Hi again. I was told that Pu er tea only comes in a disc/cake-like and not in containers or packs.

Is this true?

Also, where can I get reasonably priced tea (green/black/Pu er) as a gift?

Would the one sold in hypermarket/supermarket be acceptable? Thanks.

Pu er tea comes in many forms. The disc/cakes are naturally fermented, over years, and the sky is the limit on price (50rmb - 10 000). You are more likely to be cheated buying this kind of tea. Pu er also comes in other forms where they have used an artificial fermentation process. This latter type comes in tea bags and even little balls. The reason why people buy the artificially fermented is that it is cheaper, more consistent and easier to use.
The cheapest place to buy tea is in the tea markets, but you have more chance to be cheated and they will upsell you on quality or quantity or both, and you will spend a lot more than you intended. Buying in a supermarket you have fixed prices, although it won’t be top quality. The independent tea shops, well some are honest others are not. There are also chains of tea shops (Tea Tea brand?) that are more expensive than the supermarkets but you won’t get ripped off.
As for your question, would the one sold in the supermarket be acceptable? It depends who you are giving it too. If it is to send home, then yes. If it is for a Chinese person who is not a regular tea drinker, maybe, but it needs to be the most expensive box on the shelf with the fanciest packaging (face culture). If it is for a Chinese tea drinker, personally I would not buy tea as I don’t know enough about what I am buying, and it can be several hundred rmb for a small amount of good tea. You might be better off buying Whisky or cigarettes, at least with whisky there is the ‘face’ value of having the bottle sitting on display in someone’s home, even if they don’t drink whiskey.

You can visit our tea shop for cup of pu-erh and chat. Can give u few advises. You don't have to buy anything. If u like to visit us, send me your wechat in PM here. cheers

You're probably best off checking out the tea market. I wouldn't worry too much about being ripped off unless you're trying to spend a fair amount on a cake. If you or the person you're giving it to to doesn't know much about puer or tea in general, then you probably aren't shooting for ancient tree tea or tea from a famous region.

Most tea shops will let you try some tea and give you a price. Some have little tricks, but again, if you're not spending a ton and not too worried about paying a little more, it's not worth the energy worrying about it. Taste it and if you like it, buy it. If not, don't buy it. You can always ask for something better, more expensive, less expensive, etc. Tea shops are fairly accommodating like that.

You can get a decent Dianhong (yunnan black tea) for a good price. I wouldn't worry too much about that. With ripe puer I'd say just make sure it doesn't have any unpleasant tastes, such as too fishy or too much damp dirt taste. A little earthiness is normal, but a good one will be more clean, with a brighter liquid. Also, buy one that is at least 1-2 years old or more. Doesn't have to be expensive, but if it's produced this year, it may still have some funky flavour (normal, but not necessarily desirable). Raw puer is trickier if you're not familiar, IMO. If you ask for something from Yiwu region that might be the easiest to accept. Ancient tree will be expensive, but xiaoshu, taidi/plantation tea won't necessarily be. 100rmb, give or take for a 357g cake isn't bad.

The most consistent place would be if you find a Dayi shop. It's a chain and they do large scale productions, but it's fairly standardized. Like starbucks.

Otherwise you're also free to DM me as well if you want to stop by my tea studio. Same as the user above, no pressure, just an opportunity to learn a bit if you want.