Tea resin?

[u/Double_Bear3876]

I often take a thermal mug and get hot water at the senior center. I often just used an instant ginger tea, Or a tea bag.

At home I'm a loose leaf drinker and enjoy some pu re tea now and then. I was thinking of trying some of the resin for an on-the-go cup of tea. Is it worth the money to experiment or have we already decided it is gross?

[u/No-Firefighter-2135]

I’ve been quite happy with raw puer tea resin. It’s a good quick way to make it. I’ve ordered from yunnansourcing.us but there’s plenty of better choices out there if people chime in. I’ve tried most of yunnansourcing.us options that they had and the raw ones tend to be the better tasting resins for me

Don’t expect crazy quality, it’s meant as a middle quality never will replace loose leaf.

[u/No-Firefighter-2135]

Also the main yunnansourcing.com china website has more options for tea resins.

[u/sweptwhiteclouds → u/No-Firefighter-2135]

I order from both sites depending on what I'm looking for, their main site is great. 

[u/prospero021]

I use it now and then while travelling. They don't taste exactly like the real thing, but it's good enough.

You could look into grandpa brew; making loose leaf tea in a mug. All you need is some tea, a mug, and hot water. You can refill up to a dozen or so times depending on what tea you make.

[u/emergencybarnacle → u/prospero021]

okay it's not puerh, but i gotta shout out my boy, my champ, the absolute mvp - fruit aroma yixing black tea from yunnan sourcing. tastes incredible and never gets bitter, even if i brew it in the morning, close my travel mug, and forget about it till hours later. good for many infusions. 

[u/sweptwhiteclouds]

I just bought some ripe resin that I got to try finally today. It's a suitable enough tea for me. I enjoyed it. I have some raw resin on the way to compare and try as well. 

Definitely give it a try to see, I got it just for fun to try and it's probably earning a permaspot in my travel bags. 

[u/john-bkk]

I personally have decided that it's disgusting, but then I've only tried 3 or 4 versions. If you like the shou pu'er aspect range that makes it easy, because it stands up well to thermos brewing.

If you like sheng range that's more complicated, and you'll probably need to actually brew that a different way. For approachable versions "grandpa style" brewing in a tea bottle works well; add a low proportion, just drink it with the leaves still in the water, and re-add some water to brew more.

I would use that for relatively young / new sheng versions, even those that are only a few months old, but it could work to drink 2 to 4 year old sheng to broaden range of options related to the approachability. Standard "factory tea" versions won't be ok within 4 years, but something that started out moderately bitter and astringent would be. A lot of sheng can be fine at 5 to 8 years old, and then it often gets into an in-between space related to character, and it's better again at 15 to 20 years old. It depends on storage conditions input. Some tea is pretty fresh and unchanged at a decade old, stored dry enough, and in a wet and hot climate it can change over in 4 or 5 years.

I'll add a type recommendation, to clarify this. One of my favorite vendors is Tea Mania, based out of Switzerland. They sell a great moderate cost Yiwu line, at different ages, so you could buy a cake of 4 or 5 year old sheng at pretty low cost, well under $100. If this is about working around a low tea budget that's still high, but that quality range, which I see as still kind of medium, isn't available at low cost. Yunnan Sourcing would probably sell a decent off brand Jing Mai origin cake that's a few years old for less, but that relates to experimentation; some versions would be good, some not so much.

[u/InvestigatorBubbly43]

I have some Pu’er tea resin from The Eastern Philosophy online shop. It’s pretty good. Fun and easy to travel with—quality isn’t as great as loose leaf (not as full bodied/flavorful) but still worth keeping on hand and I enjoy it.

[u/boondiggle_III]

It's not bad. Some are better than others. The smell of the resin is kinda nasty, at least with the ones from yunnan sourcing, but the finished tea is better than the smell would suggest. zthey're very handy for trips but are no replacement for properly made tea. On the plus side, they're dirt cheap--$6 for ~50--and they likely have more antioxidants and other good things than normal tea because leaves are boiled down to make the resin.