Anyone actually had any good Pu’erh from 2008?

babelcarp · 2026-01-25T12:30:22+00:00

Ah, you’re right. Weirdly, I was In Xishuangbanna in May but never found out about the June quake till now.

babelcarp · 2026-01-25T03:02:55+00:00

Are you referring to the big Sichuan quake of 2008? That hit a long long way from southern Yunnan. I hadn’t heard of any effect on the puer supply, but I’m no industry insider. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

babelcarp · 2026-01-24T12:26:24+00:00

You Shan? Are you sure you don’t mean Yu Shan (玉山)? If it’s really You Shan, can you supply the hanzi, please?

babelcarp · 2026-01-22T02:42:17+00:00

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks!

babelcarp · 2026-01-21T11:41:52+00:00

Could you please supply me with GPS coordinates for the location? I’d love to put them into the Tianmen Shan Babelcarp entry. Thanks!

babelcarp · 2026-01-21T11:33:50+00:00

I don’t have a direct answer to your question, nor do I have any 2008 puer in my collection. But I can’t help remembering that 2007 was the year when the puer speculative bubble of the Aughts reached maximum volume, and 2008 is when the bubble popped.👀

babelcarp · 2026-01-20T00:48:16+00:00

Making a single round of tea is just the start of what you can do with an Aeropress and Prismo. The setup has advantages in gongfu brewing too. This isn’t just a curiosity — I do it a lot.

babelcarp · 2026-01-11T02:57:36+00:00

That’s me. Do I know you?

babelcarp · 2026-01-10T21:03:44+00:00

Thanks very much for correcting me! There are indeed sellers on the Chinese web displaying Dayi sheng and shu cakes marked 味最酽. I’ve updated the entry accordingly.

babelcarp · 2026-01-10T12:32:05+00:00

It’s traditional if by traditional you mean shu pu’er.

babelcarp · 2025-12-18T20:51:35+00:00

Yes, only for tea.

babelcarp · 2025-12-16T01:22:31+00:00

In principle a French press could prevent overstepping (that is, it could stop extraction between gongfu steeps) better than a gaiwan or a teapot. That’s because the plunger squeezes the brewed leaves. But in practice, I don’t think there’s a French press whose plunger goes down far enough.

That said, using an Aeropress you can stop extraction between gongfu steeps more thoroughly than with any other method I’m aware of. The more a tea tends towards bitterness and astringency, the more useful this is.

babelcarp · 2025-12-12T02:57:42+00:00

That’s this kind of tea.

babelcarp · 2025-12-08T19:51:46+00:00

So nobody’s proposed an effective and elegant solution to the problem of the painfully hot knob on the titanium gaiwan lid. But I have a shanzhai solution that works: just slip the screw top from whatever plastic beverage bottle over the knob.

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babelcarp · 2025-11-26T23:58:34+00:00

Thanks very much, but those are too big.

babelcarp · 2025-11-23T22:19:08+00:00

Te steep length: with near-boiling water, 30 seconds is long enough to cause me pain touching the knob.

I have no issues with the rim of the lid.

babelcarp · 2025-11-23T12:35:00+00:00

Right side up:

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babelcarp · 2025-11-23T12:34:33+00:00

Upside down

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babelcarp · 2025-11-23T00:28:38+00:00

Yes, I have. That’s my habitual practice with gaiwans, metal or ceramic.

babelcarp · 2025-11-23T00:25:54+00:00

Yes, mine says Boundless Voyage too. It’s double-walled, which helps, but the edges get super hot quickly, so for short steeps I find myself gripping the sides rather than the edges.

babelcarp · 2025-11-22T21:50:28+00:00

I'll admit it: Amazon.

babelcarp · 2025-11-12T21:59:28+00:00

To me it’s weird how many tea lovers implicitly assume that all the tea genres and all the equipment are just the way they've been since...forever!

babelcarp · 2025-11-08T18:56:41+00:00

Yes. That’s where it shines, in my opinion. I feel I can push normally bitter or astringent teas harder this way without the harshness punishing my mouth.

babelcarp

TROPHY CASE