Aliexpress teas

[mr mopu]

I agree with you that ordering any tea from Aliexpress is a bad idea and I'll never do it again. Maybe this company produces some good tea but what they sell on Aliexpress isn't good at all, which suggests that they use Aliexpress as a dumping ground for their worst tea, and they have plenty of it. That's what I wanted to find out - can one buy good tea directly from a producer on Aliexpress. The answer is a resounding no, but that's not what you warned me about, Emmett.

Depends on where you buy it on Aliexpress. There are a couple of good shops on there.

Oh really? Could you please tell us or PM me?

Just messaged you.

[Potapka]

There are a couple of good shops on there.

Could you PM me these shops too, please?

[Potapka]

BTW, has anyone managed to find any decent TG at Ali? I've tried ordering TG there like 4-5 times, got poor to mediocre results, even buying at 'widely recommended' Grandness shop. TG I got was sort of yellowish and looked pretty old.
(I'm still geting nice puers from Ali though. I prefer Ali at the moment due to its flexible payment system and straight delivery to my country)

[Balthazar]

Ordered some shu from aliexpress today, taking advantage of the 11.11 megasale thing. The vendor I bought from carries a bunch of obviously fake stuff (read: probably most, if not all, the "aged tea"), but hopefully that it not the case with the shu I ordered (a 2011 V93, a 2007 Liming Golden Peacock cake and a 2014 Xiaguan "Xiao Fa"), which was priced a fair bit (2x ~) above typical Taobao prices.

[kiwi303]

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Made-in1 ... 59120.html

I have a $10 brick of this coming, ordered before I read anything about Puer other than that it looked interesting.


Given what I know now from a few days reading, I suspect it will probably be faked compost given the price ($10 USD including postage) vs claimed age (1980)

Ah well, when it gets here I'll let you know how bad it is.

[mr mopu]

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Made-in1 ... 59120.html

I have a $10 brick of this coming, ordered before I read anything about Puer other than that it looked interesting.


Given what I know now from a few days reading, I suspect it will probably be faked compost given the price ($10 USD including postage) vs claimed age (1980)

Ah well, when it gets here I'll let you know how bad it is.

I wish you luck. I don't personally think I would buy any of their cakes though.

[wymmtea]

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Made-in1 ... 59120.html

I have a $10 brick of this coming, ordered before I read anything about Puer other than that it looked interesting.


Given what I know now from a few days reading, I suspect it will probably be faked compost given the price ($10 USD including postage) vs claimed age (1980)

Ah well, when it gets here I'll let you know how bad it is.

There are many fakes out there, its good to be careful. Just think about it; there's is very limited supply of aged pu-erh and there is a very large demand for it especially in the Asian market. In terms of supply and demand economics, it is impossible to find aged pu-erh that cheap, the price should be exponentially higher accordingly.

[BW85]

There are many fakes out there, its good to be careful. Just think about it; there's is very limited supply of aged pu-erh and there is a very large demand for it especially in the Asian market. In terms of supply and demand economics, it is impossible to find aged pu-erh that cheap, the price should be exponentially higher accordingly.

Or something went terribly wrong in storage and it tastes disgusting!

...But probably fake

[wymmtea]

Or something went terribly wrong in storage and it tastes disgusting!

...But probably fake

Haha thats possible, storing it right is very important too

[Greenteaguru]

Ali is similar to Ebay in that it is generally a market place for price conscious customers. With this brings the barrel load of fakes and bad tea. Not to say you can't find decent (average grade) tea for an ok price.

[kiwi303]

Well, the Puer brick has been updated to "left country of origin" so it shouldn't be that much longer... it spent a long time sitting in various customs warehouses, NZ post should be a bit more efficient.

A little longer and I can see what I bought and if it's drinkable or compost.

[kiwi303]

Well the "1980" tea is quite drinkable, the first couple of infusions were fairly strange tasting, but by infusion #3 it mellowed out.

The colour of the liquor is noticably more amber brown/yellow than the far more reddish colour of the 2005 Tuo Shou I bought after finding this site and deciding to get something better, which actually arrived a few days earlier.

Of the two I have to say I prefer the "1980" brick, It's not compost, and it's not sour or mould tasting, once the first couple of infusions are done and the flavour mellows it lasts much longer than the tuo. The leaves are larger, lest broken and seem more robust, through with more woody stem than the tuo.


While I have to admit these are my first two Puers, and as I learn more and experience more and better teas I will probably one day look back at this brick and shudder, as a first tea it's not half bad at all, certainly nothing to put off a first time drinker.
I'm on my third day of the second round of leaves this evening, and there's still life left in them for drinking alongside breakfast in the morning.

[Psyck]

I purchased some teas & tea implements from the vendor Breezy Valley at Aliexpress. The implements were of good quality & the teas were all fine. The time taken for international shipping was acceptable; the prices were reasonable with some freebies thrown in. Nothing fancy, I started with simple regular stuff as I had a bad experience at another Chinese site in the past, but my experience with Aliexpress has been satisfactory so far.

I will be purchasing more from Aliexpress in the future, so if anyone can suggest to me other vendors there that I can try out, I would appreciate it.

[mr mopu]

I purchased some teas & tea implements from the vendor Breezy Valley at Aliexpress. The implements were of good quality & the teas were all fine. The time taken for international shipping was acceptable; the prices were reasonable with some freebies thrown in. Nothing fancy, I started with simple regular stuff as I had a bad experience at another Chinese site in the past, but my experience with Aliexpress has been satisfactory so far.

I will be purchasing more from Aliexpress in the future, so if anyone can suggest to me other vendors there that I can try out, I would appreciate it.

Grandness Tea is pretty good on there. Just Slooooowwww processing and shipping. Have you thought about anyone from eBay?

[Psyck]

Grandness Tea is pretty good on there. Just Slooooowwww processing and shipping. Have you thought about anyone from eBay?

Thanks for the tip, I will try them out, I don't mind slow delivery, I'm used to waiting around a month when I order anything from China.

I'm buying from India, hence my options are very limited on where I can purchase from. Other than the local teas from Darjeeling, the teas from Aliexpress were the only ones I could try out so far, since most on-line tea vendors do not ship to India.

I have not tried ebay for teas so far, but I'm open to it if I can find any good vendor who ships to India.