TeaChat

Hello,
I new to he whole tea thing and was looking to get some pu-erh tea from aliexpress.com there is a huge variaty there but im pretty much clueless about this stuff i know some been researching for a few days. since alie express will be having a huge festival sale on the 25th I wanted to take advantage of this and get some teas from there.
i heard aliexpress dot com/store/522549 has some good stuff and this aliexpress dot com/store/group/puer-tea-cooked-tea-shu-cha/718216_253394871.html. could someone guide me in the right direction thank you very much
also I know this is the pu-erh but also im pretty interested in silver needle white tea from there as well.

I would not recommend any teas from there. Many fakes or badly stored teas. Better off buying from a reputable seller and try samples first.

Try puerhshop.com to try some sample of cakes first. They are reputable and have a decent selection of pu'.

Good luck going down that rabbit hole, Alice.

Poseidon wrote:Try puerhshop.com to try some sample of cakes first. They are reputable and have a decent selection of pu'.

Good luck going down that rabbit hole, Alice.

There are a lot of good puerh vendors in the vendor guide but I would not recommend puerh shop. There have been multiple instances of fake teas being received. Take a lot at the vendor threads to get an idea of where to start

I've bought a lot of tea from Aliexpress...
And I'll say this:
Don't

It's cheap for a reason. You'll get a lot of fakes and undrinkable stuff.
Also the 25th is just a dishonest marketing tactic - they've raised most of the prices beforehand to match the discounts.

The only seller there I can recommend is Grandness, but then, their prices are similar to the better ebay sellers like Red Lantern.

Exempt wrote:

Poseidon wrote:Try puerhshop.com to try some sample of cakes first. They are reputable and have a decent selection of pu'.

Good luck going down that rabbit hole, Alice.

There are a lot of good puerh vendors in the vendor guide but I would not recommend puerh shop. There have been multiple instances of fake teas being received. Take a lot at the vendor threads to get an idea of where to start

Woops! I didnt realize they were having problems. Just listen to the pros!

Poseidon wrote:

Exempt wrote:

Poseidon wrote:Try puerhshop.com to try some sample of cakes first. They are reputable and have a decent selection of pu'.

Good luck going down that rabbit hole, Alice.

There are a lot of good puerh vendors in the vendor guide but I would not recommend puerh shop. There have been multiple instances of fake teas being received. Take a lot at the vendor threads to get an idea of where to start

Woops! I didnt realize they were having problems. Just listen to the pros!

It was a while ago and was only with 3-5 teas as far as I know, however, I think the way it was handled seemed like the vendor was trying to hide the fact that they were fake and continued to sell them so, to me, it isn't worth the risk

thanks alot guys i wont be buying from them lol. dont want my first experience with pu-erh tea to be bad lol. are there any good shops in NJ i might just go to NYC and get from there if there are some good shops that aren't so expensive. or a good online vendor where I can get good samples.
thanks again guys

portabletea wrote:thanks alot guys i wont be buying from them lol. dont want my first experience with pu-erh tea to be bad lol. are there any good shops in NJ i might just go to NYC and get from there if there are some good shops that aren't so expensive. or a good online vendor where I can get good samples.
thanks again guys

Check the puerh vendor thread for online vendors

Exempt wrote:

portabletea wrote:thanks alot guys i wont be buying from them lol. dont want my first experience with pu-erh tea to be bad lol. are there any good shops in NJ i might just go to NYC and get from there if there are some good shops that aren't so expensive. or a good online vendor where I can get good samples.
thanks again guys

Check the puerh vendor thread for online vendors

I check out a few but there is so much variety anything specific you can recommend. i know this stuff follows YMMV but I'm sure there are things that are generally enjoyed. thanks

Feel free to review the following:

TC Official Pu of the day

Badger & Blade sheng of the day

I have picked up (aside from advice I got in this forum from a fellow TC) very good sheng and shou cakes.

Alternatively, you can also check a couple of blogs:

The Half Dipper

Two Dog

portabletea wrote:thanks alot guys i wont be buying from them lol. dont want my first experience with pu-erh tea to be bad lol. are there any good shops in NJ i might just go to NYC and get from there if there are some good shops that aren't so expensive. or a good online vendor where I can get good samples.
thanks again guys

Try yunnansourcing.com or yunnansourcing.us. Both are the same company, but one is shipped from the US, in Oregon. The only thing about them worth mentioning is there shipping is a little slow to start.Their US operation is handled by one part timer who works only a couple of days a week so you may wait three, four or five days for them to ship. Puerhshop is good in my experience, I have bought from them and never gotten a fake yet, perhaps some have. Puerhshop ships next day, always.

thanks alot guys ill look into afew you have any specific cakes/bricks that you would recommend?

There's a company on Alibaba called Yipintang, in business since 2005. They sell various puers and other kinds of tea in small enough quantities for individual buyers. I think their main market is Japan. My question is: can you tell me anything about the quality of their tea?

This is all I can find:
http://teapotnews.blogspot.com/2010/09/ ... h-tuo.html

http://yunnansourcing.com/en/ripepu-erh ... a357g.html

The review by Wilson sounds promising but a six-year-old cake for less than 10 bucks?!