Liquid Proust

2015 Taichi Chawang from Baifuzangcang is one of the must try puerh in the shop right now. Not necessarily buy, but at least try; this isn't one of those teas that everyone will want to drink more than a few times. I know I described it like having skittles left in a package on a warm summer day and I still stand by that in many ways. There's not doubt that the mouth play with this tea is unreal. It's almost like you get the waxy/oily feel from things like taffy around your teeth yet the tongue and cheek think it's necco waffer from how it's dry rub spots create sweet pockets.
In the end, everyone's experience with this will vary widely- but what I think will remain rather true for all is that this tea is POWERFUL. It's hard to imagine anyone can drink this and not feel the qi. This will direct the flow of the rest of your day if you want it to or not; it'll take the wheel either way.

It is a big 500g cake that for $300 is insane value which is what $215/357g or $120/200g. Find cakes at those price ranges that nearly melt your brain and heat your body up like you have something you need to escape your chest. In the way they call w**d 'hallucinogen' this tea is borderline there too. Stronger than most, but with it's flaws. For example, it almost taste like I ate a whole thing of froot loops- bag, box, and cereal all while with the munchies.

At the end of the day, like I said, this is a must try. I suspect 500g is too large of a commitment so how about you all take a try and get back to me if I should do some 100g packs so you can all differentiant 'tea drunk' from 'tea high'.

and take this all with a grain of salt, my experience won't be yours.
Steep responsibly.
https://liquidproust.etsy.com/listing/1783632799/2015-taichi-chawang-baifuzangcang-raw

It was called '1500 year old trees' and that statement is probably about as true as when my mom tells me I'm the best boy in the world 😅

Friday night... drinking my most expensive cake 🤣🤣🤣
2007 Yangjiazhai, Yang's Hamlet Arbor Aged Tree Tea

I put a challenge in front of myself to make a 'candy shop' stop for puerh. My focus and time has been on the Puerh Experiences section on the store. A few days ago it sat at 73 options. Not a single bad choice.
2012 King's Style from XiZiHao and 200t Mahei from Keyixing are next to sellout.
In the sample sets there's one more Mengku Arbor King set and four of the 2006 Five Wonders set from XiZiHao.
Not saying go buy these puerh, but it's nice to know that if those are gone there's over 80+ options of just puerh in the shop now.
This took years of work and opportunity cost in my life to cashflow this instead of other things.
All of this to say two things:
1. Thank you all very much for the continued support, sharing, and assisting in this growth
2. Once you all see these next few months roll out into 2025 you'll be as shocked as you might have been with all that XiZiHao activity going on earlier this year.
If I keep the credit cards paid, you all will have choice paralysis like you've never had before.
And thats a great thing BECAUSE there's always going to be what's next.
There's rarely one puerh that comes along that does have something in the same vein or quality for the price ranges we are all in :)
Always more puer- and its not always new, in fact sometimes its old 🫠

New puerhs listed which brings the puerh experience section to 74 and 20 in samples so that 100 mark is not going to be hard at all to hit. September, it'll happen. Not that the number is important, but you put a challenge in front of me and I'm going to attack it.
There's some heat in the shop. If you have a need for good tea worth talking about- I got you.
https://liquidproust.etsy.com/

Thanks for being supportive of giving me more time!
Working on some goodies!
:)

Lots of puerh activity.

Sharing what might be my favorite nefei.
Stamping the back has always been something that can signify more to a production and validity. What's unique about these was hand written bottom right. I suspect it's a signature, but from the cakes I have I can tell it was indeed not printed but done by hand. For how small these are and how many they would have to do that with... it's a peice of history and art for me to hold onto.

Any objections if I finally list Fukien tomorrow?

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes.
Last drop I was serious when I said a loan was taken out to drop all those puerhs to support the next 6 months. Not planned a little after I did the 2002 camphor deal and well... I ended up seeing enough business come through to pay that loan off or do it again so guess what I did?
I did what was needed to hit my new goal: best the best puerh sample vendor for the west.
It's a large goal to achieve, but with you all I'm getting there even though many of you say I already am.
Once everything ships out and I feel comfortable with work balance I will drop the Fukien oolongs. If you're in Columbus you can always just swing by and grab some before they drop in the shop 😅

extending the 2002 Feitai Baoshan raw puerh cake deal for just today- this was a crazy instagram promotion that had me giving away a lot of freebies for my birthday and it went well enough to keep it going because I love giving :)
This is very camphor'ish so if that's not your thing skip this.

2002 Wild Baoshan, 'wild Camphor' Feitai Tea Raw Puerh 357g - Etsy This Tea item by LiquidProust has 5 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from Columbus, OH. Listed on Aug 12, 2024

2004 Biyun Hao Manzhuan and 2000 Yongnian Manzhuan.
Just throwing thoughts here because it was a 4 hour session :)
I expected this to go very straight forward. It actually surprised me in a way... I don't want to really remark on but I will
If you drank the 04 alone, you'd probably have no complaints and enjoy it emmensley... but the 00 in the cup points what I think is objective remarks of the 04 that can drop its rating. It's actually crazy.
The 04 has a tail of acidity, brine, brightness, and sour that I swear you'd never pick up alone.
Unless you get the powerful taste from the 00
The thickness of the 00 versus the 04 is very noticeable. Very much.
It's just wild that a solid 8.5-9.2/10 tea like the 2004 byh manzhuan needs things higher than it to notice it.
For myself that is.
That's why the laobanzhang vs dingji laobanzhang is such a treat to experience too.
Makes me wonder what other area I need to experience some more natrual storage conditions to really get the power of the region.
I'm thinking things like MengSong, Mengla, Kunlu, Mangzhi, etc.
What if I've been enjoying things pushed a bit to be enjoyable and rounded today but without the other side I don't notice the imperfections because they're so good by themselves
Really curious how this dry stored 90s yibang will be. I might skip dingji tonight for it.

I turned 35 today so I decided rather than dropping new tea which causes a bit of work, I'll just do a 35% off (most I've ever done) on select teas for the next three days only!
2002 Wild Baoshan cake which is very camphor forward from Feitai no down to $61.75
I also put the 2009 Roasted Tieguanyin on the list so there's some diversity.
Now the last two are my gift to you all. I think I'm losing money on these but I don't care enough to check, I just want them to be enjoyed:
1992 Shatter the infamous Xiaguan broken up and stored in crates somewhere in Hong Kong for an unknown amount of years before going to Taiwan. Literally top tier tea for what it is.
And
Trust #7 which is a 1989 ripe puerh I bought to drink on my birthdays as it's my birth year.
That's it. Off to enjoying this Manzhuan.
Apologies on the wait for the Fukien and probably not putting what you want on sale, but... I'm trying to commit to what I can do within a reasonable amount of time as I do work 45 ish hours a week with my full time job prior to doing Liquid Proust stuff in the evening.
If at least 10 of the 2002 cakes sell by Saturday I'll be posting giveaways because while I have no need to move for cashflow reasons or anything else, if I have the ability to free up space by selling through inventory I'll be doing some absurd giveaways because it'll just put me in a better mood.
Thats not to say go buy one, but if you've wanted one it's a great addition for the pumidor. The only problem is... feifei had these pressed like xiaguan iron level so you got to really pick into them.
And no apologies for how much I'm going to post this weekend 😅
It's going to be full of tea
P.S. this link saves me fees
https://liquidproust.etsy.com

2006 LaoBanZhang from XiZiHao tonight as I start Umbrella Academy season 4.
Prepared to enjoy the puerh and be disappointed in this short season. Going to see if this is the end of it once I finish this season, either way good tea makes things better right? So here's to a great tea which should do more than just make it better 😅
What pretty awesome is only 6 sets remain in the shop for the 2006 Barren Mountain set sampler from XiZiHao. Partially thought it'd sell out day one and at the same time thought it might take months.
Fantastic set. Tomorrow I'm drinking the Dingji LaoBanZhang again which is top tier of anything I've had.
Really excited for :)

2012 Xizihao Laowushan
In ways I cannot describe best, this is like pine resin meets red ipa.
It's warm wood notes with splinters of citrus in the mouth. For me at least, tonight.
Taste 12 years old too. Great build up on the astringency/bitterness that allows sweetness to pop as the liquid is absorbed into the body.
The whole 2012 XiZiHao lineup I have posted offers a very diverse experience from extremely bitter like the Diangu to quite delicate near white tea like the Spring Snow Mountain Dew.
Everything in between those is a wide array of flavors, experience, and honestly overall mood. If you try them all then get to King's Style, it's a very rewarding journey with one considering what fruits Diangu forces into your brain to what the 2012 Yibang will do going forward with its aging.
Three days to my birthday and I'm constantly thinking about the 2000 vs 2004 Manzhuan I have planned. Then if I'm a good boy I'm having 2006 Dingji LaoBanZhang instead of sleep on Friday 😅
Small chance my new pot dedicating to older XZH comes in. For now, this square pot joins the family as a semi aged sheng pot for me to play with for a bit.

2013 Dragon Brick from XiZiHao. A ripe puerh that comes in 1kg if you would so like. On sale until Aigust 18th.
Needing it for a calming night. Easy on the stomach as well.
Still one of the few handful of shou I get excited to share with people.
The contrast of this and cookie counsoler yesterday is so apparent that I'm needing to rethink shou in the shop... so its time for aged shou to appear. Hope someone is wanting to journey through all that with me :)

Midnight brew wirh fresh baked cookie pizza 😅
2015 Cookie Counsoler somehow tasting like warm rolos dipped in tea tonight.
One of the few shou I just absolutely love and can be compared to 2022 Lich Tears which just gave me a sticker shock 😆
360g for $64 is a steal coming at less than $1.50 per session its such an easy daily drinking addition to the morning or in my case midnight sessions.

2006 LaoManE from XiZiHao
As part of the Five Barren Mountain set that I bought to split up into 16gx5 sets for everyone... I feel a plethora of emotions when drinking any of them myself.
What an opportunity it has been to buy such a high quality set of puerh that I don't think many have tried because of price and make it available in sessions such as this.
All next week I'll be drinking these which seems absolutely crazy but for my birthday week there's really no better option to sip through.
We start the countdown with LME for whatever reason and use a 1990s hongni pot with a silver cup.
The tea is lively, lavish, luxurious, lovely... it's full of L's in the best way possible.
This is only possible because of the support over years I've had. Thank you all once again for providing your continued support. I can't wait to see what's next, but for now this will keep me overly satisfied for days, weeks, and months to come.
If you want to join others in trying these there are 8 sets left. They've sold exceptionally well and I'm in no rush, just providing the link here in case you're interested:
https://liquidproust.etsy.com/listing/1768498697

150g of raw puerh from Chen Yuan Hao's taidi lineup for $45
You cannot beat this deal for what it is: 25g of Taiwan and 25g of Malaysia storage between the three different cakes.
You can grab the set/s you want, but come on... why not grab all 3?
There's nothing else to say. These sets sell themselves.
https://liquidproust.etsy.com
Grab them. Enjoy them side by side or separately and then go to Discord to discuss with others!

Recently I made my first fiverr purchase. The ability to not just pay for art services but provide a tip is such a wonderful thing. The process was easy. Because of that, I was able to take one of my own memes of being tea drunk into a style I like being manga.
This was art I wanted for myself because it's a great memory. It'll soon be something others can have in print or possibly clothing format as I paid for commercial use.
Over time I think with this business that funds going to people for their art applied to a world like gongfucha being unknown to them will generate fun stickers, wrappers, packing tape, and more. It's one of the things I've been unable to do because it's not in my skillset. The focus remains on tea, but I want to have more fun like this.
For those who were there for this creation of this meme... I hope this gives you a smile today. For those who were not, I hope you still find it enjoyable.
All that being said... in the future I might even figure a way out how to make a quarterly manga focusing on tea as a super niche collector item that'll provide funds to pay artist and then the profit goes to the puerh beginner packages... my brain is braining.
Maybe it's a manga focusing on a specific type of tea and it's production?
Tea drunk stories with LP?
Or like once every three months get approval from boutique puerh companies to get a famous production turned into a manga story 😅

21 year old raw puerh thats relaxing and warming at $200 /357g... makes me question how long I'll keep finding these deals.
The answer is: always.
The amount of tea out there is overwhelming.

Every year I buy a new teapot for myself as a birthday gift. This year I bought a full set of the 2006 Five Barren Mountain from XiZiHao instead. These are top tier old tree raw puerh cakes that come with a respectful cost. I knew that they were on my bucket list as a puerh lover to try so I decided that I'd buy the set so I can provide this extremely rare opportunity as I've not seen these sets split or sampled.
Today I drink the Dingji LaoBanZhang an absolute beast. A session of this is more than a great time, it's memories trapped inside carefully stored puerh that unlocks through the steeps. Sessions like these are hard to forget.
To be transparent, I used my savings to grab this set. The only profit I'm making off of it is for two things:
1. Cover my 25g of each- I'm greedy and want more than 16g 😅
2. Paying for a new teapot
Extremely excited to see what others think of each they try:
LaoManE
Yiwu Chahuang
LaoBanZhang
Youle Huangshan
Dingji LaoBanZhang

2011 Bulang from Yang Qing Hao is now 13 years into its development with storage over the years. The strength from a flavor aspect is incredibly powerful as it demands attention from the brews. The dry natural storage of Taiwan has given this the ability to retain its backbone of strength rather than being aggressively stored and smoothed out.
Drinking it outside with fresh air was like being assaulted by flavors with no aroma- in the best way possible. Just a hit of warm astringency that fades quickly and a huigan that last for a solid 15-20 minutes which in these nearly 100 degree days provides some enjoyable offsetting mouthful and taste.
This is the perfect raw puerh right now to explain young and progressing in storage at the same time. It's neither on the spectrum in my opinion which really comes from pressing it as hard as possible.
Anyways, this city is lovely and I hope I can get out and enjoy it with tea as often as possible :)
https://liquidproust.etsy.com/listing/1734145839

The most expensive cake in the shop now is this 2012 raw puerh beast from XiZiHao. No surprise right 😅
At $1,000 it's up there. But in the shop there's a 16g experience pack for $40 which means a weekend session alone or with friends is only $20
A $20 session compared to other vices is unreal the quality level touched here.
Happy as heck to have it offered.
Down to one cake left and a handful of 16g sets.
It's a tea that'll be missed and one that'll surely go up in price over time.
Why is that? The bohetang effect ... it's real.

https://liquidproust.etsy.com/listing/1740635506

2008 Yiwu from Chen Yuan Hao named Yuan Man. This Taiwanese boutique brand made these inexpensive cakes that have now aged for 16 years! In the shop now is a sampler of 25g that was stored in Taiwanese dry storage and 25g of more humid/hot Malaysian storage.
$15 for 50 of great tea, fun sessions, and educational tasting on a single example of storage... I'm not sure how to do any better for you all!
https://liquidproust.etsy.com/listing/1754919127
Some awesome conversations in discord as well from others trying both and comparing!

Inspecting some laobanzhang while checking in on the last 2006 xinbanzhang cake and the last 1970s tuo. Tomorrow, if they're still in stock I'm removing the posting and using both for the 16g experience section on the website. Everything in this picture is beyond expectations looking back where things started to where they are at now.
What a beautiful selection I've curated over these years. Hearing great feedback on the new section. Probably where a bit more time and effort will go for now.
July 28th will be my birthday sale drop and announcement. I'm more excited than you all :)

Recently I was chatting in Discord about potentially going puerh only... but then things like this dark/heavy roast d**g ding from winter 2023 pop in my head and I'm reminded that puerh only isn't an option.
If you like heavy roasted oolong, first you need to secure some 2023 Bai Ya Qilan White Buds because there's only 5 packages left then grab some of this d**g ding.
It's fantastic. It's also a complete accidental purchase. I tried to replenish my d**g ding, bought more and was sent this pretty heavy roasted stuff.
P.S. oolong is the largest section in the shop with 42 options, it's crazy... you can have toasty oolong with Amber, rolo candy bars with 88' Wuyi, squeezed warm juice with any of the pomelo dancongs, fungus attach with horrors of the forest, 'rich' roast with the muzha, and the list goes on.
Oolong was my first love of tea so you better believe I keep it looking solid.
& if you got that extra cashflow, I made the Xinlu D**g Ding Sampler which is literally top tier so it comes at a price, but goodness... I've already started to open from the shop to keep drinking the 2017 red water from these sets... it's probably top 3 oolong of all time for me personally.
**gding **gdingtea

My organization is one my weakest attributes... but anyways, I just did another round of getting things organized and cleaned up. Ended up being able to add some stuff back in stock as they were randomly in the wrong place.
Low Stock section has way more things then I ever wanted to see before, but that's on me because of stuff like this!
https://liquidproust.etsy.com