TeaForum.org

It seems like most of the effort goes towards the vintage varieties, but with 20 years since 2000 I figure it would be good to have some tips on the new stuff as well. Do you have any tricks?

I first look to see if it has a QS code, shengchan/SC code, or no code. If it has a shengchan code, it is no older than 2015/2018 (there was a three-year grace period for moving to these codes). If it has a QS code, it is from 2005/2007 (two-year grace period, I think) to 2015/2018. If it has no code, it is older, or counterfeit.

If it has a "China Time-honored Brand" mark, I remember that Menghai/Taetea received theirs in 2011 and Xiaguan received theirs in 2010.

For Taetea, I feel like you can use the appearance of their anti-counterfeiting stamp to date the tea, but I am not sure...

"dating modern pu'er"...not sure . I might understand it wrong , but the date on label is not what are you looking for?

Verification of the date. For example, if I am told a tea is 10 years old, but the packaging has a shengchan code, something is strange, even if the date says 2010. Then it is better to ask, "How can this be?".

A good example from a blogger I follow:



The date of production is stated as 1999, yet other details on the packaging do not seem to fit.

I understand. You are trying to eliminate fakes by first step , the wrong labeling ( which will reveals the label max. age ) .
If you are into this sort of tea hunting, DaYi has issued their company products identifiers. I don't remember to which year back the products are dating there but each book is also not cheap. I think I've seen something like 12 books.
Sometimes is also good to know something about the particular factory ( history ) , since goes trough some changes in leadership it also can change the name..etc. Unfortunately most of that info is available only in CN and sometimes even digging in the internet.