For Hobbes

I already have another blog where I cover more serious issues if you will. I figured it might be beneficial for me to have a place where I can write on things of a lesser magnitude. And what will I write about? My hobbies of course! You might see a little bit of everything in here. There will be posts about fishing, books, food, perhaps even video games.

However, I assure you, that this will mostly be a place where you will find my thoughts on those wonderful little leaves plucked from mountains in china and usually compressed into fun shapes. Puerh!

If you're a teahead, you can always skip the other topics. Same applies to you fishermen and what not. But, like I said, this is a blog that is mostly, well, for me.

And so now, you've made it past the worthless Drivel. Hobbes, this then is a post for you. For you other readers (if there be any of course), Hobbes is a fellow who I read often who happens to love the leaf (puerh) much more than I (or so it seems). At any rate, his posts have inspired me to start a little blog of my own.

I won't start with a review, but simply my story into the world of tea and eventually puerh. Years ago I did an internship at a church and met one of my now current dear friends, Mr. Matt Gallion. Matt had a peculiar interest that intrigued me. Every morning he would start his day off with some tea. But it was not just any tea. Matt had a variety of loose leaf greens, and I believe a few oolongs were mixed in there as well. This caught my attention. The only tea I was used to drinking was the kind grandma serves at the farm: iced, with a heaping of sugar. It's not a surprise that his hobby intrigued me. Prior to my entrance into the tea world, I was a lover of another kind of leaf: tobacco.

At any rate, I tried a couple of his teas that summer. None of them held my interest. A year had passed and I decided I wanted to give this tea thing another whirl. So, I went out to a herbal store that sold tea and they had something called puerh, a tea Mr. Gallion had told me about but had never tried himself. I picked up a couple of ounces and decided it was worthless junk that no one should ever bother to put in their mouth. Boy was I wrong...

My stop to the herbal store had left a bitter taste in my mouth. I walked away from tea for probably another years worth a time. Something though, was different when I gave tea a third try. I can't altogether remember why I decided to give tea another shot, but I'm pretty sure my current wife had a large part in the process. Unknowingly she pushed me toward tea. You see, my dear Mary Beth can't stand tobacco. I happen to love it. Mary Beth and I were due for marriage in about a 5 month period. I knew the ol baccy' needed to be kicked from my life out of love for her.

I figured there was much more to this tea thing than I ever could've guessed. I hopped online and starting reading about the teas that were out there. I stumbled across this nasty tasting puerh tea again. I'm surprised I read about it at all, but something caught my eye. I do believe mr. wikipedia told me that puerh tea could be aged. Now this was what I was after. I loved cigars, still do in fact. I love that they can be aged and get better with age. When I found out puerh was much the same, I had to read on. My studies began to show me that this tea not only could benefit with age, but also varied greatly from mountain to mountain. This tea was very similar to the cigar world it seemed. I was hooked without ever having tried any that I liked.

I knew that the sample I tried before was likely a fluke and I needed to give things another shot. So, I went out to several local tea stores in kansas city and picked up multiple puerh samples. All of them were much the same: fishy smelling, dark earthy, foul tasting liquid. Puerh tasted more like POO-AIR to me. So with those samples, I was off to the books again. My studies quickly brought me to teachat, where I asked some knowledgeable folks about this mysterious puerh. They quickly told me that my acquisitions were likely cheap 'shu' puerh.

Shu, yes, the tea I was drinking tasted like shoe. Little did I know there were two different processing methods to this glorious liquid. Shu- a process of fermentation used to make puerh accelerate in it's aging process. Sheng- Unprocessed puerh.

I knew what I had to do. I had to find myself some sheng puerh. And so my search began, but with little luck. I knew I could buy some online but was too scared for some reason. I wanted to hold some in my hand, smell it, examine it before I took the plunge. I gave mr. Gallion a call and told him about this new glorious find. Somehow, I talked the gentleman into buying a puerh starter kit from jas-etea.

Finally, I'd get to try shome sheng pu. It wasn't as glorious as I thought it would be. It was very bitter to me, and strange. After this tasting, I stuck with Oolongs until one fateful day. About 1 month before my honeymoon with Mary Beth, I found a blog called the half dipper. Hobbes was the author of this blog and his reviews intrigued me. The tea he was drinking sounded delicious. It looked delicious. Then, I saw a picture of his office with his sobering collection of puerh tea. If someone was that wild about the stuff, I knew some of it had to be good. I figured all the stuff I tried was simply bad tea. Mary Beth and I were planning to head to San Francisco and I heard they had a great china town, so I figured I could look for some puerh there. Hobbes, you have no idea what you did to me...

Fast forward to honeymoon! Woo, Mary Beth and I are married now and celebrating our marriage in San Francisco. What a wonderful city! It just so happens sanfran has a wonderful little china town. We spent two days in this hot spot, and a lot of my time was spent simply looking at tea related goodies. At this point, I was drinking oolongs daily and enjoying them very much. It was in san fran where I bought my first gawain and tasting cups. But more importantly, it was here that I bought my first puerh bing.

I stumbled across several 2004 menghai 7542. I had no idea what the numbers meant. I had heard the name menghai once or twice from my studies. It was an impulsive buy. I figured, why not? I'm on my honeymoon, you only live once. We bought it and made our way to our motel, which was torture. I had nothing to boil water with there, not even a microwave. I spent the rest of the trip smelling the intoxicating bing. For some reason I knew this was different from all the puerh I had tried. This smelled tasty. That had to be a step in the right direction.

Let me tell you, it was a step in the right direction. Nearly five months later and I'm a puerh junky. I even happened to find some shu I like. I have a total of 7 bings/bricks and my humble collection grows monthly. I have my wife, Mr. Gallion, and Mr. Hobbes to thank.

Thank you for reliving the journey with me. I hope you all enjoy your stay.
-PBR