2009 12 Gentlemen cakes

[xuancheng]

I found a 2009 山外有山 ‘mountains beyond mountains’ cake and I was wondering if anyone had tried it. I found it on Taobao, so its likely fake, but I didn't see any in other places. It is not cheap at US $55.60, but then they made it buy one get one free, and shipping is free within China at least.

[img]http://www42.babidou.com/pic/2008/10/26 ... 000555.jpg[/img]

12 Gentlemen 'mountains' cake

Link above if anyone else here shops on Taobao.

I was wondering if anyone else has had or seen any of these (or other new 12 gentlemen cakes) for sale. Nothing 2009 at Nadacha or at Andao.

[xuancheng]

I guess it is probably not fake. I talked to the woman who runs this taobao shop, and she is evidently one of the saleswomen who work at the 12 gentlemen shop in Kunming.

She also said there are only two offerings this year from the 12 Gentlemen brand. Both are 'mountains beyond mountains' cakes, one of Yiwu mountain material and one of Menghai material. These cakes supposedly contain maocha from several different years in the blend. Not sure what years.

[betta]

Thanks for updating it, Xuancheng. Is 12 gentlemen a name of a teashop or a specific tea manufacturer like Menghai, Xiaguan,etc?

[xuancheng]

the 12 gentlemen is sort of both a manufacturer and a tea shop. The 12 gentlemen are a group of famous pu'er people and rich puer lovers who got together to make high quality tea. They have a company called 昆明十二先生茶叶有限公司。or Kunming 12 Gentlemen Tea LLC. They have a shop in Kunming, but they also press a few cakes of puer each year. There is a good explaination of the story behind the name and company at andao.com
12 Gentlemen story

The 12 Gentlemen have a sort of parent company called 合润天香/ Herun Tianxiang. I am not sure how much if at all the 12 Gentlemen are involved in the parent company (investment, product development, etc.) In my humble opinion this parent company is kind of grotesque. They sell puer in gift boxes for high prices and stick in a puer knife or sharing pitcher. They have one product where a copy of the classic of tea is incorporated into the cover of the gift box. Another gift box opens into a scroll...

http://www.herun-tea.com.cn/index.htm

This is the post on the Half-Dipper which got me searching for their products
Yiwu 'WeiZhongWei'

[betta]

Thanks for the complete info. Please share us your experience just in case you try the 2009 cake from 12 gentlemen.

[Drax]

They usually only produce 2-4 types a year, right? Or is 2 on the low end for this year?

[MarshalN]

Fakes have come down, relatively speaking, and if you want to fake, you're not going to fake 12 Gentlemen, you'd try to fake other cakes.

I've never tried their new stuff, but if my experience with their 2006 stuff is any indication, it's.... not that great. I remember the cakes were very tightly compressed, and the tea was a bit questionable in processing. Not having tried 2009, don't know.

[xuancheng]

They usually only produce 2-4 types a year, right? Or is 2 on the low end for this year?

I think your right. I was still surprised for some reason. It seems, though, in previous years (like 06) they had a few more.

There may also be something the retail employees don't know about.

[Agent Taobao]

Hey everybody.

I run a blog about Taobao and I find this counterfeit tea thing super interesting. I've written about tea before, but don't know anything about it. Does Taobao have a bunch of good tea?

And what kind of tea is commonly counterfeited?

[thanks]

I've never tried their new stuff, but if my experience with their 2006 stuff is any indication, it's.... not that great. I remember the cakes were very tightly compressed, and the tea was a bit questionable in processing. Not having tried 2009, don't know.

+1

I really enjoyed their shu cake they made last year, though. It's supposedly based on 7572, and it was a nice and cheap little distraction. Someone told me on Flickr that it was supposedly semi-aged maocha (don't you just love that term? ) blended from the 12 famous mountains. An easy claim to fake in shu, but regardless still a decent tea.

[Drax]

I've never tried their new stuff, but if my experience with their 2006 stuff is any indication, it's.... not that great. I remember the cakes were very tightly compressed, and the tea was a bit questionable in processing. Not having tried 2009, don't know.

+1

I really enjoyed their shu cake they made last year, though. It's supposedly based on 7572, and it was a nice and cheap little distraction. Someone told me on Flickr that it was supposedly semi-aged maocha (don't you just love that term? ) blended from the 12 famous mountains. An easy claim to fake in shu, but regardless still a decent tea.

+2 -- I enjoyed the 7572 as well... not too bad.

If I recall correctly, others (Hobbes?) noted the high compression of the 2006, but I think they changed it in later years to be a lot lighter.

Did that change the experience? Well... I tried the 2007s, thought they were okay. $40-60 okay? Hmmmm.... not so sure (not that I'm an expert, though).

[xuancheng]

...Someone told me on Flickr that it was supposedly semi-aged maocha (don't you just love that term? ) blended from the 12 famous mountains. An easy claim to fake in shu, but regardless still a decent tea.

...
If I recall correctly, others (Hobbes?) noted the high compression of the 2006, but I think they changed it in later years to be a lot lighter.

Did that change the experience? Well... I tried the 2007s, thought they were okay. $40-60 okay? Hmmmm.... not so sure (not that I'm an expert, though).

I think that this new 'mountains' cake is a blend of various years of maocha, but all from Yiwu.

I also agree with Drax about the prices. Worth it or not, they are expensive. The taobao shop seems to be operated under the auspices of the 12 gentlemen shop in Kunming, and their prices are actually higher then prices at Andao or Nadachacha. I just sprung for a chance to get a buy one get one free, and a free sample of this years Menghai cake thrown in.

Thanks for the reassurance about the fakes, MarshalN. I am usually not too worried, but buying stuff online is always a little bit unsettling.

[Agent Taobao]

Hey guys thanks for turning me onto this. I just wrote about the 12 gentlemen tea on taobaofieldguide.com - currently on front page.