Pu-erh cakes suggestion
So my friend and I have fallen in love with pu-erh, but it's been at tea shops that aren't exactly using quality pu-erh. We've also had to make do with poor quality tea bags. We were at a Chinese tea ceremony/tasting years ago and had good quality pu-erh, so we know we love the stuff. However, getting back to that original shop is extremely
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Tuochatea.com is very hit and miss: a LOT of duds with a few gems here and there. Tuochatea also charges heavy shipping costs (they never adjusted for cheaper international shipping rates that came about in the past year). My typical order from them was about $150 worth of tea and $120 in shipping. Even so, their prices were low enough to make it a bargain. I've stopped ordering from them only because I found Yunnansourcing instead.
Yunnansourcing has many advantages: a MUCH bigger selection, including some of their own custom-made cakes, a higher quality across the board (even on the cheaper pu-erhs), nice teaware, samples, and cheaper shipping (express international is about half of tuochateas cheapest option). Plus the owner Scott Wilson is an English speaker who promptly replies to any questions or requests!
It's hard to find good aged pu-erh online, as another posted mentioned. Plus with the cost of aged pu-erh I'd never buy it unless I had a chance to taste it first. But if you want younger raw (sheng) or ripened (shu) pu-erh Yunnansourcing is a very good bet. Some recommendations:
A custom cake of hand-braided wild tea tree leaves. Smooth, sweet, smokey, mild, and never astringent despite being raw!
http://www.yunnansourcing.com/store/product.php?id_product=714
A whole tong a 7 mini-cakes (100g each) for only $26! Ripened and first-grade gongting leaves, with a smooth and sweet taste that lasts, unusual in such a young cooked pu-erh/
http://www.yunnansourcing.com/store/product.php?id_product=991
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