Anyone heard of this company?

[puerhking]

found this on ebay. i have this cake which is quite good. it reminds me of the guoyan yi wu zheng shan beeng. i was wondering if anyone has heard of this company. the website is in chinese only. thanks.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Premium-Alliance-35 ... .m14.l1318

http://www.yuanniantea.com/ynproduct_view.asp?id=21

[shogun89]

No, sorry, never seen it.

[hop_goblin]

They are a new company located in KunMing. They started production in May of last year. The company claims to produce 260 tons of Pu-erh annually which is sold under 3 brands , the most known being the Qunying Hui or the beeng that you are interested in. This particular tea is said to be composed of "big-leaf" variety from different locations in Yunnan which is processed in the traditional method i.e. Sun dried, and stone mold pressed.

[scruffmcgruff]

Leave it to Hop! Seriously dude, you are a puerh factory encyclopedia.

[puerhking]

thanks for the info hop. it looked and tasted like a high quality product. i have two now and ordered four more......all different. that guy ships from hong kong so you get it faster which is nice.

[hop_goblin]

Glad to help.

[Jim Liu]

Yuannian Tea Factory is about to become well known soon enough when you see their offering with 'The art of tea' magazine.

From 26 tea mountains, with multiple wild, arbor, plantation teas, in total of 50 X 200 gram cakes, over $ 400 each unit, it is overwhelming!

Break into your bank and get ready for this. One of the distributors would be Hou De in Houston.

Ref: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_509154670100aj8o.html

[hop_goblin]

Yuannian Tea Factory is about to become well known soon enough when you see their offering with 'The art of tea' magazine.

From 26 tea mountains, with multiple wild, arbor, plantation teas, in total of 50 X 200 gram cakes, over $ 400 each unit, it is overwhelming!

Break into your bank and get ready for this. One of the distributors would be Hou De in Houston.

Ref: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_509154670100aj8o.html

That's insane! By no means does new born cake deserve a $400 price tag.High Grade Mao cha is mao cha regardless if DaYi bought it or Yuannian! The only beeng that would warrent such a price is if his holiness the Dali Lama made the beeng himself!

Thanks Jim for sharing!

[RussianSoul]

Yuannian Tea Factory is about to become well known soon enough when you see their offering with 'The art of tea' magazine.

From 26 tea mountains, with multiple wild, arbor, plantation teas, in total of 50 X 200 gram cakes, over $ 400 each unit, it is overwhelming!

Break into your bank and get ready for this. One of the distributors would be Hou De in Houston.

Ref: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_509154670100aj8o.html

That's insane! By no means does new born cake deserve a $400 price tag.High Grade Mao cha is mao cha regardless if DaYi bought it or Yuannian! The only beeng that would warrent such a price is if his holiness the Dali Lama made the beeng himself!

Thanks Jim for sharing!

I think perhaps he meant $400 for a box of 50 cakes. Correct me if I am wrong.

[Dizzwave]

I think perhaps he meant $400 for a box of 50 cakes. Correct me if I am wrong.

Wow, yeah, check out the pics in the link Jim included.. I want that box! $400 doesn't seem like too bad a deal, if the tea is as good as it sounds. Look at all the mountain names on that outer box.... a pu-acopia.

[Jim Liu]

Sorry for the confusion.

I know I am not the right person to talk about the pricing on this one, Dr. Lee at Hou De would be the authority to provide the details.

The person who wrote the blog paid 13,000 Taiwanese dollars for the unit, that is, about $ 430 at today's exchange rate. Add the S/H to Houston, I wonder how much it sells in US. Most likely it should be about $ 10 for each cake.

The issue for this type package is that some cakes are more desireable while some others are less interesting. But you got to pay for the whole deal.

[orguz]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Premium-Alliance-35 ... .m14.l1318

http://www.yuanniantea.com/ynproduct_view.asp?id=21

After checking out the price on ebay; that price can't be beat, is that what you paid?
Can you email the seller directly?

[hop_goblin]

Sorry for the confusion.

I know I am not the right person to talk about the pricing on this one, Dr. Lee at Hou De would be the authority to provide the details.

The person who wrote the blog paid 13,000 Taiwanese dollars for the unit, that is, about $ 430 at today's exchange rate. Add the S/H to Houston, I wonder how much it sells in US. Most likely it should be about $ 10 for each cake.

The issue for this type package is that some cakes are more desireable while some others are less interesting. But you got to pay for the whole deal.

Thanks for the clarification Jim. From the appearence of the cake, it does look appealing. However as you and I know, looks are certainly decieving.

[puerhking]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Premium-Alliance-35 ... .m14.l1318

http://www.yuanniantea.com/ynproduct_view.asp?id=21

After checking out the price on ebay; that price can't be beat, is that what you paid?
Can you email the seller directly?

actually i paid 99 cents plus 10 shipping as it was his first auction. his price went up next time. i have purchased a total of 6 beengs for $66 including shipping. a nice score. i thought about buying every thing he put up for sale but then thought that would be greedy.

i dont know if this guy works with the manufacturer or what. i would send he an email via ebay if you want more info.

it is a nice beeng that is very approachable now.

[Salsero]

I ordered one of these "Premium Alliance" Yunnian Tea Co cakes from the referenced ebayer. He has nothing at all available now, I noticed. It arrived a few days ago, quite speedy delivery and the most impressive packaging I have seen for pu. I was the only bidder and got it for $5.99 plus $10.00 shipping. I am drinking some now and am not especially impressed, but don't regret my purchase either.

The leaves are beautiful and the compression is slight. It comes apart very easily so I suppose a stone mold instead of iron.

It is OK, different from most of my other sheng, in some ways stronger tasting in others sort of lacking. My first sniff reminded me of banana, and I think that is not a bad comparison throughout. It is a bit sweet, but somehow the flavor profile just seems a little off balance, like it has some nice high notes, but is missing material in the middle and lower registers. Sometimes there is a little aftertaste, sometimes not. Occasionally I notice an oily feel on my lips that I like, then it goes away. Astringency is not a problem. A couple times it made me feel heated, qi (?) maybe.

All in all, I am happy to have this, will be curious to see how it ages, if maybe those low notes fill in over time, but I am not floored by it. Let's call it three stars out of five: I like it.