Dayuling and the Gaoshan Game

[jayinhk]

Interesting article on Dayuling and gaoshan tea production in Taiwan.

https://munchies.vice.com/en/articles/t ... -tea-farms

[daidokorocha]

Interesting article on Dayuling and gaoshan tea production in Taiwan.

ttps://munchies.vice.com/en/articles/taiwan-is-destroying-its-high-mountain-oolong-tea-farms

For people's reference, the h is missing from the beginning of the link if you can't get it to work and can't figure out why.

As for the article, I had no idea this was even happening. It would be interesting to hear the argument from the other side. I will keep this in mind when I get around to drinking the Dayuling Ethan sent me.

[jayinhk]

Oops, I didn't mean to leave the 'h' off. Edited.

This has been happening for several years now and a lot of 'Dayuling' isn't Dayuling. Less so now than ever. There's still plenty of good gaoshan around that isn't grown right in the clouds, so it's not the end of the gaoshan game by any means.

[kyarazen]

Oops, I didn't mean to leave the 'h' off. Edited.

This has been happening for several years now and a lot of 'Dayuling' isn't Dayuling. Less so now than ever. There's still plenty of good gaoshan around that isn't grown right in the clouds, so it's not the end of the gaoshan game by any means.

i've been hands off dayuling for a while.. fushoushan's my current pick ~ govt owned, standard packed/metal tin..

[jayinhk]

Oops, I didn't mean to leave the 'h' off. Edited.

This has been happening for several years now and a lot of 'Dayuling' isn't Dayuling. Less so now than ever. There's still plenty of good gaoshan around that isn't grown right in the clouds, so it's not the end of the gaoshan game by any means.

i've been hands off dayuling for a while.. fushoushan's my current pick ~ govt owned, standard packed/metal tin..

Interesting, I've never tried Fushoushan. I'll have to track some down!

[Haddemall]

I see DYL being offered from many gaoshan dealers. How is this possible when the truth is the opposite.......

[jayinhk]

I see DYL being offered from many gaoshan dealers. How is this possible when the truth is the opposite.......

Cuz they're either getting fooled or deliberately attempting to fool you

[daidokorocha]

I see DYL being offered from many gaoshan dealers. How is this possible when the truth is the opposite.......

Cuz they're either getting fooled or deliberately attempting to fool you

I don't see how this means that necessarily. There is still DYL out there from plantations that were allowed to continue, no? After all, the article states: "Farms with connection to politicians, aboriginal protected lands, and people who could prove that they owned their land were spared." Not to mention that farms under 2500 meters are allowed to continue to grow. I have noticed that some vendors have switched to saying that elevation of DYL is lower than this 2500 meters. Of course then, the question is the likelihood of fakes, or at the very least heavy blending.

[ethan]

When one is tasting teas in person, some lies may be unimportant. "Dayuling" meant tea from the top of Li mountain but might come to mean the top of other mountains of equal height. Does that matter if one is getting good tea after drinking samples for free?

So, I loved sampling at vendors. And, in the future will ascertain that what I sample is the same harvest, process, etc. as what I will carry out of shops. I don't want to sample tea out of a big bag & then be handed something prepackaged or coming from a different bag of tea. Some vendors would take a few hundred grams of tea to their tea stations to prepare tea for us w/ a couple of spoons of leaves. Thus, one could buy right from what had been scooped for tasting (very simply & quickly).

Calling something organic that is not is another matter. Chemicals may not be tasted yet be there. I hope governments punish that kind of lie enough to discourage such mendacity.

Whether it was technically dayuling hardly matters to me for the tea I bought called dayuling. I never liked a green oolong as much as I liked that.

I have a Nine Years black tea. Is it 9 years old? I only know that it tastes great.

[daidokorocha]

That, in part, was going to be my response to this kind of thing. At some point, regardless of marketing and the market value, when you sit down and taste a tea, only you can decide the value and what you are willing to pay for such a tea. It is nice to keep things in nice, clean compartmentalized categories, but at the end of the day the taste of the tea matters most. After all, I am not interested in paying for the brand name or the age statement itself, but the taste I expect from such things. Ascertaining this can be difficult to do for people newer to tea certainly, but I think as people get more experienced these things tend to "float away" and become less important as you rely more on your experienced palate rather than what the vendor or anyone else says to judge the tea in front of you. I am still working my way there, personally.

Ethan, interesting method of sampling to make sure that you are getting exactly what you were enjoying.

[jayinhk]

There is still DYL around, of course, but a good portion of what is on the market simply cannot be DYL because of the lack of supply, so in some cases, yes, you are getting mislead and perhaps overcharged for tea that isn't what it is sold at. This is common in the Chinese tea game today.

Sitting down and trying teas is par for course with shopping in person in China and Taiwan--not always in Hong Kong, though, where people are used to buying tea on trust from established vendors. Most people here buy tea from stores that have been around for generations and their parents and grandparents may have bought tea from the same stores.

[kyarazen]

Oops, I didn't mean to leave the 'h' off. Edited.

This has been happening for several years now and a lot of 'Dayuling' isn't Dayuling. Less so now than ever. There's still plenty of good gaoshan around that isn't grown right in the clouds, so it's not the end of the gaoshan game by any means.

i've been hands off dayuling for a while.. fushoushan's my current pick ~ govt owned, standard packed/metal tin..

Interesting, I've never tried Fushoushan. I'll have to track some down!

you should! only two harvests per year, i.e. spring and autumn/winter. from altitude of 2600 there abouts. clear cut authentication and transparent prices, sources since the tea garden and factory/place is somewhat government owned.

[jayinhk]

Oops, I didn't mean to leave the 'h' off. Edited.

This has been happening for several years now and a lot of 'Dayuling' isn't Dayuling. Less so now than ever. There's still plenty of good gaoshan around that isn't grown right in the clouds, so it's not the end of the gaoshan game by any means.

i've been hands off dayuling for a while.. fushoushan's my current pick ~ govt owned, standard packed/metal tin..

Interesting, I've never tried Fushoushan. I'll have to track some down!

you should! only two harvests per year, i.e. spring and autumn/winter. from altitude of 2600 there abouts. clear cut authentication and transparent prices, sources since the tea garden and factory/place is somewhat government owned.

I will definitely track some down the next time I'm in TW. Any suggestions for dealers in Taiwan? I know you were just over there.

[Bok]

From what I have heard from friends and tea people in Taiwan is that precisely because it is gov owned, real fushou shan is very difficult to get. The top two or three grades are not sold at all, they go directly to Politicians, only KMT of course and other shady people... similar for what is left of DYL.

I doubt that a lot of really good DYL or Fushou is available outside of Taiwan. Takes some very good connections to get this kinds of teas, not even speaking of that a lot of Taiwanese will not give those teas to a foreigner in the first place.

[Bok]

in regards to the orignal article there was a response from another Author which put it a bit in perspective. Have to see if I can dig it up. To sum it up, some of the farmers are not as innocent as they now pretend, making a lot of money illegally by ignoring the law and their contracts.

Still surprising to me that it happened at all, seen how most of the high end tea ends up in the governement employees hands. Public servants in Taiwan have ridiculously high salary and benefits and enjoy a pretty good life...