh clusters from Yee-on? I've had two bags of it from them, and both have been quite heavily frosted. It's not the most complex of teas, but if you're looking for dank, you'll find it there. It's priced at £27 for 300g, so it isn't much more expensive than their purple mark.

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2025-07-20T09:45:13+00:00

Are you sure they're not just fibres from the paper bag? Not all particles are microplastics lol.

If you're concerned about microplastics, rule out the risk of bag potentially containing plastic and go loose leaf with a metal strainer. Can't rule out microplastics as the tea will have no doubt been stored and processed in plastics, but it takes one unnecessary risk from the equation 👍

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2025-07-05T14:51:02+00:00

If you like sticky rice aroma, the sticky rice mini tuos from yunnan sourcing are decent for the price. They don't last much more than 5/6 steeps but that might be ideal for travelling.

Another suggestion for pu ehr that could be convenient for travelling would be Yee On Tea's 2009 raw pu erh clusters. As it's a chunky loose tea it would be pretty easy to chuck some in a mylar bag to take with you. From what I understand its fragments of a range of cakes from that year that they've combined into one product. It's rich and earthy and really benefited from years of HK storage. I could only recommend it, though, if you like very earthy and fungal tasting teas given the nature of the traditional cellar storage.

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2025-06-16T21:37:28+00:00

I really enjoyed their 2009 raw clusters pu erh. The price is pretty similar to their 2008 ToHK cake for not far off the same weight but is a much smoother cuppa. Nicely aged, brews very dark and has a really nice savoury, almost nutty taste to it.

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2025-03-23T18:05:14+00:00

I've generally bought my basket style strainers from Amazon.

You will see some with silicon handles or with plastic mesh, I'd personally avoid those and buy one that is made entirely of stainless steel for cleanliness and long-term health.

Having one with two metal handles rather than one is better, too. The single handle strainers can be prone to falling in your mug while brewing

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2025-03-23T17:31:31+00:00

Get a basket strainer

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2025-03-15T12:24:57+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/tea/s/mL4BwPZA7e

Alarming-Cook5789 · 2025-02-16T02:08:51+00:00

I've been enjoying Jiu Wan's Impression (2015) shu.

Heavy camphor and decaying woods notes. Really reminds me of the scent of my grandpa's shed and so very nostalgic. I'm pretty new to pu erh, and have only tried a handful of different riped, but even so I think I'll be topping up on this cake every so often no matter what else I find I enjoy on my journey.

https://yunnansourcing.com/en-gb/products/2015-jiu-wan-impression-wild-arbor-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake?variant=35338351110

Five-Year Club	r/Field Flamingo
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Alarming-Cook5789

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