How to write about tea?

[gingkoseto]

I don't think dayi and xiaguan are cost-effective at all. Most of xiaguan and dayi, by the time they are aged enough to be drinkable, they are very expensive. Many dayi products as young as 2005 are already super expensive. On the other hand, a lot of new or very young arbor tree teas, are not more expensive than 2005 dayi at all, yet more drinker friendly.

In China, we used to joke (well, not entirely joking) that those who buy boxes of dayi or xiaguan annually are the richest people, because they have extra rooms or warehouses to store the tea for years, and rooms are so much more expensive than teas. Actually, the stock of Malaysian millionaire's once showed by auhcw (and those photos were also showed on cyqx) was just a typical example. Those teas do give the best investment returns, and I know someone who buys boxes of dayi for investment and drinks arbor tree tea himself.

The saying that "Most Chinese sellers/drinkers only sell/drink xiaguan/dayi" sounds so 1990s This is information era and it's not that hard to know Chinese tea scene better

[gingkoseto]

I thought I found a good seller (cai cheng), but only to know from that forum the seller sells xuefei cha

I saw their advertising on taobao, and have to admit I'm very attracted by their tea wrapper Would you please share your experience with them? For that price and for the stylish wrapper, I wouldn't hesitate to try. But what makes me hesitate is the postage of a heavy chunk.
If you ask 2000 people to list the tuition tea in their mind, you would probably see most brands are covered in the list anyway.

[lordsbm]

But most tea sellers are from the 1990s era, no?

There's the old practice of buying new tea to store for later years. Just more cost effective if one was to do this way. Think not as many buy older tea in China. Right?

I recall reading most China sellers preferred to sell new tea than old as they sell faster. Mainly cause there's more demand. Is that not true?

Ya it's the information era, which also makes it much easier for sellers to mislead people or to "educate" people Ultimately it's still about individual taste and how much he/she had be influenced.

[lordsbm]

I thought I found a good seller (cai cheng), but only to know from that forum the seller sells xuefei cha

I saw their advertising on taobao, and have to admit I'm very attracted by their tea wrapper Would you please share your experience with them? For that price and for the stylish wrapper, I wouldn't hesitate to try. But what makes me hesitate is the postage of a heavy chunk.
If you ask 2000 people to list the tuition tea in their mind, you would probably see most brands are covered in the list anyway.

555 OK I'll add that a couple bricks to my next month order list

My postage is acceptable (about US$3 per kg tax included) as it'll be by sea freight. I'm still waiting for this month shipment to arrived which should be next Monday. There's 10+kg of tea inside, I think most are tuition tea

If I don't like them, I'll just use them for tea eggs

[gingkoseto]

I thought I found a good seller (cai cheng), but only to know from that forum the seller sells xuefei cha

I saw their advertising on taobao, and have to admit I'm very attracted by their tea wrapper Would you please share your experience with them? For that price and for the stylish wrapper, I wouldn't hesitate to try. But what makes me hesitate is the postage of a heavy chunk.
If you ask 2000 people to list the tuition tea in their mind, you would probably see most brands are covered in the list anyway.

555 OK I'll add that a couple bricks to my next month order list

My postage is acceptable (about US$3 per kg tax included) as it'll be by sea freight. I'm still waiting for this month shipment to arrived which should be next Monday. There's 10+kg of tea inside, I think most are tuition tea

If I don't like them, I'll just use them for tea eggs

Oh I thought you had bought from them before. If not, since you get international shipping too, don't just buy because of the price or pretty wrapper. There are many other tea sellers at that price range too, and by average I guess only a small portion of them are good.

[lordsbm]

Oh I thought you had bought from them before. If not, since you get international shipping too, don't just buy because of the price or pretty wrapper. There are many other tea sellers at that price range too, and by average I guess only a small portion of them are good.

With International shipping it's still cheaper. Normally items from China are sold double their price here.

I was gonna skip huangpian next month as I found TL to be a better buy. Saw a review said that 752 tasted better than 7542 701(edit: should be 706). Not sure how true, but their wuliang teas are cheap.

There's a cheap wild arbor (wuliang blend) 2012 cake 375g for 38RMB, seems like a better buy compared to 500g huangpian for around 50RMB

BTW Chai Cheng most of their stuffs are free domestic shipping. Don't need worry about weight if u are in China.

[Tofsla]

I thought I found a good seller (cai cheng), but only to know from that forum the seller sells xuefei cha

What is xuefei cha? Babelcarp is mute as a fish about this term.

I saw their advertising on taobao, and have to admit I'm very attracted by their tea wrapper Would you please share your experience with them?

I have tried few of their mid-range priced cakes from Jinggu in 2011 and 2012 and got a mixed feeling. In 2011 I saw that they were very popular on taobao and felt adventurous and bought 2 cakes. One of which, "Yezhutang", I find to be excellent for the price (and I still like it very much), and the other, "Dahei Yanzi" was awfull, with too much hong cha taste - by now it tastes flat and of an even worse hong cha. So, in 2012 I bought 3 more, just from curiosity. 2012 "Yezhutang" is not as good, as 2011 - tastes more like a not-so-good Wuliang. But 2012 "Fengshan Huangtian" is a good tea, at least for drinking now - it has got toms of high floral notes that eventually should disappear and then I don't know what will be left, besides, I suspect that it might be a case of infamous wulong puer that is lately being discussed on this forum. And finally, their 2012 "Single Tree Wendan Shan" is a really decent tea that I hope will improve further - right now it is pleasant and energetic enough, but nothing special.

I wrote about these teas on another forum, and some other people from that forum bought some cheaper Cai Cheng cakes. Afterwards, they reported a lot of disappointment, complaining about extremely law quality of the leaves (with lots of sticks and yellow leaves) and not-so-good taste.

Except for the Jinggu teas (I read somewhere that the owners are from Jinggu), they have a rather expensive "Ancient Dragon Garden" series (I am not sure, maybe from Mansong?), that I would probably try one day.

They also have more expensive cakes from every major Yunnan region, but I did not try them and never read any reports about them.

[lordsbm]

What is xuefei cha? Babelcarp is mute as a fish about this term.

Xuefei = school fee. As what gingkoseto said it's tuition tea. Just means those tea you gotten "fooled" into buying when you are a newbie, mostly due to the cheap prices, advertising or packaging.

Some are actually drinkable (or maybe decent/good) but are made up of low grade materials. Some are due to lack of hygiene which you'll find hair, feather and such.