Wuyi Star - Worth the hype (and price!)?

[thanks]

I noticed that Gordon at Dragon Tea House just started carrying Wuyi Star Lao Cong Shui Xian. I remember hearing a bit of hype over Wuyi Star yancha, is this stuff worth the high price? $80 for 180g seems a bit much for Shui Xian, lao cong or not.

[Herb_Master]

Presumably making the Top 10 news for Wuyi products of 2007 has helped to push it's price up


http://www.wuyistar-tea.com/en/showNews.asp?id=187

The top eighth news: Wuyishan city have the first company of “ the top 100 tea companies of China year 2007 ”
December 9th, the Tea Circulation Institute of China rank out the top 100 tea companies of China. Desire Star (China) Industrial Co., Ltd. is one of them. In the late years, Wuyishan city pays attention to the DaHongPao brand, establish the national standard of DaHongPao tea, enforce the protection of the original cultivation area, and lead the establishment of the organic tea cultivation bases. For this effective work, the DaHongPao of wuyistar is listed into the first estimation of Chinese famous agricultural product and Fujian provincial golden brand of agriculture.

[Herb_Master]

The Wuyi Star site seems to be partly 'In Development' I am looking forward to them fleshing out their tea ceremony and tea master training tutorials

But a look at some of the other pages is quite interesting

what research center we have:
Our tea research institute is located beside the forth corner of JiuQu river where nearly one hundred kinds of Wuyi Ming Chong include such as DaHongPao, BaiJiGuan, TieLuoHang, ShuiJinGui. It is a breeding area for exploring new variety & technology of Wuyi Rock-essence Tea. In order to cultivate the organic tea, we also introduce in the technology of organic tea production from FuJian Agricultural and Forestry University and anti-pest technology from FuJian Provincial Tea Research Institute.

[wyardley]

LCSX can actually get quite expensive if it's actually old bush, though a lot of stuff sold this way of course probably actually isn't, or isn't as old as the factory says it is.

I haven't heard much "hype" about Wuyistar. I think most of their stuff is mid-grade at best. They're just one of the bigger factories, and they have a shop in the protected area, so a lot of people go there.
I have bad memories of it, because not only did their tea taste only so-so to me, but that's the factory where the salesperson kept lying to us about what infusion we were on. "Now we're on the 6th infusion" [one brew later] "now we're on the 11th infusion".



But I don't think that price is super high by the standards of expensive yancha either, esp. in terms of vendors who ship to the US. [edit: though looking at the pictures of the dry leaf on DTH's site, at least, I'm not that impressed; the leaves look awfully small. Also, since the tea you're talking about is packaged in little 18g packages, you're paying a little extra for all the packaging]

[wyardley]

Presumably making the Top 10 news for Wuyi products of 2007 has helped to push it's price up

Sure, and every other factory in the area is also in the top 10 of something or other.

I don't know if you can draw too many conclusions based on their own press release...

[Herb_Master]

I agree, without wanting to slander, I left unsaid "allowing them self justification for pushing the price up beyond it's probable worth"

When (and if) items acquire a cachet, you have to pay for the cachet as well as the product.

[wyardley]

I agree, without wanting to slander, I left unsaid "allowing them self justification for pushing the price up beyond it's probable worth"

When (and if) items acquire a cachet, you have to pay for the cachet as well as the product.

Right... I just don't think being one of the biggest is the same thing as having cachet. Mass-market products are rarely the most prestigious.

(btw, slander is spoken; libel is the written equivalent).

[ABx]

I think it can be worth getting one of their single packs now and again, but I agree that they're nowhere near the best. I also haven't heard any real hype, but I suspect that their name probably carries some of the price.

[thanks]

Ah, should have clarified with "Worthy of being a household name", just like the lack of hype for Dayi, but the big factory following it has. Could someone point me to some really excellent yancha that's currently availabe, then? I've had this enormous craving for it lately, but all I have is some mediocre Shui Xian lying about.

[nada]

Could someone point me to some really excellent yancha that's currently availabe, then? I've had this enormous craving for it lately, but all I have is some mediocre Shui Xian lying about.

try postcardteas.com - I was really impressed by his Yancha, among some of the best I've come across.