TeaChat

From whom do you buy most of your Puerhs from?

Houde

Essence of Tea

Yunnan Sourcing

Yunnan Sourcing
Chawangshop
Finepuer&Sampletea

Essence of Tea is another good one.

finepuer/sampletea, indeed, so make that four.

Essenceoftea
Sunsing
Skip4tea

Houde would easily beat the tie between skip 4 tea if I wasn't a little disappointed with how there puerh stock has dwindled. Recently it seems like there stock has really gotten down to the dregs (with a few gems in there). Gaung needs to restock.

The lady down the hill, the store next to the betting center and the store directly across the street.

Heh, I answered generally in terms of who I bought the most tea from. Virtually every sheng that's not part of my daily rotation (from Houde), i.e., the nice stuff, is sold out, with the exception of the YQH Gushu Chawang. And ya know, I should have been buying Banzhang when I bought those. Houde is still good in that they have a lot of high value/price ~$60 bings. Most of them are rather humble--they seemed really expensive for the value 2 years ago.

I pretty much consider Chawangshop and Puerhshop to be roughly the same kind of vendor, with no aspersions cast on Chawangshop. I've never bought from either, just kept an eye on what people thought of their teas. So if you're in the US, you may well be better off with the combination of Puerhshop/Jaseteas.

gasninja, it doesn't look like Sunsing or Skip4tea has been putting up new teas much, either. They just have more stuff in stock, right (am I missing something cool?)

I think we have to wait for a goodly bust (without us caught up in the busting process) before we see some real restocking of quality tea at fair prices. I am concerned about new sheng, though. I get the sense that we're going to see the kind of quality declines one sees from oolong bushes after they get older. It doesn't seem like people are doing a great job taking care of their trees, and the climate has been wacky and wackier as times goes on in Yunnan due to the loss of forest cover.

jayinhk wrote:The lady down the hill, the store next to the betting center and the store directly across the street.

Sounds fantastic....yet hard on the wallet!

I have probably ordered from either houde, yunnan sourcing ,jasetea, even puerh shop each individually more than I have ordered from skip4tea and Sunsing combined. I have forced myself to stop buying young Puerh unless it is very special. I really just don't enjoy it enough for the price it costs now for the good stuff. I would rather spend the same amount on a slightly aged cake that has the possibility to mature in a reasonable amount of time. For my list I simply used the vendors that have traditional stored tea. Really though houde would probably be at number two on the list if I wasn't disappointed in there vanishing inventory.

When you guys buy from a vendor, how do you know it's the real deal and not some crook running it?

puerhking wrote:

jayinhk wrote:The lady down the hill, the store next to the betting center and the store directly across the street.

Sounds fantastic....yet hard on the wallet!

Yup, when I first started drinking tea I was buying some every 2-3 days by just walking into places. Fortunately I can buy small amounts, so I like to try as many vendors and types as I can.

itsgoingtorainsoon wrote:When you guys buy from a vendor, how do you know it's the real deal and not some crook running it?

By reading the reviews of trustworthy members around here! (at least when you're starting out)

If you're new to all this, it's best to read others' opinions and buy samples to learn what you can. If you buy 10-25g of a "crooked" tea, no big deal ... if you buy 250-400g of a "crooked" tea, that's a lot of bad tea to be stuck with. Once you develop a taste for what you like, you can buy from anyone and decide for yourself if they're crooked or not ...

itsgoingtorainsoon wrote:When you guys buy from a vendor, how do you know it's the real deal and not some crook running it?

http://www.teachat.com/viewforum.php?f=60

The Tea Vendor Guide is a great place to begin finding your preferred vendors.

I can vouch for yunnan sourcing us and jas-e tea. I'm a newbie but both are good vendors and I am not the only one to say this on TeaChat .

Essence of Tea - great young cakes, and source for trustworthy old cakes
Bannacha - absolutely great young cakes from small producers
Red Lantern Tea (eBay) - standard Menghai source, provides me with tea which is not officially offered in his store, great selection

I think this really varies on where you are located. If I would be located in the US, I think YS would also appear on my list.

EoT a Bannacha provide me with worry free ordering in Europe while I've had some extreme customs problems with tea ordered directly in China or Taiwan.