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Recommend puerh vendors and share your experiences, good or bad.

My first Puerhs came from Norbutea.com, and while I've branched out because he only carries a few teas at a time, I've always had good experiences with his offerings. This reminds me that it's beyond time to do my annual-ish sampling of my 2009 Lao Mansa cake, that keeps getting better even in my rather random steamer trunk full of tea. I now wish I'd had the foresight to order more of some of the best things before they were gone (Lao Ban Zhang 2009 loose maocha, sigh...).

I've gotten a lot of nice pu from Yunnan Sourcing, and some have needed time to get over early funk, but there are plenty of gems to be found there. It just depends what you're looking for, and what you're willing to pay for; no surprise, the nice shus are cheaper than the nice shengs.

And I've picked some almost random cakes and tuos from my local brick and mortar store, Wing Hop Fung, and those have been a much more mixed bag. Not being able to read the chinese label descriptions, they've required a leap of faith.

I've also got a few cakes from Nada at Essence of Tea, teas that have been on the overwhelming side when I first got them, and that I'm hoping will mellow a bit in my trunk. It's too soon to say how they'll turn out.

I think this is still a pretty good puerh vendor guide, though obviously slightly out of date on some points.

https://teadb.org/puerh-vendor-guide/

So far I've had good experiences with Yunnan Sourcing and White2Tea. That said, I'm still semi-new to Puerh.

But, I was surprised at how much I liked even the cheapest of YS' offerings, like their shou mini-tuos and inexpensive 100g shou cakes, since I know mini-tuos are notorious for being lower quality. I've never had something from these vendors that I didn't like.

Maybe I'm just too easy to please

No pu'er tea list of vendors is complete without the inclusion of John Hou from King Tea: http://www.kingteamall.com

A gentleman that goes to a great extent in ensuring that his customers are satisfied with every transaction. At least a couple of members of this forum can testify the quality provided by this company.

Besides the usual brands of pu'er brands like Dayi and Xiaguan he also has available other brands available like Chen Sheng Hao, Shuangjiang and Tulin of which he has an extensive lists of teas.

Rui wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 13, 2017 5:09 am

No pu'er tea list of vendors is complete without the inclusion of John Hou from King Tea: http://www.kingteamall.com

A gentleman that goes to a great extent in ensuring that his customers are satisfied with every transaction. At least a couple of members of this forum can testify the quality provided by this company.

Besides the usual brands of pu'er brands like Dayi and Xiaguan he also has available other brands available like Chen Sheng Hao, Shuangjiang and Tulin of which he has an extensive lists of teas.

+1

I’ve never been disappointed by the offerings from ChaWang Shop, Crimson Lotus Tea or BitterLeaf Teas either. Great variety of sheng and shou puerh from all of these vendors.

CWarren wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:01 pm

I’ve never been disappointed by the offerings from ChaWang Shop, Crimson Lotus Tea or BitterLeaf Teas either. Great variety of sheng and shou puerh from all of these vendors.

I too agree with that.

One vendor that I would recommend is Farmerleaf (former Bannacha.com). Based in Jingmai, they run a family business producing Jingmai puerh with natural farming processes. They can be followed on YouTube with informative videos in English about their processes.

Elise wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 13, 2017 1:30 pm

One vendor that I would recommend is Farmerleaf (former Bannacha.com). Based in Jingmai, they run a family business producing Jingmai puerh with natural farming processes. They can be followed on YouTube with informative videos in English about their processes.

Absolutely.

This one flies under the radar a bit.
https://tributeteacompany.com/collectio ... e-tea-puer

Also this one.
www.liquidproust.com

Does anyone have suggestions on where to get good quality 80’s or older sheng?

Shine Magical wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 27, 2018 3:32 pm

Doesn’t anyone have suggestions on where to get good quality 80’s or older sheng?

Very few vendors can afford to sell it.

Teamasters: loose 60-80s,samples from 80s cakes

Best tea house: full cakes, loose 30+ yr mix

EOT: only sells like 1 sample I think

Sunsing: full cakes, loose 80s, and antique-80s samples. Prices on most are not listed but are likely very expensive

Sunsing looks promising but I wonder why they don’t have prices listed. So you can haggle? Seems like they may not do samples too.

I’ve already tried the Teamasters puers. The 60’s was tasty.

Shine Magical wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 28, 2018 8:19 am

Sunsing looks promising but I wonder why they don’t have prices listed. So you can haggle? Seems like they may not do samples too.

I’ve already tried the Teamasters puers. The 60’s was tasty.

Price are prob not listed on some items because they're old/rare so prices are likely not fixed. I wouldn't try haggling with them over samples.