I hang out in Maliandao Tea City here in Beijing every week to pay for "tuition lessions" over a couple of tea drinking sessions. Many of the reputable sellers gives me pretty good and consistent advise, over here too, they prepare teas for you to drink and hope to become friends with you as well, and you do not have to buy anything....
Here's my take on this matter, based on what I have heard and experienced:
1) I've tasted the same cake or brick in different shops selling at different price points and they do taste different; caused by many factors eg, supply chain, storage (wet vs dry) and production maybe different (first batch spring picking vs 2nd batch autumn pick of tea).
2) 2007 was the year where pu erh prices were at it's peak with lower quality tea leaves, so it's possible one vendor bought it very high through a middleman and another bought it direct from source. Many vendors are keeping 2007 teas as they cannot sell it at the price point that they bought it at back in 2007.
3) These two postings could have been made at different points in times, Camellia Sinensis Tea House (currently unavailable) may have posted this back in 2007, and Norbutea may have just made this a recent posting, by which time the prices may have gone up.
4) tabao - I do no shop at tabao for food items, but i've purchased non food items and most of the items purchased are fakes if the prices are what is advertised to be.
I do not wish to disillusion anyone here who rely on internet shopping of pu-erh, most every Chinese I know tells me to stay away from tabao.
I am sure there are some reputable tabao sellers and I respect their business model in selling genuine goods at fair prices. If it's too cheap, my advise is please stay out.
Thanks for hearing.
Sep 11th, '11, 11:10
Posts: 113
Joined: Jul 29th, '11, 10:48
Location: Singapore, Malaysia